The Gecko shot is a good idea.  I like how he is looking toward the camera, which is going to useful for designers.  But...

1)  Focus is too soft when I zoom in.  Look at the eyes.  You want good focus on the eyes.

2)  Image is noisy.  Look at the nose, and then the back legs / tail of the gecko.  Lots of noise.  This won't fly.

My advice is to re-shoot this one.  Nail the focus on the eyes using a good macro lens.  Be careful with your depth of field.  If you have enough lighting, go for F/8 if you can while allowing enough shutter speed to account for slight movements.

I'll let others chime in on the rest of the images.  Good luck and keep at it.

couldn't find the gecko ... tried to make some adjustments in photoshop.

here is a revised version of the pic.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3467383/Istock/gecko%20-%20rev.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3467383/Istock/Fan%20Palm%20Sky.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3467383/Istock/gecko%20front.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3467383/Istock/Street%20Sign.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3467383/Istock/grass.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3467383/Istock/playground%20-%20rings.jpg

Palm
-propably "not stock oriented" according to most sites. I like the snapshot quality of this, also Photocase might like this.
-Looks too processed in closeup (noise reduction? filtering?)

Gecko
-Soft and noisy
-Reflections have bad color. Partly die to over exposure
-Distracting water beads on the head
-Too much white space / animal too small in the frame

Sign
-This is okay (the holes in the bottom part distract me a bit), but not good enough for application (there are tons of sign pictures already, they would propably rather see something more creative)

Grass
-I don't like the brown part in the bottom of the image. You should rather crop it when shooting.
-the unsharp grass melts in the background. You have already shot this at f/20, but you could always move your focus back just a bit.
-The grass in the top is borderline over exposed and changes color.
-As in the case of the sign, there are tons of grass pictures already, they would propably rather see something more creative

Playground - Rings:
-The think in the picture doesn't look familiar to me, I really can't understand what is in the image. If the wiever can't regonize the thing in the picture it won't sell a lot.
-Overexposed white sky in the background
-Flat and dull light
-Cluttered background with trees, cars etc etc.
-I'm not sure if the focus is in correct place here

I know what are the rings. I used to play handing on them when I was a kid. But second ring looks strange. It looks to me like you tried to lighten the sky to get rid of something distracting. I may be wrong of course. Take a look at the second ring. It's edge is very blurred against the beam in the background, but in the same time it's pretty sharp against the sky.
If you can, recover that sky from the original file.
Gecko is unfortunately noisy and too soft, and the grass is blown out on the grass tips.
The sign is good, and I can't say I don't like the palm tree. Yes, you used the flash, but overall the image looks like a nice background for some add. I don't think it's not stock oriented.

You got nice ideas. Just have in mind these technical details when you edit your images, and very soon you should be fine.

I'm sorry but I don't think any of these images will get you into iStock.

To me they all appear quite noisy and show artifacts.

Except of the Gecko they all appear too snapshottish.

iStock wants to see your creative side. 3 completely different shots.

No street signs, palm trees or grass. They've all been done too many times and iStock will only let you in if you can top the existing ones.

You need to convince them that you can deliver what they don't have yet or make it better.


Good luck!

djpadavona:

The first 9 listed below were approved at Shutterstock, starting with banana and ending with cigarette.

http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?gallery_username=808isgreat&sort_method=oldest&rows_per_page=10&thumb_size=small&safesearch=1&safesearch_toggle=on


thanks.




   

cclapper:
thanks !  I was trying to give Istock some different perspectives ... I have a lot of ideas but sometimes they don't seem to transfer to the photo.. but in this case i think it worked out.  Too bad it was rejected   Oh well. 

the entire batch was rejected with the "Two or more of these images are very similar in subject matter, perspective or style.... etc

they didn't give specifics on the individual photos.

I got the idea when i was watching the news about the city wanting burying all the power lines for beautification purposes. 

Other sites seem to like it and accept it.

after acceptance, what next.
I uploaded five images and nearly had heart failure working my way thru the upload process.

I noticed a bunch of tools in one forum... are any of them for making upload any easier?  Any recommendation on which ones to download/use?

street sign and grass, maybe also the gecko! the others are nice but I guess won't be approved.. good luck!

warrenprice - the only uploading i have done to istock is to submit my rejected photos.  But I think they have software they recommend here:  http://www.istockphoto.com/ws_client_intro.php

Or you can download Filezilla ftp software, it's free.  http://filezilla-project.org/

Thank you so much, djpadavona.  That (DeepMeta) certainly makes life easier.