A Photographers Guide to Minting NFT’s
Click on this image to trade it on Opensea.io
If you’re reading this article then you’ve heard about the NFT craze that’s been sweeping people up over the Covid pandemic. Maybe you’ve even looked into them, read up on them, or even bought one. But what about creating one yourself? If you're a photographer curious about minting your own NFT’s to put up for sale but not sure how and where, then read on. Its a little more in-depth than Etsy or Instagram but not impossible. I will explain how to get your own products and your marketplace setup for sale so by the end of this article you’ll be an NFT minting expert. Are you ready? Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage and lets begin.
What is an NFT?
Click on this image to trade it on Opensea.io
A NFT or Non-Fungible-Token is a financial security consisting of digital data that is stored in a blockchain (a form of digital ledger). These digital assets can represent real world objects and can be anything such as art, photography, music, videos, you name it. If you can create it, you can mint it and sell a digital copy of it online for anyone to buy, sell or trade. The assets are held on blockchain products such as Ethereum and Solana, and are available for sale on websites such as opensea and rarible. Because NFT’s are uniquely identifiable, they differ from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (which is a fungible asset). The details and ownership information are locked into the digital file (Non-Fungible) and the market value of the NFT itself is associated with the digital file it references, as opposed to Bitcoin where all its assets are the same value. If you would like to know more about the NFT space and how important it is to us artists then please take a read here.
What do I need?
Click on this image to trade it on Opensea.io
To start, you’re going to need to create an account on a cryptocurrency exchange, if you’re new to this and haven’t even started then Coinbase is the most popular and safest here in the USA and in the UK. Coinbase is a secure online platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing digital currency and assets. Head on over to here to sign up for an account - Coinbase.com - sign up with this referral link you’ll receive $10 of Crypto free in your account once you deposit some fiat.
Secondly, to store your funds for payment and sales on opensea you will also need the Coinbase wallet on your phone, for Android you can click here. and for iPhone you can find it here. The coinbase wallet provides an easy to use and secure way to protect your cryptocurrency online. Once you have those two things set up we can continue to the next step. For this post we are going to be minting with Opensea.io.
And thirdly, its worth taking time to decide on a theme or niche for your NFT art. I have been slowly collecting photos of Classic cars around here in Los Angeles for the last 12 years or so with no real idea of what to do with them. As NFT’s are collectible, I decided that all the classic car photos that I took would be a great fit for this new space.
Minting your first NFT.
Click on this image to trade it on Opensea.io
Click Create on the top right of opensea main page to create your first NFT. The first thing it will ask is to connect your crypto wallet to validate you as a user, as I have a Coinbase account I click on that link. This will initialize your crypto wallet and use it as the store for your NFT’s and smart contracts.
Once you have connected your wallet you should now have a create new item screen in front of you. The first field is where you upload your Image for minting. Opensea supports File types : JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG, MP4, WEBM, MP3, WAV, OGG, GLB, GLTF, With a maximum size of 100mb. Once you’ve uploaded your image, continue with the name/description boxes to add more information about your NFT. There are a few boxes that link to descriptions and properties for when you create variations on an NFT, such as different characters/series etc, these are not so relevant to photography.
Finally you’ll be asked how many NFT’s to mint and which blockchain you would like to store your them on. Depending on the image I am minting and its exclusivity I will mint anywhere from 1 to 500 NFT’s of a single image. I have also been using the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain to store everything. As my NFT’s are on the Ethereum network then ETH is my preferred payment when they sell. One thing to note with Ethereum is it charges a fee (called GAS) when you transfer or sell an NFT. These fees can vary on network conditions and time of day, and pay for supporting and securing the ETH network. To learn more about Ethereum and gas fees click here.
If you’re happy with everything click create, opensea will do some checks to make sure its you (I’m not a robot/clicking on traffic lights) once that is all out of the way you’ll have your very first minted NFT on the blockchain of your choice. Also worth noting that so far we have spent no money whatsoever in getting our images online. Once your NFT is minted it is available on your profile page on opensea. Blockchain data is public and accessible by anyone. Your NFT's buying and selling history will be available forever in its smart contract, helping you and prospective investors track its trading history and price. But, as of yet, it is not up for sale.
Selling your NFT.
Click on this image to trade it on Opensea.io
Once the NFT has been minted you now need to put your artwork up for sale. Navigate to your freshly minted NFT on opensea and hit the sell button at the top.
Enter Quantity/Price and Duration of the sale. It is here with the price you can change your preferred currency away from Ethereum and use another crypto to sell your images if you so wish. Once you have these fields entered you can click on the Complete listing button. This will verify your identity with your mobile app before placing your freshly Minted NFT up for sale on Opensea.
After you’ve put your first NFT up for sale you now have your own marketplace available to setup within Opensea. by clicking on the profile icon on the top-right of the screen you can now set up your profile and create more collections of Art for sale.
It is worth noting that still, we have not payed anything to put up our images for sale online. Opensea makes a commission from all your NFT sales. When you sell an image they take a 5% creator fee and a 2.5% service fee, so price your NFT’s accordingly. On the upside though, you can reclaim some of these fees within your profile as you can set it so you receive a percentage every time someone sells one of your images on to someone else.
And finally you’ll need somewhere to view all your freshly minted or purchased NFT’s and their value. I recommend the Coinstats App for your cellphone, you can view our crypto balances and all of your NFT’s in one place. Check out the app here!
So there you have it, minting and selling NFT’s is not as difficult as you might think. There are many ways to get your artwork minted, this is the method I use. The technology is still playing catch up for the standard user, but now, as with putting any products online the hardest part is the marketing and selling of your work. Twitter seems to be the standard right now for promoting NFT’s, Telegram and Discord appear to have a big following for these type of products as well.
I get it! spending large amounts of money on digital images or printing and framing is not for everyone. If you appreciate my photography and would like to buy me a coffee or support me in other ways as an artist please do so at the crypto donation addresses below. Thanks for reading!
ggilmore.eth
ggilmore.bitcoin