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 - leaf

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 ... 38
26
Photoshop Discussion / Photoshop Murder Mystery
« on: October 29, 2014, 15:38 »
Here's a fun murdery mystery in Photoshop. 

I'm only half done, but recognized one of the people in the story as Bortonia from iStock .. probably from an istockalypse from this stock photo

fun...


27
MicrostockSubmitter / Picking a custom thumbnail for video
« on: October 06, 2014, 05:13 »
Is there an easy way to pick a custom thumbnail for a video with StockSubmitter??  I thought perhaps there was but I don't see it now.

28
I'm curious what people think from their own data.  I know that everyone's income is different from different images etc.etc. but if we get a few votes we should find an average. 

I'm certain someone will come in here and say what the overall average earnings/image on Shutterstock is - but I think the overall average is quite a bit lower than the average of people who are active shooting creative stock (and not shooting 100,000 'news' images).

Anyhow, I'm curious to see how varied the opinions are.

29
General Stock Discussion / Sept 2014 Microstock Earnings Breakdown
« on: September 30, 2014, 06:30 »
How were your earnings for Sept. 2014?
... mine are coming soon

30
Has anyone had experience in this...

There is a site that has used my image on their homepage (I assume they paid for it) as part of their 'look'.  They have gotten lots of traction lately and all the news sites are using that image in the news article and just grabbing it from the site itself instead of licensing it like they should.  Has anyone had experience in chasing infringements like this down?

31
Is it just me or are others having problems uploading to Shutterstock today with StockSubmitter

32
Dreamstime.com / Speed payouts at Dreamstime
« on: July 01, 2014, 02:14 »
No really a discussion topic - but just amazed at how fast Dreamstime manages to send payouts after requesting them.  Usually it is within the first 48 hours, today was within 2 hours.

kudos to Dreamstime.

33
Microstock Services / StockHub Microstock Analytics tool
« on: June 12, 2014, 03:47 »
Has anyone tested out StockHub?  I just saw the post on MyStockPhoto.

34
PantherMedia launches Premium Collection
   Handpicked collection of royalty free images from limited number of producers
   Niche images for eccentric design requirements

Munich, 4th of June 2014. The royalty free stockphoto agency PantherMedia (http://www.panthermedia.net) adds a handpicked collection of fancy images to its archive of more than 28 million images.

The Premium Collection is composed of special interest images like architecture, food, ecology and sustainability as well as people and lifestlye. Only a handful of producers were nominated to contribute to this collection, and only the best images from their archive were selected for the submission.

This Collection is geared towards a small circle of customers with a need for extremely high quality images. These are rare and eccentric images that will only be chosen for exclusive projects, explains Johanna Knauer, responsible art director at PantherMedia. It is not only the extremely costly production and intentional focus on special interest topics that differentiate these images from our archive, but the mostly fresh and modern picture language, far away from the classic commercial imagery. Consequently, the licensing fee is set apart from the microstock licensing fees. All images are available on invoice or via credits, but not within a subscription plan.

The launch of our Premium Collection is a logical step in our consequent mission to serve the customer, not only in terms of quality of images, but also in quality of service, remarks Robert Walters, CEO of PantherMedia. All of our images are on a very high qualitative level, but in terms of niches and exclusivity we are now offering our customers fresh and exalted images as an alternative. Selected photographers from the PantherMedia community may contribute exclusive images to this Premium Collection in future.

35
A press release from PicaStock
=======================

New version of PicsaStock App allows users to easily refine their search for stock images using colour search feature.

Berlin, 14 March 2014. PicsaStock the growing platform for buying, selling and distributing photographs has released an updated version of its IOS App incorporating a state-of-the-art colour search tool. The new feature allows users the ability to hone their search using colour preferences, and can also be used to select images in combination with photo tags. 

PicsaStock's unique technology analyzes each picture and extracts specific colour information, including details of hue and the degree of each colour in a photo. With the ability to use the colour search in conjunction with keyword criteria, customers are able to discover extensive images collections.

The development of a colour search feature like this is revolutionary. It allows for effective search capabilities based on both the client's colour and subject requirements, says Andre Lutter, Founder and CEO of PicsaStock. The beauty is that you never know what you might find.

This feature also gives buyers the capacity to apply colour search parameters and locate images, even when they are not tagged. It ensures all customers photographers, freelancers, artists, advertisers and editors alike are able to find the right image to fulfill their requirements, or uncover something entirely new. PicsaStock will also shortly launch its similarity search, which recognizes structures within a picture.

Its an exciting advancement for the way users can discover photos, says Mr Lutter.

PicsaStock is a leading edge App that lets customers upload and sell their photos straight from their smartphone or Instagram account. PicsaStock GmbH was founded in February 2013 and aims to revolutionize the microstock market with the highest quality of authentic and current images. In October 2013, PicsaStock was awarded the Adyen Tech Innovation Award at TechCrunch Disrupt Europe for the most visionary and innovative technological business model. It allows photographers to upload images through their iPhone, Instagram, 500px, Flickr, Dropbox etc., and sell them to customers around the world. PicsaStock is quickly becoming one of the worlds largest royalty free stock photography databases for authentic photos.

PicsaStock is now available at the App Store: www.itunes.apple.com.

36
Panthermedia.net / PantherMedia relaunches website
« on: March 14, 2014, 05:42 »
Press release from PantherMedia
=======================

PantherMedia relaunches website with additional products, social media licence and new features
   Panthermedia.net unveils new design
   New: image packages with daily, monthly or annual quotas
   Social media licence allows posting of images in social networks
   Extended search with new filters and Infinite Scroll
   New time-saving features for image downloads and administration
   Enhanced and free corporate account

Munich, 12th of March 2014. The leading German microstockphoto agency PantherMedia (http://www.panthermedia.net) with more than 28 million royalty free images in stock launches its new website. The relaunch is the most comprehensive update in the past 10 years. Besides the clear new design, the website scores with new products, new licences and additional features.

PantherMedia now offers all kind of purchasing options: Single images are downloaded on demand and paid by bank transfer, credit card or paypal. Another option is the download of images with a prepaid-account using so-called credits. Brand new to the service is now a third option to licence images: quotas. Customers choose their daily, monthly or annual quota of image downloads and the duration of the quota, either one-time or within a subscription. The price per image drops to as low as 20 Cents per image for subscriptions.

The use of royalty free images in social networks has been very controversial and mostly impossible. PantherMedias new social media licence is explicitely allowing the posting of images within social networks like facebook for a small additional fee, hence providing legal security for image buyers.

A strong strategic focus of the relaunch was the improvement of the image search. One new feature is the Infinite Scroll that displays all search results on one page, saving the customer time to flip through multiple pages. This and other useful display functions are optional and activated in the search display settings. The extended search has been revamped with an elaborate colour search, that even enables the uploading of own images to trigger the colour search. Sixteen other search filters help the customer to find images faster, e.g. search by number of people or ethnicity.

Another optional and time-saving feature is the extended download that allows the cropping of images and the exact resizing of the downloaded image. Thus, photo editing software becomes redundant. Assigning images to projects, end customers or cost centers is extremely helpful for larger corporations, advertising agencies or designers. This new feature enables customers to sort images by groups, projects or cost centers and integrate references on licence certificates or invoices.

PantherMedia has also launched the new and free corporate account for customers with more than one art buyer. The customer can add and remove as many colleagues as required, share credits and quotas for image downloads with these colleagues, or see and download statistics. This means, all colleagues share the same pool of downloaded images without licensing images again and again. That is extremely helpful for international customers with many offices spread across the world and saves money utilizing volume discounts.

Peter Ammel, CTO of PantherMedia, is happy about the technological developments: Besides the myriad new features and visible changes, most of our work was put into the backend of the system making it extremely scalable for future developments..

CEO Robert Walters adds: That is only the beginning of a series of new developments we have planned for 2014. Personal customer service, legal security and quality are the principles that drive us. Understanding the customer needs globally and putting them into action locally are the success factors that will make or break stockphoto agencies in the coming years..

37
Shutterstock.com / Shutterstock to Acquire WebDAM
« on: March 04, 2014, 14:32 »
Shutterstock just acquired WebDAM
Quote
WebDAM provides marketing and creative teams with online tools for managing, searching, distributing, and collaborating on creative digital assets in the cloud, including images, videos, creative files, documents, and presentations. The company's offerings are particularly attractive to large enterprises, which make up a significant portion of WebDAMs client base.

http://www.shutterstock.com/blog/shutterstock-to-acquire-webdam

Hmmm.. interesting.  Perhaps this means more very easy to license images for the end user - like the Facebook deal.  I wouldn't be against that.  Getting images easily accessible to where people need them and can buy them seamlessly is what will make microstock really bloom.

38
General Stock Discussion / 2013 Full Survey Results Published
« on: March 04, 2014, 11:13 »
Here's the link
http://blog.microstockgroup.com/2013-microstock-industry-survey-first-look/

What are your thoughts?  It's interesting to see how many people are investigating self hosted.

39
I've been running some ads on Facebook for a new project I'm building and have been really impressed by the Facebook/Shutterstock deal.  I love using it on Facebook and think the payment for the users on Shutterstock (38 cents I believe) is fair.

In use, when creating an ad on Facebook you are given the option of uploading your own images, using images you already have online or getting pictures from Shutterstock.  If you pick Shutterstock, you are given a search box and can simply select the 5 images you want to use (for free).  Facebook then uses all the images you chose in ads and you can see how they perform differently.  Very easy to do A/B testing with different images and it is surprising how much difference one image makes to another.  I'm paying for the facebook ads so I guess they use some of those funds to pay for the images.

This could be a huge market for Shutterstock IMO.  Very user friendly, very valuable and I feel, for what the buyer is getting, we are being paid a fair amount.

40
I just drew the names (generated the random number winners via random.org) for the winners of the thank-you draw for the 2013 survey.

Clive Watts : StockPerformer Sparrow membership ($125 value)
hotwalkn : StockPerformer Eagle Membership ($400 value)
Pixart : ProImageExperts image editing package ($400 value) - asked to pass the prize along to someone who could make better use of it.  New winner drawn at random...
CD123: : ProImageExperts image editing package ($400 value)
Greg Dubus : ProImageExperts image editing package ($500 value)
miskolin : MicrostockSubmitter 6 month unlimited subscription ($250 value)
Paul Daniels : MicrostockGroup wGoPro Hero3+ Black Edition ($399 value)

Thanks to everyone for taking part in the survey.  I'll be sending an email to the winners on how to claim your prize.

If you still haven't responded to the survey, it's not too late.  The results will be posted as soon as I get an infographic made.

41
Shutterstock.com / 2014 Design Trends from Shutterstock
« on: January 27, 2014, 04:49 »
Shutterstock put up a design trends of 2014 infographic on their site.. some interesting little bits of info and probably smart to spend a little time looking at it and work some of the ideas into this years shoots.

http://www.shutterstock.com/blog/infographic-shutterstocks-global-design-trends-2014

42
General Stock Discussion / Google Image Search by License Rights
« on: January 14, 2014, 06:18 »
Google just launched the ability to sort the image results by license type.  Essentially is sifts out images you are apparently free to use for free.  Now they just need a 'license from an agency' setting to help us out!



43
The 2013 Microstock Industry Survey is now live.  It shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes if you have your numbers ready.  You can find it here

If you enjoyed the previous years results, please share it around (last year we had 750+ respondents).  It would be great if as many people as possible can take part so we can get the most accurate results possible.

The survey follows a nearly identical flow to previous years (with a few tweaks thanks to comments) as it is nice to compare results from year to year and I feel it asks the basic questions we are wondering without taking too long to answer.

For interest, here is last year's infographic and full results

As a thank you to everyone who responds there will be a random give-away again.  There are a number of prizes up for grabs.  There will be one winner for each prize.  Winners will be drawn randomly (using a random number generator).  Prizes cannot be exchanged for cash.

StockPerformer has offered a one year Eagle and one year Sparrow membership ($400 and $125 value)
ProImageExperts has offered a $500 image editing package and a $400 image editing package (2 winners)
MicrostockSubmitter has offered a 6 month unlimited subscriptions ($250 value)
MicrostockGroup will give a GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition ($399 value)

The giveaway is now over - winners announced here.

-Link to the survey-

44
Site Related / Merry Christmas!
« on: December 24, 2013, 14:53 »
Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you all manage to take a little time off, relax, drink something warm, and have a super holiday.  Thanks for being part of MicrostockGroup.. without you all this place would be a bit lonely  :)

45
Site Related / Building the 2013 Survey - Any New Questions?
« on: December 20, 2013, 05:34 »
I'm busy getting the survey ready for the 2013 year.  Are there any questions you want asked that weren't asked last year.  I can't promise I'll add them as I want to keep the survey as short as possible (it is already plenty long) but if there is a couple that many people want to see in the survey I'd be happy to add it.  Here are the questions from last year.

If someone makes a suggestion and you like it.. give them a heart and I'll consider those ideas with the most hearts

46
General Photography Discussion / Anyone using Symform for backup?
« on: December 10, 2013, 07:24 »
I was researching the best off site back-up again and stumbled accross symform.  Is anyone else using it?  Do you have bad or good experience with it?

How Symform Works


I still like the idea of a physical off-site backup that I take too and from another house/office .. it is great if I ever need to restore a backup.. but an auto off-site backup to the cloud does have it's advantages in that it is always up to date.  My current system of taking drives back and forth to the inlaws is usually about 1 month behind.

47
General Stock Discussion / Calling Another User Out...
« on: December 07, 2013, 17:51 »
I have just removed a thread that (I felt) was calling another member out.  I feel the culture of this forum is degraded a bit when we start to pick on each other and point fingers (whatever the reason)

Sure, if an image or images have wrong keywords they should be taken care of, but a message direct to the photographer themselves is perhaps more appropriate.  making a public spectacle of it.. less so.  I'm sure I have some mistakes in my images as well.  If anyone ever finds one, I'd be happy to have it pointed out to me but I'm not sure a public discussion about it is going to help.

48
DepositPhotos / Deposit Photos Adobe Plug-in
« on: December 06, 2013, 04:51 »
DepositPhotos just released a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, In-Design and Illustrator.  I haven't tried it out but it looks like a good thing for those who use both depositphotos and those products.

Quote
A new Depositphotos extension provides you with a comprehensive suite of advanced search functions, allowing you to quickly and efficiently browse millions of stock files available in the Depositphotos collection. Not only can you buy the images you need from within Adobe software, you can evaluate the suitability of different files before you buy them, simply by dragging the image preview to the work area of your current project. Moreover, the extension saves all your Depositphotos purchases. In order to access them, just go to the appropriate tab. Besides, our plugin gives you up-to-date information about the number of credits you have in your account and your subscription plan; you can also quickly access your credits or subscription pages via the extension to buy more or renew.

http://depositphotos.com/depositphotos-adobe-extension.html

49
Selling Stock Direct / Ktools Vulnerability - Did you get hacked
« on: December 04, 2013, 15:59 »
I just got a note from my web host that my ktools site got hacked.. looks like I have my evening project in place :(  I logged onto their site and saw there was a vulnerability discovered.  Anything less than version 4.5 is vulnerable... which means everyone since 4.5 was released today.
Quote
PhotoStore 4.x Security Vulnerability Discovered
A vulnerability has been found in a 3rd party script called Uploadify we use in PhotoStore. Any versions lower than 4.5 are vulnerable. To protect your site please delete the /assets/uploadify/old/ directory and files within.

50
Here's the link to the poll for those who forget
http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?page=microstockmonthlysurvey

For me, Fotolia came up quite a bit and Shutterstock was down a little in terms of % of overall income.  iStock came up a few% as well.  Overall earnings were up on last year Nov, and slightly up on last month (oct)... about in relation to uploads - so in that regards, earings are about the same.

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 ... 38

Sponsors

Mega Bundle of 5,900+ Professional Lightroom Presets

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors