Introduction to Microstock Photography – Continuing with Examples
Table of contents for Microstock Photography
In this post, we will continue with the examples we started earlier. We will start with what most people want from microstock photography…
This image was rejected for poor lighting. It is a complete isolation that took me some time to accomplish. I took this picture explicitly for stock. The result… I wasted my time. This is an example of why you should only take the pictures you like, rather than take pictures just for stock. If you take only the pictures you want to take, only the extra time spent adding keywords will be wasted if the image is not accepted or does not sell.
Interestingly, some time after this shot was rejected I post processed it a bit more and it was accepted.
This picture was rejected, but I can honestly not tell you why. There are a number of possible reasons – focus, use as stock, etc. However, I don’t really care. I took this image as an experiment for depth of field. It is a close up of the ball point of a pen with a very shallow depth of field. The shot will not win any awards, but it was an experiment. I submitted the shot figuring that it was worth a shot. Since I took this shot for myself, I was not upset that the image was rejected.
This, and another more edited version of the shot, are my best selling pictures for microstock. I submitted this original shot some time ago, then performed a better edit and submitted that one. Both shots were accepted by Shutterstock, while the more edited version was rejected by IStockPhoto but the version above was accepted. Together, this is the best selling shot for Dubai. I have made over $1000 in income from microstock just for this shot – so with the right shots you can definitely make money there. Eventually, I expect the money from this shot to pay for one of the nights we stayed there!
This shot was the result of 200 attempts to get a falling drop. I took it entirely for myself but thought the end shot may sell. Interestingly, this shot was rejected on Shutterstock but accepted on IStockPhoto. I’m guessing that the reason is the shot is more artistic. Sometimes IStockPhoto reviewers will be more flexible about focus and other things if they really like the shot. In this case, the drop itself is a bit out of focus. The flash is also a bit too strong on the drop. Because of this, the shot was rejected on Shutterstock. On IStockPhoto several copies were sold but it’s not a great seller.
For those who are wondering what this is, it is a closeup of velcro. The main reason I took this shot was I was curious what it would look like close up. I got a kick out of the resulting image and thought others may want the photo. Of course, the reviewers thought otherwise and this was an easy rejection for them. Still, I don’t mind because I satisfied the main aim of this picture – which was to satisfy my curiosity.
This has long been one of my favorite frost pictures. Typically when I show this picture off, I don’t hear much of a response. I have posted this on the web and shown it in presentations and never have I heard “nice shot!”. After some time, my suspicions are that this is not a great shot in the minds of most others. This is an example of a shot that I believed was much better than judged by others. Clearly the reviewer was in the “others” camp as this image was rejected for not being stock worthy.
Although I still like the shot, I do recognize that it would not sell well. There are just too many different pictures of flowers out there and my other images of frost that were accepted did not sell well.
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Tags: examples, IStockphoto, microstock, photography, review, reviewer, shutterstock, stock