Hi!  I saw on some of the other posts they were selling on Alamy, but it is not in the top 5 list -- is it a good stock place to sell to?  If so, they offer two plans: you get 65% commission and pay no storage fees, or you get 75% commission and pay 10 cents per photo per month for storage.  Which of these plans is the better choice?

I sell on Alamy. You get significant money for your sales ... often $100+ for one image ... but sales are few and far between. I've been with them about a year now, I've 500 images with them and I've sold 4 so far.

Given the rate of income from them, I go for the 65% commission and no storage fees. Otherwise I'd have a tough job making a profit.

I see you have to upsample pics and so on. Is it a lot of work technically?

And would it be possible to see your portfolio and which pics you sold?

no it is not a lot of extra work. I do upsampling with a photoshop action, so i set the computer to work on a directory of a few hundred images and do something else for a while.

It is not in the 'top five' list because this is a microstock photography website and alamy isn't microstock.  Seeing as macro stock l concerns microstock photographers, Alamy has a section in the forums under 'macro stock'

Quote from: Quevaal on September 10, 2006, 19:29

... And would it be possible to see your portfolio and which pics you sold?

I'm assuming that's addressed to me (forgive me if it's not     ).

You can see my portfolio at Alamy under my name 'Alistair Scott', and the 4 images I have sold with them are numbered: AW4G74, A0W2G7, A0W2G8 and AWWRC0. Do a search on those reference numbers - I don't know of any other way to refer to them on Alamy.

As for upsizing, like Leaf, I've written an action for Photoshop, doing it in 10% increments (as I believe that this gives a better result), and it's more or less automatic.

Cheers

i always find it surprising what sells.

You have a number of nice images of that guy with the fork and shovel, maps, smoke stacks.. and so on, but the spider in the bathtub brings in the $$

Thanks Leaf.

Yeah ... it never ceases to astonish me what sells. That's one of the beauties of this line of work. One day, just on a whim, I took a quick shot of the wood grain on one of the doors in my house. That image has sold a whole lot better (on various sites) than one's I've spent hours setting up, getting the lighting just right.

Ooops ... maybe we photogs shouldn't be giving away our secrets like this. Maybe I should say I spent an age getting that woodgrain shot just right.

yeah, i can only imagine.  It looked as though you spent a couple hours on the spider shot as well

Quote from: Bateleur on September 11, 2006, 20:06

Quote from: Quevaal on September 10, 2006, 19:29

... And would it be possible to see your portfolio and which pics you sold?

I'm assuming that's addressed to me (forgive me if it's not     ).

You can see my portfolio at Alamy under my name 'Alistair Scott', and the 4 images I have sold with them are numbered: AW4G74, A0W2G7, A0W2G8 and AWWRC0. Do a search on those reference numbers - I don't know of any other way to refer to them on Alamy.

As for upsizing, like Leaf, I've written an action for Photoshop, doing it in 10% increments (as I believe that this gives a better result), and it's more or less automatic.

Cheers

Thanks, that's interesting to see!
I agree with Leaf, and I think that the reason why esp. the spider and the Clifton bridge sells is that they're very specific. At iStockthere's not a single image of a spider in the bathtub. Hmm, someone could make a lot of money by placing a Tarantula in the tub and take the picture! If they could survive!

Hm, might try this myself then. Just need to get the resiziing action right. (I have heard of the 10% method earlier.)

Quote from: Bateleur on September 11, 2006, 21:30
Yeah ... it never ceases to astonish me what sells. That's one of the beauties of this line of work. One day, just on a whim, I took a quick shot of the wood grain on one of the doors in my house.

Indeed. Take a look at my only iStock flame, with 235 sales:
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/business/business_concepts/industrial/689512_metal_plate.php?id=689512

I probably used 5 seconds to take the picture, and maybe a minute in preparing it.

wow, nice flame

I STILL don't have any flaming images   maybe in a month or two
I had one image shoot up to 98 downloads, then they changed the ranking or someone uploaded a better image, and my super seller was no more

Quote from: leaf on September 11, 2006, 21:47
It looked as though you spent a couple hours on the spider shot as well

It did! The d.mn thing kept running down the plughole and disappearing.   

Quote from: leaf on September 11, 2006, 22:14
I had one image shoot up to 98 downloads, then they changed the ranking or someone uploaded a better image, and my super seller was no more

Try to push it within your portfolio. For instance, by posting its thumb below similar pics, like I've done.

Quote from: Quevaal on September 11, 2006, 22:51

Quote from: leaf on September 11, 2006, 22:14
I had one image shoot up to 98 downloads, then they changed the ranking or someone uploaded a better image, and my super seller was no more

Try to push it within your portfolio. For instance, by posting its thumb below similar pics, like I've done.

Ahh I see yes.  Grand idea.

I have done something similar and created a lightbox which i have linked below a bunch of other pics.. so i guess a similar technique.  Those images are the ones that will make it over 100 downloads in a month or so.

Going back to Alamy are they really taking upsized Jpegs now (saved at setting 12)?

Any news on the uploading instead of DVD/CD submissions?

Yes they are accepted Jpegs (per there website).  I haven't found anything re submitting by internet.

I will probalby look into once they do along with all the others.

Quote from: fintastique on September 12, 2006, 12:25
Going back to Alamy are they really taking upsized Jpegs now (saved at setting 12)?

Any news on the uploading instead of DVD/CD submissions?

in their last newsletter they said they are doing testing with a number of members and will roll out the system to the rest of us when it seems stable and works well.