Ideas to consider:

– find a theme that ties together your interest and passions during travels

– use your travels as an opportunity to expand your portfolio

– start a niche side project about your travel life

– focus on making ordinary locations look different

Trend #4: Deadpan Photography

Other things that are dear and important to you are things like good lighting and composition. Although this trend doesn’t imply that you should completely disregard every rule in photography, it is about a slightly different aesthetic that we don’t see a lot of in stock photography for obvious reasons.

The next question is how is this applicable? In our trends report, we mentioned how deadpan photography is influencing UGC, with a notable example from food photography. Deadpan photography stretches beyond this niche, and can actually be applied as a separate style of photography. All you need is a little bit of research to implement the old tricks of the trade. Interestingly, Andreas Gursky’s “Rhein II” (the most expensive photograph in the world) is shot in the style of deadpan photography.

Ideas to consider:

– start a project about letting go of perfection

– see what happens when you take emotion and basic rules of composition out of your photography

– explore the origins of deadpan photography and put your spin on it

– find ways to capture product photography in a new light

Trend #5: Video as a Tool of Communication

Technology is in the process of constant change, and video remains as popular as ever. Given the nature of how integral video has become in our daily life, the documentation of the role of video as tool has not been explored enough in stock photography.

This is a simple trend that can be a small part of your portfolio — simply how we use video to communicate, the flood of emotions we get when talking to our close ones or the same concept in a professional context. If you don’t have videos as part of your portfolio, it’s never too late to start.

Ideas to consider:

– experiment with video for your portfolio

– focus on how people use technology to communicate

– capture the emotions of someone talking using their laptop or phone

Trend #6: Motion as a New Norm in Graphics

We often cover design tutorials using Crello as the easy-to-use graphic design tool. If you don’t have any graphic design knowledge, Crello could really help you with things like your personal branding and posts on social media. Photographers could adapt this tool and use it for their marketing needs, as we all know just how important marketing is when you’re running your own business.

Animated designs are just another extension of Crello. With this new format, you can experiment with a more fun and dynamic type of content or learn to add movement to static images on your own as a side project.

Ideas to consider:

– experiment with Crello for your projects and personal branding

– start a dynamic personal page on social networks using animated designs

Trend #7: Blurred Lines of Reality

How can you illustrate futuristic concepts becoming a part of everyday life? If you scroll through any stock photography library, you’ll notice that there simply aren’t enough images to capture the concepts that are no longer from a distant future. With this trend, we’re really talking about similar concepts that are relevant today, like augmented reality, which really should be better represented in stock photography.

One of the reasons we don’t see enough visuals that capture these concepts is because not many photographers think the images will be in high demand. Rest assured, as a new year approaches, new technologies and formats are going to become a must for many marketers.