NFT Photography, what’s there to know?

NFT photography is a burgeoning area for artists and creatives; here’s everything you need to know.

While NFT art has received a lot of attention, NFT photography has slipped under the zeitgeist radar, despite being one of the fastest and most respected uses of non-fungible tokens. Photographers, both new and experienced, are discovering new ways to sell their work as NFTs, on NFT platforms, and in galleries that support NFTs.

So, what exactly are NFTs? Simply put, non-fungible tokens are a method of storing a digital file on a blockchain where it cannot be erased, changed, or corrupted. The data kept by the NFT may be accessed, tracked, and traced, securing digital file ownership.

Smart contracts regulate how an NFT can be sold or held, which means you can profit from future sales even if you sell the NFT photo, or you can give away all ownership and let the community use the NFT photos however they see fit, such as in art, movies, and installations.

NFTs aren’t as complicated as you may imagine, and as blockchains and NFT marketplaces become more accessible, the fog surrounding this technology will lift. For a more in-depth explanation, see our guides to the top NFT marketplaces and NFT crypto. Consider NFT photographs sold on a marketplace like Seed.photo to be similar to a photo stock library, but one in which you own and have complete control over all uses and re-use, copyrights, and ownership. This can contain both digital and physical printouts. (The magnificent image above is from Ivan Kovalev, a regular contributor to Seed.photo.)

According to a Forbes 2021 analysis, the NFT photography business was valued at more than $23 billion last year. While NFTs decreased in popularity in 2022 as the global economy deteriorated, interest in them has increased in recent months. The value of NFT sales jumped by 13.2% in November, according to tracking site CryptpSlam, and individual NFT sales increased by 18.75%. What we’re likely to see is that investors have left, and collectors, people who actually support creatives, artists, and photographers, have returned to buy. Now could be an excellent moment to begin your NFT photography career.

NFTs are a new way for photographers to generate money from their work, and you can safeguard your digital photographs when using them online or leasing and selling them. An NFT registers your photo as a unique piece of code on a blockchain; when you mint your photo as an NFT, you’re effectively selling the ‘code’ and registration, as well as the smart contract that goes with it.

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You don’t even have to include the original photo on the NFT contract; you can maintain the copyright and sell the usage rights to a collector. You can also sell the original while retaining secondary sale rights, which means that both you and the buyer can earn from resales and how the photo is utilized. It all comes down to you and the project you’re working on.

NFT photography is comparable to linear photography in that portraits and landscapes are popular subjects; for example, Eric Rubens sells atmospheric coastline photographs to his million-strong fan following. However, NFT photographs can be more, and successful photographers are frequently the ones who break the restrictions, embrace Photoshop, or include graphics, such as Justin Aversano’s 364-image series Cognition, which was developed over the course of a year.

Similarly, Ivan Kovalev takes spectacular landscape and portrait images on Seed.photo, a specialist NFT photography marketplace. Sukko, his long exposure landscape photo, earned the ‘My Planet’ prize for outstanding NFT photography at Seed.photo.

Buying and selling non-fungible tokens has become easier in the last year as non-fungible token marketplaces begin to separate themselves from NFT language and blockchain complexity; for example, most NFT platforms now accept debit and credit cards as money rather than only cryptocurrencies.

To sell an NFT, you will still need a cryptocurrency wallet, which is simple to set up. My preferred wallet is MetaMask since it is safe and secure and can be easily linked to all of the major marketplaces. Similarly to my tutorial on how to build an NFT for free, your crypto wallet for NFT photographs serves as a passport to many marketplaces; your purchases and sales are stored in this wallet.

Seed.photo is a new NFT marketplace for photography that features a smooth onboarding procedure and plenty of information for novices, including a good FAQ and the How It Works part that answers all of your queries.

Simply set up your wallet (simple, just follow the app’s instructions) and store your Seed Phrase, which will serve as your backup password. You can start producing NFTs of your images after your wallet is linked to a marketplace. Simply load your image, enter the information and descriptions, then click the Create button. To mint the NFT, you must pay ‘gas’ fees, which are the costs of registering the NFT on the chosen blockchain (Ethereum is the most popular, but you can also use Palm, Polygon, Solana, and others and these can be cheaper).

You can make the NFT photo for free by using ‘lazy minting,’ which charges the buyer the gas fee rather than you, the seller. The negative is that the NFT literally does not exist on a blockchain until it is purchased, therefore it is frequently bumped in the search on a marketplace, making it more difficult to get seen and sell. Lazy minting is useful for testing the process, but you’ll eventually need to mint NFTs correctly.

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The top NFT platforms for selling your NFT photographs are similar to those for NFT art sales. The following are some of the best and most popular photography NFT marketplaces.

• OpenSea: the world’s largest NFT marketplace that sells anything.
• SuperRare: As it wants rare photographs, this is a fantastic site to sell 1/1 NFT shots.
• Seed.photo: a new and dedicated NFT photographic marketplace.
• Foundation: one of the best locations for artistic and experimental photography.
• Nifty Gateway: a good professional NFT photo marketplace.

Just because you’re selling your images as NFTs doesn’t imply you should ignore physical sales and shows. – You can sell an NFT attached to a photo print, create a series of NFT shots to show in a gallery, or generate 1/1 NFT photography – single, unique images.

For example, William John Kennedy’s photography was recently displayed and sold as both physical prints and NFTs at the NFT Gallery in London. The display is excellent, and you can read more about it in my visit to the gallery, where I examined the NFT display by tokenframe and the images of William John Kennedy in further detail.

Yes, that is the objective, but how much money you make is all dependent on you and your abilities. More importantly, the NFT community is about more than just shooting images and selling them; it’s about the story behind them, the ideas behind them, and, most importantly, you as a photographer. To reach this new NFT community, you’ll need to embrace social media, particularly Discord.

There are several ways to sell NFT photographs, including airdrops, auctions, and collections. All of these selling methods tell a story about you and how you want your NFT photos to be utilized and seen. You could make at least $1,000 every month or curate a collection or a 1/1 NFT shot and auction it for hundreds of thousands of dollars (if you’re lucky or popular). It’s entirely up to you and your creativity.

Drift is one of the best and most renowned NFT photographers. This ex-special forces soldier turned to photography to help him cope with PTSD, and after discovering NFT photography, he discovered a community and collectors eager to embrace his images, which all revolve around elevated, panoramic shots of urban areas obtained by free-climbing skyscrapers and bridges. Drift’s website (opens in a new tab) has his tale and NFT photographs.

Of course, you are not required to go to such extremes. As with any other type of photography, your skill and vision will gain you fans, so practice and experiment with new approaches and subject matter – the only rule of NFT photography are that everything goes.

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