Introduction to Microstock Photography – Time for Some Examples
It is now time to go over some example microstock photos. For each photo, try to guess the following.
- Was it accepted?
- If accepted, did all sites accept it?
- Did it sell?
Here, of course, I am just playing around. There is no way this shot would be accepted because I didn’t have a model release! Therefore I never submitted this shot. Even if I had a model release, acceptance is certainly not a guarantee. The lighting on the shot isn’t all that great and the shot could benefit from being closer in.
I hope that it’s obvious that this picture was rejected. From this sized shot, the obvious problem is the lighting. The face simply is not well defined. This was one of the earliest pictures I took with my MP-E 65 and was before I learned how to take better pictures with it. At the time, I was happy with just being close. Taking close shots that are half decent came later.
Less obvious on this shot are the dust spots. This shot has horrible dust problems.
Dust problems like this are unacceptable and will always cause an image to be rejected. Very often they are called “artifacts” by the reviewers. Always check your shots for dust spots – especially when dealing with macro shots.
While I tend to like this shot, it didn’t have a chance at microstock. The simple matter is it is not sharp. The microstock sites will almost never take a soft image. This shot was also taken with the MP-E 65 and shows the depth of field problems inherent in these types of photos. At some later date I will try out focus stacking – which should fix this issue. However, even if accepted I have doubts that this type of image would sell well. It just doesn’t fit the needs of most graphic designers.
This picture was accepted and is the top selling woodlouse picture on Shutterstock. It has been downloaded 18 times and has made an entire $5.42. From this photo it is obvious that insect pictures simply do not sell well. However, I take the pictures I like and so this was not a waste of my time. The five dollars and change I made from this picture is money I would have otherwise not had. Ironically, it’s not that great of a shot but I’ve been rather bored with woodlice so haven’t taken more pictures of them in awhile.
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Tags: examples, microstock, photography