Author Topic: Alamy Measures - Wow, usefull stuff (Read 23288 times)

leaf · « **on:** September 18, 2008, 05:59 »

I just checked on alamy and they have added to their alamy measures tools. Check this page out

http://www.alamy.com/Customersearch/Customersearchhistory.aspx

Not only do they now have your own personal alamy measures to find out what people are searching for and what images of yours turn up (and much more) but they also have the info for ALL of alamy, which means you can see which are the most popular search terms, how many sales that term has, views.. etc. etc... very nice.

litifeta · « **Reply #1 on:** September 18, 2008, 06:07 »

wish they would accept me as a contributor.

Adeptris · « **Reply #2 on:** September 18, 2008, 06:22 »

Yeah it is a great insight as to how buyers search, not all buyers are part of measures only some selected buyers and the Alamy research team view and add to lightboxes which they sent to customers, these are not recorded.

The column that is missing is the number of images returned by a search, this is not views, they are related to the number of pages the buyer looked at, often over 100 pages at 102 thumbnails.

But for research it can be of use, look at the low views and then do a proper search.

Another thing Microsite contributors will need to factor in is that 76% of sales are editorial, and 78% RM images, but this is not so relevent as RM is often cheaper than RF.

David

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #3 on:** September 18, 2008, 06:27 »

Yep, it's pretty cool but I'm not sure how useful it is. I went through a ton of it and came to the conclusion there's no pattern to what people are buying. It's a crapshoot. This matches what their contributors say about needing a few thousand images of a variety subjects because you never know what will sell.

Megabyzus · « **Reply #4 on:** September 18, 2008, 06:47 »

Hm. Interesting to see that the number of views has nothing to do with the number of sales:
"Russia" has 46,957 and 0 sales, while "Orkney Island Doug Blane" has 17 views and 3 sales.

So it doesn't really matter how many views an image gets when it comes to sales.

Adeptris · « **Reply #5 on:** September 18, 2008, 10:22 »

Quote from: Megabyzus on September 18, 2008, 06:47

Hm. Interesting to see that the number of views has nothing to do with the number of sales:
"Russia" has 46,957 and 0 sales, while "Orkney Island Doug Blane" has 17 views and 3 sales.

So it doesn't really matter how many views an image gets when it comes to sales.

That means the search "Orkney Island Doug Blane" only returned 17 thumbnail views which produced the 3 sales, where Russia had 46,957 thumbnails.

So the views are only thumbnail views, and the zooms are where the buyer has had a look at the image, so the views could be 1020, zooms 10, which would mean the buyer clicked (zoomed) or had a closer looked at 10 images over 10 pages.

David

melastmohican · « **Reply #6 on:** September 18, 2008, 12:25 »

I mentioned it couple weeks ago:

http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?topic=5538.0

Seren · « **Reply #7 on:** September 19, 2008, 00:58 »

Quote from: litifeta on September 18, 2008, 06:07

wish they would accept me as a contributor.

A trained monkey with a dSLR could get accepted at Alamy as a contributor. Take four technically good pictures... upsize to 48MB... save... upload to Alamy. Anyone who thinks their photography is worth selling as stock can take just four good pictures. I've even submitted one of my mums pictures there taken with a compact and it was accepted with no post production.

But yes, Alamy measures is awesome. Shows me what I need to shoot more of, and where I have dud keywords in my images.

stozka · « **Reply #8 on:** September 19, 2008, 03:42 »

Quote from: Seren on September 19, 2008, 00:58

Quote from: litifeta on September 18, 2008, 06:07
wish they would accept me as a contributor.

A trained monkey with a dSLR could get accepted at Alamy as a contributor. Take four technically good pictures... upsize to 48MB... save... upload to Alamy. Anyone who thinks their photography is worth selling as stock can take just four good pictures. I've even submitted one of my mums pictures there taken with a compact and it was accepted with no post production.

But yes, Alamy measures is awesome. Shows me what I need to shoot more of, and where I have dud keywords in my images.

That's kind of sad. No wonder I have no zoom in three months. Maybe that's because I'm not uploading everything that's technically good and otherwise crap. I owe nikon d50 which is kind of a crap in those days with high ISO and MP.

It could be also that even that what I think is good is crap anyway. And I only have 33 pictures online at the time. What's that compare to 13 millions. But I haven't give up. To bad for PSC down. Beside Alamy everything that I've online. I try micro for a few month. But I don't like philosophy of micro.

Seren · « **Reply #9 on:** September 19, 2008, 04:39 »

Quote from: stozka on September 19, 2008, 03:42

That's kind of sad. No wonder I have no zoom in three months. Maybe that's because I'm not uploading everything that's technically good and otherwise crap. I owe nikon d50 which is kind of a crap in those days with high ISO and MP.

It could be also that even that what I think is good is crap anyway. And I only have 33 pictures online at the time. What's that compare to 13 millions. But I haven't give up. To bad for PSC down. Beside Alamy everything that I've online. I try micro for a few month. But I don't like philosophy of micro.

D50 is more that adequate for getting pictures accepted on all the micros and on Alamy! It's a good camera!

I don't think you should try and edit your collection too much. You never know what buyers want to buy, and to try and second guess something just because it doesn't have artistic merit etc is silly. I have sold a picture on Alamy of a CCTV sign. Alamy is 70% an editorial agency, so it needs good, editorial images rather than creative. If you want to sell creative, go somewhere like Getty or a specialist advertising agency, but the competition is much fiercer!

And yes, you can't expect 33 images to compete on ANY level at all. On Alamy you should only really expect to see regularish sales over 1000 images online apparently. I'm aiming for 10,000 SALEABLE images in two years, because if I follow the law of averages, that will produce about half the income I need to live on per month.

And of course the other thing is with Alamy measures, it only takes into consideration certain accounts. It's generally buyers who buy often who have their searches and zooms recorded, and certainly only if they have bought in the last 90 days. It doesn't count people just browsing your portfolio etc like the microstock sites do.

Alamy pride itself on being an unedited collection, where buyers can find literally ANYTHING they want. Alhtough yes, no point in uploading 50 very similar images, it's worth giving the buyers a good choice.

stozka · « **Reply #10 on:** September 19, 2008, 06:48 »

Thanks Seren for adding some value to what I know. Well 10.000 pics. That a lot of work. How do you manage with your time. Do you have a regular job beside ?

p.s. : for D50. Maybe it's good enough for Alamy. But after two years and a half of heavy use it's not good enough for me anymore. I need more. But looks like that photography won't buy me next camera. I've fixed 50mm and 17mm. So I can't blame lenses

Best regards, Stoz.

Seren · « **Reply #11 on:** September 19, 2008, 07:43 »

Quote from: stozka on September 19, 2008, 06:48

Thanks Seren for adding some value to what I know. Well 10.000 pics. That a lot of work. How do you manage with your time. Do you have a regular job beside ?

I work 37 hours per week in a regular job. I walk my dog twice a day and hit the gym. I cycle a few hours every weekend. And am a coach for a water polo club one night a week. I also have a boyfriend who lives 125 miles away who I try and see at least two weekends a month. I don't have a studio, just a tiny living room in my parents house.

If you really want something, you find time to fit your photography around everything else you do. I fit my photography around all of what I've written above.

lilcrazyfuzzy · « **Reply #12 on:** September 19, 2008, 11:07 »

Hehe, so true Seren - we photographers always find the time..don't we

TreeOfLife · « **Reply #13 on:** September 19, 2008, 11:35 »

Interesting....I also have Nikon D50 and wasn't even considering Alamy because of the photo size required. Upsizing from a 10mp camera is a lot different than upsizing from my 6mp camera, right? I never even tried it; thought it would look terrible, and have therefore resigned myself to wait for the next camera.

I was on Photoshelter for 1 month before they closed and that really bummed me out. I'd like to try Alamy as a replacement but I never thought I had a chance due to that darn file size requirement. So there's hope??!!!

NikonScott · « **Reply #14 on:** September 19, 2008, 11:46 »

Of my four initial images, 3 of them were taken with a Nikon D1X, about 5 mp camera, so just because you do not have 10 mp camera does not mean you can not get accepted and compete. In fact the only image that has sold for me so far was one of those intial 3 images. So give it a try.

Remember, Alamy only looks at the technical merits of the image and with good technique it is not problem.

The new measures are very interesting and i think it can hel pus figure out better keywords.

I also was a bit depressed about PSC closing, but it has gotten me more focussed to work a bit harder to get into an bigger possiblly better more boutique agency.

Scott

TreeOfLife · « **Reply #15 on:** September 19, 2008, 11:53 »

Scott (and everyone else),

What program do you use to upsize? This is opening up a whole new world now, and I know nothing.

Thanks,
Karen

stozka · « **Reply #16 on:** September 19, 2008, 16:18 »

Quote from: TreeOfLife on September 19, 2008, 11:35

Interesting....I also have Nikon D50 and wasn't even considering Alamy because of the photo size required. Upsizing from a 10mp camera is a lot different than upsizing from my 6mp camera, right? I never even tried it; thought it would look terrible, and have therefore resigned myself to wait for the next camera.

I was on Photoshelter for 1 month before they closed and that really bummed me out. I'd like to try Alamy as a replacement but I never thought I had a chance due to that darn file size requirement. So there's hope??!!!

Of course there is hope, d50 is quite capable of alamy
- but, you can't do major crops with 6mp and then upsize it
- at least mine isn't operating well when there is not enough light, to much noise and to slow at focusing

I shot raw, you should too
you can do wonders with raw image in first phase of processing, I'm using photoshop mostly for upsizing, everything else I do with adobe camera RAW, but sometimes when I'm in kind of art mood, I do some strange things in photoshop, well, nevermind

Adeptris · « **Reply #17 on:** September 19, 2008, 17:06 »

Quote from: TreeOfLife on September 19, 2008, 11:53

Scott (and everyone else),

What program do you use to upsize? This is opening up a whole new world now, and I know nothing.

Thanks,
Karen

Karen,
Just visit the alamy forums; http://www.alamy.com/forums/, search for upsizing, the question has been asked thousands of times, and you will find lots of tutorials and information, even google "upsize for Alamy", then do your research you will learn better that way, all you need is PhotoShop or Lightroom and to be able to follow readable instructions.

Do not be put of by the 50mb file size, that is the pixel count and not the pysical file size, the physical size on your hard drive will be about 6mb - 10mb, as a guide I resize the longest side of a 6mp or a 10mp image to 5100, and save as quality 12 in photoshop, the only other thing is to select size, uncheck resample and set the ppi to 300, all that is for is to embed metadata which will tell the printer that the image will print an A3 size at 300 points per inch.

I only have 80 images live but at least 50% of these started life as 6mp files, don't crop your images, process from the original or a copy of the original and never from a saved file, only submit nice sharp images and do a minimal post process, maybe just levels or curves, and also remember that 78% of images sold on alamy are for editorial use, and 76% of sales are licenced RM.

David

TreeOfLife · « **Reply #18 on:** September 20, 2008, 13:02 »

Thanks guys for your advice. I will start researching the forums as suggested and learn all I can...then give it a go!

karen

Seren · « **Reply #19 on:** September 20, 2008, 13:39 »

Quote from: TreeOfLife on September 19, 2008, 11:35

Interesting....I also have Nikon D50 and wasn't even considering Alamy because of the photo size required. Upsizing from a 10mp camera is a lot different than upsizing from my 6mp camera, right? I never even tried it; thought it would look terrible, and have therefore resigned myself to wait for the next camera.

About 400 of my pictures online were shot on a 6MP camera, a few were shot on a 2.9MP camera. Choose your shots well and post process sympathetically.

However, I'm thinking about splashing out on a new 5DMkII shortly just because it would mean I could shoot JPEG and submit straight to Alamy. As much as I love post processing, it gets in the way when you're shooting for bulk!

Bateleur · « **Reply #20 on:** September 20, 2008, 14:54 »

Quote from: stozka on September 19, 2008, 16:18

... but, you can't do major crops with 6mp and then upsize it

Don't bother to crop your images, you could be throwing away a sales opportunity. Let the buyers do that if they want to. Give them the space to do it with.

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #21 on:** October 20, 2008, 15:45 »

Quote from: Adeptris on September 19, 2008, 17:06

Quote from: TreeOfLife on September 19, 2008, 11:53
Scott (and everyone else),

What program do you use to upsize? This is opening up a whole new world now, and I know nothing.

Thanks,
Karen

Karen,
Just visit the alamy forums; http://www.alamy.com/forums/, search for upsizing, the question has been asked thousands of times, and you will find lots of tutorials and information, even google "upsize for Alamy", then do your research you will learn better that way, all you need is PhotoShop or Lightroom and to be able to follow readable instructions.

Do not be put of by the 50mb file size, that is the pixel count and not the pysical file size, the physical size on your hard drive will be about 6mb - 10mb, as a guide I resize the longest side of a 6mp or a 10mp image to 5100, and save as quality 12 in photoshop, the only other thing is to select size, uncheck resample and set the ppi to 300, all that is for is to embed metadata which will tell the printer that the image will print an A3 size at 300 points per inch.

I only have 80 images live but at least 50% of these started life as 6mp files, don't crop your images, process from the original or a copy of the original and never from a saved file, only submit nice sharp images and do a minimal post process, maybe just levels or curves, and also remember that 78% of images sold on alamy are for editorial use, and 76% of sales are licenced RM.

David

The part about upsizing has me totally confused as well. To quote David " the physical size on your hard drive will be about 6mb - 10mb."
I assume you are talking about JPEG??? I shoot in JPEG but was confused by Alamy instruction to save JPEG as a TIFF then upsize to 48mb. Doesn't that distort the image? Is this just for the four image sample package? Must everything be saved as TIFF before uploading to Alamy?

Sorry for all the questions .... I'm old and easily confused. :-)

Warren

hali · « **Reply #22 on:** October 20, 2008, 15:59 »

Quote from: litifeta on September 18, 2008, 06:07

wish they would accept me as a contributor.

you will, litifeta. if it makes you feel any better, my girlfriend passed Alamy
with images not in SS.
it really depends on your images. she submitted some images that passed SS and failed 5 times.
then i told her maybe to send something SS didn't pass, and she passed Alamy,
and have never failed since then.

good luck.

NikonScott · « **Reply #23 on:** October 20, 2008, 16:16 »

I upsize in Photoshop in a single step. I created actions to upsize each of the cameras that I use. For the D300 I upsize by 118%. I do not have photoshop in front of me right now, but I go to image-->image size--> click on the triangle change from pixels to percent and enter the appropiate percentage. If you do not know the appropriate percent, photoshop calculates the size each time you enter in the percentage.

I am also in he school of thought that you do not crop, as that to my simple mind when preping and uploading images is just to complicated as I can not use my actions any longer. I love automation!

I also have at least one image recently accepted that was from a 2.7mp D1H and it has had several zooms recently, hopefully that will lead to a sale or two.

Scott

RacePhoto · « **Reply #24 on:** October 26, 2008, 22:00 »

Read the forum link if it's still confusing.

Here's the easy way. Make the longest side if it's landscape 5100, bicubic resizing, (is there anything else?) save at best or large or whatever your software says, (only because of quality, it has nothing to do with photo size) and it will be big enough. They are talking about the Photo size not the File size on your hard drive. It's confusing.

If I have to crop, and it's more than just cutting off a tiny bit that's unattractive, I send the photo somewhere else.

Everything I have on Alamy is exclusive for Alamy. Some people claim to sell the same photos for $400 as they do for 40c RF on Micro. BAD BAD Karma! If a buyer discovers that, you are shooting yourself in the foot and making everyone else look bad.

Alamy judges photos for quality, not content, as long as you don't have it licensed wrong or it doesn't contain improper material.

If it's a perfect shot of a boring rock on the sand and has little potential of being interesting to anyone, or selling and it's the right size and well exposed, with proper color balance Etc. It will get accepted.

I'm going to repeat the answer to the initial question. The 48M refers to the photo size, not the file size on your hard drive. If you have elements or photoshop it's in the little box on the bottom that shows the photo size/file size.

Wasn't this thread about Alamy measures?

I joined the BHZ game last week. Added "BHZ" as an essential keyword to one photo. After indexing I was on page 9 of 61. Lots of people use this to test the ranking of their portfolio. Guess what, it's just a game. I see much better photos and collections than mine, they have sales too, and are lower in the BHZ.

I get about 30 views a month with no sales yet, but I have very specialized material which doesn't lend itself to the European market. When the US office opens in 2009 I hope this will change. I'm about 97% Editorial.

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Author Topic: Alamy Measures - Wow, usefull stuff (Read 23288 times)

leaf

litifeta

Adeptris

PaulieWalnuts

Megabyzus

Adeptris

melastmohican

Seren

stozka

Seren

stozka

Seren

lilcrazyfuzzy

TreeOfLife

NikonScott

TreeOfLife

stozka

Adeptris

TreeOfLife

Seren

Bateleur

WarrenPrice

hali

NikonScott

RacePhoto

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