Shutterstock – 2 Out of 10

Shutterstock reviewed the 10 pictures I uploaded last night very quickly. Unfortunately they only approved 2 out of 10. I feel chastened!

Here is the message they sent me:

Hi,

Thank you for your submission to Shutterstock.

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.

We invite you to resubmit in 30 days. In the meantime, you can still post banners, earn money from referring photographers, and participate in our forum discussions. Please do not create more than one account; doing so will result in permanent suspension.

Thank you for your interest in Shutterstock. We look forward to seeing you again in 30 days!

Regards,

Shutterstock Support

			Ian’s Comments
	Not Approved	Focus–Your image is not in focus or focus is not located where we feel it works best.	I’m surprised they think this is not in focus. It looks fine to me.
	Not Approved	Trademark–Contains potential trademark or copyright infringement–not editorial.	I’m surprised that a picture of a passing bus with the Metrobus logo would be considered copyright infringement. Good job I did not upload any of my Skytrain panoramas. They all contain copyrighted designs / logos.
	Not Approved	Trademark–Contains potential trademark or copyright infringement–not editorial.	Even more so for this picture – I cannot see anyone seeing a copyright infringement for a generic Bangkok bus.
	Not Approved	Model Release–Please re-upload with release.	I didn’t think the people were “identifiable” so it does not need a release. Of course it is impossible to get releases from a crowd. If I did obtain 200 releases how would I prove that I had releases for everyone pictured? That policy seems to preclude acceptance of any pictures with people in sans a release.
	Not Approved	7 of 10 must be approved	I guess they would have approved this one.
	Not Approved	Model Release–Please re-upload with release. Noise–Noise, film grain, over-sharpening, or artifacts at full size. Focus–Your image is not in focus or focus is not located where we feel it works best.	Similarly here I would not call the farmers “identifiable”. In included this one to see if they’d approve something with a different treatment. I think it is attractive – they think it isn’t marketable.
	Not Approved	7 of 10 must be approved	I guess they would have approved this one.
	Not Approved	Composition–Limited commercial value due to framing, cropping, and/or composition.	I don’t understand this comment. It looks well framed / cropped / composed to my eye. But they know what sells. I included this to see if a B&W picture would be approved. They don’t say anything about that so maybe it would.
	Not Approved	Composition–Limited commercial value due to framing, cropping, and/or composition.	Same as above. There is another truck in the background: maybe that is what they mean. I bet if I had included the close-ups I have with the Austin logo they would say it is potential copyright infringement.
	Not Approved	Focus–Your image is not in focus or focus is not located where we feel it works best.	I cannot see the focus problem here. My eyes must be getting old. I included this one to see if they like pet pictures. I was thinking they may have too many of them but it was worth a try.

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