Doug McLean

My top two cat photos together have sold 48 times.

+1 I use Visible Dust swabs and Eclipse fluid. It works very well. I had my sensor professionally cleaned once. It came back with spots still on the sensor, so that is when I decided to do it myself.

When I look at the seal at 100%, this is what it looks like. It is somewhat blurry, and has a lot of artifacts. The reviewer was right in this case.

I would check the contributor agreement first, and if there is nothing in there, I would ask Shutterstock just to be safe.

An extended license is required. The print run of up to 500,000 use in books, magazines, advertising, etc. If the canvas prints are being sold, then I think that counts as "Use in merchandise", which requires an extended license. https://www.shutterstock.com/license-comparison You might want to email Shutterstock for verification. If you haven't sold an extended license for the images being sold on canvas, you may want to ask Shutterstock to require the buyer to upgrade their licenses.

I found that the 35mm f/1.8 DX is a slow focusing lens. A lens that focuses faster, and with VR, will help. Also use as few focus points as you can while still keeping the subject under the focus points. The few focus points you use, the faster the camera can read the one you are using, and the faster it can focus.

Nope. My best seller is one I took because I liked the idea, and thought it would be fun to try. I didn't think it would sell, but I was wrong.

There is a little more to it than that. Newer images may have sold only once or not at all, but may sell in the future. Having a single (or no) sale is only a failure if you look at images that are a year or more old (to account for seasonal variations).

Here are my suggestions, for what they are worth: Try not to submit nearly identical photos (example: the cats lying on the road). Instead, if you want to submit multiple photos of the same subject, try varying the composition. Many of your photos are centered, and there is no room for text (example: your ice cream photos). Buyers need room to add text, and most photos look better with the subject off center. Check your horizons. Unless you are trying for an artistic effect, they should be straight. Use descriptive titles, and as many relevant keywords as you can think of (and ONLY relevant keywords, spamming keywords turns buyers off). For example, I have never seen or even heard of black ice cream. What kind/flavor is it? Is it unique to the region? It is in a cone held by a hand, but this isn't mentioned. You need to provide as much relevant information as you can so the buyers can find your photos. If I search for "ice creme", there are 7270 pages of results, so you need proper keywords to help buyers find your images. Upload more, you need a large portfolio of thousands of good images to start seeing regular sales.

I'm not sure what you are asking about managing your account, you upload photos, add good relevant keywords, and that's it. The photo you posted is vibrant and has nice contrast, but the top branches of the trees are filled with strong chromatic aberration, and the back of the man is cut off. He also looks a bit sunburned. You need to remove the CA, and either leave the man out, or include all of him a bit further into the frame (a model release will be needed).

Also, it is possible that there is an issue with the camera and/or lens. More expensive cameras allow you to focus tune each lens, but AFAIK the D3100 does not. Try this: put the camera on a very stable tripod, and shoot a few shots using the viewfinder. Manually un-focus, let the camera re-focus, and shoot using a remote release. Repeat several times. Now, try the same thing, but using live view. Manually un-focus, let the camera re-focus using live view, and shoot using a remote release. Repeat several times. On your computer, compare the images at 100%. If the images you shot using regular focusing through the viewfinder are not sharp but the ones taken using live view are, then the lens or camera aren't focusing properly and you will need to have a Nikon service center fix it. If both sets of images are sharp, then there is nothing wrong with the camera or lens, and you need to work on your technique. This test works because when you use the viewfinder to focus, you are using the phase detect focus sensor which is not on the photo sensor, it is buried in the depths of the camera. But when you use live view, the actual photo sensor is doing the focusing. So in live view, if the image is in focus on the LCD, then the final photo should be in focus (but you still need to watch your shutter speed, avoid camera shake, etc).

Checking keywords should be an important part or the review process, but it looks like reviewers don't even look at them?

Don't write anything to the card! Any competent computer shop should be able to recover most or all of your pictures, except what was overwritten when your kid took a picture.

It is a regular layer, just don't make it an adjustment layer and you should be fine. There are a lot of videos and tutorials on this, Google for "Photoshop remove halo" and you should find them, there are step by step videos that will walk you through it.