Hey Folks,

My acceptance rates are still only around 70% which is much lower than the other 15 companies I submit to. Maybe they have the highest standards in the industry now?

Thanks

Don't for this owner as well---they need their billions for more yachts and bigger mansions on the ocean

Melanie Perkins is an Australian technology entrepreneur, who is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Canva. She owns 18% of the company. Perkins is one of the youngest female CEOs of a tech start-up valued over A$1 billion. Wikipedia
Born: 1987 (age 38 years), Perth, Australia
Net worth: 5.8 billion USD (2025) Forbes
Spouse: Cliff Obrecht (m. 2021)
Education: The University of Western Australia
Nationality: Australian
Known for: Co-founder and CEO of Canva

Quote from: cobalt on May 14, 2025, 01:20

All my plans for the year are broken.

I did not imagine that Adobe would abruptly break their relationship with creators and implement a random upload algo.

I am switching to video for Adobe, but it takes a long time for video to start selling.

The year started very well, January - April I had increases of 60-84% compared to the year before.
 
But my plan rests on files reinforcing each other. I upload small volumes, but it usually sells.

Now I have to deal with an algo roulette, which is beyond frustrating.

Nobody wins at this, but Adobe is doubling down that the creators are at fault.

Whoever is resposible for the random review mess is more important than the relationship with the creative community.

That is the most depressing part.

Will try to make an effort at istock and overall video, inclufing BB.

I guess this year is the Make istock great again year.

Wishing you good luck with your changed plans, but I'm afraid not much can be done by now. You are trying to win in a dying market and you build your business plan trusting in agencies you've got no control over. Sure there are some topics where lots of content is still missing, but these topics don't decide content pricing. It is the generic content, which sells well on microstock and which faces the most competition from free AI - thus I think inevitably leading to price drops for all microstock content in future.

There are other and probably better possibilities for content creators to earn, be it selling stuff on Etsy or starting a Youtube channel. Maybe look into some of these to not depend on stock too much?

one of the best comments I've seen in a while! Plus +100

I am beginning to think it's AI program doing the reviews now.

Olympic, olympics are trademarked by the IOC so you should remove them.

Apart from that, maybe you could add in amphitheatre seeing as you have both UK and American spellings of theatre/theater.

+100  thank you for giving a great answer! Replies like this make this site a great place for all microstockers!

Awesome vids! You are really producing some nice work!

Good information!

Just that there really isn't a full proof category to ensure sales. The niche is critical for a lot of us. For example, Yuri is a people (Lifestyles) shooter and use to make millions were I shoot people and lucky to have enough money to eat at McDonald's.

So other variables like your skill in taking the pic and processing it plus the administrative work (i.e., descriptions, key wording and uploading) play into the equation.   For me I have shot simple backgrounds since 2011 and made some decent money but I wouldn't recommend my type of images to the new contributors today.

Additionally, why does one image where you have many similar out sell them by tenfold?  Was it uploaded at the right time? Did it sell immediately? Nobody has ever figured this one that I know and if they did they sure didn't tell us lol!

Just interesting to try to figure out this crazy business we are in.   

@Tom. If you're still experimenting with lighting, I thought I would add a summary of my section on lighting.

Backlighting adds light to the back and casts shadows in the front, and can flood the image with light. This is used for: adding halos to objects, shooting high-key images, rising steam or transparent glassware. Side lighting, either slightly to the front or slightly behind, is used to highlight food from the side and casts shadows on the other side. This is used to capture shadows and highlights necessary for a dynamic photo. Your image will look three dimensional and, therefore, more authentic and appealing. This is the most popular for food photographers because it works for many layouts.

If you photograph food from the front, it will look smooth. There will be no shadows to capture beautiful textures and no highlights to accentuate the natural contrasts of your subject. Your image will look two-dimensional and unappealing, and should be avoided.

It takes a while to master all of this, so keep practising and experimenting.

All over lighting works for stock photography but has its limitations for food photography. Premium food photography buyers buy images for magazine covers, cookbooks, social media advertising, web banners, blog hero headers, wall art, and even billboards, and need delicious looking food. Textures, highlights and shadows makes your food look 3-dimensional, authentic and therefor more delicious.

thank you so much Annie!

Quote from: Big Money on February 20, 2025, 14:18

Just did a quick skim on Annie's book and I love the visuals! My biggest complaint of many restaurants is lack of images of their food items in their menus.

I will be showing my age but I like the story board templates and what each color means! Within minutes I learned that I am over lighting my food pics thus making them look like plastic.

Also all the folks comments on this string have been very positive and helpful- you all have great talent and will to help others.

Off to try new tip from you book on some fine salmon salmon.  Thanks Annie!

Thank you Tom!!

Are you using natural light?

When I was first accepted by The Picture Pantry, I changed over from studio lighting to natural light because I knew the premium food photography industry prefers natural light. And now when I compare my old stock photos to my new ones, there is such a huge difference. Of course, working with natural light has a lot of challenges, but I found it was worth every moment of my time learning and exploring this new dimension.

Good luck! I can't wait to see the salmon!

My first round--used lighting from large windows and one white board to splash a little bit on the back part of the image. 

Annie, why do you keep changing your accounts? Who are you running and hiding from?
 

Obviously this is all because of me. 

Oh, I've done the same. On joining the Fotolia Dollar Photo Club option (DPC) I was sent a death threat to me and my family and quit this site for a while. You have some colorful posts but don't threaten folks like some of the past ones did. They are gone now but I know who they are and keep my guard up. This business has been a bumpy ride for sure but overall there are many good folks here!

Sadly knowing all of this and we still submit images getting $.10 each while the employees are living the American dream and the owner sails the seas in his large yacht. I feel like I am nothing more than a cheap hooker on the street 

FYI ---Shutterstock's salary ranges from $77385 in total compensation per year for a Marketing at the low-end to $434160 for a Product Designer at the high-end.  They make almost what the microstock folks make that feed them the images!