We place no formal restrictions on who can become an artist at Crestock, but our quality standards are high out of respect for our clientele.

Just fill in our simple sign-up form. Your registration will be activated instantly.

Yes, you retain the copyright of your own images and you may continue using and selling them as you please. For further details, refer to our Artist Image Upload Agreement.

Please refer to our Image License 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 any image.

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

If you wish to withdraw some or all of your images please contact us at help@crestock.com. Images will be removed within 60 days. If you have a critical need for quicker removal we will make every effort to accommodate your request in a timely fashion.

Please contact us at help@crestock.com if you wish to close your account.

Yes, you are welcome to do so, if you provide a link to Crestock from your website. You can link directly to your image collection on Crestock. "Crestock" is a trademark of Design Pics Inc.. By permitting you to use the Crestock logo as a hyperlink on your website, no rights whatsoever in the logo or the name "Crestock" are granted to you. All rights are reserved by Crestock, A Division of Design Pics Inc..

We are based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Crestock is a a division of Design Pics Inc., a global licensor of premium stock images since 2001.

We're basically interested in all outstanding photographs in all categories. However, we have a preference for well-executed photos with people in them. People of all shapes, sizes and colours, active, at work, at home, playing, relaxing – the list is endless – but the images must be accompanied by a signed model release.

We do not accept images for editorial use only. A model and/or property release must be attached if your photos feature people or intellectual property.

Images should be retouched to remove any recognizable logos, trademarks, vehicle license plates, copyrighted products or other intellectual property, if necessary.

New artists are initially restricted to uploading 10 images per week. Upload limits are frequently adjusted and depend on your approval rate.

Note that if all images in your initial submission are rejected you will not be able to submit again.

Our inspection/editing team is only interested in one thing: providing our clientele with excellent, relevant images that meet their needs – and that can only help you to improve your art and improve your sales. Following the acquisition of Crestock by Design Pics Inc. in May 2020, and following the subsequent migration to Design Pics’ infrastructure, we will be expanding the image evaluation process to include trained editors with years of experience providing premium images to professional clientele.

It is worth having a look at our archive of popular images to get a feel for the quality standard we are looking for. We also recommend you do a search for your image subject matter sorted by "most downloaded" on our website.

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 30 keywords, max 75.

The keywords enable users of the website 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 30 keywords for each image. But be smart when applying keywords: large numbers of keywords with little relevance to your image are unlikely to improve your sales – and may cause us to reject your image!

Keywords, descriptions and captions must be in English only.

Choose keywords that describe the content of the image as well as any feelings, moods and abstract concepts that 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, 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. See our quick guide to keywords.

If your photo includes recognizable persons, we require you to include a signed Model Release form with your photo, even if the model's face is not visible. 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. If you do not upload a model release with the related images, your submission will be rejected.

If your photo includes the property of others such as houses or private buildings (interiors or exteriors) then, we generally require you to include a signed Property Release form with your photo. This is to confirm that the owner(s) of such property agree(s) to it being used commercially and published. Property Releases are registered and attached to images during the upload process.

Uploaded images are not automatically added to the collection. They must first go through our evaluation process. Due to a potential backlog in our review queue this can take several days.

If you uploaded images via FTP but do not see them on the site, please go to 'Upload Images' and click "Process new files" to begin the description and review process. Note: files which are placed in a subfolder or subdirectory during FTP file transfer will not be visible to the Upload system. In this scenario you would need to use your FTP client software to move images from the subfolder to root upload folder.

Please note that images which are uploaded but not submitted within 60 days will be automatically deleted.

Once your images have been reviewed, you will receive an automatic "Evaluation Complete" message via email. (Please ensure that you have a valid email address in your account if you will be uploading images.) Accepted images will be added to your portfolio; rejected images will be listed under 'Upload Images' on the 'Rejected' tab. Images still awaiting evaluation can be found under the 'Pending' tab on the same page.

The time it takes before images can be reviewed varies according to the volume of images being submitted. Please note, however, if there is a significant backlog in our review queue, it can take several days or even weeks before new submissions can be reviewed.

Yes. IPTC metadata such as keywords and descriptions are read automatically when the pictures are uploaded. You will be able to review and change title, description and keyword information before you submit the images.

Embedded metadata will be preserved in the images stored on our database, and (if embedded before upload) conveyed in any images purchased by buyers. We recommend that all contributing artists and photographers embed personal copyright information before uploading images.

Note: not all applications that add descriptions to images are IPTC compatible. If in doubt, test a few images first, to ensure that the data can be read from your files. Do not include personal information from your model releases (i.e. names or home addresses) in your IPTC data.

Our minimum accepted image size is 12.5 megapixels. This works out to 12.5 million total pixels (or greater) if you multiply the image height times its width in pixels. At our recommended resolution of 300 ppi, the uncompressed file size will be approximately 35 mb in a Tiff format.

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 have been rejected will be listed on the 'Rejected' tab, under 'My Account' and 'Upload Images'.

Your royalty rate is calculated on a progressive scale, based on your total number of images sold since joining Crestock, as follows:

	Aggregate Number of Downloads
	1-249	250-999	1,000-4,999	5,000-10,000	10,000+
	Royalty Rate
Single Image License	20%	25%	30%	35%	40%
Image Downloaded Through Subscription	$0.25	$0.25	$0.30	$0.35	$0.40

A single image license is when a customer buys an image in a credit card transaction or with Crestock credits, rather than as part of a subscription. An image downloaded through subscription is purchased by a subscriber as part of their daily download quota (for example, 20 images per day).

When your account balance reaches $50USD you can request a payout via PayPal or Skrill (Moneybookers). You will need to register an account with PayPal or Skrill to receive your earnings.

Royalties from Crestock sales are credited to your account at the time of sale while royalties from Masterfile sales are credited at the end of every month.

PayPal is our preferred method of payment.

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'll also receive an e-mail notification when you sell an image on the Crestock Website. You can set this option in 'Email Preferences' under 'My Account'

Your total sales and earnings are listed in your profile under 'My Account'. You can find further details under 'Sales statistics' in 'My Account'.

To see a summary listing all changes to your account balance from January 1st 2012 onwards, click 'Transaction Summary' under 'My Account'.  Please note: When Design Pics Inc. acquired the assets of Crestock Corporation, after the bankruptcy of Crestock Corporation on April 6, 2020, all Crestock Accounts were reset to zero, in accordance with the bankruptcy process, under the guidance of the Trustee. For absolute clarity, Crestock, now a Division of Design Pics Inc. is only responsible to pay royalties earned on sales from April 7, 2020 and going forward.