In no way was my last comment meant to be malicious. I came here with the intention of answering any questions about Photocase, unintentionally ruffled a few feathers, and in the end came to the conclusion that the style of stock photography offered by photographers who identify as "microstockers," isn't a good fit for Photocase.

I posted this on a Photocase forum within a similar kind of Photocase vs Microstock thread, and maybe it's worth reading for all of you:

 "...acceptance criteria at Photocase are no different from any other stock catalogue, (composition; style; theme; motif; exposure; minimum resolution; saleability; free from excessive noise, editing and/or artifacting; etc ) we just weigh them differently here. [A user] stated earlier that phone photos generally sell well. Some other sites may say "phone photos sell, accept more phone photos," [to their reviewers] and may even make it known to their users that they should upload more phone photos. At Photocase we wouldn't do something like that, but rather would continue to accept phone photos that are, in the eyes of our reviewers, remarkable. This is what users from a microstock background have to understand about Photocase: we're not in a race to have the most, we're only concerned with accepting good-quality, unique, stylish photos. That's our vision."

ulmu, how ironically - you just registered yesterday and your only post in a thread is the one above. Coincidence? I think not.
I am supremely confident that this is not the most interesting thread on MSG. So why don't you take your dudebrother and go tell someone else how much you're making out of the site you're workin' for? (photocase be that). I am very confident again that noone believes your success story with photocase.

Thanks Danicek - wise words! I'm really surprised about the tone in this forum - it is always nice to talk with open minded persons. The raised issues are so stupid that I prefer to say nothing against - it's definitely not worth it!

Thanks Danicek - wise words! I'm really surprised about the tone in this forum - it is always nice to talk with open minded persons.

I feel that the main feeling is just curiosity and amazement. Going thru the site (I did) we are amazed at the subpar quality of some shots, like on-cam flash hard shadow, shallow DOF and so on. One could argue this kind of shots has a special artistic value and there is a market for it, so no prejudice at all.

Just sheer curiosity. Do this kind of shots actually sell in a niche market, or is it more a fun photoshare/rating site? Not everybody here is a standard stock shooter but many of us have special shots too we don't even bother to upload to traditional stock because we know they won't sell there. But they could try with an alternative site. Of course, most of us are concentrated on sales, even for "fun" shots. It would be helpful if you could give an idea of actual sales since I couldn't find that info on the site.

Warren: you may be onto something there.

RT: I didn't come here with any notions of anything. People were asking about Photocase so I answered. We have 10 reviewers at Photocase, i said ideally they all see the photos but in practice that doesn't happen, and averages less. Not a lie. And I don't see why saying we fill a niche qualifies as corporate BS. We sell a particular thing to particular customers where we perceive there to be a lack. Is a lone flower shop amongst fast-food and magazine stands in a train station corporate BS too? 

re: the don't come to Photocase comment, I suppose I could have been more flowery about it, but the fact remains that the majority of the users on this forum have expectations, as far as photo-approvals go, from years of working with other websites. Yes, we accept and sell photos, but not the way the large ones do. As for the saleability comment, I thought I cleared that up with my example about telephone photos, but I guess not, so here's the short version: saleability is not weighted as heavily in our approval process. Of course we love to sell photos, but we want to sell photos that are exciting and different. Sales come as a result of our selection. People go to their favorite restaurant because they like the food. People come to Photocase because of the photos. If you don't like sushi, I'm not going to invite you to my favorite restaurant. What's the point you'll just sit there turning up your nose the whole time.

As for your final comment, thank you for checking us out, absolutely no hard feelings and I wish you luck too.

FlemishDreams:
This is a very interesting point and illustrates the expectations comment I made above: you say that "on-cam flash hard shadow, shallow DOF and so on," is "sub par." I want to strongly state here that by no means do we think any of these qualities are sub-par. A great photo is a great photo, even if it's noisy or has razor-thin dof, or lens flare (real lens flare not the photoshop abomination) or vignetting or a hard-shadow or what have you. I'm trying really hard not to use the "forest for the trees" idiom. But there it is. We would never reject a stunning photo simply because of some vignetting or mild noise.

We instituted a new pricing model in December so we're tracking the effects of the price increase. Sales are exceeding projections. I will say our top earners have made more than 200� this month already.

Ok, we are 1 member less now and a few posts shorter.

One member was banned for excessively rude and unnecessary comments and private messages.

Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier.

Love the place.
With only a few images accepted got more income than DT,StockXpert,Istock etc

I tried uploading a few and I have a 100% rejection rate so far.  I might try again one day when I am really bored but there is too much to do with all the sites that accept most of my images.

As far as I know there is no FTP sorry....
Send in some unusual non stock like images, strange landscapes, strange poses, colors etc...
Yes you get many rejection but once accepted almost every image gonna get at least a sale and many many views.
It's allowed to send in images your already selling trough other stock sites.

Good luck

 

Very unique, indeed. Look at this one. When I type English keywords (try "business"), I get strange and irrelevant results. I can't imagine anything selling there, so the posters that had sales, could you please put up a link to the sold image? Just curious...

Is there an "acceptance procedure" here?  I don't know how many images to upload or if I should start just dumping my portfolio there???

I don't know how well it will/would sell but there is some really wierd (unusual) stuff here ... almost as weird as me.   

Just in small batches would in my experience work best.
Not to much of the same subject.

I like the website and the photos, very artistic.  Don't know how well I would do on a German site but do have some bizarre nature photos I could try to upload. Who knows.

it's very normal rejection 29 out of 30 or even more....