I concur. Shutterstock have been super-fast for me too over the past month.

I actually find many agency review times vary depending on what I've submitted. If they're people shots they get reviewed a lot quicker than isolated objects and landscapes. Not all agencies, but some.

Not only people. I sent a small batch of objects and it took them less than 24 hours (much of which were during the night). That's absolutely great!

Sometimes they take on new reviewers and the review times speed up.  I don't think it has anything to do with having people photos.  I don't do people photos and my reviews are a few hours at the moment.

wow, that is crazy.  Istock only added 30,000 and shutterstock 276,000  That is a BIG difference.  Interesting numbers and interesting to think about where this will end up in another year.

Seems like istock is the first to say that they are more interested taking less photos and being picky, whereas it seems shutterstock is trying to get as many photos as possible.

I don't know that iStock is actually any more strict in their quality control, at least not much more strict - but their strict upload limits in a way, (perhaps hopefully for iStock) make people choose their top images first and upload only those.

Superfast alright. Superfast REJECTIONS. So far maintaining 95% rejection rate of late. Don't know what . is going on. Very frustrating.

What . is going on at SS? Have they got some new software that rejects everything.

I cannot believe what they are rejecting, it is insulting.

Quote from: Lee Torrens on October 02, 2008, 09:15

Fotolia and Dreamstime also added a high quantity (relative to their usual quantities) this month, but iStock only added just over 30,000 !! 

Reading it again I need to clarify: iStock did add only 30,000 last month (according to my observations of the figures on their front page) but that's unusual for them. Their average over the previous 12 months is 120,000. Last month was unusually low (or they forgot to update the figure on the front page).

or maybe they emptied out a bunch of non sellers.  Perhaps this month is 1 year since the dollar bin started and all the non-sellers got kicked out.

They must have just hired more reviewers - I'm loving the speed.  I now have to calculate my uploads more carefully, as to figure when the images are going to be live (for the best exposure)

Superfast alright. Superfast REJECTIONS. So far maintaining 95% rejection rate of late. Don't know what . is going on. Very frustrating.

I had noise rejections, focus rejections, or not focused where they thought it should be. Then I read on the forums that downsizing the images would make them more likely to be approved. Since then I started following that advise and pictures passed. No rejections for noise or focus anymore. They still reject crap and if I tried to get something through that I should have kept at home, they bounced it. 

Try downsizing to 2100 x 1600 Aprox, which is just over 4MP and maybe you'll get a surprise.

My mistake, read my notes wrong, and entered my DT minimum 3MP size. Thanks for the correction Tazzy. It should read 2460 x 1640!  Which means just use 2500 for the longest side on landscape photos. It does help to reduce the size if you are getting noise and soft image rejections.

Of course if they are rejecting for lighting and the subject matter, no one can help.

They must have just hired more reviewers - I'm loving the speed.  I now have to calculate my uploads more carefully, as to figure when the images are going to be live (for the best exposure)

And when you do, they will take until Monday and be in with the rest of the people who wanted that day.    Love the speed also.

Uploaded Saturday, rejected on Saturday, no wasting time.

Seems like istock is the first to say that they are more interested taking less photos and being picky, whereas it seems shutterstock is trying to get as many photos as possible.

That doesn't mean that SS takes anything. They singled out the borderline cases (noise-wise) flawlessly in my recent stuff.

I don't know that iStock is actually any more strict in their quality control, at least not much more strict - but their strict upload limits in a way, (perhaps hopefully for iStock) make people choose their top images first and upload only those.

Not sure about that. I was thrown back to 15 per week and I gave up synchronizing my batches at IS with other agencies long ago. They don't like my "creative" shots that do well elsewhere and I got many rejects lately for keywords too. Bottom line is I'm not going to keyword and reduce vibrance especially for IS since it takes too much time. My earnings at IS fell below those at BigStock so I just cash in now and then and leave them in their blissful opinion that they are God's gift to stock. I do stock for fun, and IS is no fun any more.

They should watch out if SS adds a tenfold of photos per month as they do. SS might beat them by sheer volume, especially since most upload the same stuff to SS and to IS. Perhaps IS relies more and more on its exclusives.

Superfast at reviewing may they be, but the sales are going to hell. I did not sell a single photo for the whole weekend. Never have I had two zero sales days before! And I have had sales almost everywhere else over the weekends recently.

One single download this weekend