Information for Contributors

We place no formal restrictions on who can become a contributor to Crestock, but our quality standards are high; each individual image is judged on it's merits.

Just click the sign up button on any page of the Crestock site and fill in the simple sign-up form.
Your registration will be activated instantly.

Yes, Crestock will not ask you to hand over your copyright to us; by uploading images to Crestock you simply allow us to sell your images on your behalf according to the terms you agree to when you sign up with us.

You retain the copyright of your own photographs and are still the rightful owner, so you may continue using and selling them as you please in any other context. For further details about your contract with Crestock, refer to our Upload Agreement.

Please refer to our Content Licence Agreement for full details of what restrictions we put on the use of our images. Everyone who buys images from Crestock must read and agree to this contract when downloading the image.

Yes, you are welcome to do so, as long as the stock agency you are currently contributing to does not put any restrictions on your images that would prevent you from doing so.

Obviously we hope that all our contributors will want to keep their images on our site indefinitely, but we only manage and sell your images on your behalf, we don't own them, so should you wish to withdraw your submissions you should contact us on our usual support email address. We can then arrange for your submissions to be removed.

When it comes to removal of individual images, this can also be arranged, but once an image is added to our data base we'd prefer to remove it only in exceptional circumstances.

Yes, we are more than happy for you to do so, preferably with a link to Crestock from your website.

We are based in Norway.

We are basically interested in all outstanding photographs. However, we have a preference for photos with people in them. People of all shapes, sizes and colours, active, at work, at home, playing, relaxing – the list is endless. On the other hand we are inundated by photos of sunsets, seascapes, flowers, birds, insects, cats and dogs.

It is worth having a look at our archive of best submitted images, as well as the archive of rejected submissions, to get a feel for the quality standard we are looking for. Ask yourself before uploading; is the photo good enough to be used to illustrate a business/service/object/location/emotion/mood? If you think the answer is yes, then go ahead!

We require no minimum or maximum submissions, even for new contributors – you can submit as many or as few images as you like. Having said that, for new contributors we recommend submitting 10-20 of your very best images in your initial submission.

After logging in you will find an 'Upload Images' button just below the logo at the top of the page. You can upload images individually or in bulk via FTP.

For more information on how to use our upload system, read our Image Upload Guide.For each image you upload you must include a title, description and minimum 10 keywords, max 50.

The keywords enable users of the site to search for specific types of images. When people search for images, our search engine looks for matches for the search words in the keywords submitted with each photo. We require a minimum of 10 keywords for each image, but on the other hand, be concise: large numbers of keywords with no or little relevance to your image areunlikely to improve your sales!

Choose keywords that describe the content of the image as well as any feelings, moods and abstract concepts that you feel apply to your image. Single words separated by commas work best. Be aware that the search engine only searches for keywords, not titles or descriptions, so if there are important words or phrases in your title or description, don't forget to include these in your keywords as well.

Avoid misleading keywords and if in doubt, use a spellchecker or look up important words in a dictionary to ensure you get them right. Read our quick guide to keywords here.

If your photo includes recognisable faces, we require you to include a signed Model Release form with your photo. This is to confirm that the person(s) in the photo agree(s) to it being used commercially and published. There is an option to attach a model release during the upload process.

Uploaded images are not automatically added to the collection, they first go through our evaluation process.

Accepted images will be added to your portfolio while rejected images will be listed on the 'Upload Images' page under 'Rejected'. Images that are still awaiting evaluation can be found under 'Pending' on the upload page.

Images that you have uploaded via FTP but not completed the submission process for will be listed as 'Ready to process' on your upload page, and need to be submitted for review from here.

please make sure that your images do not appear in any of these categories before uploading the images again or contacting us regarding your uploads.

We will send you an email to let you know when your images have been reviewed.

Images that are accepted will be added to your portfolio. Rejected images will be listed under 'Rejected' on the 'Upload Images' page. The reason(s) for the rejection will be displayed under the image preview when you click to enlarge the thumbnails.

The evaluation time varies depending on how many images are being submitted at the time, but is rarely more than 5-6 days. We realise that waiting can be frustrating, so we have a running evaluation of photos in the order they are received to minimise the wait.

As soon as your photos are evaluated and approved they are made available to buy.

Yes. IPTC meta data such as keywords and description is read automatically when the pictures are uploaded. You will be able to review and change this information should you wish to do so before you submit the images.

Not all applications that add descriptions to images are IPTC compatible, so if in doubt it is worthwhile trying out a few images first to ensure that the data can be read from your files.

Our minimum accepted image size is 4 megapixels (about 2400x1600px). To be sold as medium, your image must be at least 6 megapixels, and to qualify as an extra large image, it must be above 11 megapixels. Please note that we do not accept interpolated images, so only submit your images at their original resolution.

A record is kept of all submissions, but rejected files are not kept in our archive. Images that you have had rejected will be listed on the 'Upload Images' page under 'Rejected uploads'.

For credit sales contributors intitially get 20% of the sale sum, this rises to 30% as soon as you reach 100 downloads. For sales of small size images, 20% equals $1 per download, for medium sizes $2 and for extra large sizes $3.

For subscription downloads, there is a flat rate of $0.25 commission per download.

A credit download is when a customer buys an image with credits rather than as part of a subscription. A subscription download is when an image is downloaded by a subscriber as part of their daily download quota (20 images per day).

When your account balance reaches $50USD you can request a payout via PayPal or Moneybookers. For bank transfers and cheque payments the payout limit is $100, due to the higher bank charges associated with international bank transactions.

PayPal is our preferred method of payment, but we also offer Moneybookers payouts. For those of you based in countries that PayPal or Moneybookers do not cover, we will arrange bank transfers or issue cheques.

You can find an overview of your uploads, downloads and earnings under 'My Account'. Further details of all your sales can be found under 'Sales statistics' in 'My Account'.

You will also receive an email notification when you sell an image, unless you have switched this off in your email preferences.

Your sales and earnings are listed in your profile under 'My Account', and you can find further details of your finances under 'Sales statistics' in 'My Account'.