MicrostockGroup

My AR is horrible, and I have been studying hard to get it better. The last few weeks I have gone from technical rejection reasons (light, focus, composition), to "this is not what we want", "this is not a stock photo", "we have to many of these".

For the early problems it was easy to find books and manuals, and correct the mistakes. Now I'm a bit more frustrated. If I try to take the same type of pictures as the best sellers, I get the "to many"-reject, when I try to find a niche (science), I get a "not what we want"-reject.

I guess one solution could be to try more than one agency, to see if they all agree that my pictures are not fitted for stock. Are there some other micro stock sites that are more fond of scientific photos?

Also, my editorials sell quite badly, should I upload them somewhere else?

Most of your 'not what we want' and 'too many of these' rejections might be avoided by changing how you compose and shoot the subject. Try to imagine how someone might best use the image before you press the button to make it.

Also, and I hate to be the one to tell you, if you're having trouble getting images accepted at DT you have a big problem: they have a high tolerance for bland stuff, and pretty much accept anything. If you can't get an image accepted at DT, it's going to be difficult to get it accepted at other worthwhile agencies.

You need to read more carefully: I didn't say DT was not a worthwhile agency.
I've edited my orignal post so that nobody else can misinterpret what I wrote.

I don't think these stock companies really know, themselves, what they want.  It's a new business and an unstable one  - ok let's say "evolving"- and what they want probably changes from month to month.  

Collectively these companies have a sort of jaded rich kid personality - they already have everything they actually need, but they want more, but not the same stuff,  or maybe the same but better,  or maybe something completely different.  I'm sure the people running these companies aren't really like that, but that's how it seems from the outside.

I haven't had much trouble getting images accepted.  I know what's in a quality image, I can produce it, and the these stock companies accept it.  But, nothing I do sells, except for a few 25-cent subscription pickups.  It's a fun game in a way, but I think it's going to get old pretty quick unless I can find the Holy Grail - a niche that isn't already exploited a hundred times over...  

No sorry, I wouldn't agree __ that just indicates to me that you don't understand enough about the business to appreciate what they are looking for. The fact that you say "nothing I do sells" rather comfirms that and also that the agencies understand their buyers' needs too.

Three or four years ago you really could upload pretty much anything, had a fair chance of it being accepted and it would almost certainly be bought by someone at least a few times. With something like 50-100x more images on-line now it just happens to be a lot more competitive than it was __ and it's only going to get tougher, much tougher, in the future. If you can't hack the pace now then don't hold your breath in expectation of it getting easier any time soon. It won't.

That's exactly the way it should be.   What is the point of cluttering up their searches with inferior images.


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