Does anybody out here have an indication on how important the acceptance rate is for the application to IS exclusivity. Their FAQ quotes a minimum of 50% for inclusion into their exclusive domain? Mine is significantly lower at 32% using a Rebel XT as my workhorse. Now that I have a used 5D I am hoping for a better rate. However I am taking a number of extreme pictures under very unfavourable lighting conditions (low light, mixed light, high contrast etc.), which of course will give any camera fits and introduce artifacts even when carefully working in PS. Anybody with an acceptance rate below 50% that became exclusive with IS?

I appreciate the quick response and fortunately I do have quite a bit more than the 500 you are referring too. Thanks alot.

Obviously it's a personal decision, but I'd advise not becoming exclusive.

Be aware that, unlike with other agencies that only require exclusivity for individual images, iStock requires complete and total exclusivity.

In other words, if you become an iStock exclusive you cannot (according to their legal terms) submit any RF image (even if it's rejected by iStock) anywhere else.

That's nowhere else ... no-where ... period.

See what you're doing to yourself if you become exclusive?

Obviously it's a personal decision, but I'd advise not becoming exclusive.

Be aware that, unlike with other agencies that only require exclusivity for individual images, iStock requires complete and total exclusivity.

In other words, if you become an iStock exclusive you cannot (according to their legal terms) submit any RF image (even if it's rejected by iStock) anywhere else.

That's nowhere else ... no-where ... period.

See what you're doing to yourself if you become exclusive?

You can't submit RF anywhere, but you can submit RM to other sites.

Again, its a personal choice. But I do not do traditional microstock. Isolations - nope, Handschakes- nope. 2/3 of my pictures at IS have DLs where other agencies have a much smaller percentage of images with DLs. IS as it is, generates >2/3 of my microstock income and StockXpert, FT and even DT are falling off the cliff. With IS, good initial DLs gives less popular subjects a chance to be seen and if you are exclusive your placement is just better. I have one search word were I am comparing my most popular Image vs. the rest and exclusive images with significantly lower DLs are usually higher placed than mine. The rest of my work is very much editorial and that is actually the stuff that consistently sells at SS ( and we all know for how much). With editorial pictures I do not get the benefit of multiple DLs on SS because one picture that covers the subject is all the buyer needs. I rather try my luck on Alamy especially now that I can fully implement their 3 level key word optimization. 11 Million pictures are a huge collection to compete with, but if my keywords are optimal I should have a pretty decent chance to be seen. On top of that, Alamy buyers are willing to search >1900 pictures for one keyword intil they find what they want. Now that DT has editorial content I probably try first to see how I fare there.