MicrostockGroup

Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: Yuri_Arcurs on July 22, 2008, 06:08

Title: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: Yuri_Arcurs on July 22, 2008, 06:08
As you can see from this survey (http://www.arcurs.com/uploading-time-average) there are quit a few agencies I don't have any data on, so please help me out.

Next time you upload to one of these agencies, time it, and post your result here or as a comment on the post. Once we have 3-5 independent results there should be enough for a good average calculation for that agency. I am looking for time in seconds/file for both with and with-out model releases.

Swing me some numbers! Yuri
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: Sean Locke Photography on July 22, 2008, 07:27
How come you don't stop by to chat more often?  You only seem to post when you want something...
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: michealo on July 22, 2008, 08:59
In Yuri's defence, he gives alot to the microstock community.

For instance the keywording tool and details of his workflow.


Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: faber on July 22, 2008, 09:53
I see no reason to criticize Yuri.
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: Yuri_Arcurs on July 22, 2008, 12:38
I am sorry for not being so active on this forum. I have a few places where I go to chat about stock, where people less personal. I can’t really recall a post where I “wanted” something… I may be wrong.

Anyway. Thank you to the people that have already sent me their results. I should be ready to populate the list with the rest of the agencies pretty fast.

I am getting in these numbers for featurepics: 45 secs per file with model release and I also have a guy that says he can do uploads to Istock in one minute per file. Is this your experience as well
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: Sean Locke Photography on July 22, 2008, 13:01
I'm not sure what results you are going to get, since any upload depends on the internet connection, the receiving server speed, the size of the image (1600x1200 vs. 5000x3500 is a bit of a difference), any associated releases and their speed.  There's too many variables to make any kind of statistic useful without more details.
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: tan510jomast on July 22, 2008, 13:12
I'm not sure what results you are going to get, since any upload depends on the internet connection, the receiving server speed, the size of the image (1600x1200 vs. 5000x3500 is a bit of a difference), any associated releases and their speed.  There's too many variables to make any kind of statistic useful without more details.

Yuri, that's exactly what i was trying to say at your site.
oh btw, you can delete my comments after that, if you like.
there was no delete link for me to edit my comments into one.
cheers

p.s.
while we got you here, maybe we can get your honest opinion of subs?
 ;)
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: JBe on July 22, 2008, 15:22
I was thinking it would be the upload process without the actual upload.. I mean the process from the point of actually having the files on the server and onward.
So actually just the asigning keywords, categories, titles, descriptions, releases and such.

Anyway that was what I thought first time around I read it. If it isnt done that way it should be in my opinion. It would be most useful for others.
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: madelaide on July 22, 2008, 17:06
IS takes me a lot of time because of disambiguation.  FP is easy because it reads my IPTC data and I don't have to do anything else apart from setting my price and license - and the bulk editor makes it even easier with batches (where is the bulk editor promised by IS long ago?)

I don't have images with MR, so I can't tell what difference it makes in the process.

Regards,
Adelaide
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: rene on July 22, 2008, 17:09
Yuri, I checked my upload's time. Let's say my  numbers are similar (a little bit lower) to yours. Only my Istock uploading average time is very diffent, 80 sec (yours 436 sec). Are you sure ? Maybe our workflows are not the same. I'm using Prostockmster software to upload to all sites. So I keyword only once including IS. At IS images go direct to pending bin. I only change category (Prostock put "object" in category). If anybody is interesting here is my refferal link :
http://www.prostockmaster.com/?refcode=1553
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: Yuri_Arcurs on July 23, 2008, 02:18
We are mesuring the time it takes to attach model release, categories and so forth. Not the time it takes to upload, because that would be almost completely depending on your internet connection.
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: Dreamframer on July 23, 2008, 04:46
It also depends on few more things. For example, I uploaded some files on DT today, and for first image I needed some 45 sec. to:
1. write a note to reviewer
2. add categories
3. to click on "I agree..."
4. to click on "submit"
5. to check if I did all as I wanted it to be

but for the next similar image I needed 15 sec. because I just clicked on button to add all info from previous image to new one, and I checked if everything is OK, and clicked submit button. So, it also depends on how many similar images one has.

Also, if I have to upload model release I need much more time than to just choose some existing from my database.... So, it's not so easy to calculate some average time :(

By the way...I really don't like choosing categories...
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: rene on July 23, 2008, 05:02
We are mesuring the time it takes to attach model release, categories and so forth. Not the time it takes to upload, because that would be almost completely depending on your internet connection.
My 80 sec uploading to IS include time it takes to upload.
I'm not mesuring upload time separately for each site but I count average uploading time. I upload to multiply site in the same time in only one batch, with PSM. For example :
 I upload 10 files to 5 sites and it takes 20 minutes :
1200 sec / 50 = 24 sec per file for each site
than I add only one category, MR and quick disambiguation. Then later, when the file is accepted I do second disambiguation.
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: Sean Locke Photography on July 23, 2008, 06:13
iStock takes me about two seconds, because I use deepMeta.

Again, with people's workflow, I don't see what you're shooting for here.
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: michealo on July 23, 2008, 06:27
iStock takes me about two seconds, because I use deepMeta.

Again, with people's workflow, I don't see what you're shooting for here.

It's a useful exercise to quantify what time it takes to upload to a site and factor it into a decision as to whether it makes sense to upload to a particular site.

And if you can keyword an image in 2 seconds maybe thats something you could share with the community at large?
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: Magnum on July 23, 2008, 06:29
Deepmeta is good, but still takes some time to sort out keywords and finding the correct cathegory.  I´d say at least 20s average.

But if I pick my nose in between it could take 6-12s extra:)
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: Yuri_Arcurs on July 23, 2008, 06:30
Thank you to the people that did understand my post and has sent me some time quotes for how long they spend managing their files after upload. There seems to be a big difference in how people approach IS upload in general. Some spend heaps of time there and some do it as quick as they can basically.

I am looking for time quotes from people that do their online managing with some degree of effort and not just as fast as can be done. Time quotes on “if you where to do it the way the agency wanted you to do it” applying three categories where possible and not just one and so forth.

I might have to revise the quotes I put up on Istock. I seems my testers where spending un-proportionally long time there for some reason. But if one was really to do the IS uploading “correctly” in the meaning of “well disambiguated” it does seem to take some time.

I don’t have any info on Zymmetrical, Mostphotos and Scanstockphoto. Does anyone submit to these agencies on a regular basis?
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: Yuri_Arcurs on July 23, 2008, 06:33
iStock takes me about two seconds, because I use deepMeta.

Again, with people's workflow, I don't see what you're shooting for here.

It's a useful exercise to quantify what time it takes to upload to a site and factor it into a decision as to whether it makes sense to upload to a particular site.


Well said!
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: Magnum on July 23, 2008, 06:38
Mostphotos is extremely fast, and you don´t need to upload MR.  Sales picking up there, and it´s a good storage place if your drive crashes, since you can download you stuff whenever you want.

But, I´m pretty sure your files are somehow safe...

It´s also a good place with experimental stuff, that never would see the market!!
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: Dreamframer on July 23, 2008, 06:44
For me, IS keywording is really "pain in the ..." because I always do keywording for every image very carefully and for every image it takes at least 2 minutes to do only keywords in IS, plus categorization, plus model releases which I have to upload every time. So, IS upload system is something I don't like at all. Sometimes it looks to me like they don't want my image at all, and they are putting me on some test from the first moment of upload to see if I am really "tough player" :D. But sales are fine, and I have to stick to it.

By the way, I always do keywords and categorization with effort, and almost always use maximum categories etc. So, I always do everything needed and check it after edit.

I upload to mostphotos and it is one of the fastest stock sites if uploading and editing is in question, besides FP and 123RF
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: Sean Locke Photography on July 23, 2008, 07:22
I am looking for time quotes from people that do their online managing with some degree of effort and not just as fast as can be done. Time quotes on “if you where to do it the way the agency wanted you to do it” applying three categories where possible and not just one and so forth.

Don't take my "2 second" comment as some kind of statement meaning I don't put effort into it.  It is a tool that speeds up your workflow.  So yes, the first one may take some time (ie, a few minutes if you copy and paste, or start from scratch), but subsequent images are much quicker. 

But other people may have their own systems for speeding up workflow.  And different times for first in a series vs. similars.  And differences in keywords needed for complex shots vs. apples on white.  Etc... etc...
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: tan510jomast on July 23, 2008, 11:21
yes, i have to agree with magnum that MostPhoto is fast. and it has one of the best watermarks on any site i've seen.
eg. the basic upload of 2 (4 MP) files takes me 1 minute, so by the time i complete the rest, it's over quickly. but if you have all the details entered from Photoshop, then it's even faster.
hope this helps. 

also, we cannot leave out PhotoShelter, which is yet another  fast and efficient place to upload. at least for me.
eg: a moment ago: 4MP 3.5MB @ 15.8kb/sec  completed in 2 mins.
earlier i did another 4MP 1.5MB @ 15.35 sec . done in 1 min 56 sec.

again, as sjlocke mentioned, the time differs due to the kb/sec speed, size of file,etc...  and other variables...
even maybe,  traffic on my ISP.

Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: angel gab on July 24, 2008, 13:27
The survey is full of holes, as each ISP is different. Even on the same day, your upload time will vary. Worse, if you are in a country where the ISP is not as fast as we have here in North America, or Europe, it can distort your survey data.
For example, when I am travelling Asia and certain parts of Latin America, it takes me sometimes half an hour to send emails from an internet cafe. I imagine even the home connections are no better.
Title: Re: Help me out with the rest.
Post by: michealo on July 25, 2008, 06:16
The survey is full of holes, as each ISP is different. Even on the same day, your upload time will vary. Worse, if you are in a country where the ISP is not as fast as we have here in North America, or Europe, it can distort your survey data.
For example, when I am travelling Asia and certain parts of Latin America, it takes me sometimes half an hour to send emails from an internet cafe. I imagine even the home connections are no better.

Don't bother to actually read the post, just make some false assumptions and then reply to those instead.