Illustrative Editorial

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

Hello all,

I am wondering why the box for Illustrative Editorial is not available for me to check?

Thanks in advance for your time and replies =}

Annette

[Test Screen Name]

You have to be an established contributor. How many accepted images do you have?

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

I was wondering if it had something to do with that. Thank you 😃

Honestly, I haven't been doing much, yet and have had nothing accepted. I wish there was a more detailed critique, at least until a newbie catches on. I am converting from my 40 year ago film training to digital, right now. I have limited equipment and don't really like the shutter button on my Canon. My Nikon was superior, by far.

I have not mastered LRC yet, that's for sure. I also have Rheumatoid Arthritis and didn't realize how weak it had made my upper body. Just taking a clear shot is tough so I'm trying to build my muscles, lol. I'm also still trying to figure out exactly what they want. I didn't really want to look through other photogs accounts because I don't want what I see to influence me in any way, but I broke that rule last night. It appears that everyone kind of shoots the same types of images, all the time? I want to do a little of this and a little of that. Is that going to stop me from being successful on here? Any advice or guidance would be awesome.

Thanks to you, in advance!

[Test Screen Name]

Shooting a varied portfolio is a really good idea. You also need to look at the existing stock catalog if you want to make images that sell. Not to copy ideas but

- to see how many images there already are. For example, if you see a really great opportunity to photograph a pink flower,  search for "pink flower". When you see there already nearly 8 million pink flower images in the database, you know that adding more is pointless.

- to see the standard of the popular shots 

- to see what treatments of a subject are overdone

- to check out keywords and what they bring up. This is how customers will find your work. You can see whether the keywords that you THINK are good lead to the right stuff. For example if you are thinking of photographing a cute red fort in your neice's yard, a search for RED FORT will show you that Adobe's customers who choose that are probably looking for images of THE Red Fort (historical building in Delhi) and this will swamp your pictures.

Good luck!

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

I want to thank you for your suggestions. I appreciate any help/information you experienced contributors give to me. I've not done practice searches, but definitely will do so. You made some great points and suggestions.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond and share your knowledge!

Annette

[Jill_C]

Check out the Artist Hub and Insights tab on the top menu of your Dashboard page which can provide some guidance as to what Adobe is looking for and what is selling. Learning editing software tools is essential to your success as a stock photographer, or for any photography for that matter. I do 95% of my edits in Lightroom Classic, and only a small percentage need to go to Photoshop for further editing. Invest in a comprehensive training course for LRC; otherwise you will continue to be frustrated with learning to use it effectively on your own. I learned from Ben Willmore on CreativeLive.com but there are several other good teachers on that platform.

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

Jill,

Thanks for the info. I have read pretty much everything there is to read on stock, multiple times (although, I will be reading it again as there is a lot to remember). I don't think my use of LRC is the problem anymore. I used Anthony Morganti's videos to learn the program. Because they only want a certain amount of processing done, so clients can make the changes they desire, I may know all I need to know. I did just upgrade my computer and now have Windows 11, so some of the things I learned functions differently than they did on Windows 10, but I can figure that out.

Because I studied photography when film was the only option, I am basically relearning how to shoot. My career course changed when I developed RA, but now I'm revisiting photography in my retirement. I enjoy taking photos, but it's also nice to have a goal. Improving and having photos accepting to STOCK is that goal. Buying new equipment, plus learning to use it is a big task. Everything I need to know just to use my speedflash is daunting, lol. But, I have nothing else to do so I will get there.

As a retired teacher, I won't be accepting "jobs" that require me to be 1000% knowledgable. 

I appreciate your help. It was kind of you to take the time to respond  😃

Annette

[Jill_C]

Good luck on your digital photography and stock sales journey. It's a great hobby, which I have also pursued passionately in retirement. I had been immersed in my digital photography hobby for nearly 15 years before I started contributing to Adobe Stock, and admittedly my rejection rate was higher than I wanted at the outset - probably around 30%. Slowly but surely though I learned to more carefully inspect and edit my images prior to submission, and now my reject rate is <5%. The new Denoise feature in LRC should reduce that to closer to 0%. The best advice I can give to a new contributor is to zoom in between 100-200% and carefully inspect every part of your image and re-edit as required to correct any issues before submission. Many images look okay at small size, but fall apart quickly when you start zooming in!

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

Thanks again, Jill

I always zoom to minimum of 100% and I do my spotting at 200%.

I do find something confusing though about the "specs". When I was looking at already accepted images, I was surprised to see how many crooked horizons and cluttered backgrounds there are. Maybe not super strict for everyone? Am I having an extra tough time because I'm new?

Annette

[Jill_C]

Yes, you can always find instances of not-so-perfect images which can occur due to reviewer error or acquisition of the older Fotolia assets. It's quite possible that those have never been sold. Now that Adobe has  >348 million assets in the database, they could probably do some housecleaning and purge those that don't represent their current standards. Maybe AI will be smart enough to do that some day...

[Jill_C · Accepted solution]

You won't see that check box until you've sold at least 100 images. 

https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/illustrative-editorial-content.html

[Nancy OShea]

Illustrative Editorial has a very special purpose.  It's mainly used by journalists & news reporters to illustrate name brands like Apple, Coke, Pepsie, BMW or Mercedes.  The images have limited use and can't be used commercially which can effect sales.  

Signed release forms are still necessary for assets containing people and/or private property.

Model/Property Releases:
https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/model-release.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/property-release.html

[Jill_C]

Adobe does not accept images with people for Illustrative Editorial:

"For illustrative editorial, we don’t accept:

• Images that feature recognizable people"