Stock Photography Workflow: From Camera Settings to

Maximize approval and sales rates on Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, or Wirestock

Stock photography can be a powerful side income stream for photographers—especially when you understand what buyers are looking for and how to streamline your process. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to increase your approval and sales rates, here’s a detailed breakdown of the most important technical elements to focus on.

Also thanks to our friends at finance-tips.ai with their Side Income Cheat Sheets who helped us with some of the details!

1. Camera Settings That Boost Acceptance Rates

Stock sites have strict standards—blurry, noisy, or over-processed images get rejected fast. Use these baseline settings to capture clean, professional images:

• Shoot RAW: Always. This preserves flexibility for white balance, exposure, and noise correction.
• Use Low ISO (100–400): Especially for clean backgrounds and commercial-style images. Noise = rejection.
• Aperture (f/5.6 to f/11): Use mid-range apertures for optimal sharpness. For isolated subjects, f/2.8–f/4 works if focus is spot-on.
• Shutter Speed: Stay fast enough to avoid blur, especially handheld. Try 1/125 sec minimum for still subjects, 1/500+ for motion.
• White Balance: Manual or custom works best. Stock reviewers hate inconsistent color casts.
• No Filters or Watermarks: Filters reduce commercial usability; watermarks guarantee rejection.

2. Metadata That Sells: Titles, Descriptions, and Keywords

Buyers discover your photos through metadata. Get this part wrong, and your amazing image might never even show up.

Title Tips

• Be descriptive but concise:
  “Woman reading a book on a park bench in autumn”
  beats “Autumn vibes”.

Description Tips

• Include context, concepts, and technical details if relevant.
  Example:
  “Portrait of a young woman enjoying a sunny day in the park. Autumn leaves in background. Shot with shallow depth of field.”

Keyword Strategy

Use 25–50 targeted keywords. Think about:

• What’s in the photo (e.g., “coffee,” “laptop,” “cityscape”)
• Concepts it represents (e.g., “remote work,” “productivity,” “freelancer”)
• Variants and synonyms (e.g., “autumn” and “fall,” “work from home” and “WFH”)

Pro Tip: Use tools like Adobe Stock Keyword Tool or Wirestock’s AI keyword generator for faster tagging.

3. Workflow That Saves Time

Whether you use Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, or Wirestock (which submits to multiple platforms for you), a smooth workflow can save hours.

Step-by-Step Workflow

a. Cull Efficiently: Use Lightroom, Aftershoot, or Narrative Select to pick only the best technically sound images.

b. Edit for Stock:

• No heavy presets or Instagram filters.
• Remove chromatic aberration and lens distortion.
• Check histogram for clean exposure and detail in highlights/shadows.

c. Export Settings:

• JPEG
• sRGB color profile
• At least 4 MP (most platforms prefer 4,000px on the long edge)

d. Add Metadata in Lightroom or Bridge: Enter title, description, and keywords before export.

e. in Batches: Use contributor portals or Wirestock for batch s to save time.

f. Track What Sells: Create a Google Sheet or Notion board to track which images get approved and ed.

Bonus: What Actually Sells

Some of the top-selling stock categories year after year include:

• Diverse people in authentic settings
• Business and technology themes
• Nature and travel scenes with clean compositions
• Health and wellness imagery
• Flat lays of food, workspace setups, or tools

Think about how your existing photos (or future shoots) can serve these evergreen niches.

Final Tip: Consistency Wins

Stock photography is a volume game. It can take 100+ s before you start seeing regular sales. But once your portfolio grows and metadata improves, s often become ive and predictable.

Keep it clean, keyword smart, and consistent — and you’ll turn your catato a revenue engine over time.

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