I submitted my first ever stock photography uploads today. If you are following my new blog at Crestock you will see what happens next soon, I don’t want to spoil the surprise. This post is about the discussions and observations from my research into the topic of “stock photo site approvals” – I didn’t know something seemingly straight forward could be so controversial!
It seems from discussions and what I see in forums, a lot of people take this process personally.
OK, I am no masochist, I don’t like criticism or rejection either. But really, we have to keep in mind this isn’t art, it’s business. Rather than getting upset I am trying to treat it as a learning process.
If the quality control bar is set high then when we do get approved we can rejoice that we made the grade 
Have you ever submitted to a stock photo site? What has been your experience? Let me know in the comments …
9 Comments
Haven’t posted to a stock site myself, but I’m curious to see what your experiences are…
It was certainly interesting
Not to a stock, no. A lot fo the top companies require shots from full frame cameras. My 20D isn’t. But my 5D will be.
But I have taken a plunge to submit an even dozen of my unretouched, uncropped, unphotoshopped photos to a major gallery here in Calgary, who’s asked to see them. For a show, perhaps.
It’s a very humbling experience. Those photos are the most recent 12 on my flickr site, if anyone were interested. Get there through my homeblog.
Good luck with the gallery
I only have a 350d but there are quite a few companies that have lower resolution categories
I deal with this issue by posting images to several different sites.
I wrote a whole post about it here.
http://blog.mctimages.com/mct_images/2007/01/dealing_with_st.html
It’s not about the resolution, but the full frame. The major stock houses will not accept photos from cropped sensors.
@Martin – Good plan, I know that’s what the top guys do also
@Teddy – Well that’s ok, I need to work up to the big guys, I am starting out with micro stock
Teddy,
If you mean major stock houses to be the new web based micro-stock houses, it just isn’t true that you need a $2000 camera.
I have over a hundred files on Shutterstock, istockphoto, and fotolia combined. And have sold over 100 photos. All shot on a Canon 350 (Rebel xt). A Canon 5D is not necessary. But a full frame camera does allow for larger files and therefore the chance for more money, especially on a site like istock where bigger files are more expensive.
Look at the files on istockphoto and you should be able to tell what type of camera they were shot. Most are not shot on a full frame camera.
Your 20D would definitely do the job for istock, shutterstock, and fololia and most if not all online stock houses.
Check out the information on these sites as they will tell you what is required and what they expect interms of quality.
Chris,
My experience has been that Crestock is very picky about what they take, so I hope you make the “grade”.
My stuff is nothing to write home about, but I am learning and earning money.
For comparison purposes You can view my istock portfolio here:
http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=549141
Learning and earning is what I am about so good to know it is possible