Choosing a Theme for your Digital Photography Portfolio

Selling digital photography to stock photo sites or selling photos over the internet can be a very profitable business if you know all the nuances that will get you a good amount of sales. Learning the technical aspects is very important, and really paints the fine line between making money and wasting your time. I don't mean to discourage anyone, because it should be conveyed that anyone with a digital camera, an internet connection and a little spare time can do quite well. A lot of people sell their freelance photos through stock photography sites or through their own page/web host without a particular theme and do fairly well, but I will take more time and effort. A better battle plan is to find a particular type or subject of digital photography that you can easily focus on.

To explain further what picking a theme really does for photography sales, it helps consumers easily find what they are looking for when they type in specific descriptions or set of keywords. This benefits you because if a consumer types in your specific subject there is a good chance that it will bring them directly to your freelance photography. If you don't already have the program called Camera Dollars, then labeling and specifying keywords is something you have to learn, but this tool will help you. And after you read the Camera Dollars lessons, you need to sign up with these companies and do a bit of research in order to figure out a profitable theme to pick for your photography.

Here are are several different types of freelance photography themes and short descriptions of each.

The method of taking pictures as a Theme:
Some examples of this would be macro, scenery, black and white, geometric, architecture, abstract, micro, motion, portrait, or panoramic.
These are usually recognized by simple types of photography and aren't usually profitable on their own. Usually you want to combine this with other themes, like instead of "50's Television" you could use the theme "Black and white 50's televisions."

Nominal Themes:
Simply put these themes based on any object, person, or place. Examples are Dvd, chair, cookware, doorknobs, Bahamas, Britney Spears and so on.

Themes Based off of Photo Utility:
Instead of think of what to take pictures of think of what the person buying the photo is using it for. You can base your theme off of a particular job or usage for the photo. To give an example a lot of graphic designers buy digital photos off the internet, do some research and try to sell particularly to them.

Intangible Themes:
Intangible digital photography themes are based off of ideas, emotions and other ambiguous images. Here are some examples: Love, hope, existentialism, correction, trust, triumphant, justice.

Your digital photography doesn't have to be specified by just one form. Any of these three types of subjects can be put together to make an even more specific category of photos. An example of mixing two themes would be like Motion and friendship, which can be a picture of two friends doing some activity together or otherwise being in the state of "motion." You could have hundreds of themes by the time your done, but it is better to focus on a few at a time. Do your research and in order to learn about how to sign up or start your own business check out Jobs in Digital Photography