Microstock Photography

14 How to Make Dollars from Cents

they full-time professionals, keen amateurs, or casual snappers). The

problem is that the microstocks impose high technical standards. New

microstock subscribers (even those with previous experience of selling

work through traditional stock libraries) do not always fully appreciate

what these technical standards are or what they need to do to meet

them. This can put photographers off before they have given the

microstocks a chance. Photographs are rejected—How dare they!—for

a whole range of problems that might not show up in print or even

on screen if you don’t know what to look for. Rejections for noise,

dust blobs, poor composition, bad lighting, and a myriad of other

defects reduce the snapper to table-chewing frustration and anger.

(Believe me, I know. I’ve been there.) Some poor souls give up before

they get going, which is a shame because by following the guidance I

give in this book, your chances of success should be radically

improved.

FIGURE 2.1 One of the world’s most successful microstock photographers is Yuri Arcurs from Denmark. Here is one of his classic business images,
“Strength in Numbers.” © Yuri_Arcurs/iStockphoto