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it can be a broader definition than that . we have been selling our photo's on our website for years . we also do an occasional paid photo shoot but we hardly consider ourselves anything more than serious photographers .
if we had to live off our photo sale income we would starve .
there are many definitions of professional.
1. Person formally certified by a professional body of belonging to a specific profession by virtue of having completed a required course of studies and/or practice. And whose competence can usually be measured against an established set of standards.
2. Person who has achieved an acclaimed level of proficiency in a calling or trade. See also professionalism.
I just like the old school definition that they used to use to decide eligibility for the Olympics and other amateur-only sporting events. To each their own.
I have known more than a few 'professional' photographers whose only claim on the term is having been paid for their services while being inferior to all but the most rank amateurs.
it is actually both a noun and a verb so it can mean a lot .but i take it to mean someone who derives most of their income from it .
i spent my early life as a professional drummer . i gave it up for decades after the kids were born . but since i retired i went back to it and thanks to video's on you tube in many areas i am actually better today. but i don't call myself a professional drummer anymore even though my skill set may be on par .
in fact i catch myself saying i used to be a professional drummer even though i can do things today that were not even on the radar yet 30 years ago ..
Love these tangents people get off on. I'm going to try and stay on the topic. Thanks for further information on canstock. I googled websites that pay the most for photos, and I'm using canstock as the "guinea pig" - the photos they accept, I will then try submitting to better sites. I asked canstock again about their rejections, and they only say "if you disagree with the rejection you can resubmit the photo" but that doesn't do anything, they just keep rejecting it. So, canstock is not going to teach me anything. I wonder if all the photo sites are that cold. They rejected this photo because of the blurriness, but that's supposed to be there; the blurry background makes the foreground stand out, to me that's the point of macro shots.
as far as this photo i find the background far to cluttered and visible for my taste . the background is not blurred and smooth enough while the subject is not sharp enough and detailed enough to be a good subject . macro shots should be macro shots with powerful attention and focus given to the subject .
it should be either so aesthetically pleasing or a peek in to a world hard to see to be worth a darn . macro is my favorite area of photography and what i do the most of
I do have a question on point here. Are you actively wanting to make money from stock photos, or are you simply submitting them to find out if they are good enough for stock agencies?
Not to be brutal, but the photos you are showing us on this thread aren't good enough to earn money from. You say you have much better photos, why not submit those?
Also, as I alluded to previously, if you actually intend to make money from micro stock agencies, you really need to submit literally hundreds, if not thousands, of photos. Not just one here and one there.
The macro photo has no stand out subject. It's a blossom in the middle of leaves. There is no "bokeh" (that out-of-focus) area that is pleasing. The blossom isn't sharp enough and there's nothing happening (i.e. bee collecting pollen, hummingbird, different colors on the blossom, etc.)
Frankly, if I were a photo editor (as I used to be for the Associated Press) I wouldn't spend more than 30 seconds looking at your portfolio if you showed me these photos. Then I would send you a note saying "thank you, we'll call you if we need you."
Love these tangents people get off on. I'm going to try and stay on the topic. Thanks for further information on canstock. I googled websites that pay the most for photos, and I'm using canstock as the "guinea pig" - the photos they accept, I will then try submitting to better sites. I asked canstock again about their rejections, and they only say "if you disagree with the rejection you can resubmit the photo" but that doesn't do anything, they just keep rejecting it. So, canstock is not going to teach me anything. I wonder if all the photo sites are that cold. They rejected this photo because of the blurriness, but that's supposed to be there; the blurry background makes the foreground stand out, to me that's the point of macro shots.
I think the subject (the flower) needs to be enlarged compared to the background. Try cropping the image down and resubmitting it. The background is not interesting and there is too much of it. I personally would turn up the contrast slightly. The background is not really blurry enough to be a macro shot. It just looks out of focus, not in a good way... so I'd make the background a little darker by adjusting the contrast (as well as cropping).
I don't want to hurt your feelings, but your images so far are not very good and I don't know why anyone would buy them. The best one was 6097, and that one could also use some improvement, but the setting is quite pretty. The curving road, nice sky, hills and trees, and the field make a good photograph. I'd crop it to something like 16:9, get rid of some of the sky and perhaps a bit of the bottom as well. I'd try to brighten the greens and blues as well, the photo colors are too flat.
It looks like you are probably shooting full auto on your camera, I don't know what setting you have available, but you should adjust the colors, contract, and brightness. Just that could make the photos come alive a lot more.
I'm not a professional, but I think those are some goods tips.
we strive to make sure we have no clutter in our macro shots and things in the photo either add to the scene or the photo is not a keeper . the eyes need to go to exactly where the subject is . the background is like the matting of a painting in that it matches but really has nothing of great interest or anything your eye even can focus on unless i want it part of the scene . everything is tightly controlled as far as what i want the viewer to see as well their reaction like going "yikes" or "yeeeech . .
Last edited by mathjak107; 10-19-2017 at 02:54 AM..
Love these tangents people get off on. I'm going to try and stay on the topic. Thanks for further information on canstock. I googled websites that pay the most for photos, and I'm using canstock as the "guinea pig" - the photos they accept, I will then try submitting to better sites. I asked canstock again about their rejections, and they only say "if you disagree with the rejection you can resubmit the photo" but that doesn't do anything, they just keep rejecting it. So, canstock is not going to teach me anything. I wonder if all the photo sites are that cold. They rejected this photo because of the blurriness, but that's supposed to be there; the blurry background makes the foreground stand out, to me that's the point of macro shots.
also watch the lighting reflections .there are white blotches of light from reflections all in the background leaves that look bad .
i think before you think about selling photos you need to have a better skill set and need to train your eye to even recognize a good photo.
what you do for yourself is up to you. snap shots are fine. but once you start doing it for others and post on a photography forum to be viewed by photogrohers no one will accept what you do as good if it isn't . it is like i always say , you get no brownie points because you dabble or it is straight out of camera with no editing once you post for others ..
once you post it is up there to be viewed and judged and if it is not a finished product we will be honest. that is how we all learn . we don't fall in to successful photography , we fail in to it .
what you do after the shot in editing can be as important as the shot itself .
Last edited by mathjak107; 10-19-2017 at 03:04 AM..
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