I only sell photos. I was wondering what it was like selling videos? That is for those who sell both photos and videos, in general terms, how do photos compared to videos when considering the amount of effort/time/money spent producing each format versus some general expected return over time? I haven't tried selling stock footage because I haven't want to spend the time learning a new skill. And I don't know if it is worth it. As in opportunity cost, that is I could be taking more photos instead of learning to shoot stock footage. I use to make stock illustrations, the money use to be good once, and it was the majority of my stock income, then prices collapsed and I haven't uploaded any new stock illustrations in several years (whereas I still upload stock photos). The expected dollar return was too low for how time consuming stock illustrations were.

Wow, thanks, really appreciate the info.

I am uploading roughly 50 clips per day

Don't burn yourself out bro. I find I might have a mega spell then need a few weeks off (month) to calm the mind and creative soul. Plus key-wording 50 a day is a right bit*h.
You might find it better to drip feed it in to get better results in the algorithms?

Key-wording and selective editing is a skill in itself.

Don't burn yourself out bro. I find I might have a mega spell then need a few weeks off (month) to calm the mind and creative soul. Plus key-wording 50 a day is a right bit*h.
You might find it better to drip feed it in to get better results in the algorithms?

After 10 weeks exploring 6 countries, I came back with 3000+ raw clips.  I am processing them "one day of shooting in one day of editing."  Roughly 1/3 of the raw clips just get trashed. Nothing useful.  About 20% have more than one useable stock clip in a single raw clip. The rest are one raw = one final.

First pass is just edit and chop into usable pieces.  Then a pass for exposure, making sure highlights, shadows and mid-tones are all proper. Third pass is color grading, where needed.  Then export from FCPX, using a clip name that will later be the clip title.

Import into Lightroom. Using a plugin, transfer & fix the file name into the title and description.  Use ImKeyworder to add keywords.  Use MicroStocker Plus to send them off to 12 agencies.

All that comes out to between 30 and 50 clips most days. It was 62 today -- productive day shooting in Sri Lanka.

I need to keep this up, because in three weeks I leave for Galapagos Islands.  I will be back from that for only 2 days, then off to Chile for the Solar Eclipse. Then the next day off to Easter Island.

The travel and shooting time IS my down time from editing. If I don't keep this up, I will (1) forget what the heck I was shooting, which would make editing / keyboarding a lot harder, (2) see the pile of raw clips get ever larger and feel overwhelmed, and then get nothing done at all...

That is the same reason I make sure I edit all out photos every single night we are traveling. Between my wife and I, we shoot 700 - 1000 photos per day. Before the next day's sun rises, we have checked all of those, chosen the best 10% for the blog, edited them, and have the blog photo blocks ready for text.  (The text sometimes runs a couple days behind, but never more than that). I came back with 700 stock photos from this same 6-country trip.  I am doing title / keyword on those (they have already been edited) at a rate of about 100 per week.

I tried hiring and editor / keyworder for the videos. One person was pretty good, but way too slow (one day of shooting took more than a week to process and return).  Three others were incompetent amateurs who claimed to have the skill, but actually just wanted to stamp out junk as fast as they could, hoping to make money off the back of a shooter -- any shooter, didn't matter who or what the subject was...

Found I could do it pretty fast myself.  Having done keywording for 8 years for photos, it wasn't really all that hard to pick up how to efficiently do it for video too.

I'm doing much the same process as you are except this one step. Could you tell me which plugin you use for this process?

jbListView

Oops. Misspoke.

That (jbListView) is what creates the CSV file that MicroStock Plus can import to transfer title, keywords, etc.

I use jbSearchReplaceTransfer to move the file name to the title, delete the ".mov" (and "ED-" that I use in the file name to indicate editorial clips), to then transfer the title the description, and finally to append a period ('.') to the end of description, so that it no longer matches title (which some agencies will not allow, but are not smart enough to notice if the only difference is a period at the end of one... )

I appreciate that info. Not sure I fully understand it, but I'll give it a try to see if I can get it to work for me.

Thanks again!

EDITED TO ADD: I believe this is what you're talking about. Correct?

http://lightroomsolutions.com/plug-ins/search-and-replace/

I believe this is what you're talking about. Correct?

http://lightroomsolutions.com/plug-ins/search-and-replace/

Correct. That is the one.

Yeah sorry... shutter speed!

That is the same reason I make sure I edit all out photos every single night we are traveling. Between my wife and I, we shoot 700 - 1000 photos per day. Before the next day's sun rises, we have checked all of those, chosen the best 10% for the blog, edited them, and have the blog photo blocks ready for text.  (The text sometimes runs a couple days behind, but never more than that). I came back with 700 stock photos from this same 6-country trip.  I am doing title / keyword on those (they have already been edited) at a rate of about 100 per week.

Mind sharing your blog? I would be interested in seeing more of your travels.

I spent the last three months of last year traveling around Asia, shot a ton of footage and photos, but unfortunately not doing as well as you at getting everything processed. I still have a full time job when I'm not traveling, so don't have as much time to precess videos.

Quote from: ForrestBrown on May 29, 2019, 12:54

Mind sharing your blog? I would be interested in seeing more of your travels.

Blog is at www.MindStormPhoto.com

There is a menu at top also. If you choose "Travel" it expands out to year, and then to trips taken that year.

If you wish to keep current with the blog, the easiest is to:

(1) 'Friend' me on Facebook. The only posts I make on my timeline are to announce when a new blog post is up, or

(2) give me your email and ask to be notified. Once a month (except in rare months with no blog activity) I send out a short email summarizing what blog posts were made in the prior month.

Wow, you have a very interesting story. So is your mirror on the moon something that disproves people claiming the moon landing was a hoax?

Anyway, what tips can you guys share with taking some useable stock footage with my gopro camera?

My best tip is to use it for what it's made for - action and difficult angles. Under a car, on your head while mountain climbing, on a surfboard, on a ski helmet, on a ski, etc.

If a big, better camera can be used instead, the footage will not be too impressive because the quality isn't there, and there's usually too much wide angle... Get close, lots of movement, action, difficult angles. That's where these cameras shine.

Wow, you have a very interesting story. So is your mirror on the moon something that disproves people claiming the moon landing was a hoax?

I don't want this thread to get too sidetracked, but... that is a question that comes up surprisingly often.

1) Do you really believe that a project with thousands of people over a decade of time could be faked?

2) Did you watch MythBusters "back when it was still good"? (jab at current wanna-be crew...).  In 2008, they did an episode specifically debunking such nonsense.  One of the ways they did that was to go to a telescope and actually saw the mirror I designed that was put on the moon in 1969.  They then bounced a laser off that mirror (which is what it was designed for), and saw (on an oscilloscope) the returning photons.

That entire episode can be seen here -- https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2m7k1z

Quote from: wds on May 29, 2019, 21:29

Wow, you have a very interesting story. So is your mirror on the moon something that disproves people claiming the moon landing was a hoax?

I don't want this thread to get too sidetracked, but... that is a question that comes up surprisingly often.

1) Do you really believe that a project with thousands of people over a decade of time could be faked?

2) Did you watch MythBusters "back when it was still good"? (jab at current wanna-be crew...).  In 2008, they did an episode specifically debunking such nonsense.  One of the ways they did that was to go to a telescope and actually saw the mirror I designed that was put on the moon in 1969.  They then bounced a laser off that mirror (which is what it was designed for), and saw (on an oscilloscope) the returning photons.

That entire episode can be seen here -- https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2m7k1z

the content are good but really in 2019 with all the template and word press the graphic is very basic. don't know if it's just an hobby or you wanna make some money with blog, but really will be so easier to make it more interesting and easier to navigate with a smile wordpress template.

Quote from: jonbull on May 31, 2019, 05:38

the content are good but really in 2019 with all the template and word press the graphic is very basic. don't know if it's just an hobby or you wanna make some money with blog, but really will be so easier to make it more interesting and easier to navigate with a smile wordpress template.

This thread seems to be going in an awful lot of side directions, but this story of evolution of how I got into stock might somehow (in some tiny way...) relate, so here goes:

In 2010, I was traveling in Cambodia, and writing an email to friends about what we were seeing and doing. Every day, I would get emails from others saying that my prior email had been forwarded to them, and asking to be added to future travel emails, and oh-by-the-way, would I send the prior ones so they could catch up?

After a month of this, I decided it was too much, so I slapped up a quick blog page, and dumped my earlier emails into it (we were in Vietnam at the time, so it was a pretty slap-dash job). That allowed me to just point people to the url each time.  Solved the problem for that trip.  When I got home, I spent a bit more effort and cleaned up the web site a bit.  I have since updated the site twice more, the most recent being last year.

However, it has zero monetary element to it.  I write it for two reasons:

1) My wife and I are both 69.  We have visited 82 countries so far, including 20 in the last 6 years, since retiring.  It starts to blur together.  With the blog, I can go back (and do every year or less) to reread what we did where, and remind myself what the heck we have seen and done.  Believe me, it gets harder to remember as you get older, and as the volume increases.

2) For friends and family. Initially just our immediate family.  As word has spread, we now have a mailing list of just under 500 people who have asked to get a monthly email summarizing the prior month's posts.  Google Analytics tells me there are about 2000 people (plus spiders? not sure if they are counted in GA or not...) following our posts.

Frankly, it is a kick when people see the photos and read our commentary, and say they like them.  But that is just a bit of an ego boost. No money involved, and none wanted. We are retired and just don't need any more money, so I don't want to do anything that requires chasing dollars.

This thread is presumably about selling stock videos vs photos.  Yes, I do submit to both.  Yes, I do make a small amount of money from both (a couple thousand $ per year from each). Basically a small enough amount of money that it is just a nuisance to gather the docs each year to give to my accountant (which I had to do yet again just last week, since we file in October).

thanks for the insight.
anywyay i suggesst you use a more modern and fascinating template., it will help organize and show your memory better.

What camera do you use for video creation?

What camera do you use for video creation?

My trusty ol' Canon 7D DSLRs.

What software do you use to process your videos? Any suggestions for a beginner on a MAC? 
What length videos sell best. A range would be helpful to know.
Thanks

Hi Marthamarks, do you believe that iMovie is an ok starting point for a newbie? All I do is trim any movies down to 10 seconds, lose the audio and maybe a slight colour balance check, then export in 1080p.. What would Final Cut or Premiere offer that iMovie can't for very simple edits

Hi Marthamarks, do you believe that iMovie is an ok starting point for a newbie? All I do is trim any movies down to 10 seconds, lose the audio and maybe a slight colour balance check, then export in 1080p.. What would Final Cut or Premiere offer that iMovie can't for very simple edits

Instead of that why don't you just use DaVinci Resolve. If you are only exporting 1080p then the software is absolutely free. Work on simple edits etc. for now while you learn the ins and outs of full blown editing and colour grading software and move up to the studio version later if you decide you need  4K capability. Lots of tutorials online and once you get a grasp of the basics it's pretty intuitive. Very similar to PP actually.

Hi Marthamarks, do you believe that iMovie is an ok starting point for a newbie? All I do is trim any movies down to 10 seconds, lose the audio and maybe a slight colour balance check, then export in 1080p.. What would Final Cut or Premiere offer that iMovie can't for very simple edits

imovie is like a simplified version of FCP.  It's a good low cost place to start.  Not sure about the export settings though.  Used to lack 4k and prores 422... but it probably got updated. 

I think David K's question was intended for the OP, not for me.

But for me, your answer is 100% accurate!

Ah, you're right, of course!

Haha, anyway, if going for a paid solution, I would recommed FCP X for any Mac user. Download the free (fully functional) trial why don't you? The color correction tools are now really good (wasn't that way until recently). And did I mention it's fast?

DaVinci is of course very good, but also slow compared to FCP X, and while you can do "After Effects stuff" in there, that learning curve is a steep one... Very steep.

For simple edits and color grading, FCP X will do the trick.