Comments on: Crestock

By: Johann Helgason

Johann Helgason — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:47:34 +0000

I submitted to crestock around 600 images of which 430 were accepted
these have sold 140 times for the past year which isnt alot for me to be honest but what bothers me most is I requested payout some time ago and still havent received it a month later. Upon reading the forums at crestock I see that this is NOT uncommon and some there are waiting 3-4 month before getting paid. SO do not under any circumstance submit to crestock, they will sell your photos but you will have a hard time claiming that money they owe you. Also I have asked for my portfolio there to be removed, since I cant do it myself and no response from admins there nor have my images been deleted.
Therefore crestock is untrustworthy and people should think several times about it before submitting to it.

By: allen

allen — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:48:39 +0000

I think there is someting going on at CreStock. I normally get rejected with in a few days and so far all 7 batches from this month are stil sitting in the queue. I agree with the others on the review process starting with the buyer. They seem to take images that honestly don’t sell well at other sites and they reject the best sellers.

I joined in Dec 08 and have a whopping 78 photos that have netted $2.50 so far. I make twice that a day at shutterstock!! Since I use FTP and their submition process is quick I still upload there but I’m starting to think they are done.

If you are going to call your site “Creative Stock” please have creative images. I look at some of the newest images and wonder how they make it through the process when they are dull and lifeless looking. I would think they would research other sites link SS, IS, DT and FO and strive to be in the same league but they choose to remain in the minor league.

If I had it to do over again I would skip this agency… they just lower your RPI and acceptance rates

By: Marius

Marius — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:29:21 +0000

I’ve had similar experiences as Jerry with Crestock. I now have 33 images approved and a grand total of 11 downloads for an incredibly impressive total sales of $2.75…*sic

It’s taken me since December 2008 to get to this (tongue in cheek) impressive total. Crestock does turn down incredible amounts of submissions and I don’t know why. I do have some suspicions though.

First, I don’t believe that they have a large enough staff to manually review every submitted photo.
Second, I believe they use computerized processes to review photos, and these processes are designed to look for any slight imperfection and decline the submission if found.

I’ve had similar comments returned with all the rejected images as if they’d been ‘cut and pasted’, and many times they didn’t apply. Words such as “blurry” when applied to a pin-sharp photo, and “motion” when it was obvious that the camera was panned intentionally, such as with a bicycle race. It just seems like a computer wouldn’t know the difference and would reject the photo by default.

I’d love to hear from a Crestock reviewer so we could get an insight into what their criteria is for photographs really. I know what’s started, but what is it really?

By: Jerry O'Brien

Jerry O'Brien — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:38:42 +0000

I recently submitted a number of photos to Crestock. They were all rejected for exactly the same reasons irrespective of the photos. All were high quality 8MP photos. All were checked for clarity and could be enlarged with good detail. They said every photo was out of focus. Since the photos were razor sharp, they obviously didn’t look at them. The also said every photo had artifacts. I actually had a couple I missed that had artifcts, but not close every photo (maybe only 2 or 3). Lastly they said a number had dull colors. Some, such as those taken in storms had dull colors, but that is the way they were supposed to look. The light was muted and beautiful. Others were very bright and colorful. Again, it appears like no ne looked at the photos. It looks as if a computer spit out all of theirt comments without no humans looking at them.

I looked art Crestocks photos in a number of areas where I was submitting photos. Based on their criteria, many of the photos they are selling would fail. Many could not compare to the ones I have taken. Some were just a good and some were better.

I do not know why they were all rejected. I had emailed Crestock earlier in te day to ask when they would evaluate my photos. They had been there a number of days without any word. Maybe my emailing them for information was their reason for rejection. In short dealing with them was not a good experfience.

By: Peter Buick

Peter Buick — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:42:58 +0000

As a BUYER of images, I have a hard job finding anything worth buying on crestock.
So I don’t know what their “criteia” is but I susepct it is tehcncial, rather than emotional.
I don’t necessarily want ot buy a perfectly lit photo, I want one that moves my clients emotionally.

I don’t want to be regionalist, but I wonder if the photos they accept are more suitbale for a norwegian audience. Maybe there are cultural differences in what people regard as beautiful.

For instance, if you skim their collection, I don’t get an overall impressiof “sunny” and maybe ttaht’s because they don’t think of the sun as beautiful, as they may not have much of it. I obviosuly know nothing about Norway, but as a westerner, I find their images all quite gloomy. Not dark, or porrly lit, I mean emotionally gloomy.

Crestock are still on my list, but the last place I visit. Even over (sorry) free site sxchu.

Everything else about them is great. Technically and business wise it all slick. I just think they may need to emply (extra) photo editors with a bit more “fun” in them.

I don’t think you guys should diss them just because YOU got rejected. If their editorial policies menat they had a hot library, I would applaud them for that. It saves the buyer time looking through average dross. What some of us seem to agree on though, is what they do accept, isn’t often up to the bar that other libraries set. They be very snobby about their standards, but the poof is in the pudding. And it’s a pudding, I for one, am not that fond of. Their galery pick is ok, but still pretty weak compared to the glean of teir 1 or 2 libraries.

Their editorial tendancies appears to be affecting their business adversely. I found this negativity on the top 6 on Google search about them. Maybe they shoud let the buyers decide a bit more

Now let’s go be creative.
Peter

By: Corey Ford

Corey Ford — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:07:20 +0000

I joined Crestock in January 2009 and have uploaded 300 image illustrations to them so far. They have accepted 227 of them. They have sold just 12 images so far and I have made $6.25 from these sales. It is a far cry from what I am making at Shutterstock or Stockexpert every month. But I look at it this way, every dollar I make with my art is worth the effort, and a dollar more that I will have in my pocket. If you join a lot of these microstock agencies that aren’t doing as well as others, eventually the tally adds up. All these agencies are new businesses since the Internet is new in itself. The better companies will shake out down the road and all must be given a chance.

By: Gav

Gav — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:22:08 +0000

I second that. I think they are completely up their own a**es. Overly judgemental, ie, “Are you sure you want to upload, we are more picky than other agencies”. They pay the least royalty, accept the lowest number of images and have the least sales. All in all, there is not much incentive to upload to them.

By: Ashley Morgan

Ashley Morgan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:52:55 +0000

90% unpleasant experiences with crestock. Poor service and untrustworthy.They don’t respond to emails, the forum is deserted etc. I don’t know why I even wasted any time with them. VERY DISAPPOINTING! Do yourself a favor and choose any other stock site over them.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:15:44 +0000

3 out of 5 images rejected … 2 of those images have sold over 500 times between them on Shutterstock. Bye bye Crestock – waste of time.

By: Gav

Gav — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:46:45 +0000

I’ve been pretty lucky on acceptance rate – about 90% for 70 images. But inspection is very slow, and sales are disappointing – less than $10 in 7 months and the lowest revenue per image of any site. Based on these figures, I should reach the $50 minimum payout in about 2 years.

Forum hasn’t worked since February 08, and promises to reintroduce it by August have not been met. It’s a shame, it’s a good looking site but seems to have the activity of a back waters morgue. Don’t think I will waste anymore time uploading.