 Mary C. Casey |
Shutterstock My pictures were rejected by Shutterstock. I am a newbie at this, and want to know a simple question: do they examine the submissions at actual size or at to fit in a window screen? Thank you for your patience.
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Ariel Lepor |
You would think that they look at it in both ways. But that doesn't explain why the pics were rejected. Were they bad quality pictures? Were they of people?
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Mark Feldstein |
Hey Mary: Don't feel too bad. There's an old Groucho Marx line that goes: "I'd never want to belong to a club that would have someone like me as a member." I looked at your gallery and your work isn't bad at all. But stock photography requires a certain kind of technique in shooting that helps make the shot more marketable for the stock agency. Don't give up but instead, get a book or two on shooting stock photography and how to market it. Also get a recent copy of a book called "Photographers Market" by Writers Digest Press and carve out a market for yourself, write some query letters and keep trying but be prepared for a fair amount of rejection. Comes with the territory. Okie dokie?
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Carolina K. Smith |
Hi Mary, I submit to Shutterstock and have a very high acceptance rate from them. It's not clear from your post as to whether you meant getting rejected from starting with them or that you have been accepted by them but your shots have been rejected by them since then. From what I gather, inspectors look at the photos at 100% to look for noise, artifacts and such. OTOH, if you were making an initial application to Shutterstock and were rejected from the getgo... it's possible the focus of rejection was more based on composition or technique. It would be best to just contact them directly (email) and ask. For me, Shutterstock has given me my biggest earnings (over the other microstock agencies I submit to). I only have about 280 photos online and have to date earned $10,481.39, starting with only 3 photos in April 2005.
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Lani J |
I just finished the Stock photography "Boot Camp" that they offer here as a class with Scott Stulberg. I highly recommend it, my guess is he'll be able to clear up any questions you have regarding why your images are not accepted and help you learn what they do want. This class completely changed how I view taking pictures and I shoot with a purpose now (ie. is this a gallery shot? Is this a private shoot?.. is this a stock shot, etc.) it takes a whole different eye and technique. Good luck! :)
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Mary C. Casey |
Thank you all for your patience! I know why they were rejected on the surface: they were not big enough I think. I am starting a class here online on Wed, if I enjoy it, I may look into the one you suggested.
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Ruth S. Ueland |
Hey why don't you try another agency like: Buy & Sell Photos at CanStockPhoto.com
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Pete H |
Not surewhat you mean by "not big enough"? Stock agencies have guidelines, so you will need to read them. You might want to look at what others are displaing on the site to get a feel for what the editors are looking for. Stock photography in it's real sense is for marketing and tells some story. I'm quite sure with (shutterstock) there are people just buying the image for personal use and NOT commercial. Example: A close up of a rose generally won't be accepted unless you have done something quite original.
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Pete H |
PS: The photo is intentionally low res and with my name emblazoned on it for obvious reasons here. Original submissions will NEVER have your name on it. Pete
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Carolyn L. Fox |
Mary, I believe ShutterStock requires a 4 mg file. The micros differ on what file size they require. If you meet that requirement it's just a matter of whether or not they think the image is marketable, think it's good enough technically, etc. There are a lot of microstock agencies if that's what you're interested in. Some are: iStock, bigstockphoto, fotolia, dreamstime, featurepics, luckyoliver, etc. You can also do a search on the Internet and find a lot of stock agencies, both traditional and micro. Most of the people I talk to who do micro have better luck with ShutterStock and iStock as far as sales go, but most of them still don't make very much. As Mark said, Photographers Market has a lot of information that can help you. It just depends on if you want to get into micro or are interested in the traditional stock agencies. It also has information about submitting to magazines, calendar companies, etc. As Mark said, rejections come with the territory. Everyone goes through it. Just don't take it personally and keep plugging away. It takes persistance. Anyway, I hope this helps.
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Steve Townsend |
I sent Shutterstock 10 of my very best images and they rejected them all. I went to another site with the same images and they took them np. So I told shutterstock to shove it and haven't been back since.
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Carolina K. Smith |
Steve, I would be very curious as to which agency 'took them up' (assumed you meant 'up', or??). It's not which agency takes your shots, but how much money they can earn for you, if you are talking about selling stock photography. Rather than telling an agency to 'shove it', I would think anyone could learn how to better shoot (or postprocess) their photos from the rejection notices. For the majority of photographers who submit to a few microstock agencies, they will tell you hands down that Shutterstock is almost always their number one earner over all the other microstocks, week in and week out. iStock photo usually comes in second. To date, I have earned $11,717.19 from the microstock agencies, and Shutterstock has been my number one earner. They have great marketing for your photos. So again, it's not who accepts you, it's who can SELL you. Any photographer here can click on the link below to find out more information on submitting to Shutterstock... it's getting tougher to get in, but I KNOW that most BetterPhoto members have what it takes if they're interested... Most of the photos on my BetterPhoto website have been sold (again and again and again) by Shutterstock and other microstock agencies.
Good shooting to all,
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