Quote from: Perry on August 10, 2009, 10:21

But they would make much more if their reviewers had some real world experience what sells and what not.

Or at least a consistent and meaningful application of what is technically and "aesthetically" acceptable.

I agree KB.  It is the inconsistency that is hardest for me to deal with.  It's impossible to improve or know what to select to upload there because there is no discernible pattern to the rejections.

In my experience, FT just favours photos with people in them. People doing things. Nothing more, nothing less.

I quit reading rejection notices, and take them as "if you don't want them, fine - it's your loss". Roughly 90% of those rejected images had no people in it. The reasons stated made (makes) no sense at all, so I can relate with you there. Those notices don't teach you anything, except that they don't want them. They're as meaningless, perhaps, as some of the - beyond reasonable doubt - flawed, images I've submitted and got approved, featuring people.

I've tried resubmitting rejected images, but FT got a pretty fail-safe system in spotting previously rejected images, and they will be rejected again.

I guess it's Fotolia's way of diversifying themselves from their competition. Sure, the "nobody" images sell elsewhere, but FT seems to have a specific clientele, favouring images with people in them, and they serve me well for those images.

I can't get anything approved that remotely looks like a background, but I had one squeak through a while ago (someone likely was fired for that one)  and it happens to sell surprisingly well.

Yes the "too similar" rejection is hurting the photographer who maybe wants to submit 2-3 definate variations of a theme. As normally FT will only select one. It makes it very hard to build up a decent portfolio with only single images. Also makes the shoot less cost effective!

Peter, you're always the first to say this in every rejection thread.

i dont bother to post to ft anymore, and BigStock has gotten almost as bad with these sorts of rejects -- dt is more realistic.

i dont try t figure it out-- if i upload to an agency, i send them all of each batch, and they can accept it or not

steve

I quit uploading at FT earlier this year, because I felt it was too much wasted effort for a 50% approval ratio.

However, with the recent drop in DT sales, FT climbed solidly into my #3 best earning site (despite their having the fewest of my images of any agency). So I started UL'ing there again recently.

Oh, how I long for the days of a 50% AR!  Now I'm seeing more like 10%-20%, and that is simply unacceptable.

I've been doing stock for over 3 years. I''m submitting images to FT that have been accepted everywhere else and have sold well on at least 2 of IS, SS, and DT.

I understand that my "type" of images are not the ones that FT prefers. But it's clear from my own sales on FT that they are images that do sell there. So what in the world do they intend to gain by rejecting 80%-90% of them?

Perhaps I'm not alone in feeling this way. I was just submitting images, and 4 of the 5 were being rejected while I continued to submit more! It seems like there are so few images being uploaded that reviewers are just waiting for images to be submitted (so they can reject them?). 

Congratulations, Dan! 

But the only thing I find surprising is that you had a problem with rejections before. Those are a type of images I thought FT likes, so while perhaps 100% acceptance is a bit surprising, it isn't surprising that most all of them would be accepted.

Nice job. 

Congratulations, Dan! 

But the only thing I find surprising is that you had a problem with rejections before. Those are a type of images I thought FT likes, so while perhaps 100% acceptance is a bit surprising, it isn't surprising that most all of them would be accepted.

Nice job. 

Hey KB... yeah.. it's funny that all my latest (and accepted) images were shot in my new studio. All the shots before weren't and I have A LOT of rejections! I was also focusing on more artistic photographs but I want to start earning some serious money so I'm shooting more stock-related photographs now!

Go to "My Files" at the bottom of the list on the right there is a link that says "Show Deleted Files". Click there and the files will appear in the mix with your regular files. They will have a red ball to indicate that they were rejected/deleted.

I'm always amazed when reading these fotolia-rejection posts, since my acceptance ratio there is (and has always been) 90%.  Do I have a secret?  May-be, but I don't know which one it would be.  So here's my uploading "technique" :  my uploads are 20 to 25 images per week, uploaded during the weekend, and ALWAYS in a complete variety of subjects.  NEVER more than 2 images of the same shoot.  About 15% has people in it, not because FT doesn't like people, but because I don't have that many people shots.
I don't read my rejection reasons, but after a look at my collection of FT rejects, I can say that they're mainly :  backgrounds, graphics, infrared images, landscapes and flowers, and darker images.  In all other cases, the images were also rejected by other sites, so they must've been really bad.  Oh, and one other thing :  Fotolia does not like sad or distressing images (about war, death, suicide ... unless it's a halloween picture).
Also :  all images are keyworded the Fotolia-way, so with the 7 main keywords at front.
Last remark :  my absolute rank = 138, my relative rank = 99.
Now you tell me :  where's the secret?  Certainly NOT the image quality, which is definitely not superior to the forum members with lots of rejects.  Subject matter?  I live in Europe, which influences subject matter of course and Fotolia's origin is European. 
Also :  Fotolia is my second best seller.  I have sent requests to FT about changing the EL value of ALL my images (I did that twice in a year), and they reacted positively whithin 4 days.  So Fotolia likes me, and I like Fotolia. 
Do I have a secret?  Tell me which one!

Hi Anyka
I found your secret! You live in Europe and you shoot great European photos
Smiling Jack

I can't complain about Fotolia rejections. But as I do mostly 3D stuff this is not really comparable to photography. But it seems to be a natural law for microstock sites that bestsellers at site A will be recjected at site B and vice versa. Just scratch your head and move on.

And this is the very reason why I reject exclusivity at one single site. They might review their review standards, and all of a sudden you will have most or your images rejected and can do nothing about it.

Regards,
Oliver