Hi folks, 
Im coming up on my next round to submit to SS for first time approval..
I've been rejected (can you believe) 5 times.  In each previous batch I had 3 - 5 images come back with the explanation '7 out of 10 needs to be approved', which i understand means they were technically approved.
how ill-advised would it be for me to go pull some these and resubmit them?  i've been told to submit new each time but im trying to play it safe.  Especially because some of these shots are selling on other sites.
thanks

Hi folks, 
Im coming up on my next round to submit to SS for first time approval..
I've been rejected (can you believe) 5 times.  In each previous batch I had 3 - 5 images come back with the explanation '7 out of 10 needs to be approved', which i understand means they were technically approved.
how ill-advised would it be for me to go pull some these and resubmit them?  i've been told to submit new each time but im trying to play it safe.  Especially because some of these shots are selling on other sites.
thanks

I was rejected 5 times too. My 6th application was accepted, which had one photo already submitted on previous occasions. However, this is my best selling microstock image.

my equipment is fine.. canon 60d, various lenses.  i also know my way around photoshop pretty well. 

where i fall short is in understanding lighting.  in my crits over at SS its been drawn to my attention that i tend to shoot with a shallow dof, which even though i do intentionally, isnt a great idea on gettin my 1st approval. 

what i find frustrating about the process, is im advised everywhere i read to understand what microstock is looking for.  but when one reviewer accepts an image and other reviewer (a month later on the same site) rejects it, it becomes very confusing. 

btw, im currently seeing a few sales on other sites i.e. dreamstime, fotolia and am building my portfolio (at about 80 something right now).  I've posted my link here and have gotten positive feedback as well.
 
But SS seems to be my nemesis.

where i fall short is in understanding lighting. 

Microstock sites tend to prefer light and colorful images over the dark desaturated murky ones. They also don't like dark/hard shadows or very much contrast in general.

Send us some samples so we can discuss this further (?)

It took me three applications to get accepted at SS. Some of the ones that got thropugh on my first attempt were rejected on the second, so it's clearly not an exact science.

I think that RacePhoto's comments above are very good advice, particularly the one about downsizing.

The whole basis of the three D approach is Keep It Simple. This is an application, not the real photos. So don't get fancy with depth of field, or artistic interpretations. Shoot bright, simple, colorful, sharp images. Is there a D in shoot everything at 100 ISO? Some people think big and fast is impressive. Go slow, go small. We could get all involved in lighting and cropping and everything else, but the point is - First Get Accepted!

Yes, images that get accepted by one reviewer will get rejected by another. Things that the second tier agencies will take all month long, will get dumped by the top two. Except for some very standard / stock shots, there's a subjective factor to consider. Maybe the reviewer needs their 4 cents and is in a rush to reject things faster? Maybe it's late at night and they are tired and cranky? The phone just rang, they reached for it, hit the coffee and it splashed on the dog, which knocked over the side table and the lamp, as it ran out of the room... so they just clicked rejected on everything and shut down! 

Don't expect to understand or get a real answer why something that's perfectly good, gets rejected for some vague obscure reason. Or for that matter, why something of mine, I'd personally say is marginal, gets accepted and sells? They run the show, just take a deep breath and keep on trudging up the hill.

I don't remember now, but I started at the second four to six sites, so I could get an idea of what was acceptable and what was a flop. I got fantastic advise and coaching from a reviewer on Lucky Oliver. Once I had a clue, I tried IS and SS. It was far from the almost anything goes of the easier sites. I think it took three tries (I forget?) for SS and I was sending in sold images from the other sites. IS was probably two tries. I had a 10D back then with a 28-135 middle range lens. Still one of my favorites, great for walking around and travel, but it's not a fantastic lens.

Getting accepted is the important first step, downsizing is playing the game to get through the door. It has nothing to do with what happens after you are accepted. Reduce the flaws, reduce the size, reduce the ability for reviewers to see any flaws. Turn out some assorted stock, stock, pablum and get in.

I deleted most of my early uploads from IS, but I'm pretty sure these were in the first batch accepted. Get the idea? Uninspired, one of 10 thousand similar shots, but it got me in the door?

I'll soon be submitting my intial ten to SS for the seventh time.  On my last attempt, I submitted only photos that had been approved in previous submissions, all of which are for sale on BS, DT, FT, and others.  You'd think it would be a sure thing, like I did, but we'd both be wrong.  I'll soon be submitting a seventh batch.  Apparently, It's a moving target and you just have to hope the reviewer is in a good mood when he/she looks at your material.  I'm thinking that as long as they don't set a maximum number of times we can submit our initial ten, we'll eventually get on SS if we don't give up.

My only advice is (assuming you have lighting, sharp focus and composition sorted) to show a variety of work.

I just checked back on my initial ten, and they were a mixture of outdoor, indoor, natural light, studio light, macro, telephoto and prime shots, and I also threw in an isolation, as well as varying the subject matter.   

Hope that helps, and best of luck!   

I've had very little success with shallow dof on SS, photos accepted on IS, FT & DT seem to be routinely rejected by SS for focus in the wrong place.  I'd suggest avoiding shallow dof for the initial 10.

Same here. I would suggest avoiding them for now, too.

After numerous tries, i finally got accepted yesterday and make my first sale today
Thanks for your tips. 

Congrats littleny 

I'm sure your battle will be a distant memory very soon, as you see all the sales roll in.  SS are definitely worth the effort!

Congrats!  Same question as komar. I'm curious as well.

After numerous tries, i finally got accepted yesterday and make my first sale today
Thanks for your tips. 

...I forgot to mention. Get as many images on as you can now, because as well as new images getting more exposure, new photographers do too. I had so many sales in my first few months from a handful of images, including my first EL from any site.

Lots of good advice in this thread.. and I just thought I'd add...

If your images are getting accepted at one agency and not at another agency, it is a sign that you are not shooting 'hot' microstock images, you are shooting mediocre microstock images.  Some agencies let mediocre images pass through inspection while others reject those images.  If you have figured out how to shoot what the agencies are looking for you should be able to get 90%+ acceptance without a problem. 

So my point is, if you are getting varying rejection / acceptance for your images it is rather a sign of borderline images as apposed to hard to understand reviewers.