Quote from: nbiebach on March 12, 2012, 21:50

I made it in last week and been uploading since. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded to my post

Great news 

Thanks!

Limited Commercial Value.

Even if you make it in, you will see very few sales with these, so it won't be worth the effort.

I am not trying to be harsh.  This is important advice that will be very valuable if you take it to heart.   Shoot subjects that people need and you'll be rewarded.  And of course, be unique, create your own style that isn't easily duplicated, and create images that jump off the page even as a small thumbnail size and demand to be downloaded.  Picture how the image might be used... how many such applications could there be in a given day... if it's hard to imagine or quantify, then you need to change gears and consider more marketable subject matter.  Unless you're doing this for fun and just want to shoot what you enjoy shooting... but still, the agencies will be sending you lots of "Limited Commercial Value" rejections because they don't want to spend their resources on hobbyists.

Again, I'm not trying to be mean... just don't want to see you knock yourself out trying to get into SS then end up wondering why the sales aren't coming.  Best of luck in getting into ss and seeing lots of sales!

I really appreciate the advice. I made in about a month ago and have seen a steady but slow increase in sales as my port size goes up. I'm really getting a better understanding now as to what sells and what doesn't.

Barry, the reason I posted here was to get an overall feel of what people think of my portfolio. Also I dont think it would be appreciated if i posted a link to my IS port on the shutterstock forum  .

Thanks for all the feedback so far, I'll keep trying.

have you uploaded the same photo there twice 19328721 and 19304943 or is there a problem with IS's database?
Just noticed the knife is there twice too.
If you have done it on purpose I would get those deleted asap before a member of staff notices....

Anyway, out of those I would say the knife and the coffee cup for SS. You will probably have to shoot new ones for the other 8

Yeah, that was done by accident, I'll delete one of them. Thanks for letting me know.

you put these up in the SS forum and got feedback. What are you after? If you disagree with critiques put them up and let the inspector decide. Not real strong images and SS is harder than it used to be.

I'm just trying to get an overall idea of which are my best. I got some really detailed extremely helpful feedback on the SS forum. If you feel I undermined the usefulness of the feedback I received that was not my intention at all and I'm sorry.

I'm not sure if the images here are strong enough to get in to ss. 'Cup filled with coffee', 'black and white sheep' and possibly the first 'tree pruning' would be good. A lot of these images may be accepted by ss once ur in, but I think you should find a stronger selection for the initial application.

Thanks, I think I'm starting to get an overall idea of what is good for stock. My first SS submission attempt resulting in a fail with most of the rejections being Composition - LCV so I'm trying to make my shots more usable.

Took my a couple days to figure this one out I can post now