Lifestyle / Photography

Oh My, I Finally am a Shutterstock Contributor!

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It’s been two years since I was studying photography in the United States and I sent my very first photos to Shutterstock for a review. 8/10 failed to met their criteria. I felt horrible and though I’ll never get my photos anywhere except here and family albums.

Shutterstock is a huge international photo stock for professional quality photos. I wanted to get my photos there because it is the biggest one in the industry. It’s highly valued and has excellent content. I want my photos and my name to be attached to the best photo stock.

After hundreds of thousands of photos, far too many hours on photoshopping and even more hours watching others photos I have finally made one of my dreams come true.

I finally got accepted to be a Shutterstock contributor in the middle of the March 2017. The featured image at the beginning of this post is one of those photos that made this dream come true.

This feels amazing and slightly unreal. I guess I can say I’m a professional photographer now, or at least this is the first step to become one.

shutterstockroses

These yellow roses above made my first sale! 🙂

So far there has been two sales which made me 0,50$ haha! But hey, it’s a beginning. 🙂 I think for me getting accepted is more about getting feedback and knowing I’m good enough. It’s not about getting that much money from this. Some money would, of course, be a big plus but at the moment I want to concentrate on improving my skills.

I assume (that according to short googling) it is possible to make up to thousands a month with stocks but that’ll require at least tens of thousands of excellent quality and also adding content constantly.

If you’re interested in doing stock photos you can learn more:
– Good blog post about basics and choosing the right stock service for you
– Check list to go through before sending your images

Ps. Check out my Shutterstock portfolio here 🙂

Just let me know if you want to hear my experiences about Shutterstock. If you guys are interested I sure can write a longer post about it.

51 comments

    1. They are really strict with their quality requirements! I have used quite a lot of time to photographing and also with the post processing with the ones I got through. They are checking the photos in 100% size to make sure they see all the flaws.

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      2. Thank you! I’ve started planning the post about Shutterstock and their requirements and some tips. I’m quite busy atm so it might not be here next week but it’s coming. Stay tuned! 🙂

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  5. Your yellow roses are indeed beautiful. They speak of happiness, enlightenment, and wisdom. And love the way you took the photos. Nice angle. Congratulations on your sale as well. More to come, please.

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    1. Thank you so much! I was quite suspicious if my photos can make there because only 2 years ago 80% failed. But well, I think I must have improved during past two years! 🙂 And yes, there is a lot of platforms. I wanted to get them in Shutterstock because what comes to quality, I think they have highest requirements. 🙂 Maybe I could though find some more platforms to market my photos.

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  16. Congratulations! I am happy for you. The photos your posted in here are stunning. You are now starting to reap the fruits of your hard work. I encourage you to take more photos and continue doing what you love. Dreams do really come true!

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  17. Congratulations on being a professional 🙂 I like the photo that you took. Anyway, I’m interested to know more about Shutterstock as it can be another way of earning income. Hope you can write a longer post about it.

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    1. Yes they have! I found out that first time. Nowadays I’ve got about 90% of the photos I’ve offered accepted. So, I guess I’ve been improving. 🙂 I really hope I can earn with my photos and content one day!

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    2. They used to have high standards. When I first joined them in 2009, new contributors had to submit 10 images of which 7 needed to pass technical standards. Nowadays, still need to submit 10 sample images but only 1 needs to pass and you’re through! Then for each image it goes through a reviewer but I also think that standards have slipped.

      When your image are finally accepted, whether you earn enough to pay for more than coffee a donut amonth is another matter altogether…

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  20. I’ve always wondered how businesses like Shutterstock work with contributors .. and am so glad found your post. Good for you for putting in the time to hone your skill to that point that they would accept you! That’s a very big deal. In your portfolio all of your images are beautiful and it’s fun that the roses were your first sale. Yellow is associated with optimism!

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  21. Pingback: April Wrap Up & Goals for May – Dreamer Achiever

    1. I’ve been quite busy with other stuff like school and work lately. However, I’ve been able to grow my portfolio and gain some sales. Anyhow, I’ve earned less than $4 so it’s not gonna pay my bills yet.

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