.

Are you sure it's the "categories", not the image quality? I don't want to be rude, but such a low acceptance rate seems really odd to me.

Thank you Wyt fr the reply
ofcourse not. I know quality is must for Microstock sites.. I am talking about the sites which accept such pix comparably more in numbers. as Dt and other top sites don't accept landscapes that frequently while 123Rf has accepted 60% of my landscape insect photos while Dt did not. So you can say i am inquiring about the sites which have more scope for these pix or better to say my landscape,insects,animal,wildlife photographs have more scope....

canstock has a very high acceptance rate from my experience. Unfortunately they have one of the lowest sales rates

Thanks for the reply Qwerty...still i will join it if it is so.. i can see them in middle tier in the ranking below depositphoto and photodune... what about these 2 sites ? i have not heard about them yet

Quote from: wut on November 16, 2011, 02:49

Are you sure it's the "categories", not the image quality? I don't want to be rude, but such a low acceptance rate seems really odd to me.

Thank you Wyt fr the reply
ofcourse not. I know quality is must for Microstock sites.. I am talking about the sites which accept such pix comparably more in numbers. as Dt and other top sites don't accept landscapes that frequently while 123Rf has accepted 60% of my landscape insect photos while Dt did not. So you can say i am inquiring about the sites which have more scope for these pix or better to say my landscape,insects,animal,wildlife photographs have more scope....

But still, this content is not really stocky. I know an awesome macro photographer, who's been at IS from 2006 (and became exclusive as soon as he reached 250 DLs), out of approx 450 files he got only 900 DLs . And he didn't get most of those from macro shots anyway. And I don't think landscape sell much better than macro shots, unless you captured a gorgeous meadow during sunset with super saturated colors etc. But I also think that has been done to death. I'm not sure it's worth the time to try and make it with such content (unless you're happy with making enough to buy an entry level DSLR every 5 years). What's harder to shoot, sells best. Everybody can shoot nature, architecture and isolated objects (ok you need a couple of strobes for the latter). BTW I have some wildlife shots which are considered to be very good in my port (but only 10 or so), I didn't even make 50 bucks in 2 years of off them. I'd make a few grand with ppl shots of the same quality. Subjects really matter, think about what most designers need

For me, as "newbie not living 100% of stock earnings", acceptance rate isn't all. I've 100% acceptance rate on Alamy ( guess why ) and one sale ( novell... ). Agencies where I have more than 70% acceptance rate is where I sell less ( or nothing ).

It's true that You have a low rate of acceptance, but You should worry about which type of "subject" would sell better, before turning on acceptance rate.

I shoot birds and macros too ( with my canon ... ), and normally they are accepted ( SS, IS, DT.. and so on ) but rarely I sell any photo over this subjects. So why continue shoot it, and send it?

Landscapes.. look to my port, and probally You will say: "wft?! "Sell Your camera" etc. But the truth is some of that were accepted and made some sales... and my conclusion is that somehow the success  ( for me ) is relataed to "locations" and some "strange" compositions.

You believe that i have one landscape image, with 2 sensor spots ( just one agency notice and refuse ) , over a more than beaten subject? Even I don't know the answer for the file acceptance... 

About shooting people: Personally isn't because model release that i do not do this type of subject. The main reason is that there is too much ( and good ) competition over this area. What I can do with 450D against guys with studios and medium format... ? Ok, what I can do with my "experience" against pro-photographers? So, by now ( and probably forever )  I will leave it for them, and see what i shoot best, and do a small analysis over what sells or not. Probably i cant shoot and particular niche, and work over it until someone start do the same...
 



 

@CoisaX.
You are in SS and IS :-) that is sufficient to tell that your photography would be really well and stock oriented. But please tell me that did you get selected in these 2 sites with birds and macro shots ?or what type of photographs did you submit Der approval ?
I think (may be wrong) that 3 sample photos as still better and easy (for IS) than to get selected with 10 (ok 7) photos in SS.
 What do you think guys ?

Sure, that apply with 3 photos is easier than with 7. Moreover both agencies want variety and get it on 10 photos is a bit harder. ( BTW, i only enter SS second time )

Take a look to ( no referral )  http://www.shutterstock.com/public_lightbox.mhtml?lightbox_id=10289314&code=cf5b45b4acbfb0ed881cd31d9f9238a8

From right to left, are 7 photos that were accepted in second batch. Other four were between 6 with "green light" on first batch ( yeah I failed by 1 LOL  ) . From that lightbox just 2 photos ( buddha pattern and screws over "what should be a black background" haven't sales. 

If i applied just with macros ( mostly dragonfly's ) and small birds, probably i would be out of SS.

Forgetting the first submission approval process, is important keep in mind that in the begin could be a bit harder until find the best ration between "What we shoot" and "What will Sell". Approval is another "war". 

After get some sales over , for example, tree pattern, I start shooting every tree, thinking that could be rich less in a year... but then realize that someone ( 100 photographers or more.. ) had same idea, probably 5 years ago, and agencies have more and better photos than mine. Moreover isn't a "top seller" subject. 

Now if i send one tree pattern today, I bet that easily i get it accepted.. but then came the old question: Why loose time if i still sell few and the same? Same for birds and macros and birds!

Get the point?

It's a false choice to suggest that your options for stock are landscape/nature/macro shots or people. There are tons of opportunities in staged still life shots for both business and lifestyle themes.

And just to reiterate what other people have said: don't try to find sites that will accept anything you chuck at them that's in focus and exposed correctly. If you want to sell your images (and if you don't, make a gallery somewhere and share it with friends) then focus on getting accepted at the top tier sites and building  your portfolio.

If you like to shoot things that don't sell as stock, then stop trying to build a stock portfolio. There's nothing wrong with that.

It is a misguided assumption that many stock sites don't accept images from the categories you mentioned. I also shoot those subjects and with more than 2000 images in my port at all the major stock sites (except IS) I have an acceptance rate above 90% on all of them. More importantly, those images sell.

What is decisive for acceptance is quality and accurate captioning (accurate identification of the animal/plants with Latin names) and my landscapes is not generic, but a specific location (e.g. National Park). If your images meet these criteria they will be accepted everywhere. 

thank you for your replies and suggestions guys...
@ya Gennet you are right. I am a doctor and photography is my hobby so definitely i should enjoy photography with what subjects i like. Today itself i met few photographers who prefer subjects what i like and i saw their links of microstock sites and their photographs on these subjects (old or newly submitted) are stiil sold. like Eco said about his collections.. but obviously they should be different from others.. if photos of others subjects like of people are also based on old themes what stocks have already having in millions then i think they will not accept such pix as well. so its quality what finally matters.
   but has DT been really strict on these themes..? as photographers whom i chat do tell me that earlier DT used to accept such pix in frequently but don't now... whereas SS do accept.. i think customers in SS are bit more nature lover lol i can see that most searched keywords are butterfly,dragonfly and mountains :-)

most of my RF portfolio is nature, landscapes & travel - both specific sites and details [architectural details like corinthian capitals, mullioned windows, etc]  these still get accepted by SS & DT and do sell, but notin large numbers

there are many sites that will take any imagers that are technically correct [gl, most, dp, yay,feature, et al]  but the problem there is they dont produce many sales at all.  i only submit to thee lower level sites that make it easy - no sites that require a category for each image, etc

my editorial images sell much better but have a smaller potential audience.

thanks cascoly. could you mention which particular lower level sites are you talking about ?  what about photodune... how is sell there ?

thanks Attila :-)

thank you casoly for suggestion. I should concentrate first on top tiers 1st and should get a good collection of images. :-)

thank you cobalt Der suggestion am the links. I will look these links tonight.