automate what and how ? how do you want to automate this process when the results of a reverse search are incredibly ambiguous

It honestly wouldn't be that hard to automate into their reviewing procedure ... They could show like, the top 10 closest reverse image results in a little thumbnail gallery and see where that photo's already been indexed online ...

Thanks everyone. Jo Ann, I think that is the case with me. They seem like a big UK company. I just don't feel right about sending a high res file without any payment.

Put together a small contract and send that to them first. They have some great examples in a couple of the AIGA books that you could tailor to fit your needs.

Hey guys

So just to update - I started making sales! In the past month I've gotten 15 sales ... one third of them are from one image. All of the sales were on Adobe and SS. I'm thinking the other sites are not worth my time.

I have 190 active images in my port now. Is 15 sales at this point good? It's been one every other day or so. Mostly subscriptions but a few one offs.

Excited every time something sells! It's so satisfying that someone likes a photo that much.

My port is very small too, I wouldn't put off the other sites though. Some of the ones that people rate as very low are actually not bad, it really depends on your content. For instance, dreamstime for me is like ... twice SS. I've been here for years and seen only a few payouts. I don't work at it, these guys do. I'm a poor illustrator, and probably even worse photographer but, you just ... try crap and keep going ... kinda like a presidential campaign.

I'm a terrible person to ask about this because in my mind the only one playing the microstock market even partially right is Adobe/Fotolia. I tried to do this once a week, when I dropped from fulltime to part time, then I wanted to do one a day, because I wanted to work more but, was limited by the hours I could "technically" do one day, I just * quit. I just gave up ... I still put a few things up per year but ... if you have a photographic skill, you can make more money just being out and about.

Also, I know self hosted doesn't even really show a percentage on the poll but, I've sold things in far different ways through self hosting than you can through Microstock. Having your own site is absolutely key, you may not get sales directly through it but, it's a point where someone can know exactly who it is, who did it, and have a person to contact if they need something like it because the microstock sites really do a terrible job of that.

Seeing your work used is exciting, and it can at times be frustrating ... I've had work that I'm terribly not proud of broadcast to 30k people, and I've had things that I wish could be seen more get absolutely no attention. Very recently, a poster design ... they paid for and everything. Then never had printed ... Very frustrating.

Just tried another, f16 iso 200 1/2 a second ... Is this the best I can do with my current equipment though? It's okay, just not fantastic. lol

Yeah, I think I may reshoot them ... Though, she seems pleased and is already tossing them on amazon.

Something I should also note for future reference, those clear caps look like hell :/ https://www.edenskin.care/product/age-spot-eliminator/

Edit: The link has them isolated, and cleaned up a bit.

If you are going to do product photos invest in some brushes to clean off the dust and an air blower (you should have one in your camera kit)

And clean off any lint/dust/specks in photoshop

And the shot you posted is out of focus probably because you shot too close with too wide and aperture.

Invest in some flash/strobe units

Thanks! I definitely want to get more lights

images on white- the 'Pen' Tool is much cheaper than any high end lights 

And the horizon is off.  And lose that textured surface.

It was photoshopped quite a bit, (including isolating with the pen) I just figured showing one that I'd sat and doctored wouldn't have helped much. In all the tutorials and and stuff they use aperture priority, which I'm finding a bit odd as I shoot more of these, with the tripod and shutter release doesn't it become more like ... Shutter minority? I mean, it's not like the product is going anywhere ... This was at ISO 400 and f9 and 1/10sec but, could be significantly more crisp.

Why not 55000K? Perfect to eliminate the yellow cast 

Fine fine fine ... I'll post something that I'm not quite as proud of. Obviously softer, and it's really difficult with the white labels to expose it enough to get the solid white that amazon and such are usually after, so I had to do a ton of masking on these. :/

My (free) advice is:

1. Manage your expectations. If you can get shots in your "spare time" for now, do it. Don't expect it to become your primary income any time soon. It may happen some day, but don't count on it.

2. The market is basically flooded. This goes along with #1. Solar panels on white are probably available from 1000 different sources. Having said that, nobody knows what will or won't sell. There is a market for almost anything, it is just a matter of how big that market is (vs. how many similar images are available).

3. If you enjoy it, find it a useful challenge, learn from it and make a bit of money at it, do it. And don't let anyone tell you not to. Even if it never becomes your primary income it can be a very valuable exercise which can really help you in your other photographic endeavours (which may become your day job, who knows).

Cheers.

p.s. take all advice as if it was worth exactly what you paid for it.

Thanks! I'm not worried about stock selling and stuff like that as much. I've been here with my crappy illustrations for going on 4 years. So I know that it's slow and sometimes the oddest things sell after just sitting there for a couple years doing nothing and product photos have already paid for the kit.

When you guys shoot smaller things for stock do you guys usually shoot with wide of dof as possible? or do you think it's best to try wide and narrow? Do you guys have any suggestions for a third continuous light (it would need a tripod or something, the tent is 30" square) for the top?

There is quite a bit I could improve, I couldn't find my shutter release that day ... So it was all handheld ... so I sacrificed some aperture and ISO for the shots

I did see the other solar panels, I didn't see any individual cells ... and the broken ones seemed pretty niche (probably too niche tbh) they're super brittle though, and I was bored ... I even shot a hammer, and there are literally millions of hammer photos.

Mine went through. It took a day or so.

Today?!

DOOM AND DESTRUCTION!

Good Morning MSG.

If it means anything to anyone ... Those spammy titles and keywords might search well in Shutterstock ... but, google frowns on keywording that way ...

So, it might be helping that one specific person in the short term but, long term ... it's hurting them and SS. It's really not worth it to jump on that boat ...

For those of us with Adobe though ... I think it is good news ... more images could/should mean more customers, more customers means more money. Adobe/Fotolia has been better earnings than SS for a few months now, but my tiny portfolio really has no weight statistically.

Thanks Matt!

Mine worked. I'm not sure now if I should contribute to Fotolia and Adobe Stock (if I ever get to uploading). If I upload to both will the content be duplicated or ...sync across platform? Thanks.