Microstock Photography Forum - General > Photo Critique

Portfolio critique requested, thank you :)

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sshoults:
Hello, and happy new year!

Well I have been uploading to microstock sites slowly for about 9 months now and have got up to 300/400 on most of the major sites. I'm quite pleased that I can definitely see an improvement in my work from the initial batches I submitted (in fact some I am pretty embarrassed to have submitted now - but a lot were accepted so there we are!!).

I'm not making many sales, although I know most of my work is not very stock-y so this is to be expected. Time to be brave and ask for critique! Some comments would be useful to help improvement, if anyone would be so kind? I'm not expecting to make my fortune, just a bit of pocket money for camera gear really :)

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/sophieshoults

Thanks!

steheap:
I think the most important question you should ask yourself is "what is the use case for this image?". Before you press the shutter ask - what story am I trying to tell, and then think about how someone (the buyer) will use this image to tell their own story.

Many of your images are just photos of things or places that are OK in themselves (many a little bland), but it is hard to think of many ways that they could be used to illustrate an article - let alone be used to promote some sort of product or service. Can you see them as the lead image on a company website? Why not? Think about those questions and you will make big strides.

Steve

sshoults:
Bland? Ouch! Well I did ask! Hahah.

Ok, thanks for the comments, that is useful. Largely I am shooting for myself though, I don't really have time to go out and shoot solely for stock - so it's a case of selecting from the shots I've taken, those that might be suitable/accepted for microstock. Seems I won't make much progress this way though!

Clearly I need to start challenging myself a bit more.

Thank you

steheap:
Sorry!  By all means shoot for yourself and your enjoyment but even when you are doing that, try to think about the story you could illustrate. You have some pictures of long grass in a London park - maybe there could be a story in the future (after Brexit when the country is really poor...) about how park maintenance is cut back in some major London parks - so how could you illustrate that? More focus on the long grass, unkempt look - that sort of thing. So you have moved from taking an artistic picture of the grass to one where you deliberately think of how the picture could be used and take some like that.

Steve

steheap:
And, of course, with the story in your mind, you need to describe and keyword it so that someone finds it to illustrate that story!

Steve

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