Shutterstock is always looking for new content to add to our collection. Contributing images to Shutterstock is free and you will retain the copyright to your work. In order to submit your work for review, you must have a Shutterstock contributor account. If you don't have one yet, learn how to get started here.
Submitting photos to Shutterstock is simple. Just upload your files with descriptions and keywords. We’ll evaluate your submissions and publish the approved content to your portfolio. You can learn more about our review process here.
Step 1: Upload your content
Shutterstock offers two options for uploading your photos, via your web browser or via FTPS.
We accept JPEG and TIFF files that are at least 4 megapixels (MP) in size. Files under 50 megabytes (MB) in size can be uploaded directly from the Upload page in your account by clicking on +Add at the top of your contributor account page. From the Upload page, you can simply drag and drop up to 100 files at a time into the uploading window or select multiple files from your desktop.
Professionals submitting a large quantity of files or TIFF files over 50 megabytes can upload via an FTP client. You can learn more about FTPS uploading here.
If you experience issues with uploading, check out the troubleshooting uploading errors guide.
Step 2: Tagging and metadata
Once your images have successfully uploaded, you will need to edit them to enter titles (Description), 7-50 keywords, and at least 1 category. This information is known as metadata and makes it possible for people to discover your photos. Learn more about metadata requirements and best practices before you get started.
You can select several images at once to add the same keywords and categories to streamline content submissions. For large submissions, we also offer the option of uploading metadata via a CSV file.
You can enter your own keywords or select appropriate keywords from our keyword suggestions, which are automatically generated by our computer vision technology. It finds images that are visually similar to the one you are submitting and suggests relevant keywords with a proven success rate for you to choose from. You can learn more about our keywording tool here.
You can also add any of the following, if necessary:
Step 3: Submit your work
Once your content is ready, just click Submit to send it for review.
If nothing happens after clicking Submit, it is most likely because your submission contains an error. The most common error is misspelled keywords, which are outlined in red. Learn more about correcting content submission errors.
If you are not quite ready to submit at this time, no problem! You have up to 21 days to submit uploaded content for review. However, if you do not submit your work to us within that timeframe, it will automatically be deleted from our servers.
What happens next:
Your submitted content will appear in the "Pending" tab on the Portfolio page. Once your content has been reviewed, the results will display in the "Recently reviewed" tab on the Portfolio page for 21 days. It may take up to 72 hours for newly approved content to show up in your portfolio.