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Messages - josephjacobs

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1
I'm a young contributor, and I started uploading to fotolia (those were the days) and istock before I turned 18. This means that I had a good couple years before I could get onto shutterstock. When I finally did get on Shutterstock, I uploaded almost 1,000 images over the course of a few weeks to get all the photos up. It's been almost a year, and shutterstock hasn't been growing very quickly - I still make almost 5 times as much on adobe stock than I do with shutterstock, even though my portfolio is larger there than on adobe.

Should I expect shutterstock to pick up over time, or did uploading so many photos at one time bury them all in the algorithm?

2
I've been messing around with a solar system model, and realized that there are NASA textures for all the planets/stars that are available for free under the creative commons with this disclaimer: "Distributed under Attribution 4.0 International license: You may use, adapt, and share these textures for any purpose, even commercially." I did a little more research and the official site says these textures can be used commercially if credit is given. I'm guessing this means using them in a stock photo would be sketchy. Does anyone know what the legal allowances are with using these textures?


I've attatched a mockup I did of the solar system, using those textures for all the planets and the stars in the back.

3
Shutterstock.com / Re: Anyone have sales today?
« on: March 10, 2018, 19:09 »
No recorded sales here either, although the contributor app says otherwise. Glad to see it's not just me.

4
Adobe Stock / Reupload rejected pictures?
« on: February 19, 2018, 10:51 »
I've been uploading to Fotolia (adobe stock, whatever) for a couple years now and I've found that acceptance/rejection is really up in the air depending on the reviewer. I've had some awful pictures accepted and some really great pictures (imo) rejected. Recently, I uploaded a series of conceptual 3D Illustrations that I'm super proud of. They all had a similar theme but were different color palates, shapes, angles, everything. The whole batch except for one was rejected due to "similar already submitted." From past experience I'm pretty sure that if I try again I can get those pictures accepted because I've had much more similar pictures before all accepted. Is there any kind of rule against reuploading with identical metadata in hopes of a different reviewer seeing the pictures?

5
Adobe Stock / Indexing in Adobe Stock vs. Fotolia
« on: January 15, 2018, 15:19 »
I was wondering if anyone has a preference between the two uploading platforms now that adobe stock has branched off. If you upload from Fotolia, you have choices with exclusivity, ordering keywords, and price. If you upload from Adobe Stock, you get auto-generated categories and keywords, less precise categories, and it looks like the max price for photos defaults to double that of Fotolia uploads. So, which platform is best to upload/index pictures?

6
I took a trip to France recently and took some pictures in/around old churches of different levels of fame. Do I need property releases for these? The artwork is extremely old, but I don't who owns the rights to the churches and artwork inside.

7
General Photography Discussion / Model release needed?
« on: July 01, 2017, 20:32 »
I was at the beach catching a sunset a couple days ago and got a few pictures of people in the water, totally silhouetted. I know model releases are usually only needed for identifiable people, but I wasn't sure if (legally OR ethically) if I should upload these photos because the subject of the picture is still a person or group of people I don't have releases for. Should I go ahead and upload or should I refrain?


8
Adobe Stock / Adobe Stock
« on: July 01, 2017, 20:26 »
I'm a little confused about the concept of Adobe Stock, and have some questions. I've been on fotolia for a year now. I logged in to Adobe Stock with my Adobe ID, and it said that I had a fotolia portfolio, and that it would be linked. However, the site then prompted me to upload on that platform, and I didn't see anything else of substance on that site. What's the purpose of the Adobe Stock site for contributors? Can I just upload like normal on fotolia, or is there something else I have to do to link the two platforms? Do people with fotolia platforms make sales on Adobe Stock, and is there a way to see which ones come from which site?

9
Dreamstime.com / Re: Dead dead and dead
« on: June 25, 2017, 08:16 »
DT has been dead for me for a while now...

10
I recently took a beautiful trip to France and returned with some wall textures and countryside photos I'd like to upload to stock sites. I don't know enough about where a property release is needed, especially with foreign land, and I was wondering if anyone knew which of the attached pictures would be okay to upload.

All the agricultural property was free to walk through and the people I was with said it was totally okay to photograph, but I'm wary to sell pictures until I know it's okay. Also, what's the rule with uploading a view of an entire town like this?

11
iStockPhoto.com / Is iStock worth it?
« on: March 22, 2017, 20:11 »
I've been reading through lots of iStock posts and have come to the consensus that most people are furious with iStock's new flat (and low) royalty rates. I'm a newbie to the stock world and am completely and amateur, I just upload as a hobby and enjoy the extra cash on the side when it comes. I've uploaded most of my collection to iStock, but stopped uploading after the site went down at the end of last year. I haven't uploaded since, but I'm thinking of starting up again now that I'm able to see my earnings. I'm not thrilled with the 15% rate but I'm not making too much less than I am on other sites, and the volume I'm selling has gotten me, at least over the past few months, a balance I'm happy with. Should I start uploading again, or should I keep holding out? I'm fine with the amount of money I'm making, but I don't want to be on the wrong side of the battle for decent royalty rates.

12
Adobe Stock / Fotolia Ranking Significance
« on: March 07, 2017, 06:33 »
Hi,

This may be a stupid question, but how much significance in portfolio exposure should I expect from a rank increase, if any at all? I'm new to fotolia, and am about to hit 100 sales to increase me to the next rank. I know the royalty increase is barely significant, but is there any other benefit to being at a higher rank?

Thanks,
Joseph

13
Cameras / Lenses / Re: Nikon d5500 vs Canon T6s
« on: March 01, 2017, 14:04 »
My first question is how expensive is the glass you're using now? If you have a collection of Canon L lenses, how expensive is that going to be to replace? If you're using Canon kit lenses, it will be a lot less expensive to switch gear. My second question is how is the quality of what you're using now? Will a higher quality lens give you better pictures? And, finally, how comfortable are you with the Canon system - if you switch to Nikon, will you like everything it does? And... the t7i will be out at the end of the month...

I'm using pretty standard kit lenses... I have the plastic fantastic f/1.8 and a 50-250mm telephoto lens. My budget is really nothing to the point where I'd have to sell my old lenses and use that money to get new lenses, so I'm worried that I won't be able to get the same quality new lenses for a Nikon camera with just that money. I'm super comfortable with the Canon, but I'm not opposed to learning something new.

As for the T7i... I'm really excited for it but I've been hyping to buy this camera for a while, and my old T3i is already up for sale. I'd be happy with the T6s if I went Canon.

Do you think the D5500 is a better choice?

14
Cameras / Lenses / Nikon d5500 vs Canon T6s
« on: March 01, 2017, 12:29 »
Hi all,

I've been shooting on a Canon Rebel T3i for many years now, and it's done me very well but is starting to slow down, and I'm starting to look for something of better quality. I'm still very much an amateur and don't have the money for anything professional, and I was looking at the Canon Rebel T6i and T6s (I think I was going to go for the T6s) when I came across the Nikon D5500. The selling points for this camera to me is that it's cheaper and offers a better dynamic range, as well as a higher ISO range. My concerns with it are that I've been shooting on Canon my whole life, and I have a couple Canon lenses that I would have to sell and replace with Nikon lenses.

My question is, is the Nikon D5500 worth the switch over to Nikon? Would I be happy with the Canon T6s? I take a wide variety of photos, but my niche tends to be landscapes and nature. I also take lots of video, and would be using my new camera for video as well. I shoot in raw and edit in lightroom, so I'm not in need of a camera that gives the perfect photo right off the card but wouldn't want to compromise my photo quality. Any advice?

Thanks, Joseph

15
General Stock Discussion / Re: Are some sites worth the hassle?
« on: January 08, 2017, 20:43 »
Okay, that's really good to know. I'm actually under 18 so I'm chomping at the bit to get my photos onto shutterstock :) How do I see my account balance? I see it on deepmeta, is that the only way?

16
General Stock Discussion / Are some sites worth the hassle?
« on: January 08, 2017, 20:23 »
I've been uploading stock for a half a year now. It started as a hobby and it mainly still is, but I'm making a little from it- I made one big sale on Alamy and I just hit the $50 mark on fotolia (woot!) My two other sites, Dreamstime and iStock, have yielded next to nothing. I'm making some sales with the IS partner program but all of those sales are well under a dollar each.

The tipping point for me was then I realized my account balance on the bottom bar was gone after the new year - I understand this is a common problem and maybe a change in the IS site, but it seems to me like if I can't even see the little amount of money I'm making maybe it's not worth the hours I spend uploading. I'm more inclined to stick around with DT too, even though i've made the least amount of money there (only 3 sales), just because they have a site layout that really works for me and friendly support.

My question is, at what point is uploading to a site pointless? Should I stick with IS and DT and hope for the best or just stop uploading there?

17
General Stock Discussion / Copyright Issue
« on: January 02, 2017, 18:11 »
I recently uploaded a small batch of skiing pictures. The model is wearing skiing gear so naturally I had to remove a good deal of logos from the picture before I could upload. however, I missed a super distorted logo on the poles and uploaded with that logo still there. All sites but one (DT was the only one to spot the logo) accepted the pictures, and they are currently on sale.

If the pictures have been accepted does that mean the site thinks the logo is not recognizable enough to be a problem, or that the site just made a mistake? Pretty much, do all these pictures need to be taken down? I've attached one of the photos.

18
Just give them the images to use.  It's not a big deal.  I trade all the time for access.

Good to know, thanks.

19
How would the owner of the private property on which the pictures were taken cut into your market for licensing the image to everyone else? I'd argue not much at all. So your thought that you're being taken advantage of is the loss of licensing revenue to this one customer?

As many of the sites are getting much more rigorous about asking for property releases, there's a very good chance you won't get to license the images at all without a release. It's never in your best interests to license images where there might later be issues over the commercial use of images of the property.

Make sure you give them the images with a license (like one an agency would provide but that is from you) that makes clear what they can and cannot do (so they don't upload them to stock websites, for example) and thank them for their cooperation :)

I think that's what I'll do, thanks for the advice!

20
Hi all,

I'm fairly new to stock and am enjoying the experience of photographing and uploading. So far I've tried to avoid needing releases as much as possible, but recently I visited a gorgeous golf course in Florida and couldn't help but snapping some wide shots which clearly show large sections of the course. I figured I might need a property release for these images, so i sent them along to someone who works at the course, who told me he'd get me a signed property release as long as I gave him all the photos I took for them to use free of charge as advertising.

I realize this could work, but I'm a pretty low earner on stock sites so far and I probably wouldn't make much on these pictures, so it seems like a really bad deal to give them away like this. There wasn't a no-photo policy at the course, and the tiny bit of research I did told me that I might not need a release after all. It seemed as if maybe the guy I talked to was trying to take advantage of the situation a little bit. So my question is, do i really need a release? I've attatched screenshots of a couple photos which might raise an issue.

Thanks!
Joseph


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