Author Topic: Trouble with initial acceptance at SS (Read 11754 times)

michealo · « **on:** January 01, 2008, 08:44 »

I have submitted 4 times. First time 4 of 10 were accepted so I resubmitted those 4 plus 6 new new ones. Then some of the initial 4 were rejected. This has happened each time. I have over 10 that were accepted at one stage subsequently not to be. It seems a bit bizarre and random. Most of the images have been accepted by FT, IS and DT. Any thoughts ? Any suggestions?

LanaLanglois · « **Reply #1 on:** January 01, 2008, 11:15 »

Because there is a wainting time before resubmitting, I believe it is not a good idea to resubmit same images. I'm sure you do improve yourself while waiting the resubmission date... so your most recent images are probably your bests ! ;-)

Except for some occasional mistakes that can occur (they are only humans, just like us!), I believe most reviews at SS are similar and enough right. If the acceptance/refusal are always different for some images, maybe your images are sitting just at their acceptable limits?! It is hard to say without seeing it, and without knowing the rejection reasons you got. Also, they are told more "capricious" for the first ten.

Also, each stock sites have their own criteria. It is hard to create photos that please totaly to many different sites. I don't know what subject you are usually shooting, but I believe human, food and business images will help alot to be accepted at SS first ten. Avoid flowers, landscape and animals; And avoid noise, they don't tolerate any noise.

ale1969 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 01, 2008, 11:45 »

Quote from: LanaLanglois on January 01, 2008, 11:15

And avoid noise, they don't tolerate any noise.

Out of the same frustrating experience I can assure that when people here say "no noise" they really mean no noise for SS. To easily see if your image is noisy just have a look at the blue channel where most of it lays.
Shot to the right, use some noise removal plugins and downsize your images to the minimum 4MP.
I managed to get in with my second trial following these advices from people of this forum and they were * right (10 out 10 accepted against 7 refused in my first trial). Btw, the 7 refused were accepted by other "picky" sites like IS or DT.

michealo · « **Reply #3 on:** January 01, 2008, 12:57 »

"downsize your images to the minimum 4MP" that is a great tip, I will give that a go

TreeOfLife · « **Reply #4 on:** January 02, 2008, 09:15 »

When I first submitted to SS, only 6 were accepted (needed 7).

I then asked the question on the SS forum what I should do for my next try- resubmit the 6 that got accepted plus 4 new ones, or submit 10 new ones. I got a reply from a SS reviewer that said to submit 10 new ones. That's what I did, and 7 got accepted. I then went back and resubmitted the ones from the first batch that were "accepted," and wouldn't you know, some of them got rejected the second time around. Oh well.

JerryL5 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 02, 2008, 10:26 »

Remember SS has a critique section on it's forums. You can show your work there before uploading for opinions/suggestions.

a.k.a.-tom · « **Reply #6 on:** January 03, 2008, 20:37 »

....man... I think I got shot down by SS 3 times before I got on... I know it was at least twice....
Don't give up. Keep plugging away at it!!

=tom

mwp1969 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 17, 2008, 17:37 »

Currently "Up for Rejection ..." in another couple of weeks ...

The Quote from the movie "Shawshank Redemption"

Mark

michealo · « **Reply #8 on:** April 10, 2008, 06:26 »

Finally got in on attempt number 5, and already 2 sales on a portfolio of 7 images ...

snurder · « **Reply #9 on:** April 10, 2008, 07:32 »

Congrats. Remember that SS is the eating machine that must be fed on a consistent basis. You will like it there.

PixelsAway · « **Reply #10 on:** April 10, 2008, 07:46 »

I needed 4 attempts to get accepted by SS:
http://www.pixelsaway.com/C911796005/E20080308090659/index.html
Marek

Smiling Jack · « **Reply #11 on:** April 10, 2008, 09:01 »

Hi
My experience with SS is kinda difference from most. Got accepted the first try(9out of 10). Then they rejected every thing since. Must have slipped in under their radar.
Smiling Jack

contrastaddict · « **Reply #12 on:** April 20, 2008, 21:20 »

I've been rejected twice now, lots of poor composition and not commercial value. Can you submit pictures of people in the first 10?

oboy · « **Reply #13 on:** April 25, 2008, 09:59 »

Here are my rejections of my 4th try:

Image 1
Composition--Limited commercial value due to framing,
cropping, and/or composition.
Poor Lighting--Poor or uneven lighting, or shadows. White balance may
be incorrect.

Image 2
Composition--Limited commercial value due to framing,
cropping, and/or composition.
Limited Commercial Value--We do not need this image at this time

Image 3
Composition--Limited commercial value due to framing,
cropping, and/or composition.

Image 4
mark as illustration

Image 5
mark as illustration

The reason the fractals had the keyword illustration, because another
agency ask for fractals to be marked as illustration. The other three
images had no complains in previous evaluation from Shutterstock.
It can be so frustrating sometimes.

Pixart · « **Reply #14 on:** April 25, 2008, 10:26 »

Quote from: contrastaddict on April 20, 2008, 21:20

I've been rejected twice now, lots of poor composition and not commercial value. Can you submit pictures of people in the first 10?

Oh, yes. Do (if you have MR). The seem to be somewhat more lenient if a person is in the photograph. My second ap was mostly people and 10 were approved.

leaf · « **Reply #15 on:** April 25, 2008, 10:33 »

your links are messed up. if you fix them we can perhaps give you some feedback.

oboy · « **Reply #16 on:** April 25, 2008, 10:53 »

Not sure what happened, but I fixed them and they are working now.

CofkoCof · « **Reply #17 on:** April 25, 2008, 11:21 »

For fractals you would just need to tick the illustration box, I think they would get accepted with that.

fotoKmyst · « **Reply #18 on:** April 25, 2008, 14:59 »

is SS so important that you would put up with waiting for 30 days?
i'm not even sure i 'd consider that an option.
i'd rather go elsewhere. like who 's dying to get into SS???

not me?

as if the others are not just as good, if not better.

we all heard of numero uno getting too big for their shoes.
the only way from numero uno is down.
for that reason, i prefer to stay with the other of the big 6
BECAUSE they seem to want your photos.

it takes two to do business.

Waldo4 · « **Reply #19 on:** April 25, 2008, 15:10 »

Quote from: fotoKmyst on April 25, 2008, 14:59

is SS so important that you would put up with waiting for 30 days?
i'm not even sure i 'd consider that an option.
i'd rather go elsewhere. like who 's dying to get into SS???

not me?
as if the others are not just as good, if not better.

we all heard of numero uno getting too big for their shoes.
the only way from numero uno is down.
for that reason, i prefer to stay with the other of the big 6
BECAUSE they seem to want your photos.

it takes two to do business.

'Cept that if you like making money in this buisiness, especially with a less established portfolio, SS is your friend. I can see, given a while to mature, my port on IS and DT will probably overtake SS in total monthly earnings. But until I've got several hundred files approved at each and have been around for several months or years for some files to get up there in the download rakings, SS is kicking their butt in earnings, hands down. I'll have reached at least 2 or 3 payouts at SS before I get my first elsewhere.

fotoKmyst · « **Reply #20 on:** April 25, 2008, 15:16 »

Quote from: Waldo4 on April 25, 2008, 15:10

'Cept that if you like making money in this buisiness, especially with a less established portfolio, SS is your friend. I can see, given a while to mature, my port on IS and DT will probably overtake SS in total monthly earnings. But until I've got several hundred files approved at each and have been around for several months or years for some files to get up there in the download rakings, SS is kicking their butt in earnings, hands down. I'll have reached at least 2 or 3 payouts at SS before I get my first elsewhere.

ha! good point! thks waldo.

i guess in my case, stock is only something i do aside from regular photo assignments, so it's not to pay the rent. so it probably a pain rather than a necessity for me to wait in line at the SS 30 day hyperqueque

cheers again for the insight !

Waldo4 · « **Reply #21 on:** April 25, 2008, 15:24 »

Quote from: fotoKmyst on April 25, 2008, 15:16

Quote from: Waldo4 on April 25, 2008, 15:10
'Cept that if you like making money in this buisiness, especially with a less established portfolio, SS is your friend. I can see, given a while to mature, my port on IS and DT will probably overtake SS in total monthly earnings. But until I've got several hundred files approved at each and have been around for several months or years for some files to get up there in the download rakings, SS is kicking their butt in earnings, hands down. I'll have reached at least 2 or 3 payouts at SS before I get my first elsewhere.

ha! good point! thks waldo.

i guess in my case, stock is only something i do aside from regular photo assignments, so it's not to pay the rent. so it probably a pain rather than a necessity for me to wait in line at the SS 30 day hyperqueque
cheers again for the insight !

Hey, this is just a means of making petty cash to buy some new equipment for me, maybe someday it will be something greater (highly doubt that it could ever get even close to replacing my actual salary), but if I tried to live off my stock earnings I would have to sell the van that I was living in down by the river

oboy · « **Reply #22 on:** April 25, 2008, 21:30 »

Thank you for all your comments and tips. Well, in thirty days there is another try.

Roadrunner · « **Reply #23 on:** May 02, 2008, 14:56 »

I thought I broke a record! I got rejected 8 times, and they even stopped giving me reasons?

Do you guys and gals think I'm a marked man? The only feedback I get via e-mail is "Though some of your images meet our standards, you have not supplied the required 7 acceptable images." Is anyone else getting that eedback as a reply?

I have been trying to get on that site for two years, guess I need a little practice. Perhaps I should just be happy with iS and DT.

Of course I am tempted to try 10 new images shrunk down from 12 MP to 4 MP. Will that really help?

Dreamframer · « **Reply #24 on:** May 04, 2008, 10:02 »

I was accepted third time. They are extremely picky at this first batch, but after it...everything goes smooth

....sales too. ALWAYS post your images in their forum, correct them and post them again, and again, and again until you decide to send them to reviewers. I think that's a key to success. I did like this. Some of important people are members of their forum. They will recognize your effort.

cascoly · « **Reply #25 on:** May 04, 2008, 13:32 »

Quote from: Roadrunner on May 02, 2008, 14:56

I thought I broke a record! I got rejected 8 times, and they even stopped giving me reasons? Do you guys and gals think I'm a marked man? The only feedback I get via e-mail is "Though some of your images meet our standards, you have not supplied the required 7 acceptable images." Is anyone else getting that eedback as a reply?

....

Of course I am tempted to try 10 new images shrunk down from 12 MP to 4 MP. Will that really help?

that's a common review response, and as others have said, the entrance exam is the toughest part.

DEFINITELY shrink images to 4MP - focus is one of their bugbears; i get many scanned slides accepted by reducing the image this way.

steve

Adeptris · « **Reply #26 on:** May 04, 2008, 13:59 »

I found that the main key is quality more than anything else with acceptance shots.

Make sure the image has a clear point of focus, do not crop or resize, shoot at the lowest ISO, avoid heavy shadow or high contrast shifts, and if in photoshop if you need to do anything more than a slight tweek then that image should not be part of a submission

A stock image is often used as a part, a design element, so you are the photographer not the artist in this case, if the designer wants a crop they will do it, do not try to provide the finished shot, think of copyspace and allow some space around the subject, the key is also to keep it simple.

My images included animals, people and objects, none were "shot for stock" as such but were selected with the above rules and I had 8/10 first attempt.

Someone said "Why Bother", I was refused at the first site I ever tried, in the 30 day wait I trawled the forums learned the process, got accepted at other sites, when the 30 days were up, I submitted again and was accepted, I never uploaded to that site after reading about them in the forums, I bothered because they had refused my images, and accepting that would have bugged me.

I went and uploaded to 8 sites but now I am only uploading to one, the one which gave the best consistant return oer 6 months, with a small portfolio.

David

cascoly · « **Reply #27 on:** May 04, 2008, 16:56 »

Quote from: Adeptris on May 04, 2008, 13:59

...
Make sure the image has a clear point of focus, do not crop or resize, shoot at the lowest ISO, avoid heavy shadow or high contrast shifts, and if in photoshop if you need to do anything more than a slight tweek then that image should not be part of a submission

A stock image is often used as a part, a design element, so you are the photographer not the artist in this case, if the designer wants a crop they will do it, do not try to provide the finished shot, think of copyspace and allow some space around the subject, the key is also to keep it simple.....

true, but unfortunately reviewers will reject images that follow every one of your suggestions -- i'm sure we all have images that were accepted by most MS and then rejected by 1 - that argues both for submitting to multiple sites, AND submitting a wide range of quality material, not just your best.

re cropping etc - while it's good in principle, there are reasons to crop -- eg i have many shots of penguins, but you cant see them in thumbnails, so i've cropped a few images that highlight one bird. often sites take both versions. by judicious cropping you can make your images stand out during a quick review of thumbnails.

finally, for many sites, esp'ly SS, post processing really helps -- SS and several others really seem to like oversaturated colors -=- just browse the pictures of trees, and l;andscapes and you'll find many colors that never existed. i've had much better results since discovering this -- eg, i resubmitted a set of golf course images with the greens popped and they were all accepted, while the initial versions weren't.

steve

Adeptris · « **Reply #28 on:** May 04, 2008, 17:55 »

I do agree with steve's comments, and they are valid going forward, however we are talking about acceptance images.

One problem I have seen is new submitters "shooting for stock" trying to re-create a top 50 image, or something they saw in another portfolio, looking for the special thousand download image, rather than shooting simply for acceptance, where IMHO quality is the main issue, I have never cropped or made an image "Pop" for acceptance, and have always been accepted first time except the very first site, with quite boring images, so I can only speak from my own experience.

The cropping issue and doing two images sounds like a good idea after acceptance, as is testing how far you can go with post process different sites different rules.

The two bits of advice I took early on from the submitters was "keep it simple", from the designers "don't crop".

These are only my observations on initial acceptance.

B.T.W. several designer said in another forum, that many a sales was lost as a lot of the image are already over cropped, and they have had to settle for thier second choice

David

cascoly · « **Reply #29 on:** May 04, 2008, 21:40 »

i agree completely and would use an emoticon if i werent allergic to the little buggers-- it points up the ambiguity of trying to supply the MS market!

get accepted by whatever means necessary as malcolm used to say, then worry about the details later

steve

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Author Topic: Trouble with initial acceptance at SS (Read 11754 times)

michealo

LanaLanglois

ale1969

michealo

TreeOfLife

JerryL5

a.k.a.-tom

mwp1969

michealo

snurder

PixelsAway

Smiling Jack

contrastaddict

oboy

Pixart

leaf

oboy

CofkoCof

fotoKmyst

Waldo4

fotoKmyst

Waldo4

oboy

Roadrunner

Dreamframer

cascoly

Adeptris

cascoly

Adeptris

cascoly

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