Author Topic: Submitting with free LightBurner service: new features (Read 5151 times)

davidm · « **on:** December 21, 2010, 16:48 »

Following your guys feedback I keep adding new functionality to LightBurner, the new free microstock submission service.
Following the latest addition of Veer microstock, here is the new stuff which should help us to fine-control our uploads on per-channel base.

Channel Preferences

Submit stock photos either directly to upload queue or to 'unfinished' zone on each microstock site
Some microstocks, like Fotolia, does not allow further image editing for images placed in the approval queue. So if you are willing to visit the microstock site and adjust your submission metadata or simply add a model release, you can not do that if your image went directly to approval queue on such a site. This new settings helps you to direct your uploads to approval queue or to the 'unfinished' zone. (Note that delivery to 'approval queue' is for selected microstocks only)

Auto-submit on upload
This new option helps to further automate your workflow. Now you can just once specify the microstock agencies where you want to upload and keep sending your stock images to LightBurner over SFTP. They will be automatically distributed to the stock photography agencies of your choice.

Resize on submit
For some sales channels you might want to resize your high resolution image and deliver a smaller image. A typical example is agencies that sell subscriptions only, like Shutterstock.

LightBurner helps you to resize your stock photos either to a specified number of megapixels or to a certain long side length. Note that the microstocks will typically decline your uploads if the resized image have less megapixels than required by the agency. Safe numbers to resize are 4 to 6 MP minimum. Images can also be automatically upscaled for the agencies that require that (e.g. Alamy) - use the upscale option carefully

Channels preferences are accessed by "Preferences" button in "Channels" dialog

grp_photo · « **Reply #1 on:** December 21, 2010, 17:17 »

Looks cool, love the resize-option!!!

diego_cervo · « **Reply #2 on:** December 22, 2010, 00:57 »

thank you David

alfonsodetomas · « **Reply #3 on:** December 22, 2010, 02:21 »

Very useful!!

Good job!!

thanks

microstockphoto.co.uk · « **Reply #4 on:** December 22, 2010, 03:12 »

Great options, thanks David
I am impressed at how quickly you listen to users' feedback. Wish all stock agencies did the same

One more non-critical request: specifying initial remote directory for custom channels (some minor agencies such as FeaturePics require it)

Fotonaut · « **Reply #5 on:** December 22, 2010, 08:16 »

Excellent!

davidm · « **Reply #6 on:** December 22, 2010, 15:17 »

Thanks guys, appreciate your support!

More to come soon

microstockphoto.co.uk · « **Reply #7 on:** December 24, 2010, 16:32 »

"Automatically submit all new uploads" doesn't stay checked for custom channels and SS

works fine for all other default channels instead

alfonsodetomas · « **Reply #8 on:** December 25, 2010, 16:13 »

Uploads don't work in Panthermedia

Thanks in advance

davidm · « **Reply #9 on:** December 26, 2010, 07:20 »

Quote from: microstockphoto.co.uk on December 24, 2010, 16:32

"Automatically submit all new uploads" doesn't stay checked for custom channels and SS

oops...
Fixed, thanks for reporting!

davidm · « **Reply #10 on:** December 27, 2010, 08:43 »

Quote from: alfonsodetomas on December 25, 2010, 16:13

Uploads don't work in Panthermedia

Thanks in advance

I contacted Panthermedia and am waiting for their IT guys to answer my query. Guess it can take some time due to the holidays period.

steheap · « **Reply #11 on:** December 30, 2010, 08:37 »

David

A possible bug - I uploaded 8 files and assigned them to the channels (it would be good to have "Select All" on the channel list). All went well, the files were uploaded to each site. I was then thinking about longer term organization and so I selected all the files and moved them to a newly created folder by clicking the image, moving to "catalog" tab in the image window, selecting the new folder and clicking save. The images moved to the new folder, but they are now shown with no titles, description or keywords and all records of them having been uploaded have vanished. I managed to get them back to the main catalog again by deleting the folder, but they are still missing all information and history. I later saw that you could assign them to folders using "Assign: Folders" - so maybe I made an error before.

No great problem with these images as I am still playing with the system, but can you look at that issue?

Steve

Alatriste · « **Reply #12 on:** December 30, 2010, 19:38 »

I find it quite dificult to work with...
In many sites the images are uploaded twice
In SS the images appear with no categories when submiting directly

Alatriste · « **Reply #13 on:** December 30, 2010, 19:52 »

Also, statistics of SS and alamy does not apear for me
Dont know if Im doing something wrong...

davidm · « **Reply #14 on:** December 31, 2010, 02:30 »

Quote from: Alatriste on December 30, 2010, 19:52

Also, statistics of SS and alamy does not apear for me
Dont know if Im doing something wrong...

It's Shutterstock who does the things wrong, not you.

Sometime ago they decided to add a captcha to their submitters accounts. Software can not read captchas, and that's why uploading to Shutetrstock is over FTP only. Uploading by FTP we do not get back the image ID, so we can not collect the portfolio stats. Even the balance can not be shown since the submitters accounts are blocked by Shutterstock.

Working with top microstocks is a challenge. While companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Twitter and Facebook love their developers who create a whole world of external applications around their solutions, the top microstocks simply ignore us. They do not like to co-operate. They do not agree that opening their systems to the developers means more business for them. Looking to increase the short time profits, microstock marketing guys do not understand a win-win business principle of supporting their developers, which is so obvious to Twitter or Apple.

microstockphoto.co.uk · « **Reply #15 on:** January 01, 2011, 05:26 »

feature request - what about an option to choose between:

- resize;

- downsize only (useful for sites which have a max size limit, without running the risk of upsizing pictures, which is not allowed by most);

- upsize only (useful for sites which allow upsizing such as alamy, without running the risk of downsizing already large pictures)

thanks

Anyka · « **Reply #16 on:** January 03, 2011, 02:29 »

Yesterday, I messed up completely : I had sent a batch to all sites a week ago. Then I noticed Graphicleftovers had not received them. Of course, stupid me only noticed this AFTER deleting the images on Lightburner. So I re-uploaded them to LB, and assigned them to Graphicleftovers only. What happened : LB sent them again to ALL sites, except Fotolia which I had configured manually. In "preferences" of every site, I had switched OFF the "automatic sending". I checked every channel, it was still switched off.
How can I prevent this from happening again? I have been deleting for almost an hour ...

davidm · « **Reply #17 on:** January 03, 2011, 08:49 »

Hey Anyka,
Did you switch off "auto-submit" for the other channels before or after re-uploading the files to LightBurner?

Anyka · « **Reply #18 on:** January 03, 2011, 08:51 »

I switched off all channels a few days before resubmitting to LB. And when I checked after resubmitting, they were STILL switched off.

davidm · « **Reply #19 on:** January 03, 2011, 10:40 »

Quote from: Anyka on January 03, 2011, 08:51

I switched off all channels a few days before resubmitting to LB. And when I checked after resubmitting, they were STILL switched off.

Thanks for the info. How did you assign the new files to the channels? Did you use "Edit" for multiple files, or probably "Assign", or simply dragged and dropped each file to the LO channel?

Anyka · « **Reply #20 on:** January 03, 2011, 11:26 »

In "portfolio" : I click "select all", then "Assign" - then in the pop-up menu I click the box next to Graphicleftovers + Apply. I don't touch the other tab pages, as I do categories etc. on the stocksites.

For your info : for every site, via "my account", every site is saved with only the top box (submit to approval queue) ticked, all other boxes are/were empty (including the very important "automatically submit all new uploads").

I don't think the whole series was automatically submitted when I assigned the pics to Graphicleftovers, I think the went to all sites as soon as they were uploaded, but why?
Did I do anything wrong?

davidm · « **Reply #21 on:** January 04, 2011, 04:08 »

@Anyka
Thanks for your help, found & fixed.

Please note that Assign 'adds' new stuff to the existing settings (e.g. adds a new channel without removing previously selected), while Edit (both single or multiple files) completely overwrites the settings.

I also noticed that you got only 15 images in your LB portfolio. Do you typically delete the images from your LightBurner account after their submission to the channels?

Anyka · « **Reply #22 on:** January 04, 2011, 04:21 »

Quote from: davidm on January 04, 2011, 04:08

Please note that Assign 'adds' new stuff to the existing settings (e.g. adds a new channel without removing previously selected), while Edit (both single or multiple files) completely overwrites the settings.

I also noticed that you got only 15 images in your LB portfolio. Do you typically delete the images from your LightBurner account after their submission to the channels?

To start with your question : yes I manually delete them when all photos have reached their destination - as I don't use LB for statistics.

As for the difference between edit/assign : sorry, I don't understand your explanation. Why would I use EDIT when I simply want to send the files to 1 single channel, without editing anything, not even add categories? Don't forget that I got this problem when I re-uploaded the files, so they were completely new to LB.

davidm · « **Reply #23 on:** January 04, 2011, 04:44 »

I am sorry I did not put myself clear enough.

The issue with [re-]uploads/autosubmit is fixed now, thanks for pointing me on this problem.

The difference between Assign and Edit modes was a side note. You are absolutely right - if all you want to do is just to add a new channel to a set of files Assign is just fine for that.

LightBurner will also offer free portfolio promotional tools quite soon - could give yet another reason to keep your thumbnails & previews in your account instead of manually deleting them (high res is deleted anyway after 4 days)

Anyka · « **Reply #24 on:** January 04, 2011, 06:43 »

Quote from: davidm on January 04, 2011, 04:44

The issue with [re-]uploads/autosubmit is fixed now, thanks for pointing me on this problem.

The difference between Assign and Edit modes was a side note. You are absolutely right - if all you want to do is just to add a new channel to a set of files Assign is just fine for that.

LightBurner will also offer free portfolio promotional tools quite soon - could give yet another reason to keep your thumbnails & previews in your account instead of manually deleting them (high res is deleted anyway after 4 days)

OK thanks David for fixing it - I'll be uploading again in a few days, and I won't delete anything manually, just because I'm curious about the new promotional tools