Tips - Getting Accepted on Shutterstock

Shutterstock probably has the most difficult review process to get accepted of any of the microstock websites. You have to submit 10 photos for initial review, of which 7 must be accepted (you must wait 30 days to try again if you aren't accepted). 70% you say, sounds easy. Once you have done microstock for a while and know what sells, what doesn't, and what to watch for, it is. However for people new to microstock it can be difficult, frustrating, and seemingly without hope. Anyone interested in microstock should stick it out, because if you give it your very best you will eventually succeed and it is very much worth it. Shutterstock has a great community, the best forums, and excellent downloads (earnings). Below I have outlined a few tips to help those interested.

1) Don't Give Up! - The most important tip of all is to not give up, stick with it, care, and try, try, again. It isn't easy, I didn't get accepted the first time and most don't. If you get rejected, don't take it as a personal attack, learn from it. The photos that they don't make comments about are considered up to shutterstock standards. This doesn't mean if you apply again they will automatically get approval; you will probably get a different reviewer. However this does give you a good idea of the type of photo they are looking for. Learn from the photos with comments, this is your best tool for the next go around. Don't spend the 30 days mad, frustrated, asking why me, spend them learning from the mistakes and researching for new photo ideas.

2) Microstock = Commercial - Most all microstock images are sold to advertisers (designers), so when images are reviewed the reviewers are looking for saleable images. All 10 images submitted for review should have a clear commercial value. You should be able to look at the image and say that could sell "this." Look through magazines, many of the ads are microstock photos. An image's ability to sell a product will also sell itself. Get ideas from the top sellers on the various stock sites. Again, don't take things personal, your most beautiful photo may not be a "stock" image. It takes a different type of photo than most photographers take for fun.

3) It's in the Details - Make sure all 10 photos you submit for acceptance are technically perfect. Open them up in your editing software and zoom in to 100%. "Sweep" slowly over the entire image looking for any imperfections (hot pixels, dust spots, etc). Then fix any you find. Take your time doing this, make absolutly sure that there are no imperfections in the photo from a technical standpoint. If you make this a habit from the beginning it will help the money roll in for a long time to come. If you notice anything wrong with the photo that you can't fix, take a new one. If you notice it, the reviewers surely will too. If you notice any noise, use noise reduction software like Noise Ninja or Neat Image. You could also Google it for photoshop tutorials, because people good at photoshop selectively remove the noise themselves. Shoot at your lowest ISO to reduce or remove noise issues all together.

4) Critiques - Have fellow photographers critique your photos. There is a forum on Shutterstock just for doing this. Upload images you wonder about, include a small crop at 100%, so members can view for noise, artifacting, purple fringing, etc. This may seem like a pain, but members have been through this, they are very helpful, and they are free.

5) Live Samples - If you haven't already, sign-up at sites like Dreamstime and Fotolia, where there is no review process. You can begin uploading immediately to see what gets accepted and what doesn't. These sites are much easier on acceptance rates, so don't use that as your only guide for good images. Good money making images would be an excellent indicator.

6) Isolations - Images that are isolated on a white background tend to sell better than non-isolated images. Because of this, if you include isolations in your batch of 10 photos for approval your chances will be improved. You can do the isolation by overexposing a white background, or use image editing software to remove the background. I use photoshops pen tool, which is great. It takes a bit to get used to, but once you get the hang of it you will love it. Here is my super quick pen tool tutorial - Left mouse click to create a point, then left mouse click a ways away to make a line between two points. Then left click somewhere along that line to make a point along it. With the cursor over that point, hold down the ctrl button (some other button for mac users) left click and drag the point to the top of a curve. This creates the curve that is so handy about the pen tool. The other key I use is the alt key (again, some other key on a mac). The point that was just dragged has two lines with dots protruding from it. Hold down alt, left click on one of these endpoints and drag the point to alter the amount (lack of a better term) of curve. Keep repeating this process to go in and around everything. (I do all this at 200% zoom) Once you have a closed loop you can right-click on it and do "make selection." you can smooth, feather, invert, etc to this selection. Usually you will want to smooth by 1 or 2 pixels, feather by 1 or 2 pixels, invert, and delete to get a white background. Just mess with it, or google for way better tutorials than I just did.

Most of all, have fun! If you have fun and want to succeed, you will. Don't give up, stay positive, and watch the downloads and money roll in. Once accepted at Shutterstock, the rest should be a breeze.

Source: Sprinting Turtles