Please Review My Shutterstock Application

Sleepy_Sentry

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After submitting stock photos to SXC for a while, I'd like to get into more professional work and earn some money on the side with stock photography (I'm a college student). Unfortunately, I don't know if I have the experience yet to do so.

I am submitting the following 10 photos to Shutterstock for review. In order to be accepted, no more than 7 may be rejected (3 must be accepted). Could you give me some feedback on these photos, especially whether or not you think they would be accepted?

1. Computing by Night
1193427_21137624.jpg


2. On the Farm
1195586_70427954.jpg


3. Summer Rose
1195588_66969166.jpg


4. No title (just a friend of mine)
alex%20full%20color-1.jpg


5. Pick-up Truck (did I do a good enough job removing the logo?)
f150-1%20no%20logo.jpg


6. Bullet Train
IMG_1311.jpg


7. Infirmary (film scan)
infirmary.jpg


8. Me, Myself, and I (Are the logos and icons on the computer blurred out enough?)
me-no-apple-blurred-screen.jpg


9. Oil at Sunrise
rig-3.jpg


10. Shreveport Skyscraper
Shreveport-7.jpg


If you think any of these would be rejected, why? What can I do to improve? Any feedback is strongly appreciated.
 
1. No
2. No.
3. No.
4 No.
5. No.
6. No.
7. No.
8. No.
9. No.
10. No.
 
to be honest the only one that looks relatively clean to me is the one of the keyboard.

#3 comes relatively close, (though I doubt it'll pass)

and the rest I don't think really stand a chance.

#2 is kinda blah, no pop and the wires are distracting.
#3 looks kinda soft, harshly lit from your light and not a ton of detail on the flower
#4 I don't see much value for this photo beyond to the person it is of and the person who took it. Compositionally it seems a little weak, lighting is a little too head on, and it has harsh shadows.
#5 is ok, I guess... it's a little obvious that it's a ford, not much you can do there. I don't know their rules on getting rid of those things, but the fact that it's obvious you took it off may make them reject it.
#6,7,8,10 all basically look like snap shots to me. They don't have that simple clean look that you usually see with stock photos.
#9 is a maybe.. I don't know what they are looking for, I think this is one of the better ones of the set.

all of this is just my opinion of course...
ymmv
 
most of them have what SS calls limited commercial value. As in, who is going to buy this and what will it be used for?

The keyboard has a blurry key (ALT)
Who would buy the pic of your friend or the one of you?
You removed the logo, but I can still tell that its a Ford truck.
The skyscrapper, train, farm... not sure who the intended client is with these.
Look up flower picks on shutter stock and see if your compares. There are millions of them, why would someone chose yours over someone else's?
 
Most stock photography is bought for illustrative purposes. Some magazine puts out an article about Paris France, they buy one of my Eiffel Tower photos. Some newsletter does an article on computers, they buy your keyboard photo.

With that in mind, I can only see four of your photos as having potential for sale. But two of them are far from being very interesting photographically wise. The four are 1, 6, 9 and 10. 6 and 10 are the two that are not very good photos. I forgot #3 but they are better photos of that subject.

I come from the Image Bank world of stock photos where they will not even consider your work if you can't show them a series of 2-300 shots on one subject or theme. And every single one has to be 100% perfect. Some of that perfection can be subjective, such as composition. Some of it is not, such as exposure.

In that world, stock images do not sell for a quarter. Some sell for nice chunks of money because the fees are dependent on usage. And to be honest I have a hard time imagining making any money whatsoever selling images for a quarter.

In that world, photographers approach it as a business. You'll shoot stock 8-10 hours a day. You pick a subject and you shoot it until there is not another photo you can get out of it. Then you take them to the stock agencies and hope.

But there is one major thing to do before you start shooting. You need to consider what has sales potential and what doesn't. Keep in mind that stock shooters have been working for a long time and some subjects are already very well covered.

Two examples. I have dog photos with a bank. I may not have every breed of dogs out there but close. The ones that are missing for sure are the new so called designer breeds since those didn't exist when I was shooting. That's a possible opening.

A friend of mine shot snakes. How many new snakes have been discovered in the last 20 years? Probably not a good idea to go shoot snakes.

Hope that helps.

I believe there are easier ways to make a few bucks with photography than with stock.
 
You said you don't know if you have the experience
yet or not, and I'm afraid I have to say no, not yet.
The competition in the stock photo industry is very
severe; there's tons of people who would like to earn
some money from their pics.

If you go to istockphoto.com they have a list of pics
they don't want: sunsets,flags,keyboards,flowers,
fireplaces. They do it in a very humourus way, for
example saying they don't want fireplace pics because
it's for your own safety. I think it's safe to say that
what istock wants and doesn't want would be much the
same for most stock agencies.

What they do want for instance is pics of people doing
all kinds of things. They can never get enough because
you must have a signed release, and most togs don't
want to do that.

Also, pics they accept must be at a very high standard
technically, and I think you would have to work on that.
As they say, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.
Cheers, Bob G.
________________________________________________
http://www.dreamworldimages.ca

We are photographers~ we inspire~ we are inspired by others~ we are inspired by ourselves~ we seek to learn... then create~ we are bound by a love of capturing moments through our lens...moments that will now last forever. -Unknown
 
I think most of these shots would be rejected based on inadequate technical values. Pulling three of them into Photoshop, I see that they are underexposed,and that those images have no black point settings applied. Other technical areas might include depth of field issues.

Most successful stock images have a story, or the making of a story, and are illustrative or almost allegorical. "Photo illustrations" are where it's at in the stock photography market; most of these are simply "pictures of a thing", which is simply not what stock and microstock agencies are looking for.

A young woman kneeing on a desk is pretty straightforward,and of limited value: a photo of an attractive woman standing by a car broken down roadside, with the hood up and steam emanating from the radiator has an underlying "story" behind it, or one that can or could be created with a few lines of copy,and could be a seller for a rental car company, a towing company, an insurance company's roadside assistance plan, a small-town mechanic, a radiator repair shop--it has almost limitless sales potential.

The rose shot is too generic,and has no human interest, but if that same rose were being held by an attractive ,well-dressed, female in her 60's after she had clipped it with her garden shears, you'd have a potential seller to AARP, senior living community newsletters, gardening clubs, gardening centers, etc.
 
I personally recommend you join Dreamstime before SS. You can find several stock resources on my website below as that is what I work with. A little background, SS is one of the hardest stock sites to get in the door with. Just keep that in mind, they will reject some images at the acceptance run and accept them after your in the door.

1. Its not wow, but I would try it
2. Not really marketable, and you should have cloned out the power lines and fence.
3. The flower is good, but can be a flooded subject...try it.
4. Not wonderful because of the background, but go for it (you have a model release right?)
5. You need to clone out the Ford icon in the center...its still part of the logo and you instantly know the company
6. Give the train a try.
7. Not going to work
8. Black out the screen or put another image on it. Logos are still identified. (model release even know its you)
9. I think 9 will work, personally your strongest image
10. Might get accepted after your in the door, but most likely rejected if you send it off now.

Feel free to PM any questions you may have. I do stock more as a hobby to buy more camera toys then to make a living. I also blog about it too.
 

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