Author Topic: Applying To SS while still exclusive (Read 7982 times)

Phadrea · « **on:** December 01, 2010, 04:40 »

I am exclusive at the moment with another microstock site I am no longer happy with (You can probably guess which one) As it sounds like it's a hard task to get into SS, I don't want to give up my exclusivity and lose out if SS reject my images. I will have to wait a month (sounds unreasonable to me) before I can try again. If I get rejected I will have given up exclusivity for nothing.

It's a conundrum.

aeonf · « **Reply #1 on:** December 01, 2010, 04:43 »

You can apply and open an account, but you are not allowed to upload any images, exept the ones for the application, which won't be part of your portfolio.

leaf · « **Reply #2 on:** December 01, 2010, 04:51 »

~~Yeah, that doesn't sounds like it should be a problem. If you get accepted at Shutterstock, just don't upload any photos while you are still exclusive.~~

yeah, I am unsure now - aeonf might be right and your images are perhaps added to your port. immediatly

traveler1116 · « **Reply #3 on:** December 01, 2010, 05:03 »

Aren't images automatically put up if you get accepted? I think you should wait until you cancel exclusivity first.

Maui · « **Reply #4 on:** December 01, 2010, 05:07 »

You can also disable your portfolio for sale. From your contributor's site, go to 'my account' and opt out of all available options. This effectively prevents your approved images from being sold.

Phadrea · « **Reply #5 on:** December 01, 2010, 05:20 »

Ok, so thats at least an option. Get the foot in the door and then close the other behind me. I know when you cancel exclusivity (with this site I am with owned by a very rich person) it takes something like 30 days to happen. Would I have to wait that long to be able to sell or can I sell as soon as I click "Unexclusive" ?

Maui · « **Reply #6 on:** December 01, 2010, 06:10 »

AFAIK you'll have to wait 30 days.

Perry · « **Reply #7 on:** December 01, 2010, 07:13 »

I say, "Apply". If you are accepted and images added to your port just remove them quickly. They may get sold a couple of time, but really, who cares? And if someone would care your excuse is that you sent only sample images and didn't know that they would appear for sale...

Just applying to get in to a site does not mean selling anything!

jbarber873 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 01, 2010, 09:12 »

Personally, I would just go ahead and apply. What's the worse that could happen? the other site would ban you? Do they really seem so on top of things that they would be able to figure out what you are doing? Don't use the same screen name, and don't talk about it ( like you are doing.) It's interesting that contributors are so careful to follow the rules that the agencies feel free to re-write in their favor whenever they feel like it. Maybe a little disobedience would be good for them. SS is a great place to sell, and if I had to choose, I'd throw out Istock in a heartbeat.

Autumnleaves · « **Reply #9 on:** December 01, 2010, 09:51 »

I did that: While I was exclusive I requested for the 10 approval at SS. I was approved, then I quickly removed my pictures approved at SS and left my account empty, then requested to remove exclusivity and waited for the 30 days... then I began uploading at other sites

jamirae · « **Reply #10 on:** December 01, 2010, 10:33 »

go ahead and apply. that's what I did when I canceled my exclusive contract at IS I went ahead and applied at 3 other agencies that I wanted to start with. During the 30 day waiting period, at SS you simply opt-out of everything from your profile page. Then upload away and start filling your portfolio. Once your 30day waiting is up and your exclusivity canceled, you can opt-in at SS. It took about a day and a half for the opt-in to take effect for me, but once it did my port showed up (went live) and I started seeing sales pretty quickly.

Good luck!

Phadrea · « **Reply #11 on:** December 01, 2010, 11:19 »

The big problem of course is getting into SS. I believe it's much much harder than IS. Why the month wait for your next submission if you are failed? I don't get it.
Anyway, thanks for the tips and encouragement. Of course I will play it by the book but as IS is no longer working for me (to put it politely) I feel I have a portfolio wasted at one place.

Perry · « **Reply #12 on:** December 01, 2010, 11:24 »

Quote from: jamirae on December 01, 2010, 10:33

I canceled my exclusive contract at IS I went ahead and applied at 3 other agencies that I wanted to start with. During the 30 day waiting period, at SS you simply opt-out of everything from your profile page. Then upload away and start filling your portfolio. Once your 30day waiting is up and your exclusivity canceled, you can opt-in at SS.

I wonder if this will reduce "the new-image-boost" ?

Jimi King · « **Reply #13 on:** December 01, 2010, 11:29 »

When I originally applied to SS, none of the images were automatically put into my portfolio. I had to resubmit them after I was approved and some of them were then rejected.

Having said that, if you are an exclusive at IS you shouldn't really have too much trouble getting in at SS. Just make sure you give them a variety of images and pick your best shots. Don't forget to sign up with Fotolia, Dreamstime and Bigstock too. A few others from the middle tier might be worth a look depending on the size of your portfolio and how much time you have of course.

Phadrea · « **Reply #14 on:** December 01, 2010, 11:35 »

Will the description, key wording and title's affect the way they judge the images ?

briciola · « **Reply #15 on:** December 01, 2010, 11:37 »

Quote from: Perry on December 01, 2010, 11:24

Quote from: jamirae on December 01, 2010, 10:33
I canceled my exclusive contract at IS I went ahead and applied at 3 other agencies that I wanted to start with. During the 30 day waiting period, at SS you simply opt-out of everything from your profile page. Then upload away and start filling your portfolio. Once your 30day waiting is up and your exclusivity canceled, you can opt-in at SS.

I wonder if this will reduce "the new-image-boost" ?

I was thinking the same, it might be better to get accepted, turn off downloads and when your 30 days are up upload the rest of your portfolio to get the best of the mega boost new images/contributors get.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #16 on:** December 01, 2010, 11:52 »

Quote from: Herg on December 01, 2010, 11:19

The big problem of course is getting into SS. I believe it's much much harder than IS. Why the month wait for your next submission if you are failed? I don't get it.
Anyway, thanks for the tips and encouragement. Of course I will play it by the book but as IS is no longer working for me (to put it politely) I feel I have a portfolio wasted at one place.

Things could have changed a lot, but based on my experience with SS in the past, they had a different take on things from IS but I wouldn't say it was harder.

For example, IS will take things that are perfectly exposed, in sharp focus and with good light, but are visually as dull as ditchwater. SS is more likely to overlook some minor flaws if the colors and composition are striking. SS is also a great place to upload raster illustrations, composites and anything visually flashy (which is often likely to get rejected at IS).

You're not doing anything underhanded by considering dropping exclusivity, so why not post a link to your IS portfolio here and people could recommend which items from your IS port you apply to SS with?

I still have an account and a portion of my old portfolio at SS (it's inactive), and with DT - it's not a problem to have accounts elsewhere as long as you're not selling.

Phadrea · « **Reply #17 on:** December 01, 2010, 12:02 »

Ok here is my link. I tend to major on Sound Effects there now and don't submit images but I have plenty in my folio for you to get an idea. What I like about SS is you can submit editorial images and not have to worry about logos, model releases etc. My college background specialised in editorial in the dark old days of the 80's ;-)

http://www.istockphoto.com/marbury

jamirae · « **Reply #18 on:** December 01, 2010, 12:25 »

Quote from: briciola on December 01, 2010, 11:37

Quote from: Perry on December 01, 2010, 11:24
Quote from: jamirae on December 01, 2010, 10:33
I canceled my exclusive contract at IS I went ahead and applied at 3 other agencies that I wanted to start with. During the 30 day waiting period, at SS you simply opt-out of everything from your profile page. Then upload away and start filling your portfolio. Once your 30day waiting is up and your exclusivity canceled, you can opt-in at SS.

I wonder if this will reduce "the new-image-boost" ?

I was thinking the same, it might be better to get accepted, turn off downloads and when your 30 days are up upload the rest of your portfolio to get the best of the mega boost new images/contributors get.

oh.. I didn't realize that SS had a "new image boost" feature. so that is for new uploads? anyhow, I still have a ton to upload as I didn't get much of my port uploaded during the 30 days anyhow.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #19 on:** December 01, 2010, 12:36 »

Quote from: Herg on December 01, 2010, 12:02

Ok here is my link. I tend to major on Sound Effects there now and don't submit images but I have plenty in my folio for you to get an idea. What I like about SS is you can submit editorial images and not have to worry about logos, model releases etc. My college background specialised in editorial in the dark old days of the 80's ;-)

http://www.istockphoto.com/marbury

So I'd suggest going for the lighter/brighter/more colorful items from your portfolio and staying away from the more muted shots (and no flowers as yours all seem to be of the type that SS might reject - accurate botanical shots of a plant in a setting rather than a visual "WOW").

So, things like these are good for SS, IMO:

I'd stay away from things like these for SS:

Hope this helps. You'd want the 10 shots to be a variety of subjects - so your busker, the war medals on a veteran, the off license sign, the two entertainers on a stage are some other types of images that would probably be good candidates. See what other people here think.

Remember that if you do decide to become independent, each of the sites has their likes and dislikes. It helps if you can try to feed them what they prefer (as rejections always feel icky). Good luck

kingjon · « **Reply #20 on:** December 01, 2010, 12:46 »

Before upgrading my camera to the 5dII, I was running noise reduction on every image submitted to SS. I had a different workflow just for SS. Without noise reduction applied, my images would often get rejected for noise (using the original canon rebel/300d). I don't know if they are still doing that - I downsize my images now and don't bother doing any noise reduction. Like most sites, they are (were?) more picky on the first submission so maybe someone else can comment on whether noise reduction is still required for SS.

Phadrea · « **Reply #21 on:** December 02, 2010, 03:23 »

Quote from: jsnover on December 01, 2010, 12:36

Quote from: Herg on December 01, 2010, 12:02
Ok here is my link. I tend to major on Sound Effects there now and don't submit images but I have plenty in my folio for you to get an idea. What I like about SS is you can submit editorial images and not have to worry about logos, model releases etc. My college background specialised in editorial in the dark old days of the 80's ;-)

http://www.istockphoto.com/marbury

So I'd suggest going for the lighter/brighter/more colorful items from your portfolio and staying away from the more muted shots (and no flowers as yours all seem to be of the type that SS might reject - accurate botanical shots of a plant in a setting rather than a visual "WOW").

So, things like these are good for SS, IMO:

Thanks. Not all of them would be my first choice but I see what you mean. Bright, punchy and vibrant but not 100% sharp ? I say this because when I last submitted 2 or 3 years ago they were very keen on focus.

I'd stay away from things like these for SS:

Hope this helps. You'd want the 10 shots to be a variety of subjects - so your busker, the war medals on a veteran, the off license sign, the two entertainers on a stage are some other types of images that would probably be good candidates. See what other people here think.

Remember that if you do decide to become independent, each of the sites has their likes and dislikes. It helps if you can try to feed them what they prefer (as rejections always feel icky). Good luck

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #22 on:** December 02, 2010, 10:45 »

I didn't look at the images at 100%; just assumed focus was fine.

Phadrea · « **Reply #23 on:** December 02, 2010, 11:42 »

I really for the life of me cannot get 10 edited files submitted as it's telling me one or more files has errors BUT it doesn't say what the errors are.

Phadrea · « **Reply #24 on:** December 02, 2010, 13:24 »

scratch that last post. I managed it.

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Author Topic: Applying To SS while still exclusive (Read 7982 times)

Phadrea

aeonf

leaf

traveler1116

Maui

Phadrea

Maui

Perry

jbarber873

Autumnleaves

jamirae

Phadrea

Perry

Jimi King

Phadrea

briciola

Jo Ann Snover

Phadrea

jamirae

Jo Ann Snover

kingjon

Phadrea

Jo Ann Snover

Phadrea

Phadrea

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