What not to Submit
August 16th, 2007 by Lee Torrens
Writing my last post on microstock reviewers I realized how many photo subjects are over represented. Take a look at this:
Undesirable photos in the reviewer’s account at Shutterstock I linked to in yesterday’s post:
- Photos of poor technical quality
- Multiple photos of one object in different colors
- Ugly naked people
- Photographer’s feet
- Single tree in a field
- Skyscrapers and tall buildings
- Money / cash
- Blurred tail lights
- USB plugs and computer equipment
- Old camera equipment
- Flowers
iStockphoto provide a list of least needed images. Here’s some of them:
- Your dog or cat
- Flowers
- Flags
- Feet
- Immediate environment - computer equipment
- Light blurs
- Brick Walls
- Fire
- Eyes
- Symbols
- Sunsets and clouds
- Forests
- Airplane wings
- Your shadow
- Backgrounds
Notice any common themes? Feet, flowers and computer equipment are all overdone and not desired.
So What Should I Submit?
Look at What Sells - take a look at the top selling images on each microstock website. If they’re selling well, they’re in demand. Start your research here:
- iStockphoto’s list of needed images and most popular files
- Shutterstock’s top 50 most downloaded photos
- Fotolia make it easy with their TopSales pages
- LuckyOliver tells you what photos are needed and what images they don’t need further down the page
- BigStockPhoto image search ordered by popularity
Be Guided by Contests - Many microstock agencies run photo contests. Take the topics of their contests as hints about areas of their portfolio they’re looking to expand. If they want more photos of a particular topic, it’s because the topic is selling well but they could use some more images.
Are you guilty of submitting photos of some of these subjects? I am!
So What?
Aside from boring the reviewers and costing the agencies a few pennies, submitting these over-represented and “convenient” shots is not a good investment of your time. You’ll earn more money submitting well-taken shots of original subjects than gambling that some of your many easy-to-take shots will get through the reviewers.
Better quality and interesting shots will also get reviewed faster. Ever notices that your photos are not reviewed in order? Reviewers want to view appealing photos just like buyers.
Many microstock agencies say in their advice that a good stock photo is planned. This doesn’t mean you planned to take photos today and walked around your house shooting different objects. Do the research, find in-demand subjects or pick a specialty, and plan what the photos you’re going to shoot will look like.
The message coming through loud and clear is quality over quantity.
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Tags: BigStockPhoto, Contributing, Fotolia, iStockphoto, LuckyOliver, Microstock, Quality, Shutterstock
how would you rank the big 5 or others in terms of difficulty of getting your images accepted?
Hi John,
They’re tough, at least for me. I imagine the experience of better photographers would be very different. Like all microstockers, I’m working to improve my photography and subsequently my acceptance rate.
The best resource to compare is this chart of acceptance rate averages.
Hope that helps.
- Lee
Well, those most required pics are usually photos of ppl or other photos requiring some investments, profi lighting setup or studio etc. Please count how many times you must sell such picture for $0.25 or other “funny” payment to earn something. Most of these pics are for dumping prices which means someone shot them during advertisement photo session or contract and offered them as leftovers because they were already paid by another person. This is very unwise, dishonest and this is the true problem of “microstock killing photography” issue. If someone requires profi pictures, also should offer fair price. Microstock does not offer fair price for such pics so I do not offer them via microstock. Thats it.
What Sells in Microstock? My Picture Bestsellers…
Probably, every microstock agency displays their most popular pictures - see e.g., iStockPhoto, Shutterstock, Fotolia, or Dreamstime. Their submission guidelines specify what to submit and what not to as discussed by Microstock Diaries….
Actually, some of the more downloaded shots(on BigStockPhoto) are of a lone tree, an eye, a rose, technology; etc. I don’t tend to have much faith in the “what not to submit” issue. Pictures of poor quality should not be submitted, though.
That’s so funny, I clicked the link to see the top sales on fotolia and there they are. A picture of money, a lone tree, a brick wall and a forest! I think you just have to have the worlds greatest ever brick wall photo
I’ve tried two agencies. One is a microstock and has sold images for me, specialty images, and off of 5 sales, I’ve made a grand total of $4, which I don’t even to collect until my total reaches $100. I don’t even get to know where the imagery goes, though it is one use, as far as I know. This is iStockphoto, under Getty, and one of the most legitimate out there. I hate these people. They are destroying the careers of photographers. I spent a day taking these pictures, they were all from the same event, and some lazy designer gets to use them for essentially nothing. I was so appalled by this that I yanked most of my images, and went to another agency Photoshelter, which at least pays a decent amount, but doesn’t have the same draw. Bottom line is that as long as photographers from all over the world are willing to denigrate their work, then no one will get paid well. That said, you can get a few thousand downloads off of the right image, and therefore make 3-5k, so it can be done, but busting your butt across the spectrum in the hopes that one will hit in my mind is totally counterproductive. I’m better off making prints and selling them online or in person or cards. Anything pays better than these people. They pay $70 for a rights-unlimited deal. Some buyer can print a million posters from your image, and you make $70. They can go straight to h*ll and other photographers must treat them the same way if they ever hope to make any living off these guys. Then again, it is just a sideline, but it is no small amount of work, so no thanks.