MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: Risamay on March 16, 2012, 12:25
-
Hi there! Do any of you contribute to Photocase? I just joined and can't get an image accepted, and haven't a clue as to why. Just wondering what your experience there has been and if you have any insight into their process. My images meet all their tech criteria, so don't know what it could be. Thanks for any thoughts you care to share.
-
Had the same experience last year, then decided it wasn't the agency for me . . . . . to be honest, I have no idea what they are looking for
-
Had the same experience last year, then decided it wasn't the agency for me . . . . . to be honest, I have no idea what they are looking for
Me 2.
-
I thought for a while that they were into artsy avant-garde photography, you know, the kind my teenage son takes with his cell phone . . . . . . hey, I can dig it, some of that stuff is very cool, but I'm not sure anymore. Anyway, its hard being 17 when you are 63 . . . . . . . .
-
Oh, good! So glad to hear others with similar experiences. I posted a few of my rejections to their forum for that, and suffice it to say the one person who commented was not helpful. Perhaps it's not the agency for me.
-
They are looking for artsy photos. Don't bother to send images that look like they are shot in studio. The images should have some sort of a "snapshot" feeling.
They are looking for a specific kind of images, I suggest you to keep trying because:
-You need to keyword etc. only afterwards, you can try with some "strange" images that you haven't keyworded. Too bad they don't want batches.
-RPI is very good for accepted images. I have earned around 0.50...1.00 eur per accepted image / month.
When I get images accepted, I keyword them using the "old version", it's much leaner system.
I like Photocase, because they are trying to do something different.
-
I gave up trying, for the same reason.
In principle, I like the idea they are looking for more artsy pictures - but in practice, I still haven't found what they want.
-
You just need to submit images that evoke a "feeling", instead of a concept.
-
I just looked at the site - it looks like somebody's art school project. Who buys these images? If there's actually any money in this game, I'd like to play.
-
My portfolio is up to 5 on Photocase. I'm quite proud of that :) They accepted one of my pinhole photos that wouldn't have a chance with the micros, so I'll do some more when I get some time. Only made 3 euros but I don't expect much until I can get a least 100 photos accepted there.
-
Who buys these images?
I have been contacted by some buyers and they have shown what my images are used for. Some have even asked my mail adress and then sent me some printed stuff with my images :)
(So far I have gotten magazines, one calendar and a couple of novels (books))
Photocase makes some nice additional earnings for me, but the most important thing is to get some really oddball images for sale (and selling them too!), those images would never have beem able to get through the typical microstock inspectors :)
-
Thanks for the additional comments and tips! Very helpful.
Hmmm ... Perhaps it's a problem that my images were pre-keyworded in Lightroom? Could that be why some/all of them were rejected?
-
I've considered sending to Photocase before. I just had another look at the site, it really isn't stock is it, as in what we know as stock. Some cool stuff there, but I'd imagine it's a limited market.
Is this intentional do u think? Hey we're arty and this is how it's supposed to be :D
(http://www.microstockposts.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/effiel-tower.jpg)
-
LOL :D I don't know quite what to make of their current library. It's definitely not Vetta ;) I thought my work would help kick them up a notch, but seems (so far) they disagree ...
-
You just need to submit images that evoke a "feeling", instead of a concept.
They sell "feelings"? I'm serious. They sell photos based on emotional content, via appropriate keywording?
-
Photocase has definitely been a challenge. I have about 14 photos accepted out of the 100s I've submitted over the last couple of years. Have I been corrupted by the stock photography style and can no long produce anything artistic?
-
I do think stock has hindered my creative instincts. People mock Photocase because they have different standards. They seem to have some buyers, so there's a market for these photos and I will try and spend some time building my portfolio there. It's one way to diversify, I'm too reliant on my microstock earnings.
-
well you guys just convinced me to start playing around on PhotoCase :)
I'm uploading my first shots. I like how the review cue has a count.. I am currently number 3551 in the cue.
-
well you guys just convinced me to start playing around on PhotoCase :)
I'm uploading my first shots. I like how the review cue has a count.. I am currently number 3551 in the cue.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/any-publicity-is-good-publicity (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/any-publicity-is-good-publicity)
http://www.beedictionary.com/common-errors/cue_vs_queue (http://www.beedictionary.com/common-errors/cue_vs_queue)
"(beware, however: in French queue is also rude slang for the male sex organ)"
I guess you were trying to be polite :D
-
They seem to have some buyers, so there's a market for these photos...
Is that true? What's your source for this?
It's easy to get sucked into the game of trying to get photos accepted somewhere just because they have "high standards" and a cool image. I did that at 1X.com for a while, then sort of woke up one day and asked myself why I was wasting time trying to get validation from anonymous art school students. Not that I'm putting down those sorts of photos... but there's no real positive feedback in an automatically generated acceptance email...
-
I'll keep submitting to Photocase for the time being, but not take the rejections personally. Knowing now that my experience is the norm.
-
Insipired by Marisa's success with Photocase, I thought I'd give it a try. I have plenty of non-studio shots and I picked three to try - rejected. Picked another three (in all cases different images - nothing from a series). Rejected. Had a thought about something that might work - those four rejected.
Given 10/10 rejections and no clue beyond "we don't like these", I'm done. If sales were through the roof it might be worth trying to reverse engineer what they want - all they will say is look at the images already on the site for a clue. Clearly I'm clueless.
The only good thing I have to say about/for them is that I received an e-mail a week after signing up asking how I liked photocase and with links to various things. Good idea to do that and try and stay in touch with customers/contributors.
I did reply to that "tell us what you think" e-mail explaining that I clearly wasn't for them, and if at some point they want to increase the number of images they have, they might think about a little more coaching for newbies about what exactly they're looking for (and not).
I'll go away and lick my wounds now :)
-
This sounds like fun! What does PhotoCase want? Is it... humor? Emotion? Flat, dull color like old Polaroids? Weird, pretentious off-center framing and crazy angles? Grainy black-and-whites of lonely people in black, walking away from the camera on empty streets? Dreamy, out-of-focus pinhole effects? I can do those things!
But if it's good-looking young people with bored, alienated expressions, inside abandoned buildings with broken windows... I guess I'm out of luck. Too bad.
If I spend all week on this, and get one accepted, and it sells, do I get, like, 35 cents?
-
But if it's good-looking young people with bored, alienated expressions, inside abandoned buildings
Thats it what made Yuri so successful ;-)
-
If I spend all week on this, and get one accepted, and it sells, do I get, like, 35 cents?
No, you'll often get nothing.
Photocase is a photo-sharing-site too. Other PC-photographers can DL your images and use them even in their commercial work (6DL-Credits / accepted photo).
DL for free are quite often at photocase.
For me PC is a agency for Designers who are interested in sharing their own images with other Designers.
-
I have some free download credits unused. I'm sure most photographers/illustrators don't use them or would only download things they wouldn't pay for anyway. Perhaps some photographers/illustrators are also designers but I doubt many will be using their free Photocase credits, as we can see it's very hard to get images accepted there. Lots of the sites have free sections, people that want free stuff are probably going to look there.
-
Yes you get free credtis if you get photos accepted. But you also get sales and I never got a sale for less than 0,87€. Last weekend I had a sale for 12,87€. It`s not all about sharing. If you get "creative stock images" accepted with a decent commercial value, you`ll get a decent return. For me about every second or third download is a paid download.
I just love them because its the stock site where I got my first sale ever in 2009 when I started.
Long live PC.
-
Similar to http://www.altphotos.com/ (http://www.altphotos.com/) which I was so disappointed when it closed down. For this kind of work you either get it, or you don't. Personnally, I don't get Opera but I feel no shame in that :)
-
It appears you can upload exactly 1 photo at a time? There is no batch upload, no FTP...
-
Hi there! Do any of you contribute to Photocase? I just joined and can't get an image accepted, and haven't a clue as to why. Just wondering what your experience there has been and if you have any insight into their process. My images meet all their tech criteria, so don't know what it could be. Thanks for any thoughts you care to share.
Just got my first reviews back, so far everything accepted. Oh well, I always knew I'm not very good at stock :-\
-
This thread inspired me to apply, too... 2 out of first 3 accepted. WOOO IM SUCH AN ARTIST!!
-
I bow to your superiority, both of you :) Do let us know how things work out over time - eating humble pie and trying again might be an option if it becomes the hot new place to sell...
-
well big-port people like you often claim to be off-put by after-the-upload photo tasks, like categorizing, etc.
let me just say that I have discovered this to be the worst, even worse than alamy
-
well big-port people like you often claim to be off-put by after-the-upload photo tasks, like categorizing, etc.
let me just say that I have discovered this to be the worst, even worse than alamy
I always use the "use the old version" option, that makes things much easier. I don't know if that affects my sales tho.
One positive thing is also that you only need to do these things AFTER your image has beem accepted.
-
Hey, Frank from Photocase here.
I just want to let you know that I am following the discussion here. Let me know if you have more questions. In terms of what kind of photos we want I'd like to refer to Perry's answer: "You just need to submit images that evoke a "feeling", instead of a concept." I like that. Perry, could we use this line? :)
-
Had a quick look and only see photos - is it just for photos??
-
heywoody, yes photos only. there are plans for videos, but this is too early to talk about :)
-
"You just need to submit images that evoke a "feeling", instead of a concept." I like that. Perry, could we use this line? :)
Yes, you can use it :)
-
heywoody, yes photos only. there are plans for videos, but this is too early to talk about :)
Sorry Frank - I put the question badly. More specifically, would 3D images be acceptable? I have quite a few images that would probably be a better fit (medium aside) for photocase than mainstream stock....
-
heywoody, sorry we don't accept 3D images.
-
heywoody, sorry we don't accept 3D images.
I get the feeling you are looking for vetta pictures, nothing else :D are you guys selling them at least?
-
to be honest, i am not sure what a "vetta" photo really is :) we've doing this for 10 years now, long before istock decided to cherry pick photos from their catalogue and put a higher price on it. we simply have a different approach to stock photography. and yes we are selling them but we are clearly in a niche here. the revenue per photo is higher though, because firstly we start with a 40% share (up to 60%) and secondly there are less photos, which means less competition.