I've just joined recently - and hoping to make some of those good sales I see everyone writing about.
I have to say - I LOVE the site. Uploading is super simple. The AJAX implementation works particularly well for me

Yeah this is by far the worst for a budding photographer, trying to grow a portfolio!
The smallest portfolio I have is with FT.
They reject my work like crazy.
I think I now have something stupid like an 8% acceptance ratio!!!!!! 
That's insane!!!!!!!

I'm actually beginning to think this is personal.
Most of the same images get accepted at SS, CS, 123, DT etc.
Seems FT is the absolute worst for me.

I'm frustrated. Maybe I'll start taking advice mentioned earlier and not submit anything nature related or anything that's not isolated on a white BG.
I'm ready to hurt someone around now - I'm mad!

This depends on the country.
In South Africa (for example), Non-leased line broadband connectivity is ALL capped by default.

DSL, 3G, Wi-Fi etc are generally capped at about 1GB for general public, but one can opt for a larger cap (and simply pay about $8 more per month per GB).
Businesses using DSL usually have a cap of about 10GB, but can also opt for a larger cap.

There are also uncapped options available, but then line speeds are reduced dramatically to protect the ISPs.

I guess for most folk in the US and in most of Europe, this is not likely to be an issue, since bandwidth is FAR cheaper than in 3rd world countries.

Depth of field at 1:1 magnification (true macro) is tiny. As alias says, usually less than a 1mm. And the longer the focal length of the lens, the smaller depth of field is anyway (I don't know if this also applies to the virtual focal length created by the crop factor).
One way to improve it, where it is feasible to do it, is to shoot the subject at an angle that maximises the amount of the subject that is within the focal plane. i.e. if you shoot a flat leaf from above, with your camera parallel to the leaf surface, you will obviously have more in focus than if you shoot it at an angle to the camera. (This can be tricky with moving subjects, obviously! And with subjects that are not relatively flat, where you just have to choose what you want in focus.)

Are you using autofocus? With extreme close-ups it is usually better to focus manually, to make sure you get the focus where you want it. (Though that doesn't change the depth of field.

I am using mostly manual focusing on macro shots. I find this to be a little more accurate, which also eliminates the slightest blur on recomposing.

I remember seeing  advise somewhere in forums about not using smaller aperture than about F16 for stock photos but I cannot remember why. F29 seems really tiny. I can set F32 on my lens but I have never done it so far. What aperture do you usually use for macro and for some isolated small object you intend to upload to microstock?

I normally use an aperture of anywhere around f8- f20 depending on lighting, distance and size of the object.
For smaller objects, without too much gradient in depth, I would use between f8 and f20.
For objects with a bit more gradient, I would use between f14 and f20 I guess.
But even for something as small as a common garden snail moving toward the lens, f29 still doesn't work to capture the entire depth, or even half of the snail.

I think stacking may be my only option, provided of course, that the snail doesn't move too fast

Hi all,

I have a Canon EOS 450D.
I'm currently using a Sigma 18-200 f3.5 OS Lens, as well as a Sigma 105mm f2.8 EX DG Macro Lens.
I'm loving the Macro lens, however, I need a little advice on this?

I'm struggling with Depth of Field in general.
My focal points are very sharp, but seems anything a few mm before or after that focal point is blurred.

So, in an attempt to increase DOF, I've increased F-Stop values using Aperture Priority mode.
The problem with this is that, naturally, my Shutter Speed (I hate this term) or Exposure Time (ahh, much better) increases.
So that's ok. I usually have a tripod set up, however, for bugs that happen to be moving, this poses another problem.

Of course, since the 450D is not a full-frame DSLR, I tend to try steer away from sensitive ISO speeds.
I tend to normally shoot between 100 and 400 ISO in an attempt to avoid excessive noise.

I've taken pics of water droplets on a leaf in a garden using f-stop 29 (Av), 1/4 Tv, ISO 200 in good morning light.
The DOF of the leaf (which is probably about 6cm in size) is still fairly shallow.
The middle of the leaf, is perfectly in focus, but the front of the leaf (about 2.5cm nearer to lens) is very soft.
It's a lot better than the same image at f-stop 11, but still shallower than I'd like.

Even shooting a miniature orange (which is about 3 cm in diameter), still shows sharp focus on the front, but blurring on the edges, only possibly 1cm deeper than focal point, using Av of 14-19?

Am I doing something wrong?

Something else I can try for increased DOF?

Holy Banana!

Well done man!
That's awesome!

GenuineFractals is better although I have had images accepted with bicubic upsizing in Photoshop too.

Yup - just upsized using PS. Set to 5100 pixels across, used Bicubic for Enlargement.
Upload almost done - let's see what comes of this

I think you're doing pretty well.

I'm subscribed to 9 sites yet iStock won't even accept me.
I've tried 3 times and they keep rejecting my applications without much reason.

I'm also pretty new at this (overall) and from what I gather, there's a simple formula to this:

No. of Sales is directly proportional to the number of quality images on your portfolio.

Anyone noticed that review times at 123 are pretty bad?
Or is it just me now? It's been like 7 days already for me?

Almost as bad as BigStock for me... 

Commented ^



http://www.stockxpert.com/browse_image/view/36868871

Agreed to all of the above.
However, SS seems to be the leader at this point, yet their rejection rate for me is nowhere NEAR as bad as FT.

So, the differences are apparent in terms of what they are looking for between markets and sites.

Interesting reading the input though, I learn a lot through these forums - thanks!

Chris

Another poll, which I will couple with data from the duration before generating decent sales.

Would be interesting to see the results from these two polls...