Grain? What Grain?

A little while back, Mad Owl and I were discussing the possibilities of turning what was a hobby for both of us (i.e. photography), into something a little more serious. Mad Owl had the bright idea that, seeing as we both have a bunch of photos, and are taking more all the time, we should submit them to some of the stock photography sites on the 'Net. The theory was that we could earn a bit of money from what we both do for fun.

So, with that idea in mind, I found a few stock photography websites around, and looked at how they operated. The majority of them charge nothing for you to sign up and submit photos, but they do screen submitted photos, and reject ones which don't meet their rather strict standards. Having read through the guidelines, I felt that I was fairly certain to have a few images which would be accepted.

Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather, when every single photo I submitted was rejected. Why? Too much noise or grain in the photos. But, I thought, film has grain, it's one of those facts of life, and surely there are times when grain in a photo can actually enhance it? That may be the case, but the stock photography sites don't see it that way.

It didn't help that most sites have a minimum size for submitted photos, and that I was having to scan my little 35mm negatives at a fairly high resolution to match that size. Having switched to medium format, I have been very pleasantly surprised at how little grain is noticeable in the first roll of transparency film I've shot. So now it's time to resubmit some photos, and the way I see it, if I get knocked back again, it's not going to be because there was too much grain in the photo...