How you ever thought about submitting your images to a microstock agency and perhaps even been doubtful if your images would be accepted this is going to be a very exciting article for you to read.
Listen carefully.
The pillars to successful image submissions rest on what I call “Explosive C4 for successful image submissions”.
And they are:
- C1 – Check for technical issues
- C2 – Compile commercially useful images
- C3 – Conform to the law
- C4 – Create a checklist
Ok, so let’s scrutinize the components one-by-one because this is critical if you submit images to stock agencies.
C1 – Check for technical issues
The first C in “explosive C4 for successful image submissions” is to Check for technical issues.
Blurry images, badly exposed images and images with color casts are all the “kiss of death” if you submit them to a stock agency. You simply won’t get your submission approved and consequently not sell any pictures either.
Just to be clear. I don’t suggest you need a 24 mega pixel camera with long and extremely expensive lenses to succeed in microstock photography. The technical problems I refer to is technical issues related to poor camera handling and poor image editing.
Here’s a list of common mistakes beginners do that often lead to rejected image submissions:
- Not holding camera still causing blurry images
- Setting in-camera sharpening to “on”
- Using the wrong file size or file format
- Noticeable retouching
This is obviously not a complete list but it gives you a good understanding of technical issues you must check for before you make your image submission.
C2 – Compile commercially useful images
The second C in “explosive C4 for successful image submissions” is to Compile commercially useful images.
The stock agencies don’t care about how beautiful or artistic your images are. Bluntly speaking, all they care about is if they can make money selling your images. Nothing else matters. Sorry if I destroyed some idealistic dreams but it’s a fact so you better get over it if you had some doubts. But really, this is good for you because if they sell your photos you get money on the bank.
A great litmus test is to ask yourself, would a magazine be interested to publish this image? If you can find similar images in magazines you know you’re on the right track.
Another somewhat sneaky trick is to spy on the stock agencies using readily available information at their web pages. Hint: you can use #downloads and #images in the search result to determine supply and demand.
C3 – Conform to the law
The third C in “explosive C4 for successful image submissions” is to Conform to the law.
You obviously want to stay out of trouble with the law so knowing what you can and can’t do is critical so you can stay out of trouble with the law but also to preserve your own interests.
Pay special attention if you intend to sell your images for commercial use like for instance advertising or product images on a commercial product. Commercial images require you for instance to have signed model releases for all recognizable individuals in the image. Images for editorial use are much less sensitive and don’t require a model release in most cases.
The problem with Royalty Free licensing is that you never know what the buyer intend to use the image for. It could be both editorial and commercial use so you should always get a signed model release when you sell images with Royalty Free license.
C4 – Create a checklist
The fourth C in “explosive C4 for successful image submissions” is to create a checklist.
There are many steps between taking the image and finally getting it approved by the stock agency and you also have many images to submit to be able to scale your business.
If you do some of the steps in the wrong order you at a minimum waste time or in worst case get your submission rejected because you “forgot” something important. Not only does it waste your time but kills your motivation and good mood too.
Everyone that sell photos need a checklist that covers all important activities and helps you do them in the most time saving order.
I personally have a laminated copy of my own checklist within an arms length from my computer.
Nothing and I mean NOTHING can separate me from my checklist and now you can grab it too including more than 30 training videos.
Just go to http://photosubmissionsecrets.com and grab your own copy.
