Shutterstock has been a source of passive income to me and other photographers. It is exceedingly difficult to get onto the site in the first attempt. The first rule is to keep resubmitting until you get accepted.

Look at what’s been selling lately by doing a search on Shutterstock for keywords that describe your genre of images.

Shoot in RAW and perform a minimum of post-processing; nothing too creative. Work in 16-bit mode and Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB while in Photoshop. Convert to sRGB only when saving. Go over your images at 100% or 200% and fix any technical problems. Don’t lighten any images; you will just end up with noise that will lead to rejection. Make sure your images have enough contrast. If excessive correction is needed, choose an image with better exposure.

Down-sample your initial submission images to the minimum required size. This means re-size the images so they are no larger than smallest dimensions that Shutterstock will accept for judging the quality of your work. Once you are accepted, you can submit full-scale versions. Shutterstock is much more selective about the initial batch of images than they are after you are accepted.

Don’t submit nudes with your application. Shutterstock is a great place to license nudes (the kind that are used in European magazine advertisements to sell watches and shampoo), but your first batch should not include any. Vary your subject matter and setting too. Don’t submit all studio work. Don’t submit anything that has a logo, trademark, or other intellectual property visible.

When you are rejected, Shutterstock will tell you which images did not pass and why. Don’t try to fix these. Resubmit the images that did pass and replace the rejected images with new ones.

A nude image that has sold well through Shutterstock. Model: Laura M.

If you want to publish my images (nude or non-nude) of models, you have to pay a licensing fee. The good news is that the fee is just a few dollars per image, and the process is easy. I sell my images through microstock sites. These sites are often owned by large companies (e.g. Getty Images) who carefully select only the best photos for their collection. I have hundreds of photos of beautiful models available. They include nudes, swimwear, lingerie, business attire, and shots of models doing things like talking on the phone; but nothing explicit.

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One fun way to make money with your model photography is through a microstock agency. These agencies market your photos for you, and then pay you a portion of the proceeds. Tasteful images of nude models (for example, non-explicit, implied nudes) are the best-selling of my microstock images and Shutterstock earns the most for me.

Tricks to getting approved

Shutterstock is one of the more lucrative microstock sites, and it took me a while to get accepted. I did learn a couple of tricks that I suggest you try. Choose your sample images carefully and submit no more than the required amount. Don’t upload nudes until after you are accepted. How you size them is important. Downsizing your images to the minimum requirement will help you hide flaws. Downsizing to the minimum requirement is how I got accepted. You only need to do this until your account is approved. If you get rejected (and you will the first couple of times) keep reapplying (with the same account but different images.) Look carefully at your rejection notice, replace only the images that were rejected until you get accepted. It will happen if you keep at it, and don’t forget to resize your images to be close to the minimum size requirement.