Not RF stock, what is it and what does it want from me?!

This a question you will have asked yourself if you are in stock photography.

There are a few categories of images that fall within this refusal reason. These are photos that you should not upload as stock.

Let’s talk about them:

• “I went to the park and shot a picture of tree that is smack in the middle and it’s also poorly lit and I also looked away when I shot it so it’s crooked” – delete it, or keep it on your hard drive if you find it hard to part with your images
• Let’s stay in the park and see what other things are not to be submitted as stock: insects that are not macros and are not well lit, park benches, people’s feet, a lonely duck floating in your image somewhere far far away washed out by the strong sunlight, garbage cans, garbage in general, unless you went to the garbage collector and shot some great editorial pics, flowers that are not in a well composed and well lit image as well as washed out not so blue skies with less than white clouds
• “I met my fried in a cafe and decided to sneak in some pictures, they are blurry but they look artistic, seriously” – wrong, it’s not artistic and it does not make a great stock subject. You can shoot great images in a cafe but not from under the table
• “I went to the restaurant and I had these really awesome ribs and had to take a pic of them. The flash fired cause it was too dark in there” – I bet the ribs were great but the picture is most likely not. Again, food is a great subject to shoot given the right light, composition and setting.
• “I went to the mall and shot all the mannequins in all the windows on display and I am now going to sell them as stock” – no, you’re not, they don’t sell, and usually you have a zillion reflections in the window. Instead shoot a wide angle of the whole store and upload it to the editorial section.
• “I went to a wedding and I just took pictures but I wasn’t the actual photographer so I just had to shoot from the back of the room” – weddings can be a good subject if they are shot right but taking pics at your best friend’s wedding is not on the menu
• “I was bored one day and got out all the old toys and objects in my house and started shooting them” – bad idea, just because it’s an object on white it doesn’t mean it’s gonna sell.

I can go on for a long time with examples of images that are simply not good enough for stock but I am going to stop here.

You may have noticed that the common denominator in most of those example is “with the right light and composition this subject is great for stock”, so this is what you should always keep in mind when you shoot pictures.

Be selective about what you upload and your approval ratio will thank you! Remember that some images are personal and should stay that way.

Happy shooting!