Author Topic: Is my portfolio stock worthy? (Read 4799 times)

razvan_nistor · « **on:** May 21, 2013, 11:41 »

Hy
As I am new here I was very curious if my portfolio from Istockphoto is stock worthy? and if not what should I change?
newbielink:http://www.istockphoto.com/search/portfolio/3212277/?facets={%2225%22%3A%226%22}#1231cfa8 [nonactive]

ShadySue · « **Reply #1 on:** May 21, 2013, 11:57 »

You could work on your keywords.
For example, on this file:
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-11064278-portait-of-an-girl-on-black-background.php?st=2cacb79
You don't have: woman, young woman, one young woman, one woman, one woman only, one young woman only ... looking at camera, head and shoulders, portrait,

So anyone searching on woman or 'young woman' won't ever see your photo.

BTW, take 'girl' out of the title and description. 'Girl' is really only to be used for younger girls, and shouldn't be combined with any hint of 'sexuality'. That for all your photos of young women.

another example:
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-23974041-dad-s-love.php?st=3e84de9
You need to take out 'mother' and 'cheese', and put in father, young man, man, two people, kiss, holding, ... but in that photo, I don't know what the two pink marks on the baby's cheek are. If it's something important, e.g. a skin condition, mention it in the description and keywords, otherwise you could consider redoing the image and cloning it out.

Then there's this image, purporting to be risotto with mushrooms:
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-23475819-risotto-with-mushrooms.php?st=3e84de9
But neither 'risotto' or 'mushroom' is in your keywords. Cocked is a typo for cooked. You could also keyword e.g. table, table mat, bowl ...

Do you know that on iStock titles are just for Google, but within iStock itself titles and descriptions are not searchable? I'm sure your files just aren't being seen on their most relevant potential searches.

Poncke v2 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 21, 2013, 12:54 »

If I add young and woman as separate keywords, and someone searches young woman, they wont find my image on IS?

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #3 on:** May 21, 2013, 13:36 »

Quote from: razvan_nistor on May 21, 2013, 11:41

Hy
As I am new here I was very curious if my portfolio from Istockphoto is stock worthy? and if not what should I change?
http://www.istockphoto.com/search/portfolio/3212277/?facets={%2225%22%3A%226%22}#1231cfa8

You tell us. Is anything selling?

ShadySue · « **Reply #4 on:** May 21, 2013, 13:43 »

Quote from: Poncke v2 on May 21, 2013, 12:54

If I add young and woman as separate keywords, and someone searches young woman, they wont find my image on IS?

'Young woman' is a keyword phrase, so if they type young woman, they won't find an image that only has them separate. Though for some reason, my browser often (but not always) splits keyword phrases, maybe for the same reason as that Flickr messup I'm getting (I think it must be one of the GM scripts). I'd put young, young woman and woman.

If only it worked and if only people wouldn't spam and if only the system would stop adding stupid keywords like 'setting the table', viaduct or Acadia National Park to ingested stuff, the iS system would be so much better than the alternative. With sites like Alamy, and most of the other micros, which only search individual words, if you have a young man with his mother, so you keyword young, man, woman, mother, son.... the photo will show up on a search for young woman.

ShadySue · « **Reply #5 on:** May 21, 2013, 13:44 »

Quote from: sjlocke on May 21, 2013, 13:36

Quote from: razvan_nistor on May 21, 2013, 11:41
Hy
As I am new here I was very curious if my portfolio from Istockphoto is stock worthy? and if not what should I change?
http://www.istockphoto.com/search/portfolio/3212277/?facets={%2225%22%3A%226%22}#1231cfa8

You tell us. Is anything selling?

I'm sure he's asking why he's not getting many sales, and IMO it's mainly due to lack of appropriate keywords.

gostwyck · « **Reply #6 on:** May 21, 2013, 14:24 »

I think you need to find your own niche, specialise in it and become an expert in what you do. At the moment you appear to be dabbling in everything from glamour, portraiture, food, lifestyle, landscapes, etc. Your images are ok but they are not amongst the very best in their genre and therefore, with the extremely competitive nature of microstock, it means you're unlikely to get many sales.

It's often the little details that make the difference between a best-selling image and a mediocre one and, right now, you don't appear to have enough knowledge to be aware of them. Take your recent 'sensual body' series for example, the female nude covering her breasts. It's not my own subject matter but it seems to me that the blue nail varnish is distracting from the subject. I'd have thought the nails should be either be bright red or clear. Why has your 'pin up girl' got a washing line with clothes drying directly behind her? It's got nothing to do with the subject and it's not in the keywords __ so why is it there?

ShadySue · « **Reply #7 on:** May 21, 2013, 14:27 »

Quote from: gostwyck on May 21, 2013, 14:24

... but it seems to me that the blue nail varnish is distracting from the subject. I'd have thought the nails should be either be bright red or clear.

Why?

gostwyck · « **Reply #8 on:** May 21, 2013, 14:37 »

Quote from: ShadySue on May 21, 2013, 14:27

Quote from: gostwyck on May 21, 2013, 14:24
... but it seems to me that the blue nail varnish is distracting from the subject. I'd have thought the nails should be either be bright red or clear.

Why?

Because it doesn't complement the skin colour. It takes away from the image rather than adds to it. I'd pretty much guarantee that if you put 2 similar images, one with blue nail varnish and one with clear, the latter would gain far more sales.

Here's a search of 'female nude covering breasts' at SS. There's a clear winner;

http://tinyurl.com/femalenudecoveringbreasts

aspp · « **Reply #9 on:** May 21, 2013, 15:18 »

Quote from: gostwyck on May 21, 2013, 14:24

Your images are ok but they are not amongst the very best in their genre

That also applies to mostly all of mostly all of our folios. Most of our work is sub par if we are honest. Most of us probably have uploaded a few good pictures and many thousands which are ok. If we only uploaded our best content there would be almost nothing.

One of the things which I really like about Stocksy is that it seems to be the place where people are sending only their very best work - what looks like the work which they actually care about. Which kind of makes me wonder what is the point of all the content which is only ok - given the huge quantity of images which are now out there.

vsaboya · « **Reply #10 on:** August 04, 2013, 16:34 »

Quote from: aspp on May 21, 2013, 15:18

Quote from: gostwyck on May 21, 2013, 14:24
Your images are ok but they are not amongst the very best in their genre

That also applies to mostly all of mostly all of our folios. Most of our work is sub par if we are honest. Most of us probably have uploaded a few good pictures and many thousands which are ok. If we only uploaded our best content there would be almost nothing.

One of the things which I really like about Stocksy is that it seems to be the place where people are sending only their very best work - what looks like the work which they actually care about. Which kind of makes me wonder what is the point of all the content which is only ok - given the huge quantity of images which are now out there.

May be the problem is that in micro we need to have a large amount of files to be visible to the buyers, and we all started submitting "crappy" pics to enlarge our folios

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Author Topic: Is my portfolio stock worthy? (Read 4799 times)

razvan_nistor

ShadySue

Poncke v2

Sean Locke Photography

ShadySue

ShadySue

gostwyck

ShadySue

gostwyck

aspp

vsaboya

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