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Author Topic: Got accepted..  (Read 7944 times)

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« on: February 05, 2007, 15:32 »
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Good morning from Australia.

Well I got accepted by iStock on my second attempt.  Now got to start uploading and getting used to the different keywording, disambiguation requirements etc.  Will be interesting.

Whatever the inconvenience, iStock does appear to have the customers - looking at the top downloads shows images that attract up to 1,000 downloads in a month, and over 2,000 in three months.  The absolute top selling images are above 4,000 downloads.  I have not seen anything like those numbers elsewhere.

As a newbie I am limited in uploads to '15 in each 168 hour period'.  Hmmm... that's very restrictive and pales beside the accommodating attitude of Fotolia.  But then I don't believe FT's image numbers, and I don't think they get anything like the sales...... it's chicken and egg stuff.

Here's thre welcome note from iStock: "Welcome to iStockphoto.com, the designer's dirty little secret. Congratulations, the iStockphoto administrators have determined that your images are commercially and technically ready for iStockphoto.com. Please begin uploading at your convenience. There is currently a limit of 15 uploads per 168 hour period."

Still, I'm glad to be on board at iStock.  Now got to make it work...... doh.....


vicu

« Reply #1 on: February 05, 2007, 16:32 »
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Congrats, hatman! Good luck to you.  :)

« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2007, 23:01 »
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Hi Hatman,

Congragulations.... from my side.

I still need to get on board. Once got rejected. Trying for second time :)

« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2007, 14:17 »
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congratulations! My portfolio is smallest at istock due to the newbie restriction, but most cash. Enjoy the site!

« Reply #4 on: February 06, 2007, 15:15 »
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The initial rejection at iStock concerned and confused me.  Okay, my photo history is travel, people, friends etc, and I do not consider most of my existing stuff to be stock.  But I have always been pleased with the quality and composition.  The first three submitted to iStock were taken from existing photos, and were rejected.

I spent a couple of weeks reviewing and analysing, and then took specific shots for the submission process.  I discovered many things in those two weeks.  The most important one was the noise issue; experiments showed me that spot on accurate exposure with my D200 eliminated all noise, whereas even slight underexposure introduced noise.  I suspect I have had a habit of slightly underexposing over the years (impression of colour depth, saturation etc).  The three new shots that were accepted were all exposed very accurately, shot in RAW then converted to jpeg at highest quality.  What also suprised me was that in addition to noise being eliminated, the shots were also tack sharp and didn't need any sharpening at all apart from the standard default +25 in ACR.

So important lessons have been learned.  I now know I can produce top quality tack sharp and noise free images straight from the camera - whereas in the past I found everything very acceptable, I can now see a huge difference.

I have never bracketed exposures in my life, but I can now see why professionals would want to do that and I will probably bracket in half stops myself in future.

« Reply #5 on: February 06, 2007, 15:52 »
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Oh, and I've turned on the histogram at image review......

Interesting how my approach has changed in just a couple of weeks.  The demands of iStock (in particular) force me to produce superior quality.  An education...

« Reply #6 on: February 06, 2007, 22:06 »
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Congrats!  You will look back in a while and amaze yourself over what you have learned by this experience.

Don't forget to have fun too. Don't let the whole "stock" thing suck the life out of what you do!


« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2007, 15:12 »
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Now been accepted by StockXpert on first attempt - the time spent analysing and refining has saved a lot of possible future rejections and frustrations.

However I am not convinced that the time needed to upload to the smaller agencies is worth it.  Looking at downloads, I am convinced that the best route to take is to be selective and concentrate on only those agencies that appear to be putting in the effort on the sales development front - which is why I believe iStock is probably the way to go.

It's a chicken and egg again - does one spend time uploading to many different sites, or focus on just one or two and invest the spare time in creating, designing, shooting, processing...

My inclination is to try to get to 'exclusive' level with iStock and forget the others, but experience over the next year will help me refine those thoughts.

« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2007, 15:19 »
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i agree with you that a site that does not produce is not worth submitting too - if the submission process if labourous.  If it takes little or no effort to upload images, then I can't see it hurting anything... and provides another 2-10% of my overall microstock income.

I would put lucky oliver, shutterstock, and stockxpert in the catagory of taking little or no time to upload.

« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2007, 17:22 »
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My inclination is to try to get to 'exclusive' level with iStock and forget the others, but experience over the next year will help me refine those thoughts.

It is a good idea to wait some time before you go exclusive. I guess (!) most IS exclusives have been there a long time. Well before other agencies became popular.

Once you get approved at SS (or even DT) you don't want to be exclusive at IS anymore. Uploading there is sooo much faster. And the numbers speak for themself. From my own experience (and what I read here) SS makes between 25% and 50% of income.

I initially uploaded to the big 5 agencies and recently added StockXpert. Uploading there is very fast. And the rejection rate is very high  :-\


« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2007, 19:45 »
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never i realy mean NEVER get exclusiv there!

« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2007, 19:50 »
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I accept what you say t-rust, and it makes sense to wait.  Besides, here I am talking about exclusive and I haven't even been an approved contributor for a week.........

Nonetheless, it is important to have a plan.

As part of that plan I shall now deactivate my 123RF membership.  Why?  Because they accepted the images that were refused elsewhere.  Designers are not stupid - they will go where the quality is reliable and avoid agencies that are taking anything just to get the numbers up.

If I want to be serious about this project I have to place myself with higher quality, be selective, and think like designers think.

That also means identifying the categories of images that the world wants in volume rather than those it does not want.  Am I going to make good money out of 'statue of Rimsky-Korsakov with pigeon.....'?

Or do I need 'businessman with happy and successful team....?

Of course we all know the answer.


« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2007, 19:53 »
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sorry i dont now the answer.. i dont understand you-- but this cult be why my english is soo bad

« Reply #13 on: February 11, 2007, 20:38 »
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Had my first 15 uploaded for a week now but still in pending state.  I am aware that exclusives get priority, but a week is a long time.  Anyone else here uploading to iStock?  If so, are you experiencing the same wait?

« Reply #14 on: February 11, 2007, 22:29 »
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One week is a normal waiting time for submission review at IS.  Sometimes even more, though not often.

Regards,
Adelaide

« Reply #15 on: February 12, 2007, 05:06 »
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I think probably most everyone here is uploading to istock.  And yes a week is regular wait time.


 

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