It is quite piece of cake to outset selling your photos on Shutterstock. In fact, the whole procedure might take you only few minutes if y'all know what to practice. Hither are the steps:

  1. Register as a contributor
  2. Add together metadata to your photo
  3. Upload your photo to Shutterstock
  4. Submit your photo for review

This weblog post covers photo upload and submission process and we assume you are already a contributor on Shutterstock. If not, go to registration page and consummate the process. You can cheque Shutterstock registration guide that might aid you with the registration.

Photo requirements on Shutterstock

Shutterstock has quite specific requirements to what yous may or may not sell.

Here are some of them with regards to photography:

  • You own total copyright for the photo
  • Photo is in JPG or TIFF format without layers
  • Photo dimensions should be of minimum 4MP (megapixels)
  • File size should non exceed 50MB (megabytes)

Please note the difference between megabytes (file size) and megapixels (image dimensions), some contributors get easily confused by them. To calculate your photograph megapixels, you should multiply photograph width by height.

Another important note here is nigh copyright. All microstocks crave that you ain or control copyright of the content yous upload. Y'all cannot submit photos made by other people, images from the net etc. If your photo contains recognizable people, y'all must also provide Model Release or Belongings Release which are legal documents where copyright holders or recognizable people give their consent for submitting your photo to Shutterstock.

What is metadata

All photos on Shutterstock have Keywords and Description that help customers to find them using search. Keywords and Description are also referred to as Metadata (that is, information about information).

Yous tin can adhere metadata to photos in one of the 2 ways:

  1. If you sell only on Shutterstock so yous can upload your files beginning and add metadata on Shutterstock Contributor portal.
  2. If yous plan to sell on more than ane microstock website (e.g. Adobe Stock or Depositphotos) then it volition be better to add metadata before upload.

Unremarkably second option is preferable because you own everything: photo and metadata. If you own photo, but metadata is just on Shutterstock, it may create you impediments in future if you will want to use other microstocks as well.

Adding metadata to photos in Xpiks

Open Xpiks and add together your photos there. The easiest is to drag'due north'drop them into Xpiks.

Add photos to Xpiks

Now you need to enter Description, Championship and Keywords to each photograph. It is easier to do it if y'all open each photo separately: just double click on the thumbnail. Xpiks can help y'all with keywords by providing Keywords Suggestions. Shutterstock does non require Title metadata, just you lot may add it now since other microstocks similar Adobe Stock need it.

Add metadata

After you lot are done with editing metadata, select all files and save them. Saving attaches Description and Keywords that you simply entered to the actual file on your disk. After it is fastened to the file, Shutterstock volition be able to read information technology later on yous upload the file.

Upload photos to Shutterstock

At that place are two ways to upload your photos:

  • browser upload, suitable for small amount of files existence uploaded
  • upload via FTP, suitable for many files or simultaneous upload to many websites

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is 1 of the means of communication over the cyberspace (e.g. merely like you lot use HTTP protocol via your browser to read this page). Software that can speak FTP is usually called "FTP client". Some examples are FileZilla and Cyberduck.

Luckily you can upload photos correct from Xpiks, because Xpiks is also an FTP client. Only select the files and click "Upload".

Configure Shutterstock

Hither you need to enter your username and countersign that you use to login to the website. Then press "Test connection" push button: if you configured everything correctly, it will turn greenish. Subsequently yous are ready, press "Start upload".

Configure Shutterstock

Submit for review

After upload finishes y'all tin can head over to Shutterstock Contributor Portal (you can select in card "Portfolio -> Submit content") and meet your files there.

Submit section

As you might accept noted, the files incorporate Clarification and Keywords that you lot accept previously entered in Xpiks. Now you demand to select a category for the photo. In this case the most appropriate will be merely "Nature".

Select category

Later on you are done, press "Submit" button. Your files will be added to the review queue and you will receive an email when your photos volition get reviewed by Shutterstock inspectors. If your photos will exist accustomed, they become available for customers to buy immediately. Otherwise y'all will receive a rejection reason in the response and you will have a chance to set up the mistakes and resubmit.

  1. Tutorial about basic FTP upload
  2. Shutterstock aid on photo submission
  3. Ultimate contributor'southward guide to Shutterstock