Would it really hurt if we would all pretend that I actually made $3k in 3 days ? 

Might only hurt the one you made cheques to thinking to spend this money in advance

Had about 20 sales in the last month (march) so no just think your images hasn't been sold ;(.

There is not constants in microstock, some day you can sell 0 images, and other days you can sell 10. It should pick back up in good time.

Well,
personally i am dissapointed with canstockphoto. I just have only one or two sales a mont with my 370 vector images and the sales aren't growing at all. i've earned only 30 dollars during last year. I've just stopped uploading my vectors there.
 Another feature that i don't like here - that canstockphoto creates image preview themselves, automatically.  That's why my vector images preview are low quality and looks really bad. Moreover, if i use the " zoom in" feature  for my images - the view gets terrible - the shapes get jaggy, the colours are a little bit different from what it should be. In other agencies, where i upload my own jpeg image for preview, i don't face this problem.

Make sure your EPS files are RGB and not CMYK. I face some issue with other sites which did this and I noticed that the files which had a lot of color difference and made them look bad were uploaded as CMYK.

It might not be this, but it might be worthwhile to check,

I think I really need to start a parody microstock business; my mind keeps doing all these shots as a parody.

Haha by seeing the posts here it would DEFINETLY work... You should edit this post someone will steal your idea

Quote from: lagereek on January 28, 2011, 16:46

A stellar worldclass Agency.

WHAT???

He got paid to say that

Well, i think i won't risk with this safe and other illustrations and i will try to create something new
By the way, i didn't know, that In istock forum their revievers are writing advices and comments. I thought there are discussions only among contributors. so writing post there is really good idea. Thanks

SOME are, but mostly there is always a highly experience forum moderator which would count for the same, so yes it might be a good idea posting in their photo critique or Illutration thread. I had quite a few good answers there. Good luck!

I'm thinking of starting a site called iBigCanDreamstime. 

Nan that won't work... Think big..!

I Can... Big Time!  iCanBigTime.com !

Who wants to register?

Quote from: Morphart on March 06, 2011, 20:33

Quote from: visceralimage on March 06, 2011, 17:59

I am certainly doing the wildlife photography for love; I am putting the time into getting the images on the microstock sites for money.  Sometimes, it is difficult to concentrate on the love part when you are hungry!

Time to get those animals some business suits lol!

Hey, there is a good idea.  A bear and a Tiger shaking hands; three bears around a conference table discussing business matters,  or a bear holding a weigh scale and looking back over her shoulder (aka Yuri)

Haha!! Good luck with making that bear sign a model release :p. You gave me a good laugh this morning... a Yuri Bear !

Hi Archibald.

I think the last one has a "strong" yet already used a lot stock subject. That would be the best out of the pick, but you may need to move it up a notch.

If it can help you, I just passed the application a few weeks ago, having a similar issue with the time they give you in between (was up to 1 month and didn't want to have to wait 3 months or so to get my application approved).

Here are the images that got me accepted, all three at the same time. I tried to use different themes which may have helped:
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=15760933
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=15760963
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=15767358

Let us know how it goes for you and show us the ones that were accepted, along with other ideas you might have, you'll get in!

Year 2009: 1.08$
Year 2010: 0.78$
2011 so fare: 0.90$

Mostly Illustrations here.

Microstock lives of copying. Not that I like it...I got angry like a million times about someone who was copying my stuff.

For most subject, commercially speaking, they have all been covered. What makes a picture using the same subject and object is sometimes, just the model, lighting and angle. All the subjects we use are all a copy of one that was already created, it's just in the way that we treat it that we can make it "different". Every illustrator or artist has his style, some with photography.

i somewhat agree.  My numbers are so bad it will make anyone look better compared to mine.

I just left Dreamstime exclusive at mid-month. 
Dreamstime at about $70, down from $125  (1000 images online)
the rest based on 15 days of being active (ranging from 19 images to 700 images online)
Shutterstock at about $33
Veer at 3.50
Fotolia at 2.00
DepositPhotos at 0.60
all others (14 of them including IS) at a big whopping zero

Wow with 1k images online it must hurt to only see 70$ for a whoe month. I am surprised you are not getting more sales off that many images, Shutterstock usually pay good money when you have a large portfolio.

Wow you guys here are really helpful, I'm taking all your tips and will be going forward with this. Will start with the lighting as this is where I lack the most experience, I do know the effects of ISO and shutterspeed (this is the same for video camera), but I am still struggling a bit with the aperture, which I know is the opening left in your lens to let the light through, but I don't quite grasp yet how it affects the depth of field and/or the overall quality of the photo, nor how to change the apperture...

In hindsight one thing I regret is not getting a larger MP camera much sooner. File sizes aren't that big a deal if your independent, but if you ever switch to being exclusive it becomes extremely important. 

If you're treating microstock as a business, then equipment isn't the place to start saving money.

Put it this way - an 18MP camera costs about $600. If this investment doesn't pay off over the course of 12-18 months, then there's zero chance of actually making a living out of stock as is the OP's intention.   

For the equipment thing I understand. Someone bright once said to me: We are too poor to buy bad equipment!, always liked that saying :p.

But I was just wondering if instead of going halfway to 18mp I should wait a bit longer and make the leap to a professionnal body. With my current earnings it would only take 2 months of stock earnings to pay for this, which might actually be worth it :p. I have a lot of "food for thoughts" here

Funny, there must be some kind of automatic replacement in place. Try writing F T (without space).

LoL did not notice this hehe! I wrote F T , no I didn't buy any Fotolia lens :p.

Posted by: jamirae
Insert Quote
some good pointers here.

I also started with a canon digital rebel (way back -- I think it was the first digital rebel version).

I would have to say the two biggest things in terms of equipment would your lighting and your glass (lenses).   When I went from the Rebel to the 20d I noticed difference in quality of the images (slightly better sensor), but when I acquired better lenses, ditching the "kit lens" and getting high-rated lenses I noticed a definite quality improvement.  Maybe the kit lenses are getting better these days, but I would highly recommend making sure you have good glass. Check out dpreview.com or other online places for detailed reviews and you can always rent good lenses if money is an issue or if you want to "try before you buy"  (I use borrowlenses.com or prophotorental.com but there are others).

Also, when I switched to the fullframe 5D there was a very noticeable improvement in the technical quality of my images. (that's what I'm using now - it's not the Mark II version -- saving up for that one still).

Lighting.  If you're going to do indoor shots you need to have some good lights. You can get some great lights from Paul C BUff (www.alienbees.com) - I would recommend getting at least a b800.  You can also do quite a bit with a few flashes - I often use two Canon 580EX flashes for fill-light outdoors and even for smaller subjects/objects indoors/studio.

Also already mentioned -- check out some photography books.  there are some great books on stock photography as well as working with models/people. I have a bunch of photography books on everything from composition, lighting, models, landscapes, monochrome, art, etc.. pretty much every subject related to photography. "never stop learning" is my motto! 

Yes this is my starter kit lens as I didn't know enough about lenses to feel confident buying 1k $ ones . But I do see the limitations my lens have in less lighting, which is annoying. I hate taking pictures with the "body" Flash of the camera as it's the best way to screw up a photo, but doing some reading I found there are external Flash and lighting to help with that.

I bought a few book, one about creating your lighting for indoor, and a few about stock photography, but I really need to get in the technicallity of it all :p Will check dpreview.com, and more so I will start shooting with a different eye ;p. Most shooting (photo) contracts I had was for clients which I was to use the picture for their website and some small size print, so I always thought my pictures were great... that's until I try to submit a few at Shutterstock.

Thanks everyone for sharing your experience with me, it will "speed up" my learning process by giving me good cues from experience photographers!