More about what NOT to shoot for stock, or what to look out for

During our recent visit to Europe I took many shots of buildings. Some of these were sort of 'historic', such as the house of Gaudi in Barcelona. While Shutterstock accepted these (and this is the most important one for me anyway), some of the other sites rejected the image with the comment that a property release is required.

I had the same problem with the Sagrada Familia, that large Catholic church that started construction more than 100 years back, and is still not finished. Some sites accepted the images as being historical, but others wanted property releases (a property release is an official agreement from the owner of the property to use it on-line or for stock). The problem is that the stock companies are very careful when it comes to people and property, as a single lawsuit can ruin their business.

A heads-up on a different issue. I shot a series of studio images for the FIFA World Cup football in South Africa, and iStockPhoto rejected my images for copyright issues on the soccerball. It was the official ball for the previous FIFA series and I made sure that all logos were covered, but in the black areas of the ball are line drawings of something that looks like stick-men. They did not like that. Again, Shutterstock approved those without any problems. Use of the word FIFA was rejected by a couple of the sites, including iStockphoto and BigStockPhoto.

When you prepare your stock images, make sure to check the latest requirements of the particular sites, and ensure to check out the list of unacceptable keywords. It is highly frustrating to have a rejection on keywords, and having to go through the pain of re-uploading the image. Best to check before you upload.