Why wouldnt they accept my photos?

Published by: webmaster 2009-01-09

Hey again everyone... I just tried to join Shutterstock.com and they require that i send in 10 photos. So i did. Most of them were taken with my sony alpha 10.2MP DSLR. And yet they sent me an email saying that ALL of my photos had been rejected, not just one , or two, but ALL of them. The reason for 4 of them was - "Noise--Noise, film grain, over-sharpening, or artifacts at full size. " with a camera like this, i dont understand how that could really be somethign that even causes a problem. I'm pretty sure I used a low ISO or did noise reduction on all of them and when i view the photos at 100% they dont really look noisy. I just dont understand why they'd reject all of my photos. I am a member of istockphoto.com and dreamstime.com , and have been able to submit photos to both of those sites without so many problems... any help would be appreciated. thanks -Tony:hail:

I think the bird's feathers are actually supposed to look that multi-tonal color. There is a little pixel discoloration though, I have tried the noise-ninja plugin for photoshop but i dont really understand how to use it yet...

thats exactly my thought, and i was just talkign about this with a friend tonight. I posted on a different thread though, and people didnt seem to feel that way.. they more just discouraged me from trying to sell photos, or at least thats how it felt. someone commented that if i didnt have good enough photos to sell around town, then why would i be able to sell them in the global market (stock) personally i think it would be EASIER to sell them as stock becasue then it doesnt necessarily have to be fine art to sell. If someone needs a photo of a fork, they'll buy it, but a coffee shop isnt necessarily looking for product photos. do you know of any good stock sites?

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http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74427

No one was discouraging you from selling. In fact, it started out with one person giving you advice on how to sell around your town and ended with someone suggesting how to sell images geared toward a specific market that is something you're interested in anyway.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but the general tone of the responses you received in that thread were based on your statements:

i wouldnt think bars or coffee shops would want to hang any of my work and have a big opening for it... i'm in college right now, and photography is just a hobby for me, but i know you can make money selling your photos, and i have some that are good shots, i'm not really trying to "make it big" or anything, just trying to see if i can get anything for some of my photos...Most of the people here are intensely interested in photography, in all its aspects, in improving their skills, in addition to, or even regardless of, selling their work. The people who make money are the people who devote a lot of time and effort to it. It looks like easy money to a lot of people. It looks like photographers make money for doing what anyone can do--pushing a button. And they make so much money-- just look at the prices on photos in galleries!

Maybe you actually care very much about photography, and maybe you've been doing it for years and now you're just interested in making money because you need some extra income. But that's not the way it sounds-- you seem to have no interest in even displaying your work! There are tens of thousands of people who've been pushing a button for years, and feeling like they could make some easy money doing it. And what people are trying to tell you is that that the online stock photo market is saturated with photos from people who do it because it's easy, and if something is so easy that anyone can do it, its value decreases -- down to about 40 cents a photo.

If you're worth more, then you can sell for more, and people have given you suggestions and leads.

While the tone of the responses might have sounded negative, the overall message was "Aim higher, put forth more effort, and you increase your chances of success."

*THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THE ABOVE POST ARE THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF AQUARIUM DREAMS, ESPECIALLY THE ONES THAT SHE PARAPHRASES FROM OTHER PEOPLE*

sure, how would i go about posting them?
i could give links to them on photobucket, but they wouldnt be full size or anything. I've never posted photos on this forum, so i'm not sure what the best way would be. thanks- TOny

Don't get discouraged... nobody who gives up ever makes it big ;)

Back when I was experimenting with shutterstock the first time I submitted my photos I has 6 out of 10 rejected for noise. heh?

30 days later I got the email saying try again. I ran those 6 through Noise Ninja and they were accpeted. To my eye at 100% there wasn't much noise in either version. My guess is that they use some kind of software to algorithmically determine noise level.

Anyway don't be discouraged that some faceless entity has denied you because your shots were noisy... it's a common Shutterstock issue.

You should post the photos here and let us have a look.

Above the box where you type in your post, there is a yellow icon that looks a bit like a mountain landscape. Click it and in the window that pops up, just enter the url for your image, and it will embed your image in your post.

Thats strange alright, especially when you consider the crap images on istockphoto.com You should probably search the web Tony for some proper stock libraries and get a contract with them, those internet stock libraries sell your images for much less then they are worth and also sell them royality free... You can have a great image and a magazine buys a 'bundle' of images you get $1 for your image and they use it in over and over again, not worth it my friend.....

ok, i cant remember all of the photos so here are a few-
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/shorty6049/DSC02039.jpg

It could also be the screen res... but some of them do look a bit noisy... the feathers on the bird for example. Have you tried Noise Ninja or something like it?

Yes, don't waste your time with getty or corbis. You're more likely to be abducted by aliens than get accepted there if you're not already established with an enormous library.

I would suggest that you try Alamy -- www.alamy.com (http://www.alamy.com). Note that their quality threshold is pretty high, so read their submission guidelines. You will make much more on Alamy than you will on any microstock.

thoughts? comments?

I agree - bird feathers are difficult sometimes... but depending on the camera and the lighting colors and iridescent tones like that often come out looking like noise. That's why I think there is software they use to detect noise because some things they call noise simply aren't noise.

Aside from any small technical details some computer might find I have to say the shots are great. Most peoples attempts at stock photography quite frankly are terrible. I think you have some excellent shots here - good work!

ok, thanks ryan, I kind of figured that those big places are for mostly pros, just making sure. Thanks

can we have a look at these?

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/shorty6049/DSC01568.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/shorty6049/DSC02467.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/shorty6049/DSC01599.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/shorty6049/DSC01399.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/shorty6049/CopyofDSC00027.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/shorty6049/cakestock.jpg

ok, thats what i figured, i just didnt know if you wanted the full res versions of them or not. i'll upload them to photobucket and put them up, thanks for everyone's help!

Another way to make a little money is by selling prints on deviant art. I haven't tried it yet because my skill isn't that good yet and I don't have a credit card but maybe when I get better I may try. Selling prints there will also give you more money, more exposure and its a lot safer because they are still protected under rights so people can only use them for personal use.

thanks, that means a lot to me dewey, I guess i'll just keep trying and hope they accept them next time. I'll try noise reduction

i'll look into that, i didnt know that it was possible to sell on deviant art. also, a question for everyone, does everyone agree that i probably shouldnt even waste my time trying to get into gettyimages , corbis, or other sites like that?