Commercial Stock Photography

[Igor]

Reading a book on Selling Photography by Roger Antrobus. It is a 2003 book. Primarily he is advocating for stock photography.

Interesting. I wasn’t real aware of the industry so I started to check some of the libraries out.

Their image requirememnts seem to be 30 to 50 MB files. I’ve got a 10 megapixel camera. The Large image (RAW + JPEG) is about 19 MB.

Are they using larger cameras or using some kind of enlargement software?

[Major_Small]

which agency had that requirement? All of the agencies I've worked with have pretty low or no file size requirements - pixel size and quality are much more important.

Edit - actually, I just found that Getty requires 47.5-52MB uncompressed TIFF files. It's pretty easy to reach that level when you're saving in uncompressed TIFF and shooting with a professional (or even prosumer) level camera.

They actually have a list of "approved" bodies as well:

If you are shooting on a 35mm digital camera it must an approved camera from this list: Nikon D200, Nikon D2X, Canon EOS 30D, Canon EOS 5D, Canon EOS 1D MK 11, Canon EOS 1Ds, Canon EOS 1Ds MK 11. All medium format backs (e.g. backs by Phase One and Leaf etc) produce sufficiently high quality images to be accepted by us.

You may want to stick with microstock at first though. Or at most go with something like alamay to get started - stock photography is a whole different beast than most other forms.

[Igor]

Major_Small,

Thanks for the reply. I was working down the list of agencies at the ASPP site, which I found through the book.

For the sites where I could find submission guidelines (Digital Light Source and MyLoupe) they we talking large files.

I'll go looking at some of the microstock companies. I'm sure Google will bring up a bunch.

Related question, I assume the IPTC header can be created in Photoshop. I'm using PSPro and haven't run into it before.

Thanks again.

[Major_Small]

I'm not really sure if it can be created in photoshop. I've never heard if it can or can't, but I do know most people find something else to edit IPTC tags. I personally use Picasa.

The top 6 micro-stock agencies, as rated by profits, are in this order (which changes):

• Shutterstock
• Istockphoto
• Dreamstime
• StockXpert
• Fotolia
• 123RoyaltyFree

The second-tier sites are:

• BigStockPhoto
• Crestock
• FeaturePics

My personal favorite is BSP, but they all have their own 'personalities'.

[neilwood]

A lot of the agencies will (unofficially) allow upscaling of images by upto 40-50%.

[NaturesPixel]

Originally Posted by neilwood

A lot of the agencies will (unofficially) allow upscaling of images by upto 40-50%.

err dont think soo...


well i know Shutterstock and Istockphoto (the biggest 2) only just tolerate 5%

[Major_Small]

Yeah, I don't think you could get more than about 5% past the reviewers, and even that is pushing it. If anything, you want to downsize a little to help with noise and other faults.

[NaturesPixel]

Also here is a brand new book written by one of my fellow Shutterstockers...

http://www.amazon.com/Microstock-Pho...7518115&sr=8-1

mainly aimed at newer microstock photographers... written well with a lot of useful info for those wanting to start out in this world

[neilwood]

I looked at Alamay and Photoshelter and both suggested in thier FAQ that upsizing was allowed. I think the rule is that it doesnt degrade the image though.

http://www.alamy.com/contributors/st...al-cameras.asp

Unfortunately i cant give a link to photoshelter as it was in one of the sign up sheets and i dont have my log in with me atm (i signed up but I've not uploaded anything yet).

[Major_Small]

You can generally get some upsizing by, but I can't see 50% upscaling getting past any good reviewers. Not quite sure why you'd want to up size by that much in the first place though.