I can't access any photos in the portfolio right now. The system shows that there are over 600 photos left, but it is impossible to access any of them. Sales have also completely stopped. I already did what they wanted overnight and deleted all my vector work. Beyond that, I also deleted photos that could be considered risky. It is not possible that 4,000 of my visuals were deleted because they posed a risk or did not comply with the rules. This represents over ten years of work; more than half of my portfolio consisted of commercial photos.

I sent them an email explaining this, but the response I received contained no information on the matter. When I tried to contact them through the site, they responded with something like, "There is a system error, we hope it will be fixed." I'll wait and see, but frankly, I think this happened as a result of the company merging with Getty. There are hundreds of thousands of images on the site that violate the rules. I hope they show the same sensitivity here. In fact, on a recent trip abroad, they rejected photos I took of cats with my camera, claiming they were AI-generated. I sent them an email explaining the situation, but it wasn't even considered. It's really incomprehensible.

I clicked on the portfolio link, which is said to consist of over 600 images on the main page, and clicked on the thumbnails of 20-30 photos on the page that opened, and I got this message on all of them:

We're sorry! xxxxxxxx numbered image is no longer available.

Apparently, I don't have a single image left in the system. Unbelievable.

I haven't received a response regarding this issue from the email address [email protected]. There used to be a forum, but it's gone now.

All images appear in the collections I created, but when I search for an image on the site by its number, for example, it cannot be found in the system. 4,000 images are missing, and at most 400-500 of them are editorial. It is impossible for there to be more than that. It's also impossible for them to have been retouched with AI; there are photos from 10 years ago among them. They couldn't have reviewed so many photos in such a short time and removed them from the system. As I said, there are thousands of images that have been accepted with model releases, commercially accepted into the system, and not retouched with AI. The homepage shows that I have a portfolio of over 600 images, but when I add up the numbers in the collections section, it exceeds 5,000. There is a significant loss of images, and if it is a system issue, I don't think it should take this long to fix.When I look at it on my mobile phone, I see over 600 images.

I converted few photos of a famous person who died in the 1930s into vector format and applied effects to them, and these photos are listed as public domain photos on Wikipedia. In my country, the public domain period is 70 years, and we are well past that. There are many people working in this field, and their work sells quite well. I have come across this work in newspapers, magazines, and even on TV during national holidays. The interesting thing is that Shutterstock used to accept this type of work commercially about 4-5 years ago when uploaded with a reference image. After this type of work started to become increasingly popular, they stopped accepting it and started accepting it editorially. A couple of years later, they even stopped accepting them editorially. After that point, I never received any warning, so I stopped creating such vector works and focused more on taking photographs.

Yesterday, I noticed that my portfolio, which had approximately 5,000 images, had been reduced to around 600, and I couldn't access thousands of images. When I contacted Shutterstock, they said there had been a system error and that the photos appeared in searches, but when I searched by number, I couldn't find any of the photos I was looking for. It was as if they had vanished into thin air. What's even more interesting is that among these thousands of works, I also had photos of people taken in a studio environment with signed model release documents. I even emailed SS, but for some reason, I can't get a response. My sales had already dropped by 90% as of January, and now this has happened on top of that. I received the warning email last week and deleted the specified vector-format works, and even more, from the system, but one morning I looked and 4,000 of my photos had vanished. I hope it's a system error. I've lost all my motivation. It's as if someone came along and randomly deleted thousands of my photos from the system.

I rarely make some minor corrections such as removing a cigarette on the ground or a stain on a building by using Adobe generative AI tools. I mostly make color correction and denoising. That's all. The examples they gave me in the email are illustration works I have done. I applied effects to photographs of certain historical figures who passed away in the mid-1900s and used them in my work. There are many artists on the site who produce visuals by doing this kind of work, and they add new ones every day. Beyond that, there are people who take old black and white photographs and sell them, let alone applying effects. If there is a copyright issue, these should be stopped. Until I received the warning, these people's works should have been removed from the site.

I'm a photographer and I received an email today. I mostly take commercial photos. I have also editorial photos. Here is the summary:

Your Shutterstock account has been disabled until your perform a portfolio clean up, removing every asset which you have added or removed a logo, person, object, or otherwise manipulated, that has been approved for Editorial Use Only. Your uploading has been disabled until you acknowledge your understanding of the policy and confirm you have removed all altered editorial content in your portfolio by writing to [email protected]. This is your first and only warning.

I deleted more than hundred images and sent an e-mail to them. What should i do more?

Very bad news for thousands of photographers all around the world. Shutterstock changed the rules few years ago and today they came to the end of the road. Now, there are some questions:

1. Will shuttetstock.com remain and contributors continue sell images or videos?
2. Will the Shutterstock database be merged to Getty?
3. Will Getty select only a few millions of photos for their database?

We will wait and see 

Did you mean looking at a portfolio by seeing the portfolio page coming from google? I found my portfolio page from google and looked at the best sellers and recent photos. They are not the same but i have a dramatic drop in the sales. I used to see my best selling photos in 2023 so far but now i see my all time best sellers.

Quote from: odesigns on September 28, 2023, 12:05
Look at your portfolios.  If I look at mine, "fresh content" and "popular" are identical.  This happened to me a little while ago but it worked itself out eventually, with "popular" actually showing my most downloaded clips they way it should be.  But now, it's back to being wrong.

Maybe this is related?  Does anyone else notice this?

It doesn't seem to affect customer-facing searches, as my popular clips still appear on the first page of a search.

But on a side note, it looks like this month Adobe Stock will beat SS for sales, which I don't think has ever happened.  My SS are really on the downside this month.

 I did what you said and saw that my recent best sales in 2023 are not listed in catalog manager / most popular images on the page. Shutterstock is listing my best all time sales. I always check this periodically and i used to see my recent top sales on the list. Now my sales decreased dramatically. How can i fix this issue? Is it possible or should i wait to climb next level?

Quote from: unnonimus on September 28, 2023, 05:47
check your search in your portfolio by best selling and by recent sales. if they are the same, your sales and view data were reset. when this happens, your images are removed from top placement in search results.

you need to have them fix it in the search database.

There is a dramatic decrease in sales compared to previous years. Did most of the customers move to MJ or other AI services and cancel subscription? I really don't know. Shutterstock always adjusting the site. They removed the info on the preview screen telling the photo is a good seller or not. This might have affected the sales also. There is also a significant decrease in Adobe stock.

Finally Adobe introduced its brand new Generative Fill technology with Photoshop Beta. Everything can be done easier now but what are the usage circumstances of this feature? Can a photographer use it on photos and sell on any agency? As far as i know, Shutterstock only works with Dall-E and Adobe has it own Firefly technology.

 They expire according to SS. Weird isn't it? They made few minor changes in the document and they are not accepting old releases anymore.

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on April 18, 2023, 15:49

Quote from: Uncle Pete on April 17, 2023, 18:48
Why isn't the original model release valid? Model releases don't expire.

This.

There's no need at all for a new release.

Yes this must be like you said. Thank you.

Quote from: KuriousKat on April 17, 2023, 09:35
Date of shoot should be 2019 but date of signing should be 2023.

I can get the new releases signed again, but what will be the signature date?  I took photos in 2019. Signature for Date of Shoot, Witness and parent must be 2019 or 2023? I think only date of shoot must be 2019.

Quote from: MxR on April 17, 2023, 07:35
Do a new fake model release.

I have set of photos of a model with signed model release  in 2019.  What should i do when i upload a new photo from this session? Should i get this new release signed with the new date (2023) or old date (2019)? There is a big confusion in the dates.

Public Domain sample photo:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kobe_Bryant_8.jpg



Poster sample on sale:

https://www.amazon.com/Basketball-Painting-Posters-Memorabilia-Decoration/dp/B08BS3XBF2/ref=sr_1_10?dchild=1&keywords=lebron+james+poster&qid=1605596576&sr=8-10

Thank you for all the answers. Sometimes i see posters or artworks with some illustrative modifications of nba stars are being sold in amazon or other places. I really wonder how they can sell these photos in big markets without and trouble 

According to wiki public domain photos can be used or sold for profit but i am not still sure. Is it possible use public domain photos in print projects and sell? Is making effects or adjustments allowed?

Thank you so much for all answers 

Do you think that 30 fps is the best frame rate for stock videography? I see some videos with 29.97 FPS in pond5. I will use filmic pro but there is only 29 and 30 FPS options. Are 29.97 and 30 same?

I will use my smartphone and gimbal first. It is hard to find good ND filters for android. I have Hoya Pro variable and i need to attach to phone with an adapter but i couldn't find a solution.

Thank you. As far as i know this rule only for the motion blur quality. As you say, i don't think that no one can understand the shutter speed of a video. 

Using the shutter speed with double value of the frame rate is necessary for stock videography always? If i shoot a video outdoors without a Nd filter everything is so overexposed and i need to increase shutter speed. Can i use these type of videos and sell in Pond5?

Nice try troll.

Quote from: Josephine on June 13, 2020, 13:42
I will not boycot SS.

We are hitting a global economic crisis, worse than the Great Depression.

I accept, that the value of my images may drop to 10 cents.

Right now my earnings did not change. I am level 5.

Thank you so much

Quote from: martinrichard on October 14, 2019, 20:13
yes. as long as the two are signed on the same day as each other. That is the whole point of having a witness seeing the property owner sign the release.
Same goes for model releases.