Submitted photos to Shutterstock, questions on their feedback

[nemesis256]

I recently submitted 10 photos to Shutterstock and just got their feedback. They didn't take any of my images, since only two of them were of interest to them. Most of the rejected images were due to no commercial value. I was expecting this, so I'm not disappointed by this.

But I have a couple questions about their feedback. On the image below, one of the reasons they rejected it was for "Poor or uneven lighting, or shadows." Is this because of the sunlight on the left leaves?



In both the image above and the following, they rejected it for being out of focus. I think that the subject areas are in focus, but the background obviously isn't. Are they talking about the background? Is it just not blurry enough to make it look like it was on purpose?




Any other tips? I'm not sure if I'll get anywhere with this soon, since most of what I shoot isn't "commercial value" (landscapes for example). I like the sunlight on the leaves above, and blurry backgrounds (although neither of these images are good examples of that) because I think it gives an image more character. Is stock photography really that "boring"? Instead of having "character", everything has to be "perfect"?

Any other stock photography sites worth trying?

[DogHeadGod]

Don't sweat it, stock images need to be of commercial/conceptual value and not just pretty pictures.

The stock companies I submit images to all have "no flowers" policies because they are already saturated by those types of images.

You are right in your understanding of thier rejection, the first one is because of the sunlight on a couple of the leaves and the rest the main subject isn't sharp. For example in image one the leaves are in focus but the berries aren't.

Articles - Are You Taking Snapshots? | iStockphoto.com this article from istockphoto might help further understand what stock companies are looking for.

DHG

[AnnaV]

That's an excellent article, and relevant to everything we're trying to acheive here I;d say, not just those trying to sell photos!

[OsmosisStudios]

Its great to have support, but that second picture does look a bit OOF to me.