Lifestyle images photography is one of the most under appreciated stock photography niches. It is a field packed with high paying buyers with a never-ending need for fresh current photos, and it’s a field many photographers just aren’t interested in. And that makes it one of the most profitable fields of all for the talented Life style Photographer.
Powerful commercial images of life style themes capture a slice of life
in an engaging way that draws the spectator in and creates an emotional connection. It gets the spectator to a mental space where they can imagine themselves (or their friends/family members) in the same situation, or at the very least leaves them thinking about what the experience would be like.
It is that viewer-connection that life style picture purchasers are looking out for, so that they can append their own message to the image. When you capture life style photographs that convey that sort of message, you are creating images with real commercial potential, high appeal and limited competition.
For better or worse, most photographers are a little bit shy when it comes to photographing people, and many of these who do are unwilling to get involved and really direct their models. A lot who consider themselves life style photographers tend to hang back and document human activity, rather then going hands-on and composing the images their customers need.
As a result, those lifestyle photographers who take a pro approach and work with carefully selected and directed models to create powerful photographs with a clear message or story, are usually going to do very well.
You need to use (voluntary) friends and family as your models, so long as you control the photo shoot. That typically means ensuring everyone is clear of what message you’re attempting to convey, and making sure all of the elements of the image… Location, clothing, styling, props, poses, expressions,lighting are all congruous with that theme.
As far as lighting goes, the key is usually to make it simple. Plan outdoor shoots with dual locations: the ideal cloudy day location and a back up site out of direct sunlight. Have reflectors and fill lighting available to balance it out. Indoor shoots can generally be handled with a straightforward off-camera flash set up, again using reflectors and bounced light to create the desired result.
For the shoot itself, communication with your model (s) is paramount. Before starting everyone should be on the same page, totally clear on what you’ve got planned. Then as you start the shoot, try for several different moods and themes, and watch what your model is most happy with and adept at. When you have a few specific concepts, work thru each individually, directing the model as required to get the images you want.
For all this direction and management, the key for creating successful images of lifestyle subjects is to ensure the photographs are natural and unstaged. Models will rarely be looking at the camera, but instead should be connecting physically and emotionally with the situation that you have placed them in.
All of the components of the photographs need to fit, and there should be something going on “apart from a photograph being taken “that the audience can immediately recognise and understand. There should be adequate detail to tell the story, but not so much that it becomes cluttered.
Beyond that, there truly are no restrictions to the subjects and themes that will work. Sports are popular, as is any kind of recreational activity, family activities and interactions, eating, drinking, relaxing: anything people do can work, and if you shoot it in a way that buyers can hitch their own message to the image, then it’ll usually sell too.
Lifestyle photography users will be interested in the demographic and ethnicality of your models as much as the activity itself, so try to use different models in the same set up whenever your are able to. You can vary clothing, styling and props to create different moods & storylines from the same set, and increase your output enormously.
Finally, remember that lifestyle images are all about the individual being photographed and what they’re experiencing at that point of time. The problem with volunteer models is that they frequently struggle to convey that, so if you’re serious about selling stock photos of lifestyle subjects, you will either have to pay for professional models or get very proficient at directing your volunteers.
Either way, if you concentrate on creating pictures that people can look at and connect to; images that people recognise themselves or their own friends and family in, or wish that they could be a part of, then you will be shooting some of the most profitable stock photography possible.
Matt Brading is a contributor to GlobalEye Photo Stock Agency, which represents many top life style photographers. Click now to view their best images of lifestyle themes. If you’d like to know more about selling photographs online with GlobalEye, you can download a free stock photography business kit in our photographers area.