Stock Photo File Sizes
Stock Photo File Sizes: How big do they have to be?
Q.
What a fantastic web site, full of helpful tips. Can you just confirm that, as far as selling stock photos is concerned, they have to be at least 48MB only that seems a hell of a size to me!
A.
The 48MB files required by Alamy are "uncompressed" which means when saved as a JPEG at level 12, they should reduce to about 8 or 9MB files. When you open them again in Photoshop, the true, uncompressed size is shown in the bottom left of your document.
If you need to upsize any files you can use a program like Genuine Fractals…
Up-sizing with Genuine Fractals Print Pro
Corbis and Getty, I think, require about 10MB images. Again, when opened in Photoshop and uncompressed, should be around 50-60MB.
Obviously, if you are uploading to microstock agencies, the files sizes acceptable are quite a bit smaller.
Please note (2021): This question was answered a few years ago. Make sure you check with agencies for their current requirements.