I feel tempted to give up ShutterStock. Just got 5 of the new ones rejected. So far 10 out of 20 of my best selling iStock images were rejected by SS. the last 5 for out-of-focus / blurry images. Since i bought my Canon 5D MK2 in 2009 in had NO images rejected by iStock for those reasons. Are they joking or what ?
That is the individual impact of the "glass house effect". Meaning that inside the istock glasshouse the competition is less among photographers, so they do not develop as much as independents are forced to.
Which deteriorates istock images from the inside so that contrary to the belief, images on istock are often NOT as good as those on other places.
Which again is why istoch in their desperation, opened the floodgates for new images, and thereby made many years of (outdated) curation worthless.
I dont think it has to do with it, as his 10-top pictures hardly loaded up the last year considering how sales are with new images on iStock now.
Something however, Shutterstock is sensitive to, as I often get rejections for, is short depth of field. Dont look at images that sell wll at iStock, but select images that are perfect exposure and long depth of field. Gladly studio pictures, if you have these.
(Sry for my crappy english)