I have tried getting on that site for a few months now. Applied well over 5 times by now.. Can someone help me pick the right photos? I was able to upload everything I have ever down to 123RF. Any kind soul willing to go through my gallery and pick out the 10 they think will help me get in? Please  

My 123RF Gallery: http://www.123rf.com/portfolio/eugenef/1.html

Could you pick out your 10 that you would submit to Shutterstock?? Please

I won't help you with portrait shots, but as far as those architectural photos are concerned, my guess is that a lot of them would be rejected by SS because of "poor lighting setup, bla, bla, shadows or incorrect white balance". On my first attempt because of that they rejected 5 pics,  which had been accepted by IS. I addressed this issue and on my second attempt 9 were accepted.
My advice is: go out on a nice sunny day, shoot some simple but technically perfect pics, avoid shadows, then in post-processing increase saturation a bit (they seem to like juicy colors), get rid of all noise, downsample to a little more than 4 MP, and that should do it. At least that did it for me. What camera do you use?

One more thing: it might be good to diversify your initial submission, a couple of portraits, architecture, nature, still life, etc. Some folks say it helps.

This is what they always send me:

In order for Shutterstock to maintain the high standard of our photography collection, new submitters must receive approval on at least seven (7) of their first ten (10) images to continue uploading. Unfortunately, while some of the images you submitted may meet our guidelines, we are unable to approve the requisite number and have temporarily disabled the uploading function on your account. This decision was based on concerns about quality, composition, lighting, or other features of your initial batch of images and we have listed the reasons below.

I know a lot of the images are not great, but I was hoping to figure out what they like so I can get in, any help?

Did they list actual rejection reasons next to the photos that failed? The rejection reasons are important and may help indicate where your weaknesses are. If the reasons are noise/artifacts, you may have to adjust some things. If the rejection reasons are consistently lighting/white balance, then in their view, your exposures and color balancing are not quite right, or the strobes may be too hard on the subject.

The isolated on white look ok in the small size, like this one

http://www.123rf.com/photo_3071922.html

but it is hard to see how you handled the edge detail in the small views.

The model shots overall are average. Again it is very hard to tell the overall quality in the small views, but you seem to have a lot of lighting issues.  I like this one in the way that you composed it, but the lighting, meaning the shadow cast from the arm, does not work especially with the warm color background

http://www.123rf.com/photo_3024345.html

Same deal here - good photo but the lighting kills it

http://www.123rf.com/photo_3024343.html

I like the look of the model and the way you handle pose and space in both shots.

The bikini shots are pretty poor and are limited in their marketabilty.

Without seeing the full size it is very hard to judge because the technical accuracy of the isolation work is an important component. Aesthetically, nothing jumped out at me as being overly good or overly bad.

Just a few comments

Here clothing does not complement model. flesh tone looks too blue, crop too tight, and nasty reflection on eyeglasses. Sidelight from left just unnatural. Can work in some photos but does not work here.

http://www.123rf.com/photo_3072114.html

Here crop too tight, possiblly blown highlights, nothing interesting at all in the pic. I can also see a reflection of possibly a shooting umbrella in the bottom rim of the glasses, and the glasses may be a proprietary design.

http://www.123rf.com/photo_3072133.html

Here the choice of the golden yellow fabric or blanket casts nasty color tone on the model's lower body half, while the torso skin looks balanced towards blue color temeperature. Face looks like too much flat makeup, washed out, or possible over Photoshopped, Model has good body tone though, but I think her look is more suited to athletic theme rather than boudoir attempt. Nice shadows shows body dimension, but that yellow blanket should not have been used. Throws off the skin tones and takes the image out of balance.

http://www.123rf.com/photo_3072141.html

This one is just plain bad. It looks like she has a body part missing because the hand at left is blown in addition to being awkwardly posed.

http://www.123rf.com/photo_3072108.html

Really we could play this game all day.

I suggest http://strobist.blogspot.com/ and take their lighting courses there. They are free. The Lighting forum over at DPReview used to be pretty good and the guys there pretty honest in their  critiques.

I can't give you magic formulas for acceptance, nor can anyone else here. Submit your very best work. Look at the variety of what you are submitting. Perhaps shoot one or two new just to show variety in subject matter.

Include a clear and concise business image instead of models trying to play coy to the camera and not succeeding. Here is one I like on SS that I picked at random. Maybe look at this guy's port and get some ideas. I don't know the photog here, but if I were buying and saw this, I would look at the rest of his stuff too. BTW, I think the image is nicely lit here, even showing the folds in the black fabric of tthe suit.

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-12786892-beautiful-businesswomen-speaking-with-somebody-by-mobile-phone.html

I have given you all the help that I can. And you have still failed to answer the question regarding the reviewer's comments flagged against the individual images.

Were the rejection reasions for

1. Noise/artifacts

2. Lighting/white balance

3. Other



I have gven you a few good image possiblities in my previous posts. Your job to come up with the rest. If you want to make the $$, you need to heed decent advice and do the work. N one can do it for you.

also if they do not give a reason does that mean they would have accepted it?

I have the following equipment

Nikon D200 50mm 1.4

Shoot everything in raw (studio - 100), outside - 200-400 ISO

Tripod, remote release.. and so fourth

Great post Zeus!

I try and get most of the noise out in raw processing using the Detail tab in PS CS2. I will adjust further in post processing if needed. Usually I don't have to.

The D200 can be a bit problematic with noise if your exposures are not spot on to begin with. It's just the nature of the sensor in the camera.

I would say go with these 11. taking out the one you like the least to make it 10

http://www.123rf.com/photo_3072187.html
http://www.123rf.com/photo_3072169.html
http://www.123rf.com/photo_3071920.html
http://www.123rf.com/photo_3071906.html
http://www.123rf.com/photo_2927437.html (give this bit more red/yellow)
http://www.123rf.com/photo_2927431.html (amp it up)
http://www.123rf.com/photo_2927327.html (amp it up)
http://www.123rf.com/photo_3072200.html
http://www.123rf.com/photo_3072178.html
http://www.123rf.com/photo_3072068.html
http://www.123rf.com/photo_3072073.html

sorry, what does amp it up mean?