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Messages - cascoly

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1
Off Topic / Re: Selling on Fine Art America
« on: Today at 04:08 »
yes, you need a decent sized portfolio and do the work - just waiting for sales won't get you anywhere

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/steve-estvanik

we have a group of artists on FAA who cross-promote each others work and discuss working within FAA

https://fineartamerica.com/groups/the-hashtag-team.html?tab=overview

2
Canva / Re: Notice of violation emails
« on: March 21, 2024, 08:50 »
Hi there,

Apologies for the concern around the messaging here. I have shared the feedback here with our team.

The same email is currently being sent for all content removals, whether very serious violations of our Acceptable Use Policy, or contributed content removed from Creators as part of ongoing content library audits.

The messaging around "suspension" is not intended for the latter case; so please don't be alarmed by this, and you don't need to worry about account suspension.

Hope this helps!
once again canva takes an insulting way out with such weassal-worded messages --    why not be upfront & say "we deleted this - guess why?"


i've been getting same rejections for erotic sculptures on hindu temples - are they going to start deleting any depiction of anatomy?

a MUCH MORE serious problem is the rejection of entire batches SECONDS after uploading --  they refuse to even acknowledge this is happening despite being reported by many long time contributors.  instead they send condescending boilerplate:

We've reviewed your most recent image submission and found that most of them do not adhere to the Canva image quality standards. Based on overall artistic appeal, usability and technical quality, we are unable to accept them into the library.



 and, of course, they can't be bothered to say what those might be. obviously an AI is running  amuck (another inheritance from ancient Hindus).

3
If I still had a port on ss, i would just leave the port there and maybe upload less if i didn't like the returns. or just upload the weaker files from a series, sort of a "teaser" and if someone wants the full series they can look at pond5 or adobe....

how likely is it that someone seeing your 'lesser' work on SS s going to think you have better work on other sites?  more likely they'll just find a better image on SS - stock is a commodity & users don't follow particular artists

4
Shutterstock.com / Re: Monthly earnings and downloads
« on: March 14, 2024, 07:28 »
How many downloads and earnings do you generate per month on Shutter Stock?

January 2024 -> 174 download , 20,57 dollar
February 2024 -> 162 download , 23,90 dollar

Total number of photos: 27123
Total number of video: 212

What's the situation with you? If we regularly state our monthly earnings, we can be a reference to each other. I was earning $100 per month in the last 5-6 months of 2023, but these earnings dropped in the new year.

my God what a disaster! :-\

Shutterstock is gone,someone who sells quite well,still sells,but is now an agency in decline,and then they don't want to accept AI content,another demonstration that they have no intention of continuing this business with contributors.

so, first all the AI rants about it killing sales on AS, now attacking SS because they DON't accept AI??

the fact that low prices are .10 is irrelevant when RPD is .6-.8 shows higher sales still occur. and for me SS is double AS most months

5
Canva / Re: Magic Creator Payment is now completely zero
« on: March 13, 2024, 10:56 »
Feb 2024 numbers are in...

Applies +10%, Exports +3% -> Earnings -4%
Magic Creator Payment 2nd month in a row at "nothing", not even a number there...

Does anyone else have the impression that we're being screwed over here?

nope - my MC payments have been steady even with  canva doing instantaneous 100% rejects of new uploads -- earnings dropped about 20% a year ago, but have remained at that point since then

funny how so many assume there must be a conspiracy when their individual earnings go down.

6
For some time I've been toying with idea of keeping only Alamy and Adobe and closing all other accounts, including SS.  This is an interesting dilemma, and I don't think there is straight cut answer that applies equally to everyone.

i still need to do the same work for other agencies, so no reason to stop uploading, but i encourage everyone else to stop uploading and seek medical aid for firearms damage to their metatarses

7
Disclosure has been dealt a blow by ex head of AARO in his leaving report for historic reporting on UAP - Sean Kirkpatrick states in summery " its all fake and misidetification brewed up by a select few to hoodwink the government"

and the response https://www.youtube.com/live/Vw_uTkRe8rI?feature=shared

the report itself is much more measured though surely a disappointment to true believers - it said there was no evidence of extraterrestrials nor of crashed ships and that testimony from 'experts 'lacked actual corroboration from physical evidence or others and was often hearsay or worse ("a friend of a friend knows somebody...") they also discuss interpretation of various recording purporting to defynphysics and show errors in  their analysis.


conclusion - still no there there.

8
The problem with all these AI tools, they don't provide the location, keywords and description about location which for me is very important, even tho the test image had the coordinates in the picture, Udream (the only one tested) didn't use any of that info to provide the location, so useless for me.

when i use chatgpt i ask for tags from my description which does include the location

The way I understood the comment, the ask is for the tool to figure out the location by itself which it can do if the image contains the gps metadata (which is more reverse geocoding than AI) or if the image is of a recognizable location.

but location alone can't tell what's in the background,esp'ly for landscapes - eg a view from a pass may be looking in any of 4 directions with different mountains to be named.

The ask was merely to obtain the location from the location metadata in the first place (in lieu of manually as you say you do).
From there, most would expect the location helps set the context for the rest of the keywords with respect to whats in the picture..
eg. A picture of a big metal tower in Paris, or a big canyon in Arizona, or a large waterfall in Zambia. With location, a good guess could be made as to what each description is referring to.

Another example would be of wildlife where almost all Id forums ask for location (and date) because different species can otherwise look identical.
but there can be different species in the same location - eg crows vs ravens, or multiple species of antelope, etc

i'd rather enter the actual information rather than have the AI 'guess' what i'm photographing - if location is 'pisa' it cant know whether image is the tower, the cathedral or a zoom of the coat of arms on a wall, or a detail of columns or sculptures; in Nuremberg several cathedrals are visible from one place.  better to use a AI that does an image search in the first place
...
Second, the AI tools Im referring to take an image as input (for ChatGPT you need a subscription or use a 3rd party tool that uses the paid API). Thus, location would merely aid it in its description and would not dictate it.
chatgpt DOES not require payment - you can use it for free directly

9
The problem with all these AI tools, they don't provide the location, keywords and description about location which for me is very important, even tho the test image had the coordinates in the picture, Udream (the only one tested) didn't use any of that info to provide the location, so useless for me.

when i use chatgpt i ask for tags from my description which does include the location

The way I understood the comment, the ask is for the tool to figure out the location by itself which it can do if the image contains the gps metadata (which is more reverse geocoding than AI) or if the image is of a recognizable location.

but location alone can't tell what's in the background,esp'ly for landscapes - eg a view from a pass may be looking in any of 4 directions with different mountains to be named.

The ask was merely to obtain the location from the location metadata in the first place (in lieu of manually as you say you do).
From there, most would expect the location helps set the context for the rest of the keywords with respect to whats in the picture..
eg. A picture of a big metal tower in Paris, or a big canyon in Arizona, or a large waterfall in Zambia. With location, a good guess could be made as to what each description is referring to.

Another example would be of wildlife where almost all Id forums ask for location (and date) because different species can otherwise look identical.
but there can be different species in the same location - eg crows vs ravens, or multiple species of antelope, etc

i'd rather enter the actual information rather than have the AI 'guess' what i'm photographing - if location is 'pisa' it cant know whether image is the tower, the cathedral or a zoom of the coat of arms on a wall, or a detail of columns or sculptures; in Nuremberg several cathedrals are visible from one place.  better to use a AI that does an image search in the first place
 

10

...
One possibility could also be to accept AI-generated images up to a smaller certain resolution, for example, 2 megapixels, and offer them at a particularly low price for mobile usage only. Since the AI images almost always generate artifacts when upscaled for higher resolutions, this would help alleviate the review process...

isn't that a review problem?  with AI competing with photos at 100%

11
Hell no. It is a lot easier and much faster to take a good series of pictures and videos with a camera than to do stuff with ai.

At least for me.

true, that's why i use ai to produce images i couldn't take in RL

12
The problem with all these AI tools, they don't provide the location, keywords and description about location which for me is very important, even tho the test image had the coordinates in the picture, Udream (the only one tested) didn't use any of that info to provide the location, so useless for me.

when i use chatgpt i ask for tags from my description which does include the location

The way I understood the comment, the ask is for the tool to figure out the location by itself which it can do if the image contains the gps metadata (which is more reverse geocoding than AI) or if the image is of a recognizable location.

but location alone can't tell what's in the background,esp'ly for landscapes - eg a view from a pass may be looking in any of 4 directions with different mountains to be named. 


13
General Stock Discussion / Re: How to read the poll results ?
« on: March 03, 2024, 18:10 »
...It used to be that the highest was 100 and everyone else was based off that. So the new system is an average based on the factor of $5. I find the 231 for Adobe to be unusual and high. (personal opinion) ...


if i remember correctly the 100 was a value set for earnings on SS(?) and others were normalized to that. so an 80 would mean that agency was producing 20% less than that initial number -and even SS number would change

AS 231 means twice what that number - but your description about gaming the poll really makes it unusable today (and remember too, AS got only 40 votes - compared to hundreds? thousands? of active readers here

14
The problem with all these AI tools, they don't provide the location, keywords and description about location which for me is very important, even tho the test image had the coordinates in the picture, Udream (the only one tested) didn't use any of that info to provide the location, so useless for me.

when i use chatgpt i ask for tags from my description which does include the location

15
I do not need it.
At best, you can choose 1 or 2 images in your model. On average, everything it shows is not suitable. Therefore, your model should display not 10 images, but much more. That's why I'm telling you that you should connect to the search results on shutterstock. In general, the way your model works does not suit me.

again with the "model", it doesn't mean what you think it means
you don't have to use it, please don't
So remove this topic from this forum. Your model will not suit stockers.

you dont get to decide who can post here!

you've given your opinion without providing any actual DATA to support it

16
Yes, DT is a real pain to upload with the auto keywords turned off. It also keeps saying you have less than 5 words in the description even when there are well over that & won't let you submit. I have to re-word the description. The number & rate of sales is very poor & hasn't improved in more than 3 years since my 1st download even with over 1000 more photos.
The last time I had more than 35c a Download was in May 2022 when I had a $2+ DL very poor. SS & Adobe have been much better.

what does it show when it says < 5 words?   DT doesnt use the description or subject from meta data

17
Shutterstock.com / Re: Is Shutterstock dead?
« on: March 02, 2024, 14:27 »
last month for first time SS was 3rd behind AS ($1 more!) and wirestock (which has t-3 times normal over last 3 months.  canva will likely also exceed SS

last month was one of WME overall, th o 5-month  rolling avg has been steady for last 18 months

18
Submitting is worst than before. Autofill used to be helpful but now it needs to be done on each photo instead of just automatically.

they made a change awhile ago that turned off autofill (one time), you just need to set autofill on the page before you edit an individual image.

19
Here is what you need to make to afford a comfortable life on the west coast--- you better upload a lot to be able to afford it here. Probably half of us (including me) cannot make it here.

SEATTLE Emerald City residents need to earn more income to "comfortably afford" a home than locals in any other major metro nationwide outside of California.

Seattle-based Zillow released an affordability report on Thursday, finding there are seven major housing markets where a households income must be $200,000 or more "to comfortably afford a typical home." And yes, you guessed it, Seattle made the list.

Seattle residents must make $213,984 annually to "comfortably afford" a home, according to Zillow. The most expensive four U.S. markets are in California: San Jose ($454,296), San Francisco ($339,864), Los Angeles ($279,250) and San Diego ($273,613), Zillow said. Following Seattle are New York City ($213,615) and Boston ($205,253).

that's affordable home, not comfortable living - median income in seattle varies by neighborhood from $75k to $140K.. tho it's true it's difficult for 1st timers to buy a house.

'livable income' after taxes is about $50K (used to apply property tax reductions & exemptions among other programs)

65% own homes w median value of $250K, and rents can be $3K/mo - but prices in nearby suburbs are much lower

i've lived in seattle for 45 years


20
Off Topic / Re: Trump has the rona
« on: February 27, 2024, 14:06 »
***  breaking news *** dead horse rises from the dead!

21
...

There's still space for real and editorial, that AI can't make...

depends what you mean by editorial - for AS it's anything that needs a model release, even if it's not newsworthy - eg generic people in an office - here AI is an easy alternative

Editorial images are images that can only used for editorial uses, like for example to illustrate a newspaper article and must not be used for advertisment. They also should NOT be altered in a way that compromises their editorial value

Generic people in an office with model releases are not editorial content. Where did you get the notion that for Adobe every image with people that need a model release is editorial?

I bet that's what you meant?  ;)  Yes, Editorial, news, real subjects, not Illustrative Editorial which is something entirely different. And no, to the other half, anything with a person or needing a model release is NOT editorial on AS...

but that IS the definition of editorial used by SS which i the largest agency accepting editorial - 30+% of my SS sales are editorial - markets, crowds, restaurants, hikers, etcl

22
it's way too early to tell - i've been doing ai for about 18 months but a lot of that time didn't produce competitive images but had modest sales.  older images continue to sell well, while my portfolio has many hundreds of images for each ai image

i have sets of ai people images based on best-selling editorial images, which have started to attract more sales, likely as they can be used commercially

23
I find the uploads really easy. I keep hearing that having some exclusive content with them will increase exposure and downloads. Might try that.

uploads are easy submitting is tedious -- not only do you have to submit 1 by 1 but you often need to scroll down (on a full screen window) two get to the submit button. and there are several seconds of waiting between each image - enough to be annoying but not enough to multi-task

whereas with batch submit you can process 100 images with a few clicks

24
Canva / Re: Notice of violation emails
« on: February 26, 2024, 13:28 »
i had an erotic sculpture of the kama sutra on a temple in India removed  - they said they had ONE complaint so removed it.  i pointed out that not only are there dozens of similar images in their collection, but these are easily accepted by all other agencies without any warnings attached


25
Shutterstock.com / Re: Is Shutterstock dead?
« on: February 25, 2024, 13:36 »
./..
SS has diversified into other areas. They don't rely on just Microstock for earnings and income. Some day, the whole Microstock division could go away, and it wouldn't matter to the overall profits of the corporation. They won't care about our earnings or what we do as artists.

I know people here care and we're at the mercy of the agencies, but if the customers go to Adobe, and SS has much more profitable business gains in AI, news, or whatever else they own and do, they won't care about a division that's losing money. If it's too expensive to operate and unprofitable, they could shut down stock photos, as a cost cutting, expense reduction, initiative. ...
too many of the anti-SS crowd are quick to take recent numbers totally out of context w/o bothering to do their research
 and declaring SS dead -- look at the actual numbers, after a surge during the covid era (during which they were also declaring SS dead) its performance has reverted to the mean and their actual change over 5 years has been -2% - not a great investment stock, but also not a disastrous decline

by comparison tho, Adobe had a similar burst during covid, similar decline  but then has returned to its earlier high. Getty had  20% drop in 2022 and remained flat since.

It's hard to draw conculsions since Adobe is not just a microstock agency, but SS can declare "I'm not dead yet!"

Shutterstock is not just a Microstock agency. They have greatly diversified into other areas.

I wasn't referring to their investment stock, that's a different area. I'm looking at Stock Photos and Microstock, which for contributors has lost, and for SS their income from the same has dropped. Shutterstock, the Microstock division, (the part we care about) is dying.

The corporation and investment stock is doing fine.

but i was refencing the OP and topic name was SS is dead - not SS as a microstock agency is dead, and the numbers shows that's not true.  there's also little to show the ms side is dying - artist income is down for some (eg, for me, SS is down 10-20% over last 2 years but still doubles my income from AS), but SS continues to, make money in ms

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