Author Topic: Acceptance at Alamy (Read 5340 times)

aly · « **on:** March 18, 2013, 16:24 »

How difficult is it to be accepted on Alamy as 4 of my best images failed the QC test yet were accepted by SS? Is it a site worth persevering with or not? Thanks for any advice.

ShadySue · « **Reply #1 on:** March 18, 2013, 16:32 »

Quote from: aly on March 18, 2013, 16:24

How difficult is it to be accepted on Alamy as 4 of my best images failed the QC test yet were accepted by SS? Is it a site worth persevering with or not? Thanks for any advice.

That's quite surprising.
Did all four fail, and did they give you failure reasons?

aly · « **Reply #2 on:** March 18, 2013, 16:34 »

The reasons for 2 of them were-images too soft- I am at a loss to understand that.

ShadySue · « **Reply #3 on:** March 18, 2013, 16:40 »

Post the images here for comment or on their forum.
If you post there, don't mention SS or any other micro. There are some real micro-haters there who will derail your question. Also, don't question the Alamy inspectors onthe forum: again, you'll get jumped on from a high height.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 18, 2013, 17:39 »

That is surprising as S Stock normally jump all over this! Probably for Alamy the less post processing the better

kingjon · « **Reply #5 on:** March 18, 2013, 18:12 »

Never had a rejection at Alamy. I'm surprised they would reject images accepted at SS. SS are normally very picky on focus.

We can't really comment unless you post the images.

morning.light · « **Reply #6 on:** March 18, 2013, 18:20 »

I had two rejections for that reason, and they were totally right. The images were too small and the truth is *hides* I resized them a bit so they would fit the requirements. When viewed at 100% they totally lacked details and sharpness. But I never ever had any other rejections, even for pictures that really sucked! ( and believe me, I have quite a few crappy pics since when I was just starting microstock ). I suggest you try again, you'll definitely be accepted.

A more important question than "how difficult is it to be accepted at Alamy" should be "how many sales should I expect from Alamy". I've yet to have a sale there, and I've been a member for 6 months or so ( portfolio has around 200 pictures )

jatrax · « **Reply #7 on:** March 18, 2013, 18:21 »

Alamy is usually not difficult to get accepted. As noted post them here if you want more objective help.

But don't think that they are overly critical, I've rarely had anything rejected there and when I did it was definitely my fault, like missing some really obvious dust bunnies.

Some people do seem to object to their "fail one, fail all" rule but if you are careful and don't try to send anything that is not top notch you will get along just fine.

And do read through their forum, it is an education on a broader viewpoint of the stock photography market. We in MS tend to not notice the bigger market, but there is one. And as ShadySue mentioned don't jump in there by mentioning you are doing great in MS or something, it will not go well.

ShadySue · « **Reply #8 on:** March 18, 2013, 18:24 »

Quote from: morning.light on March 18, 2013, 18:20

A more important question than "how difficult is it to be accepted at Alamy" should be "how many sales should I expect from Alamy". I've yet to have a sale there, and I've been a member for 6 months or so ( portfolio has around 200 pictures )

I was eight months and over 800 files ... (RM, mostly secondary editorial)

alberto · « **Reply #9 on:** March 18, 2013, 18:48 »

I was eight months and over 800 files ... (RM, mostly secondary editorial)
[/quote]

ShadySue what is your experience in alamy with editorial and RM? Thanks.

ShadySue · « **Reply #10 on:** March 18, 2013, 19:00 »

Quote from: alberto on March 18, 2013, 18:48

I was eight months and over 800 files ... (RM, mostly secondary editorial)

ShadySue what is your experience in alamy with editorial and RM? Thanks.
[/quote]

I don't do very well to be honest. I don't get many sales each month, prices are going down and of course our share was cut from 60%/40% to 50%/30% at the beginning of the year. I still upload there, because as a former teacher, I am much more interested in secondary editorial than commercial (plus I don't have models, a studio, etc.) and many of my images are used in educational textbooks, ebooks etc. So that's a pleasure, even if not very lucrative. Be aware that the prices quoted on an image page are usually heavily discounted. I think I've probably only had one full price sale.

Other people do better there. Like anywhere, it depends on your port, and what someone is looking for. Looking at my own sales, I can't work out why these files have sold, and others haven't - even those that have sold more than once (other than one, but that was happenstance), and can't detect any sort of pattern.

alberto · « **Reply #11 on:** March 18, 2013, 19:12 »

Thanks ShadySue. Yes I read the share cut somewhere in MSG; howewer 50% and 30% for partner sales if I remember correctly; is better than 15% 20% and so on in microstock. In the other hand, 50% of zero is nothing.

wordplanet · « **Reply #12 on:** March 20, 2013, 12:11 »

I've been with Alamy longer than with Microstock I have a mix of editorial and travel I put most of my concept photos on Microstock with about 650 photos ( I've deleted some old ones). I get 2-3 full priced sales a month.
when I joined they required 48MB files which I had to upsize from a 6 MP D70 I found using Camera Raw to upsIze was betterthan PS They are much easier today as they only require 24MB (easy with my D700 & D5100).
They don't allow some cameras that can otherwise meet the 24MB file size (except for news) so that could be an issue. Check their permitted camera list. Before I got my iPhone I used my Coolpix P7000 to have a handy camera. Those photos are large enough but have to go on the micros since that camera isn't accepted by Alamy even if I'm shooting RAW with it.
Sue, have you had any success with live news?

RacePhoto · « **Reply #13 on:** March 21, 2013, 11:19 »

Quote from: aly on March 18, 2013, 16:34

The reasons for 2 of them were-images too soft- I am at a loss to understand that.

It's commonly called SoLD on Alamy. Soft or lacking definition. Maybe that helps explain what they are looking for? Sharp focus, sharp lens, sharp images. And yes they have taken foggy scenes, but they were not mushy, lacking definition blur shots.

Always remember Alamy doesn't review content. Only image quality.

I've had two rejections and one was 100% my horrid Photoshop effort. I never should have sent it in. The second was an experiment, one shot only, so I'd know they would look at it and I could see if there was any future in that concept. Answer was: NOPE!

When I think I'm on the edge or possibly have a question of acceptability, I send in one lone image. I know they look at it and it's not part of a batch, that might slide past. The idea isn't to sneak something past them. It's to have the highest quality and integrity.

So what camera, what lens, what shot? Have a sample for people to look at, so they can help you by pointing out why it might have failed. That can be very helpful for the future and save you time and effort.

Did you do your homework and read the guidelines and help files on Alamy?

http://www.alamy.com/contributor/help/prepare-images.asp

The image may appear soft and / or lacking definition for one or more of the following reasons:

The image has been interpolated beyond its limitations / an unsuitable camera has been used.
The image is slightly out of focus.
The image has been over-manipulated (such as overuse of noise reduction) causing degradation in image quality.
There is slight camera shake / shake that was not evident before the image was upsized.
A lens with poor optics has been used resulting in loss of fine detail.
A dedicated film scanner has not been used / poor quality film scanned / image scanned poorly.

stockastic · « **Reply #14 on:** March 21, 2013, 11:33 »

I have my entire (small) port at both SS and Alamy. Compared to SS, sales at Alamy are few indeed, and while prices are much higher, they seem to be coming down. As to whether I'd do better if I were just on Alamy, there is absolutely no way to know.

RacePhoto · « **Reply #15 on:** March 21, 2013, 12:01 »

I'd agree prices are dropping, but Alamy at 50% and holding theirs higher, is still losing the "race to the bottom".

Quote from: stockastic on March 21, 2013, 11:33

I have my entire (small) port at both SS and Alamy. Compared to SS, sales at Alamy are few indeed, and while prices are much higher, they seem to be coming down. As to whether I'd do better if I were just on Alamy, there is absolutely no way to know.

Gel-O Shooter · « **Reply #16 on:** March 21, 2013, 12:17 »

Aly, if you're already on some micros, you can do what I did to get in.
I went through my records and found 4 shots that passed IS, SS, and DT. Gee, I knew those guys were good for something besides a few pennies per sale!

I got in within 48 hours on my second try. I think my first batch failed because I had one photo taken 5 years ago that I had saved to jpg several times. They are not joking when they tell you not to do that.
Good luck!

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Author Topic: Acceptance at Alamy (Read 5340 times)

aly

ShadySue

aly

ShadySue

Pauws99

kingjon

morning.light

jatrax

ShadySue

alberto

ShadySue

alberto

wordplanet

RacePhoto

stockastic

RacePhoto

Gel-O Shooter

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