Make Money Selling Stock Photos

A big no-no when submitting photos to a microstock agency is visible logos, labels, branding or other company insignias. Any object, clothing, package, etc. that contains a recognizable reference to a business or contains commercial marketing must be removed from the image. This can be achieved several ways. You can crop out the logo, although this is usually not possible. Or you can retouch the logo our using Photoshop. With a little patience, removing a logo is fairly easy to do by carefully using the rubber stamp tool. I also find that a Wacom Tablet with stylus are indespencable tools when doing this extremely detailed, controlled Photoshop retouching. For more info on a Wacom, check out our Amazon widget found in the right column of this blog.

The photo on top shows a raw, unretouched image. The bottom photo has had all branding removed, such as the company name on the red, oval "Peterbilt" logo found on the front grill and side of the truck cab. Also watch out for hidden marketing that is not clearly visible - such as branding that is the same color as the object or catch phrases woven into the object. Since I photograph a lot of trucks, I've found that hidden logos are a common part of tires and must also be removed. If you don't take this type of branding out of your image, your stock photo will be kicked back.

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