Microstock Photography Forum - General > Photo Critique

Critique of an amateur photographer's port on SS Please and Thank You!!!

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crystalheartpix:
Hi everyone :)

Sorry in advance!

I'm new to stock photography, & new to DSLR photography as well. I've only had my Fuji Finepix S1 about 20 months now (Christmas present) & been on a couple of trips, but mostly taking pictures in my backyard, so not getting a lot of the right kind of photos for stock yet. I just learned about stock about 5 months ago & spent more time reading up than I have so far of submitting. About 2 months since I got approved on SS. I have 86 approved pictures on SS & I think 5 on Dreamstime (I paused after getting some on there, to focus on SS). I've not had any sales nor views on SS (can you even see views there?) & no sales & only 1 view on DT the day I uploaded.

http://shutterstock.com/g/Crystalheartpix [nofollow]         

(I hope that's right & would love it if you could look at my port :) Hopefully it's not too bad.

I had to put all my questions (so so many, such a mess that I erased & cut multiple times) into a text file for anyone that has time to look at it? lol... it kept telling me too large, too large??

Thanks again, everyone, for all your time reading this (wasted? haha), and for any possible replies/comments/tips/critiques :) I really, really appreciate it.

Crystalheartpix

crystalheartpix:
Seems everyone is too nervous to download unknown items here lol... sorry.

Hopefully it's ok if I reply to myself to put my questions here?!

I'm still unsure on the whole "don't do too many of one subject/viewpoint/color etc. Most of these flowers are different blossoms but look as if they could be the same one, a couple are the same taken in different growth stages... so where is the dividing line? I've seen some ports with the Exact same photo or vector with only one tiny change of a letter or number or color, often with 50 tiny variations. I chose each different flower, 1 in color & the same in B&W, and got approved, some people may say that's already way too many (some people love flowers lol, but do the buyers?!)


I know it can take months/years to sell if your pictures aren't the right kind for a certain agency, even if they are technically ok. I'm at about a 50% approval/rejected ratio with SS (it was worse until adding flower photos. I'm still learning & trying to look at people's ports to see what is good (but on SS, I don't know what has sold so I don't know what is "good" in a person's port!). I try to watch & learn from the popular tab & I just got the Shot List for what buyers want for September. I don't have any equipment besides the camera so far. So my questions besides some basics about SS are, how can I shoot photos for stock indoors without more equipment or do you have any other suggestions of normal things that an amateur can shoot to learn & also be sellable (I can't learn stock if I never sell anything?)

I appreciate any tips anyone can give, and I realize I need to keep working on adding many, many more photos for stock. I can try for approvals on my first editorial photos from travels? So far I've been a bit nervous about that... the model releases & rules have kept me from doing anything besides basic photos :)

I do very little post processing as I'm new to ALL the programs... I have PS Elements 12 on my PC and the free apps PS Express & Lightroom on my LGV10 cell. Mostly I only PS out my dates that show up on photos. Since I'm not sure on the whole metadata thing, and don't use any uploading keywording software or anything yet, I leave it turned on in camera. I edit out the date on all photos or crop it out (I only crop dates or other things I can't get rid of with the PS repair, blend, blur (I'm still learning all of those things as I go & don't know how to correctly use layers yet!). So I wanted to ask, do you keep your dates turned off in the camera? Maybe I can have it off with a fresh sd disk, or snap a first pic then turn it off, take my series and use that as a marker date change for when I save my photos later? Just trying to find a way to keep my dates for keeping track of things in case I can't get them uploaded on time (I've gotten some photos that have the dates so wrong they are years off, like saying 1969 on google photos for a pic for 2005?! hahaha). It's so frustrating when technology doesn't help me stay organized, yes I know sometimes it can't help all of us :) hehehe

I wasn't sure if I should make an Instagram account to load my photos as a place to link to show my work, since I've run into the long, questioning discussions about watermarking & copyrights and how to best do all of that. So it seems that if I just concentrate on SS only & link to my SS port if I need to show some work, that's good enough for now. I know I've got a lot of travel photos that aren't right for stock & probably not for editorial either, so can't be uploaded until I know more about what I'm doing :)

Again Thanks to everyone who took time to read this, and all comments are helpful & appreciated :) Thank you !!

Bad Company:
I don't usually promote books but you really need to read one of these before venturing into this business- you have a ton too learn.

 Here are the book links- both are written by members on this site.  After you read them you will know what you have to do to make any type of money.

https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Heap/e/B007II0408

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/

steheap:
Thanks BadCompany!

I do blog a lot about stock photography and include lots of free tips on my website if you feel like reading that.http://www.backyardsilver.com

Steve

crystalheartpix:
I have actually been watching and reading Steve's site for a few months now and had also found Alex's as well. I haven't bought any books or programs since I'm still so early in the process of learning about my camera and the simple process of just taking the pictures. I felt like first I needed to crawl (a lot) before I could walk (walking being maybe making a few hundred dollars on some stock sites or with photo sells or blogging or something in the future) or running (running actually being going gung ho on stock sites & making it a real job instead of dipping my toes right now).

I'm slowly picking up information from so many places that it's been a bit jumbled in my mind (as badly as my pictures have been just sitting on sd cards and flash drives in total disorgization). So yeah I have a lot to learn :) I'm trying to get photos into a more organized process as I slowly test the waters.

I did sell one picture today on SS :) Just found out after I posted here !! So I know that though I have a lot to do, I am not on any time frame and can learn as I go. Things sometimes take me a while to really stick, and remembering all the things about photography isn't going to happen in a year, even within a book or two at a time :)

I really appreciate you responding though! Thanks for linking those two as they would have been exactly the kind of thing I would have been frantically hoping someone would show me if I hadn't already found them on my own for once :) I'm still in the researching stage before jumping in with any expenditures geared towards possible future earnings :)

Thank you!

Crystalheartpix

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