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Author Topic: Trouble with initial acceptance at SS  (Read 11711 times)

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« Reply #25 on: May 04, 2008, 13:32 »
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I thought I broke a record!  I got rejected 8 times, and they even stopped giving me reasons? :o  Do you guys and gals think I'm a marked man?  The only feedback I get via e-mail is "Though some of your images meet our standards, you have not supplied the required 7 acceptable images."   Is anyone else getting that eedback as a reply?

....

Of course I am tempted to try 10 new images shrunk down from 12 MP to 4 MP.  Will that really help?

that's a common review response, and as others have said, the entrance exam is the toughest part.

DEFINITELY shrink images to 4MP - focus is one of their bugbears;  i get many scanned slides accepted by reducing the image this way.

steve


« Reply #26 on: May 04, 2008, 13:59 »
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I found that the main key is quality more than anything else with acceptance shots.

Make sure the image has a clear point of focus, do not crop or resize, shoot at the lowest ISO, avoid heavy shadow or high contrast shifts, and if in photoshop if you need to do anything more than a slight tweek then that image should not be part of a submission

A stock image is often used as a part, a design element, so you are the photographer not the artist in this case, if the designer wants a crop they will do it, do not try to provide the finished shot, think of copyspace and allow some space around the subject, the key is also to keep it simple.

My images included animals, people and objects, none were "shot for stock" as such but were selected with the above rules and I had 8/10 first attempt.

Someone said "Why Bother", I was refused at the first site I ever tried, in the 30 day wait I trawled the forums learned the process, got accepted at other sites, when the 30 days were up, I submitted again and was accepted, I never uploaded to that site after reading about them in the forums, I bothered because they had refused my images, and accepting that would have bugged me.

I went and uploaded to 8 sites but now I am only uploading to one, the one which gave the best consistant return oer 6 months, with a small portfolio.

David 

« Reply #27 on: May 04, 2008, 16:56 »
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...
Make sure the image has a clear point of focus, do not crop or resize, shoot at the lowest ISO, avoid heavy shadow or high contrast shifts, and if in photoshop if you need to do anything more than a slight tweek then that image should not be part of a submission

A stock image is often used as a part, a design element, so you are the photographer not the artist in this case, if the designer wants a crop they will do it, do not try to provide the finished shot, think of copyspace and allow some space around the subject, the key is also to keep it simple.....

true, but unfortunately reviewers will reject images that follow every one of your suggestions -- i'm sure we all have images that were accepted by most MS and then rejected by 1 - that argues both for submitting to multiple sites, AND submitting a wide range of quality material, not just your best.


re cropping etc - while it's good in principle, there are reasons to crop -- eg i have many shots of penguins, but you cant see them in thumbnails, so i've cropped a few images that highlight one bird.  often sites take both versions.  by judicious cropping you can make your images stand out during a quick review of thumbnails.

finally, for many sites, esp'ly SS, post processing really helps -- SS and several others really seem to like oversaturated colors -=- just browse the pictures of trees, and l;andscapes and you'll find many colors that never existed.  i've had much better results since discovering this -- eg, i resubmitted a set of golf course images with the greens popped and they were all accepted, while the initial versions weren't.

steve


« Reply #28 on: May 04, 2008, 17:55 »
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I do agree with steve's comments, and they are valid going forward, however we are talking about acceptance images.

One problem I have seen is new submitters "shooting for stock" trying to re-create a top 50 image, or something they saw in another portfolio, looking for the special thousand download image, rather than shooting simply for acceptance, where IMHO quality is the main issue, I have never cropped or made an image "Pop" for acceptance, and have always been accepted first time except the very first site, with quite boring images, so I can only speak from my own experience.

The cropping issue and doing two images sounds like a good idea after acceptance, as is testing how far you can go with post process different sites different rules.

The two bits of advice I took early on from the submitters was "keep it simple", from the designers "don't crop".

These are only my observations on initial acceptance.

B.T.W. several designer said in another forum, that many a sales was lost as a lot of the image are already over cropped, and they have had to settle for thier second choice

David   

« Reply #29 on: May 04, 2008, 21:40 »
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i agree completely and would use an emoticon if i werent allergic to the little buggers-- it points up the ambiguity of trying to supply the MS market!

get accepted by whatever means necessary as malcolm used to say, then worry about the details later

steve


 

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