I am trying to perfect my photography so I decided to submit a copy of my photos (posted on this website a month ago) to Big Stock Photo just to see what happens. I thought they were pretty decent pictures but they denied them with the following explanation:

33315560 East African Crowned Crane
Reason: FOCUS ISSUE: Image is not in focus when viewed at 100% or the focus is not on the main subject.

33314738 Lion
Reason: FOCUS ISSUE: Image is not in focus when viewed at 100% or the focus is not on the main subject.

The pictures look in focus to me. Does anyone know what they mean when viewed at 100%? or the focus in not on the main subject? There is only one subject in each of these pictures. Or is this just one of their generic denials because I submitted 10 images and they all said the same thing. I am just trying to get better with my pictures and I thought these were pretty good.

All the pictures I submitted were taken in JPEG but now I shoot in RAW. Does that make a difference? Any help or suggestions would be helpful to my learning. I will attach two of the pictures I submitted. I love these two I have them hanging in my home studio.

I am trying to perfect my photography so I decided to submit a copy of my photos (posted on this website a month ago) to Big Stock Photo just to see what happens. I thought they were pretty decent pictures but they denied them with the following explanation:

33315560 East African Crowned Crane
Reason: FOCUS ISSUE: Image is not in focus when viewed at 100% or the focus is not on the main subject.

33314738 Lion
Reason: FOCUS ISSUE: Image is not in focus when viewed at 100% or the focus is not on the main subject.

The pictures look in focus to me. Does anyone know what they mean when viewed at 100%? or the focus in not on the main subject? There is only one subject in each of these pictures. Or is this just one of their generic denials because I submitted 10 images and they all said the same thing. I am just trying to get better with my pictures and I thought these were pretty good.

All the pictures I submitted were taken in JPEG but now I shoot in RAW. Does that make a difference? Any help or suggestions would be helpful to my learning. I will attach two of the pictures I submitted. I love these two I have them hanging in my home studio.

I've had much the same luck with the stock agencies. I think that in addition to blowing the pictures up to 100% they are working on a much better screen as well as a larger one than most of us have in our home. My guess is that the screens are enormous if they are viewing at 100% maybe as large as 6' x 8' to look at the picture without scrolling. They receive thousands of pictures daily so they have to make quick decisions on each image. They are also looking for only certain types of images. Just when you have a particular image that has been accepted they reject all the next ones of that type with a notation of "oversupplied image type". All I can say for sure is keep trying--I still do; but am not getting rich.
Swede

I, too have started stock photography, but soon found out that I have a lot to learn before I can get an image excepted, and then sell it.
I do not know much about Bigstock, but there should be a forum that you can get information on.
Zoom in on your image to 100 %. Look at all the edges around the lion. The nose and lower chin looks the most focused. Find that spot and compare to the whole image..The lion should be as sharp as the nose. Think National Geographic.
Same on the bird..focus seems to be at the top of the head..Focus needs to be on eyes first. Search for the same like image on Bigstock..Your photo needs to be as good or better to be aproved. Open a magazine and look at the quality of a good photograph. That is what you need to accomplish. I have only had a handful of images excepted and only sold one so far for .25 cents. Tons of competition and millions of photos and you need to have a photo that is better.
Rule of thirds is another one they tell you. You do not need it all the time, but you would be better to do this with your bird. It is hair pulling to figure out what they will except, sometimes they just do not like it and reject.
Each stock site has their own rules and sometime a photo will get accepted at one site and rejected at another.
You really have two great photos, but just not in perfect focus for their standards.
Another thing, that after you get your photo's tuned and sharpened, then they may require a property release if these are taken at a zoo. If you own the critters, then you will still need to have a property release from your self.
Jpeg or raw will not make much difference except with raw, you will be able to fix noise, and a few other things, with out loosing quality.
Good luck!

Here's another way to look at selling to Stock Photo Companies. Think about who buys photos from them and what kind of photos do they buy? I doubt they have very many requests for a crane or lion head shot. National Geographic might have a use for them, but they have their own core photographers. I think they're unlikely to use stuff form a stock company. I suspect Stock Companies main clients are advertizing Agencies or marketing companies and magazine publishers. They would be far more likely to be looking for far more mundane subjects, such as kids skipping rope or playing hopscotch, women washing dishes or simply sitting down writing checks, paying the monthly bills or perhaps doing some gardening or grocery shopping. About the only publishers I can think of that would use the kind of photos most of us post on the Hog Calendar publishers. We try to shoot things we would like to see hanging on our walls. That's not what most Stock Companies clients are looking for. ...... Coot

The picture sizes are 526x789 pixels for the lion and 1184x789 pixels for the bird. Most advetising agencys want pictures to have a minium short dimension of 1100 pixels. 84 pixels = 1 inch. Your short dimension should be no smalled than 13 inches. Set your camera to the highest picture quality and shoot. Most DSLRs will give you a picture size that will generate good quality viewing at full size. You might want to reduce the apture value 1or 2 stops for a longer DOF. What I see is that you set spot focus between the eyes and the point of the nose and the top of the head on each shot were slightly out of the DOF. Hope this helps

I, too have started stock photography, but soon found out that I have a lot to learn before I can get an image excepted, and then sell it.
I do not know much about Bigstock, but there should be a forum that you can get information on.
Zoom in on your image to 100 %. Look at all the edges around the lion. The nose and lower chin looks the most focused. Find that spot and compare to the whole image..The lion should be as sharp as the nose. Think National Geographic.
Same on the bird..focus seems to be at the top of the head..Focus needs to be on eyes first. Search for the same like image on Bigstock..Your photo needs to be as good or better to be aproved. Open a magazine and look at the quality of a good photograph. That is what you need to accomplish. I have only had a handful of images excepted and only sold one so far for .25 cents. Tons of competition and millions of photos and you need to have a photo that is better.
Rule of thirds is another one they tell you. You do not need it all the time, but you would be better to do this with your bird. It is hair pulling to figure out what they will except, sometimes they just do not like it and reject.
Each stock site has their own rules and sometime a photo will get accepted at one site and rejected at another.
You really have two great photos, but just not in perfect focus for their standards.
Another thing, that after you get your photo's tuned and sharpened, then they may require a property release if these are taken at a zoo. If you own the critters, then you will still need to have a property release from your self.
Jpeg or raw will not make much difference except with raw, you will be able to fix noise, and a few other things, with out loosing quality.
Good luck!

What lens did you use? I have found that some zoom lenses seem to lack the high resolving power when at full zoom to produce crisp images even when properly focused. I also see that the Crane image was shot at 1/200 sec f/9 and 235mm on your 60D, and the Lion at 1/800 sec f/5.6 at 800mm with a 1D Mk-IV.
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With the Crane - your effective focal length {1.6 crop on the 60D} becomes 376mm - so if handheld and no IS, you might do better at 1/400 sec. Your f/9 should have given you adequate DOF to avoid point of focus softness, provided you have no front or back focusing issues with your lens.
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With the Lion - I also see some softness in the flys wing {on the lions nose :) } With your FF Mk-IV, you did shoot at 1/focal length - however - unless you have an 800mm prime lens {in which case I'm extremely jealous !! }, I'll assume you used a 400mm with 2x TC, and probably no IS. Again - you are right at the limit of 1/focal length on your shutter if handheld AND - often your TC can contribute to some softness even when all other factors are optimized. IF you shot this with a 100-400 zoom - you are also at max reach where the lens may not be at it's best.
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I agree with previous posters - the images are quite good - and if I had taken them, they would be on the wall in my house also :)

I found a site the other day called fineartamerica.com they are basically a marketplace for art, photography and photos of art etc You can upload for free whatever you like and anyone can purchase it online. They print it and deliver it to the buyer in whatever form they want, from a postcard to a large framed canvas type print.The size of the photo you upload determines automatically what size print can be made.The buyer can be anyone so mainly people who just want something they like to hang on a wall at home or the office or whatever.They also update you on who is selling what etc. I haven't sold anything yet but haven't put much on there yet. Well worth a look.