THE FIELD GUIDES / PRODUCTION NOTES
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01 / Start & sustain
Start with a cup and notebook. Follow shooting, a finished JPEG, a description, and submission for review.
Start with this guideStart stock photography: take your first picture through to submission
02 / Photograph
Check permission, clothing, and passageways, then work on people and backgrounds.
Start with this guideBefore a location shoot: check the place, clothing, and passageways
03 / Film
Start with resolution and frame rates, then explore support and export checks.
Start with this guideStock Video Basics: Choose Resolution and Frame Rate
04 / Finish & submit
Choose a desk photograph, check its finished JPEG, add a title and keywords, then confirm submission for review. Keep the finished file and a short note you can reopen.
Start with this guideTake one photograph through finishing, keywords and submission
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22 articles
FIELD GUIDE / 01
Understand licensing, choose equipment, and keep producing.
Follow a cup-and-notebook photograph from shooting and a finished JPEG to a title, review, and the difference between earnings and money received.
Separate a framing or blur problem from a reason to buy, then try a body and lens together.
Try the actual lens, cards, power and existing computer through one photograph and one clip.
Separate the money and time spent on a recent shoot; if you have sales records, compare the same period to choose one thing to try next.
FIELD GUIDE / 02
Composition, people, and locations: make useful photographs in the field.
Use a cup and notebook to practise a clear starting frame, space for text, a vertical view, and one camera setting at a time.
Follow two fictional adults through an invitation they can decline, model releases, clear directions, and delivery of the agreed photographs.
Read the destination’s rules, ask a useful question, agree on clothes and shoes, and arrive ready to make a first test photograph.
Look at corners, people and reflections, change your position and timing, then choose a photograph to finish.
FIELD GUIDE / 03
Settings, support, field tests, editing, and export.
Start with a short 4K recording and test importing through to export. Separate picture detail, recording and playback frame rates, and setting names from actual fps.
Separate fps from shutter speed, then balance the motion you want with the light you need. Check the lighting, region, and equipment, and judge flicker in recorded footage.
Convert bitrate into storage to estimate recording time and space. Distinguish actual recording settings from calculation-only values, and test export and copies.
4:2:2, 10bit, Log, and RAW describe different things. Choose for the adjustments you need and a workflow you can complete from import through to storage.
These are my own working choices. I separate slow-motion and normal-speed takes and consider brightness, flicker, and storage to reduce shooting and editing work.
Make a short stationary clip, watch the actual file and separate support, focus and trimming problems.
Use QuickTime Player on a Mac to remove audio, reopen the copy and distinguish silent playback from an absent audio track.
FIELD GUIDE / 04
Connect archiving and reuse with selection, keywords, and submission.
Separate an original, a finished JPEG and a short note, then retrieve one picture from another drive.
Choose one desk photograph, export and inspect its JPEG, describe it, and confirm that it reached review.
Keep the original and compare its exported JPEG in the same application and on the same screen before changing conditions.
Export one separate copy, inspect its own metadata, and keep the original so you can start again.
Open the two files, read the time you can establish and save their locations and shooting order in a six-column table.
Keep candidate and matched documents distinct, read the same shoot’s participation record, and check the actual release fields.
Read dimensions and color, inspect the picture and paperwork, and keep a draft title and a record of the remaining checks.