i'll have to look into it one day, when I feel like banging my head against something - i dislike making websites.

I never found the right tool to do it, and it was always more difficult then expected, it never looked as promised, and it was way more work than planned. However, Symbiostock is none of that. It does exactly what it says on the tin. My site was basically customer ready with 2 evenings of work. Honestly, I am hooked, I love it. Cant wait to get back home and work on it. Why? Because its going to be rewarding to get 100%, its such a strange feeling not having to look at 33 cent downloads or getting 23% royalty  or whatever. And not dealing with stupid rejections. I was skeptical at first but I will be Symbiostock biggest fan. Leo did a tremendous job. Unreal.

Quote from: gillian on June 04, 2013, 05:04

i'll have to look into it one day, when I feel like banging my head against something - i dislike making websites.

I never found the right tool to do it, and it was always more difficult then expected, it never looked as promised, and it was way more work than planned. However, Symbiostock is none of that. It does exactly what it says on the tin. My site was basically customer ready with 2 evenings of work. Honestly, I am hooked, I love it. Cant wait to get back home and work on it. Why? Because its going to be rewarding to get 100%, its such a strange feeling not having to look at 33 cent downloads or getting 23% royalty  or whatever. And not dealing with stupid rejections. I was skeptical at first but I will be Symbiostock biggest fan. Leo did a tremendous job. Unreal.

I hope that's how I feel when I get my site done.

After a quick back and forth with Jens here ...

Quote from: JPSDK on June 04, 2013, 08:43

Or perspective
Take everything from below, like the before mentioned hand with a cup of coffee.
Or from above.

I like your thinking, but those are exactly the shots that I got rejected on shutterstock. They dont seem to like different perspectives. Thats exactly the issue I am running into at the moment. It all needs to be familiar looking. Hence the database is filled with all the same looking images. Your advice is spot on, but its really depending on the mood of the reviewer to agree with that. The last reviewers at SS didnt agree 

...I am posting the image I was referring to.

Rejected for lighting, fixed a bright spot in the face, rejected for composition. The angle is considered to be weird.

had you turned him 30 degrees North.

?

REJECTED (trademark)


APPROVED (other contributor)

With angle they meant the way I shot down on him.

Quote from: Poncke v2 on June 04, 2013, 11:39

With angle they meant the way I shot down on him.

Are you getting such detailed comments on rejections? 
Mine seem to be canned comments.
 

I asked SS for more detail because I didnt agree with most of the rejections. Of my last 24 images I only had 13 accepted. 40% rejections is something I never had before. The last batch even 100%

I just got a pretty weird 'lighting' rejection.   For a long time I was 90% or better with SS, now it's totally hit-or-miss. It's really killed my motivation.

Thats basically the reason I started this thread. Luckily I found other things to motivate me.

I think they feel like they've arrived at a certain 'look' that they think sells, and  that look is 'bland'.  Nothing with any shadows, any hint of 'creative' lighting.   Infinite DOF, everything in focus, forget the laws of optics - even in macro shots.  (I've used focus stacking to get a couple approved).

They just want everything 'flat' in the sense of no depth - evenly lit, evenly sharp, pastel colors, nothing standing out or grabbing attention.

Why they'd approve one guy's subway sign and reject another is a totally different matter.  They probably need to get all the reviewers on the same page and reduce the turnover. 

Newspapers are probably the most used reflecors in photography at all times.

Jens you are trying to get through a brick wall that wont let you!☺

Newspapers are probably the most used reflecors in photography at all times.

I remember at college our teacher saying something like this but personally, AFM the styrofoam box lid far outweighs the newspaper as a reflector.

yes, I think SS and iS (and DT) have their own styles, I don't see that as a bad thing as it gives each site its own flavour.  I sell things on 123 that don't sell anywhere else, it's weird but I like it that way. It means most of what you shoot will find a home somewhere.

Sure, there are many things that are better than newspapers, but newspapers are often at hand when you need them.

And then can be used in quite an advanced way.
Fx the pages are not the same and the misture of black letters, images and white space can add to the quality of the reflection.
Not to mention if there is a colour photo on the page.
Plus they can be folded and such direct light from more than one direction.

you keep on trying to teach us all how the world works but that was so boooring, you kind of remind me of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory with long speeches and stuff but I think he is funny

Hello there!
I just try to help and pass on some of the tricks I have learned.

I tried to be helpful, and then Im told its boring.

You may want to think about how fertile your comments are for the forum.

keep writing poetry