Author Topic: to be a reviewer (Read 10697 times)

S. · « **on:** March 11, 2007, 08:43 »

there are reviewers on this forum? i've got some questions for them about it!

- it's a full time work? part time work? or you can dedicate to it a few hours per week?
- can a submitter be a reviewer at the same time?
- how can someone become a reviewer?

LanaLanglois · « **Reply #1 on:** March 11, 2007, 09:27 »

CanStockPhoto are looking for reviewer(s) right now.

Here is the link:
http://www.canstockphoto.com/employment.php

Good luck!!

Lana

sim · « **Reply #2 on:** March 11, 2007, 09:36 »

Quote CanStockPhoto "Depending on your weekly volume, you may receive up to 4 cents per image".

Wow - if you reviewed one image a minute...and maintained that pace, you would earn $2.4 per hour. Ouch!

S. · « **Reply #3 on:** March 11, 2007, 09:37 »

hehe, thanks!

but i don't like Canstock.. it hasn't ftp, so i've got no images online (i hate html and java based upload system)

a.k.a.-tom · « **Reply #4 on:** March 11, 2007, 12:15 »

Wow, is that true? 4 cents a pop??? That explains why they have 'bad days'.
I think that if I owned or managed a micro agency, the reviewers would be some of my best paid 'salaried' and fulltime employees. I would think that these folks are the frontline bread & butter of your success. Your business would only be as good as what they approved or turned down. They should be highlly trained in the standards that you expect the customer to find in your agency's portfolio.
'Peice work" mentality in reviewing photos I think would be counter-productive. At the same time, I would expect that these well-paid reviewers would be aggressive in their review process.
But then that's only my humble opinion. Afterall, I know jack-squat about what goes on behind the scenes there.

-tom

Void · « **Reply #5 on:** March 11, 2007, 12:37 »

on reviewing...
personally, i think all reviewers should be designers, the folk that actually buy the images, they would know best what is needed and what is usable.
If that was the case I bet that SS wouldnt be so tough on noise.

(as a side note, i had gotten so used to reducing noise for SS that I was getting rejections from IS, who realize the true damage noise reduction does....hence now nothing gets NR and only when SS rejects it for noise do I run it through the filter, and only on their uploads, so in a sense, they are getting inferior quality shots compared to the other sites...)

As a photographer with mucho training i wouldnt even consider myself qualified to review stock, if approached by one of the agencys, i would be flattered but still wouldnt want to do it.

a.k.a.-tom · « **Reply #6 on:** March 11, 2007, 13:03 »

Quote from: Void on March 11, 2007, 12:37

on reviewing...
personally, i think all reviewers should be designers, the folk that actually buy the images, they would know best what is needed and what is usable.

Great point, Void!!

-tom

GeoPappas · « **Reply #7 on:** March 11, 2007, 15:44 »

Quote from: Void on March 11, 2007, 12:37

on reviewing...
personally, i think all reviewers should be designers, the folk that actually buy the images, they would know best what is needed and what is usable.

While that might be true for buyers that are true designers, I believe that there is a large percentage of buyers that are not designers. They are just small businesses, mom-and-pop operations, churches, non-profits, people with websites, people looking to buy an image for a greeting card, etc. For those buyers, they need something that is quite the opposite: an image that is pretty much ready-to-go.

berryspun · « **Reply #8 on:** March 11, 2007, 17:01 »

Quote from: Stepunk on March 11, 2007, 08:43

- it's a full time work? part time work? or you can dedicate to it a few hours per week?

It depends on the site

Quote from: Stepunk on March 11, 2007, 08:43

- can a submitter be a reviewer at the same time?

Yes

Quote from: Stepunk on March 11, 2007, 08:43

- how can someone become a reviewer?

It also depends on the site. For example, when SS needed to add some reviewers, they asked for it in the forum section. For their last request a few months ago, you could email your application if you had more than 250 pictures (approved) in your portfolio.

Void · « **Reply #9 on:** March 11, 2007, 17:07 »

Quote from: GeoPappas on March 11, 2007, 15:44

Quote from: Void on March 11, 2007, 12:37
on reviewing...
personally, i think all reviewers should be designers, the folk that actually buy the images, they would know best what is needed and what is usable.

While that might be true for buyers that are true designers, I believe that there is a large percentage of buyers that are not designers. They are just small businesses, mom-and-pop operations, churches, non-profits, people with websites, people looking to buy an image for a greeting card, etc. For those buyers, they need something that is quite the opposite: an image that is pretty much ready-to-go.

in which case, the images would have already been gone through by the designer reviewers and as a result all would be ready to go...no?
Most deisgners I know have formal training in art, deisgn and composition, most photographers i know dont...and a random look through stock sites supports this observation.

GeoPappas · « **Reply #10 on:** March 11, 2007, 19:23 »

My understanding is that many designers look for an image that is isolated on a white background. This way they can take the element in the image and incorporate it into a design.

For example, take this image of an autumn leaf:

That type of image is in contrast to an image that does not need anything else, what I would call "ready-to-go". No design needed, no other elements, etc. A buyer can take the image and put it on their website, brochure, etc.

For example, take this image of the Lincoln Memorial and American Flag:

Void · « **Reply #11 on:** March 11, 2007, 20:01 »

i think we are straying too far from the point geo......so off i go.....

rinderart · « **Reply #12 on:** March 23, 2007, 13:36 »

Go to SS and search for my thread called "A Day in the life of a reviewer"

S. · « **Reply #13 on:** March 23, 2007, 17:28 »

Quote from: rinderart on March 23, 2007, 13:36

Go to SS and search for my thread called "A Day in the life of a reviewer"

argh, search functionality on SS forums has been temporarily disabled.

do you have a direct link?

S. · « **Reply #14 on:** March 24, 2007, 13:00 »

http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/abt10847-0-asc-0.html

found it!

now i'll go to read!

S. · « **Reply #15 on:** March 24, 2007, 14:05 »

i've read only the first page for now (tomorrow i'll read some more)

i found it very hilarious... he is complining about EVERYTHING

if it's a true story:
1. he have to change his work, he obviously don't like his actual one
2. he's near a nervous breakdown
3. if strawberry, car-light, flower, whatever-bla-bla images sells well, why we don't have to submit them??

4. last but not least: i would like to be in his shoes for 24hours and see if it's true everything he said!

rinderart · « **Reply #16 on:** March 26, 2007, 14:23 »

Quote from: Stepunk on March 24, 2007, 14:05

i've read only the first page for now (tomorrow i'll read some more)

i found it very hilarious... he is complining about EVERYTHING

if it's a true story:
1. he have to change his work, he obviously don't like his actual one
2. he's near a nervous breakdown
3. if strawberry, car-light, flower, whatever-bla-bla images sells well, why we don't have to submit them??

4. last but not least: i would like to be in his shoes for 24hours and see if it's true everything he said!

It's more than true, she left off the bad stuff. Of the 70,000 or so submitters on all the RF sites 90% of them shoot the same same stuff, No concepts, no imagination. Quite depressing actually. The other 10% pay all the bills.

Karimala · « **Reply #17 on:** March 27, 2007, 02:01 »

The story is very true! The author of the original is a friend of mine as well, and I wrote the second one about my first couple of days as a reviewer.

Reviewing is a great little gig, and I love my job, but there are days when I get batch after batch after batch of crappy photos all day long. 100's of them at a time. Rooftops, train tracks, stop lights, brick walls, boring boring subjects anyone can shoot. Today I rejected an entire batch of 100 photos for technical issues: noise, overexposure, clearly out of focus...ugh. It gets really frustrating sometimes, but then there are those days when I get to see the most amazing photos at 100%, where I can see all the detail and true artistry. In an instant, one great shot can alleviate the headache caused by hundreds of crappy shots.

S. · « **Reply #18 on:** March 27, 2007, 06:01 »

i've just read some other pages of that thread

now i undertand what she means:
http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?searchterm=brick+wall+texture+red
http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?searchterm=speedometer

I'll try to be more original in future!

mattb · « **Reply #19 on:** March 27, 2007, 07:58 »

As boring as some of those brick walls are, some of them could be quite useful as stock. I feel for the reviewers when they have to review boring subjects that are poorly executed(I'm sure I have had a few in that category

) but boring subjects is the name of the game. That's not to say that there aren't many many creative and very talented stock photographers, it's just that the boring subjects is what sells. Some of my best sellers are isolations of stuff. Boring to look at, boring to shoot, but they sell.

Just my 2 cents...

rjmiz · « **Reply #20 on:** March 27, 2007, 08:02 »

Gee, before I retired after 25 years doing the same thing day after day, I think I had days like that too.
If I were to take that lengthy post by the reviewer to heart, then I would have to say that person was looking for
some excitement in their job. Perhaps if the job were a little more challenging they would not be so cynical?

Yeah like: How about reviewing images while sky jumping in a parachute at the same time? Jumping out of a plane
would surely get the blood flowing.

It sounds to me as if the reviewer has seen every single type of image there is to photograph 100 times or more.
Truth be known we all get bored with our jobs. So what?! It's a fact of life. Move on.

Karimala · « **Reply #21 on:** March 27, 2007, 11:24 »

My portfolio also has its fair share of boring shots from my earlier days in microstock!

Cement walls, asphalt, swimming pool water...and sure, they do sell on occasion. But once I became a reviewer, I stopped taking those kinds of shots, because I saw the same images day after day and became acutely aware of the oversaturation of certain subjects. In an average day of reviewing (somewhere between 1000-1500 per day), at least 25% of the photos I see are poorly executed rooftops, lamp posts, electrical towers, brick walls, train tracks, doors and the like. Seriously. I can get excited over a simple rooftop or door, if the photo is executed well.

Being a reviewer isn't a "job" to me either, nor is it for the original author. It's just another aspect of our photography businesses, and a very rewarding one at that. I'm fortunate in that the company I'm contracted with allows interaction between the photographer and reviewer, so I actually get to help people one-on-one become better artists and contributors.

mattb · « **Reply #22 on:** March 27, 2007, 12:00 »

Karimala, how on earth do you find time to review that many photos, give personal responses on each, and shoot?

P.S. Let me apologize in advance if you happen to get my latest submission(only a couple of images), I wanted to take one of them back but I can't.

Karimala · « **Reply #23 on:** March 27, 2007, 12:45 »

I do microstock for a living, so I have eight hours a day to get both jobs done.

ianhlnd · « **Reply #24 on:** March 27, 2007, 20:26 »

karimala:

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Author Topic: to be a reviewer (Read 10697 times)

S.

LanaLanglois

sim

S.

a.k.a.-tom

Void

a.k.a.-tom

GeoPappas

berryspun

Void

GeoPappas

Void

rinderart

S.

S.

S.

rinderart

Karimala

S.

mattb

rjmiz

Karimala

mattb

Karimala

ianhlnd

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