cehwiedel: Factual Reports: Digital Photography: Markets: iStockPhoto

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Digital Photography: Markets: iStockPhoto

As with other sites, iStockPhoto requires a prospective contributor to open a (free) account on their website, read a tutorial, and take a test in order to contribute photographs.

This site’s application for permission to upload photographs includes descriptions and photographs of dos and don’ts — terrific! Lots of examples of exactly what they want, and don’t want.

Tips, such as using wax paper to tone down harsh shadows, and forum threads, such as setting up a home studio, are easy-to-find and highly useful. (Interestingly, Fotolia will accept scans of 4x6 prints while iStockPhoto will not.) The minimal acceptable resolution is 1600 x 1200 pixels, which my Kodak Easyshare CX 7330 squeaks past. The

Terms of Payment

20% - 40% per download payable via check

Most Sought-After Subjects

• Corporate/business

• Groups & Teams

• Sports

• Rare Artifacts

• Holiday & Seasonal Themes

• Analogue and Grunge

• Conceptual or symbolic

• Food and Beverages, especially with people

• Fashion

photographs must be JPEG in RGB mode, only. They won’t accept a photograph that has been “rezzed up” (blown up larger than its original size).

The test consists of a single page of mostly true/false questions with a couple multiple-choice questions, and is a bit trickier than the BigStockPhoto test because of copyright questions.

Once past the test, I had to indicate agreement with the site’s Terms of Use. To my surprise, I was also required to supply a JPEG scan of some sort of identification. (I used my driver’s license, after scanning it.) Then I was required to immediately upload three sample photographs. One of the photographs is below left, at reduced resolution.