Hi,

Does anyone know if any of the popular agencies allow you to download your own content (images and video) in bulk? The only one I found out that allows this at all is depositphotos, but there you can only download files one by one.

Also do you know if any of them have the option to download the metadata in any type of format (csv or other)? I could not find any agency that has this feature.

The reason I am asking is because I want to transfer some of my photos/videos to some new agencies and I do not want to go back to my archives and export all of the files again. To download them from already submitted place would be a lot easier.

Thanks in advance

I would say Mostphotos but I haven't even tried it

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Quote from: nikolay100 on December 02, 2018, 06:32

The reason I am asking is because I want to transfer some of my photos/videos to some new agencies and I do not want to go back to my archives and export all of the files again. To download them from already submitted place would be a lot easier.

You should be using something like Adobe Lightroom to manage you images. You then put the titles, descriptions and keywords in Lightroom. When you export JPG, all that info is baked into the file, and you do not need to enter it at the agency sites.

Personally, I use the Shutterstock keyboarding tool to expand the keywords beyond what I could think of myself.  I then copy the keywords (during the submission process) back into Lightroom.  All other agencies then just get whatever I have put into Lightroom -- I don't bother customizing titles / descriptions or keywords per agency.

That's indeed a good idea

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The problem is not that I have lost the metadata. I use the Adobe Bridge to burn the metadata to the files and it is always there. The problem is that I have to go back and export all the images again from RAW to Jpeg. We are talking about thousands of files. This will take to much time.

Again, use Lightroom.  I typically export 100 at a time, simply because many agency submission systems choke on more than 100.

Create one export preset -- max jpg quality, etc.  Call it "stock" (or whatever you want).  Now select 100 images in Lightroom. Right-click, choose export->stock.  It will take about a minute to export 100 images with all the info, in whatever folder you have told it to use (my 'stock' preset goes to a folder I call 'stock upload' -- creative, ain't it?)

Now you go down your list of agencies and upload that 100 images.  I typically have a FTP program open and send to all those agencies, and a browser window with half a dozen tabs for all those agencies.  Set them up, and go have dinner.

Return when the uploads are complete, and then go to each agency for the final cleanup of your batch submission. 

Now onto the next batch (I tend to just do 100 per night, wait a few nights, then do another 100).

Unless you want to pay someone like StockSubmitter (and then spend hours trying to fix the mess it makes...), that ain't no easier way than this.

You can always try to contact DepositPhotos support to see if they have an alternative. If they have an option to download files individually, they might have one to download everything at once.

Otherwise, you can always do it one by one, and metadata should still be in the photos given you've added it to the files before uploading them. Time consuming, but if you set a goal to download 100 per day, you'll have 1000 in 10 days. 

No help now, but for the future why not just keep a folder with all fully keyworded files (jpg version) on your drive? No need for another export, all ready to upload. Cost of disk space is not an issue any more...

I also do that, but only recently and not all images are there. And for sure I will continue having this folder just in case for the future
But this is valid only for the Images. To have the same folder for Footage is too much. Even though the cost of disk space is not that big anymore, the files are huge. If I keep both original and exported files this will fill up my storage too fast.

What about you guys? Has anyone else faced this problem? To transfer your portfolio of images to a another or new stock agency? How did you tackle this?

Thanks

Quote from: dirkr on December 03, 2018, 03:56

No help now, but for the future why not just keep a folder with all fully keyworded files (jpg version) on your drive? No need for another export, all ready to upload. Cost of disk space is not an issue any more...

Exactly.  To export and then delete the .jpgs and .movs is madness.  I have one 2TB drive with all my work to upload.  Movies and photos.

Same here, I have the originals for two years on a drive in the computer, a photo backup portable for recent and an external backup drive for "everything". You can find a 5T drive for about $100 now, there's no reason why anyone doesn't keep a backup or two, if they care about "thousands" of images and the work they already out into making them and keywording.

No reason to ever erase anything. Once it is ready for upload save for the future or another site that might come along?

I use the same workflow with Lightroom. But again this will take a lot of time. Imagine going folder by folder exporting the images + the computing time for the export. We are talking about thousands of images.

The easiest way would be to download all the exported images with the metadata from another agency. But it seems that this is not an option.

Huh??? How the heck do you organize your files???  In my case (with a rational hierarchy and keyboarding scheme), I can export 100 images in roughly one minute.  That is one heck of a lot faster than I would be able to download them!  And you MUST break your uploads into sets of no more than 100 or they will simply fail on many of the agencies (who have a 100 max per batch).  Once exported from Lightroom, they are instantly available to upload to any other agency (including StockSubmitter if you wish to pay for their crappy work).

If you have your Lightroom properly titled / described / keyworded, then there is NO faster way to do this. Guaranteed.

If you have NOT yet done that in Lightroom, then you really need to do it regardless how you end up getting these files. That should be the centerpoint of all your organization and stock uploads. 

What about you guys? Has anyone else faced this problem? To transfer your portfolio of images to a another or new stock agency? How did you tackle this?

I am baffled that anyone thinks this is a problem at all.  KEEP the originals, edited.  TOSS those junk JPG and MOV files after uploading.

Simply re-export from Lightroom if you need them again.  I even keep my edited Final Cut stock clips in LR, because I can then store the name, description and keywords with them.  Absolutely trivial and FAST to regenerate the upload file when needed.

And doing it this way, you (1) don't have duplicates that will drive you crazy, (2) don't waste ANY space on files that have absolutely no future use, and (3) each time you will get the very latest in any edit improvements you made, along with any fixes to the title, desc and keywords (don't tell me you never spotted a typo, or wished you had added xxx to keywords after uploading to the first agency)...