Is there any value in photographers putting photos in lightboxes ?

[thepoeticimage]

I took about a 5-year break from contributing to microstock. Is there any value in putting our photos into lightboxes? I did it before and seemed to increase the number of views, but I'm not sure the system is working like it used to.

Bob

[ShadySue]

In the old days, 'views' registered all views on an image, i.e. clicks on the image page. That included other iStockers, whether buyers or nor, and any random person who found it on e.g. a Google search, not looking for images to buy.
Now they tell us (after ages of denying it) that only iStock members with paid up buyer credits have their views registered.

I can't say whether or not having linked lightboxes is worthwhile; but I don't think it can do any harm.

[thepoeticimage]

Thanks, Sue. Didn't istock used to list the lightboxes a photo was in when you pulled up the photo?

[ShadySue]

Thanks, Sue. Didn't istock used to list the lightboxes a photo was in when you pulled up the photo?

Yeah, they don't seem to do that now; and that was only for public lightboxes, AFAICR, not for your own linked private lightboxes. Also it used to be that if you forgetfully tried to add a file to a box for a second time, it gave you a warning; it doesn't do that now, and I haven't checked if adding it twice has no effect or if the double positive gives the negative of removing it from the lb.
Anyway, from your left hand side column when you are in My Uploads or on your homepage (but not in a search, in the forums or in your own portfolio, there is a section called Contributor Tools, click on the dropdown for My Uploads and you'll see a lightboxes link and that shows what lightboxes your files are in, but if they are private lightboxes, it'll just say X private lightbox(es), but not list them - these could be your own or a buyer's.
Also bottom left of all your pages, assuming you have the black bar enabled, there is another lightbox link which gives you info about and access to all your own lightboxes, whether public or private.

[LesHoward]

I use private lightboxes to collect useful ideas. For example, I keep a lightbox of interesting pictures of canoes and people canoeing. I do a lot of canoeing so I often take pictures of canoeing so that lightbox serves as a source of inspiration.

I also have several other similar types of lightboxes for different subjects.

[Mactrunk]

One of my clients makes a lightbox if he needs many images and he puts the one he likes in a lightbox. I use the lo ress and download the ones wd desidd to use. So yes. Lightbox is very easy to use. I buy at Dreamstime and you can share the lightbox.

[thepoeticimage]

My question was in terms of selling. Are buyers going to see the photos in lightboxes? If you looked at a photo in the past, you could see all the public lightboxes it was in. It makes sense a buyer then might look at all the lightboxes a particular photo was in. I'm just not seeing any good reason for me to put my photos in public lightboxes any more: I have several fairly good size ones I've started but they don't seem to get the views they used to for the reason I mentioned above.

[mlwinphoto]

I link subject related images to a private lightbox and well as include some related thumbnails on image closeup pages.  I've spent countless hours doing so and can't really say whether it has helped or not.  If it has and my sales are as pathetic as they are now I can only imagine what they would be like without the links.

[tickstock]

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[ShadySue]

Thanks, Sue. Didn't istock used to list the lightboxes a photo was in when you pulled up the photo?

Yeah, they don't seem to do that now;

http://www.istockphoto.com/lightbox_info.php

That's not what he was asking.
When you looked at a file's home page, it used to list the number of lightboxes a file was in. Can't remember if the total was only public lightboxes. I think (but may be remembering wrongly) that you could click on the number and see the list of lightboxes.

[Gannet77]

If I have many images on a similar theme I put them in private lightboxes (or sometimes public ones) and add a link to the lightbox in every file.

No way to tell if it helps sales of course, but links to other files and lightboxes is really the only way we have of marketing our files for ourselves - and I think, if I was a buyer and found one file that was worth looking at more closely, I might well take a look at that contributor's lightbox of similar images.

And, given the different collections, it might lead a buyer looking only at the Main collection to check out other files at a higher price level, and they might find something there to tempt them into spending more.  Or the other way around - they might find one that's too pricey, but check out the lightbox and pick a cheaper one.  A sale's a sale.

Similarly, if you have related files uploaded in the past that may have got buried in Best Match, there's always the chance that a buyer seeing a more recently uploaded file will look in the lightbox and, again, decide to buy one of them if the newer one isn't quite right.

Can't do any harm anyway.  And with DeepMeta, it's easy.

[tickstock]

]

[ShadySue]

Thanks, Sue. Didn't istock used to list the lightboxes a photo was in when you pulled up the photo?

Yeah, they don't seem to do that now;

http://www.istockphoto.com/lightbox_info.php

That's not what he was asking.
When you looked at a file's home page, it used to list the number of lightboxes a file was in. Can't remember if the total was only public lightboxes. I think (but may be remembering wrongly) that you could click on the number and see the list of lightboxes.

Ok but doesn't this do the same thing?  I can see how many private lightboxes and links to public lightboxes of all my files.

Yeah, but you have to scoll a long way to find a particular file; I'm not sure how useful it was from the front page, but I certainly noticed they'd changed it, so I guess I must have used the feature sometimes at least.

[tickstock]

]

[LesHoward]

I was about to say that Deepmeta hasn't had an update since January 2012, but I checked and see Franky just released an update on June 24.

[landbysea]

My Gulf of Mexico Oil Rigs light has 2765 views, but now without the links to the public boxes in the file pages I won't be getting much new views. What is worse is that it does not show up in a search under oil rigs or oil rig. It does show up in a search for Gulf of Mexico. Only 2 lightboxes show up in a search for oil rig and there used to be lots.  I changed the name today to "oil rigs Gulf of Mexico" in the thought that the search ignores my keywords and just looks at the first title word.  Or maybe the search ignores old lightboxes.

[ShadySue]

Oh, you've found something for sure.
I have a public lightbox Scottish Wildlife. Scotland and wildlife are both in the lightbox's keywords, but my lightbox doesn't show up in a lightbox search for Scotland wildlife or Scottish Wildlife.
Should be added to their bugs list if it isn't there already, but obviously I can't do it.

[landbysea]

I couldn't find your lightbox either, Liz. The search bar says to use it to find "Find public lightboxes maintained by other iStock members", so I thought maybe my own wouldn't show. I should write a support ticket or maybe just ask for my posting privileges back. But most of the time you just get the run around and nothing gets resolved. They are so busy putting out all the fires there is no time for such things as lightbox search functionality.