Minimum camera for stock?

[jdepould]

An apprenticeship usually involves a mentor of some kind. That's not to say you can't learn a lot here, but it's not as intensive as what you have in mind (I think).

[baldmountain]

Originally Posted by jdepould

An apprenticeship usually involves a mentor of some kind. That's not to say you can't learn a lot here, but it's not as intensive as what you have in mind (I think).

Absolutely true. I use the word apprenticeship in the loosest terms. More a set of goals and tasks that I can use as exercises towards learning.

DPS assignments and WWYD are an excuse to get creative. Look past the obvious. Especially the WWYDs. Although I'd love more feedback from the pros on what works and what doesn't. The assignments force me to take pictures in situations that I wouldn't bother trying otherwise.

Stock is where I focus on technical and compositional aspects. I have a nasty habit of only seeing my subject and ignoring the background. Part of my stock "apprenticeship" is to break myself of this habit.

[dakwegmo]

Originally Posted by baldmountain

Everything from my Nikon P&S was coming back rejected for composition. I saw that new pictures were being accepted that were very compositionally similar to what I was submitting. I then decided, (perhaps wrongly), that the images were probably compositionally OK, but that I was getting a generic rejection due to the quality of the images from my camera. Especially since I got the last rejection almost as soon as the image was finished uploading.

I think it probably is a mistake to assume the reason your images were rejected was due to technical aspects of the image and not the reason stated by the stock agency. For starters, the stock agencies have a vested interest in telling you why images were rejected. It helps you understand what they're looking for, so you can submit more of the quality of image that will make them money. If they didn't benefit from this advice they wouldn't bother giving you feedback, they'd simply reject your photos. Also, the stock sites I have experience with have the ability to reject based on technical merits as well and will usually list multiple reasons for a rejection if they exist. Obviously, not all the reviewers have the same work ethic, but if it were me, I would take the feedback offered and work on composition. Just because a stock site already has images with a similar composition doesn't mean that they will automatically accept your shots, even if they are good. They may feel that they already have enough shots with similar composition, or they may see the differences in composition as being the difference between a shot that sells and a shot that doesn't. Or it may be that none of the shots with similar composition are selling, so they don't need more inventory of shots that don't sell. Ultimately, that's what stock photography is about. You can have technically flawless and creatively brilliant photos, but if the stock sites don't think they'll make any money selling them to advertisers and other stock buyers, they won't accept them.

[baldmountain]

Decided to go with a used Nikon D50. Now I need to invest a bunch of time learning how this thing behaves.

[baldmountain]

Originally Posted by jdepould

Shooting sports with that setup is going to be a major pain.

Here is one from the first of the Sports shots. I learned a LOT. I took WAY to many of kids backs. Lots of horrible backgrounds. And I learned why they suggest a 200mm f2.8 lens rather than f4. I also learned that I need a polarizer for a sunny day. A monopod wouldn't hurt either.

[kencaleno]

$99.00 Sanyo xacti VPC S650 6 megapixels .The image below was approved by Shutterstock,who are very fussy about noise. regards, Ken

[kencaleno]

Originally Posted by richsuk

I was about to say something similar. Most stock sites require images to be at least a certain size. Getting a camera with the highest MP count you can will allow you to meet this criteria even if you have to crop.

Probably one of the few things where I would say MP count.

Do your cropping in the camera and you won't ever need more that 6 Megapixels