pancakes

MicrostockGroup Sponsors


Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - HappyBunny

Pages: [1] 2 3
1
General Stock Discussion / Do you guys move every few years?
« on: December 18, 2021, 03:58 »
I have been living here for more than 12 years. I don't know what to take photos of here. If a photo wasn't taken by me it was taken by someone else. I have here an excellent photographer as competition who has been at all the places at the right time. Always in perfect sunny weather which is so rare here and always with the sun shining at a castle etc. It's impossible to be better than this guy even if I do use an app to find out when to be where on a sunny day. My question is, do you move around every 10 years, or even more often, to a different location, far away, to be able to shoot something new? I don't know what to take photos of here. I have been to all the landmarks and places around here that sell on SS. Food photography is also totally pointless. I recently saw a portfolio of a lady who made over 1000 Christmas backgrounds. All were very, very beautiful and perfectly done. I must have clicked on 100 of them and every time it said "Not bought yet". I didn't just go threw the first 3 pages. I gave up feeling very sad and sorry for her. Think about all the work and money and time she put into the photos and so many were not bought. They are excellent Christmas backgrounds. There is nothing wrong with them. Do you guys move after you have taken photos all around you or is it in your opinion just a waste of money because there will be another stock photographer living everywhere? I could start taking photos of every flower I see but photos of flowers I took never sold very well.

2
Shutterstock.com / Edited again
« on: December 17, 2021, 12:06 »
May I get some advise please. When I started 5 years ago my editing skills were not very good and I used a different editing software. I just re-edited an image rather a lot. It was a wildflower meadow image with visible dark holes at the base in between the flowers what I didn't like. I filled the gaps, made it more vibrant etc. First it was rejected today for noise which I found strange because it was accepted like that 5 years ago. So I removed more noise and now it is looking even sharper but it got rejected for similar. That similar was uploaded 5 years ago and is first of all not that sharp and the new one is visibly much more beautiful. I am astonished that underneath my old photo is written that it was often bought. As far as I remember it was never bought on SS. Where is the money for it? Why don't they take the obviously much better image and delete the old one or have both? I tried to delete the old version but that's not possible. Is there any point re-editing some old important travel photos that have a very boring sky? I thought about sky replacement. One image doesn't sell. It has competition and the competition has exactly the same image and stood at the same spot but her sky is much better. Will it also just get rejected for similar? I only started uploading to SS after DT accepted each and every image of mine 5 years ago. I hardly ever had rejections. Not for technical reasons. This month I get nothing but rejections. Noise? Every agency has accepted that image. Paying 10 cents but making such a drama as if we are uploading to Offset. They are not selling the images for 300 dollars. How do I delete images if I want to take them away from them. I am thinking of taking the important travel images away from all microstock agencies and uploading them to macrostock. I have written years ago to SS that they can't expect me to make food photos like the ones in Offset when they pay nothing that covers to buy all the necessary props. My husband recently joked and said that they don't even pay what it costs to charge my camera's batteries when he saw me with the charger in my hands. When I checked to see how many strawberry ice cream images they have I decided not to bother taking one at all.

3
General Stock Discussion / Is Indivstock any good?
« on: December 17, 2021, 11:37 »
Is Indivstock any good? Is it worth it uploading to them?

4
General Stock Discussion / Help Xpiks Version for MAC OS Sierra
« on: December 15, 2021, 02:58 »
Oh, what have I done...I use Mac OS Sierra and I was so stupid to press the update button on Xpiks. After installing the new version of Xpiks my computer said that it can't run on my MAC. How do I get the previous version back? Xpiks was the only FTP uploader I used. Can anyone help please? I can't update my MAC Book Pro. It is already getting slower and slower.

5
General Stock Discussion / Fraud?
« on: November 30, 2021, 06:04 »
I have seen images on one website under a man's name and the same images on SS under a woman's name. Of course only the very best images they are and all often bought according to SS. How can two people with different genders, once it is a man and the other time a woman, have the copyright to the same images? Is one of them stealing images?

6
Alamy.com / No money
« on: September 14, 2021, 06:26 »
I have just seen on Alamy that they have given away one of my photos for free. It says RF 0. Is that normal? Can that happen? It never happened to me so far. That's worse than iStock.

7
Bigstock.com / Editorial Rejected
« on: December 13, 2019, 07:29 »
I have uploaded two editorial images and each time I clicked on the Editorial Only box. One of the two images was rejected with the reason that I need to click the editorial box. I uploaded it again and made sure I did click the Editorial box and it was again rejected with the reason that I need to click the Editorial box. Is there a point uploading it again. My approval rating is simply dropping for nothing. SS accepted that photo. Should I write to them or just forget about it?

8
General Stock Discussion / Eyeem
« on: October 07, 2018, 10:22 »
I have just been on Eyeem's website and read there the following: "We partner with Getty Images, Adobe Stock, Alamy, and other photo platforms to distribute the best pictures you upload to their networks of image buyers."
Is that true? What's the point of me uploading there? I would only compete with myself and earn less. I upload myself directly to Adobe and Alamy. Is there a point uploading to Eyeem if I am uploading to iStock? Won't Getty anyway get my images because of iStock? 

9
General Stock Discussion / Backgrounds
« on: October 02, 2018, 04:08 »
I need a background with a blue sky and snowfall. I found some on Ink and Elm. I also found one on eBay sold from China. I was thinking if I could paint that by myself onto a blue background and so I looked on SS to see what backgrounds they are having. How that looks like. I was astonished to see some images on SS which Ink and Elm must have bought for printing them on a vinyl background. Can I buy this background from Ink and Elm to items in front of it and sell it on the microstock websites. Nearly the whole background with the sky and the snow would be visible. Isn't that like stealing someone's art  even though I have not bought, downloaded and used their image? On eBay the seller has bought two different backgrounds and stitched them together as one. I do not want to get into trouble and I'm sure the photographer who took the background will notice that the background is his/her photo. I also saw bokeh images as vinyl the backgrounds which were clearly bought on the microstock websites.

10
General Stock Discussion / German agencies
« on: October 01, 2018, 06:43 »
Is it worth it to upload to German agencies if I do take German food photos? If yes, which ones are the best? Do I have to duplicate images and write title and keywords in German language.

11
Alamy.com / Almay Sale for $1.25
« on: September 20, 2018, 10:09 »
Hello, I just made a new sale on Alamy. The buyer paid a whopping $1.25. Is that even possible? I hardly ever make a sale on Alamy. For that money it's not worth uploading and all that time consuming tagging.

12
General Stock Discussion / Inflation
« on: August 02, 2018, 03:46 »
I have been doing microstock for 2.5 years but never saw an increase of our royalties to cover inflation. In some countries employers have to pay 2% more every year to cover the loss of income because of inflation. Food prices go up etc. Do the agencies increase our royalties every few years or not at all? We can't just get 33 cents per image now and 33 cents in 10 years.

13
Shutterstock.com / Pending images deleted
« on: June 10, 2018, 02:56 »
I deleted 3 pending images on SS but they anyway viewed them and they were rejected. It is written that asset was deleted before reviewing but I have now 3 rejections for deleted images.

14
General Stock Discussion / Editorial/newsworthy
« on: June 10, 2018, 02:52 »
Hello, I uploaded 3 images to iStock about a week ago. They came back today as rejected. They wrote that these images are news and not editorial and need to be uploaded on Getty Images news desk. I am not a Getty contributor. I only ever signed up with iStock. Can an iStock contributor upload at Getty Images news desk?

15
Site Related / No emails
« on: December 21, 2017, 03:32 »
Help, I am suddenly not getting any emails from the microstock group not even for topics I started and where notification is switched on. I wrote to the email id at the end of this page but that came back as undeliverable. In order to read answers from you to my own question I have to go to the website. And I wondered why it had gone so quiet.  :)

16
I took a photo at a free Air Show with a crowd of people watching the Red Arrows. Photos are as editorial on microstock but not SS and Alamy. I was far away from the air display. 3 planes flying straight from the left. Planes look rather black, no logo visible but their coloured smoke is. Visible is the beach, it was public land, the rock in the sea gives away the location. No visible face in front of photo. As I said I was far away. All people in front with back to camera. It's basically the whole depth of the beach full of people and in the distance black looking planes with the straight lines of coloured smoke. Alamy wrote to me yesterday asking if I would lift the editorial restriction. They have a buyer who wants it as commercial. I am worried that the Red Arrows know that it was them on the photo because of that coloured smoke. Should I lift the restriction? Should Alamy ask the Red Arrows for permission? I need your help fast please. Thank you soooooo much.

17
General - Stock Video / video editing
« on: July 23, 2017, 06:41 »
I have just had my first video accepted. Can someone please tell me if I should edit videos like an image? Should I leave saturation as it is out of camera or do customers like videos with vibrant colours? I didn't edit this video. I only trimmed it and compared to my images it looks kind of flat and boring.

18
General Stock Discussion / Xpiks
« on: July 19, 2017, 04:47 »
Can I use Xpiks for uploading videos? My videos don't show up when I click "add file". What's the best way to upload videos? I own a MAC.

19
General Stock Discussion / Aspect ration
« on: July 17, 2017, 05:46 »
Hello, I am just wondering if there is a certain aspect ratio agencies and or the customers prefer for images. I can set my camera to 4:3 or 3:2. So far I have been taking images in 3:2 but I also crop according to my image even if it changes the aspect ration. Is that okay?

20
Shutterstock.com / SS model release
« on: June 12, 2017, 07:44 »
Has something changed? So far I have always used the iStock model release form for all agencies including SS. I had an image rejected yesterday saying that the image needs a model release form. I thought I had forgotten to attach it to the image and uploaded it again. Again the image was rejected for the same reason. I can't just make a model release for each and every agency. I used the iStock form and simply removed the name iStock...

21
Photography Equipment / Video editing software Android
« on: June 04, 2017, 09:29 »
I would like to start shooting videos with my smartphone. Is there a free video editing software for Android phones that does remove the audio and doesn't add watermarks? Or do I have to transfer the video files to my laptop for editing?

22
General Stock Discussion / Aspect ratio
« on: May 02, 2017, 09:55 »
Hello, I have just shot my first video. What aspect ratio do I need to upload the footage?

23
General Photography Discussion / Morocco - Marrakech
« on: March 15, 2017, 07:15 »
Has anyone been to Morocco? My husband fancied a 10 day escorted tour holiday in Morocco. I have only been once before on a tour holiday but didn't take photos for microstock. There was hardly a chance to take photos. I will have 2 days all alone in Marrakech before the tour starts. I will get the chance to photograph people in a bakery, barber shop...to take photos of. They are all getting paid for that. Should I buy the Easyrelease app or should I just upload the images as editorial? Is it true that it is forbidden to use a tripod in public? Where do I upload? To microstock or to macrostock? I have taken an amazing photo of the Hagia Sophia during golden hour in Istanbul but it was only bought twice within one year on microstock. Alamy doesn't sell any of my images. Any tips for Morocco? It takes me time to take proper photos. Has anyone tried to take stock photos while being on a tour with 30 people? All the images I took in Istanbul sold but only twice, some only once within a year. I only took a few because I wasn't there for long and only have edited and uploaded really good photos. I was there alone and not with a group and spend lots of time composing the photos.

24
Alamy.com / Alamy Image discoverability
« on: February 18, 2017, 08:12 »
I have just seen on Alamy's new website that 148 of my images have poor discoverability. What to do? Is it possible to change keywords after photos have been accepted? How?
I have not sold one image yet on Alamy. I am slowly getting tired of uploading there.

25
Photography Equipment / Sony RX100 - upgrade
« on: February 09, 2017, 02:36 »
Hello, has anybody upgraded to the Sony RX100M5? Is it worth it? I am taking photos with the Sony RX100M3 because I can't hold heavy cameras. Would I sell more images if I would choose a higher quality camera like the Sony A6300 for example? Is it worth it paying any more money for a new camera? I have only uploaded about 340 images in one year and I really can't do more than that. I edit RAW files but would really love to be able to use JPEGs. Wouldn't that save a lot of editing work?

Pages: [1] 2 3

Sponsors

Mega Bundle of 5,900+ Professional Lightroom Presets

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors