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Author Topic: How do you keep track of your images?  (Read 10400 times)

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karensuki

  • Dreaming
« on: April 27, 2009, 13:02 »
0
 ??? I am new at submitting my images on stock sites and I am finding that I am spending too much time cataloging my submitted images in word...

Is there anyone out there who can drop some tips as to what they track and how they do it without it eating a couple hours of their time?


donding

  • Think before you speak
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2009, 14:20 »
0
Well the way I do it is by creating a microstock folder on my hard drive. I don't have a folder for each stock site except iStock because you can upload only 15 files every 7 days so I keep track of those under that folder. I also have a upload pending file where the files I'm waiting on approval for are put there, then when they are approved they are put in my approved file and the rejected ones that got rejected by all agencies I have in a separate file also. If one gets approved on one site and rejected by another...if they get approved on any site they get put in the approved folder. I upload the same shots to all the stock sites so it doesn't matter what went where.

Hope this helped. ::)

« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2009, 14:35 »
0
I love cushy stock.  (www.cushystock.com)  When images are accepted I put the image number in the description field and I know where everything is, and where to find it.
 :)


« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2009, 16:11 »
0
Depends on how many agencies you want to upload. I am uploading to 11 of them and there is no single software that suits my needs. So, I have one folder for unedited images and another folder for images ready for upload. Both folders have sub folders arranged by dates. I use FTP for all sites except IS. For IS I use DeepMeta (you can download it, it's free). So, basically, when I have new images ready to be uploaded, I upload them to all sites in the same time. For IS, I add images in DeepMeta, and they are waiting there until slots on IS get free.

« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2009, 17:50 »
0
Karensuki,

It is useful to search for discussions before posting a new thread.  There has been many in the past, one even recently:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/paid-established-microstock-services/managing-images-on-multiple-sites/

Here is an old one:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/keeping-track/
and two others even older:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/how-do-you-organize/
http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/keeping-track-of-images/

You can find discussions also about Cushystock and Prostockmaster.

« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2009, 09:59 »
0
As an alternative you may want to try http://www.microstockgroup.com/microstock-services/volunteer(s)-needed/. Though the goal of this tool is to track accepted images, not submitted ones.
Sorry for "pimping", just want to make this tool useful not only for me, but (eventually) for everybody.

karensuki

  • Dreaming
« Reply #6 on: April 29, 2009, 10:23 »
0
I looked around and tried different programs, but I still went with the designing my own database in MS Access... I guess the lure is that I can run reports and find out which type of image is selling, what has been rejected and why from where...

I'm a detail person (probably too much so). I am trying to track a lot of information. I wonder how long it will last  ;D.

« Reply #7 on: May 19, 2009, 06:37 »
0
Hey! :)

M new myself. You can try Lookstat. Its free right now and looks  great. Read the reviews on microstockdiaries.com :)

Hope things become easier for you  :) :) :)

« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2009, 05:10 »
0
You can try Lookstat. Its free right now and looks  great.

Lookstat was great till SS blocked it. With only DT on it (and IS, but that's not important to me) I can as well check DT directly. It also remains to be seen how long DT will tolerate Lookstat.
What's really needed is a desktop-based client that is under control of the contributor and that is able (1) track the same image on different sites (what Lookstat did) and (2) to group images from the same shoot in order to calculate YPS (yield per shoot).

Unless the sites offer APIs, the web-based applications that crawl the HTML and log in from a centralized IP are always vulnerable to a boycott from the sites. Rahul has been very silent lately...
« Last Edit: May 20, 2009, 05:17 by FlemishDreams »

SNP

  • Canadian Photographer
« Reply #9 on: June 09, 2009, 23:45 »
0
Deep Meta, iStock only
« Last Edit: June 09, 2009, 23:49 by hawk_eye »

« Reply #10 on: June 10, 2009, 01:52 »
0
Hi,

I keep everything in Extensis Portfolio (keywords, description, sales, agency name, agency code, etc.) organized in categories. Pictures are automatically cataloged once saved from PS and the software automatically "pull" all the needed info from the TIFFs in his own database - except agency and sales data - of course.
It is not a big  burden for me to add those info manually as I shoot only for three agencies and only one is Microstock. Five minutes every evening are enough to keep the whole stuff organized.

??? I am new at submitting my images on stock sites and I am finding that I am spending too much time cataloging my submitted images in word...

Is there anyone out there who can drop some tips as to what they track and how they do it without it eating a couple hours of their time?

« Reply #11 on: June 28, 2009, 04:47 »
0
You can try Lookstat. Its free right now and looks  great.

Lookstat was great till SS blocked it. With only DT on it (and IS, but that's not important to me) I can as well check DT directly. It also remains to be seen how long DT will tolerate Lookstat.
What's really needed is a desktop-based client that is under control of the contributor and that is able (1) track the same image on different sites (what Lookstat did) and (2) to group images from the same shoot in order to calculate YPS (yield per shoot).

Unless the sites offer APIs, the web-based applications that crawl the HTML and log in from a centralized IP are always vulnerable to a boycott from the sites. Rahul has been very silent lately...

Agree.

I want to find a software to do the 2 things. Is anyone know which software can do that?

By the way, FlemishTagger is a great program,why don't you, FlemishDreams, write a program to trace images?

« Reply #12 on: June 29, 2009, 16:35 »
0
I gave up image tracking once I got to a few hundred images across about 10 agencies, I look at what seems selling of mine on each agency but thats it.  I'd rather put the time into making more images.

Yuri mentioned once (from memory he had about 14-15000 images at the time) that it was a full time job for one of his employees.

« Reply #13 on: June 29, 2009, 18:44 »
0
I use Cushy Stock too.
As far as I can see it does most of the things I wish for and the rest I asked Alex Bakulin, who wrote the program, to change or add things if possible...  ;D
(He's working on a version for Mac an Linux too.)
My workflow: when images are ready I save them to submaps on my harddisk in a map called "Photo's Stock" and when I start Cushy Stock I can automatically find them like in Windows Explorer. They are viewed by thumbnails and with their filenames.Then adding keywords, titles and descriptions. I can do this by copy and paste. Also possible to copy and past whole sets of keywords to a bunch of images. When copy and pasting two sets from different images together to a new image nothing is double copied. Then I can simply add some more keywords or delete the ones that are not correct for that image. Works fast and easy. Also there is a keyword generator. You can choose if you will have the keywordgenerator based on Dreamstime or on Shutterstock. I use Dreamstime. Then I select the whole group of images which are ready (same way as in Windows Explorer) and for the stocks I wish them to upload to I put the settings: "Ready to upload". Then close Cushy and start it over again (otherwise it gives a problem on my computer, don't know if others have that problem too), I open the wizard, select the images that I set "Ready to upload", take a control if I did not forget to fill out anything and click: Start uploading.
All the selected images are now uploaded to all the selected stocksites and I am going to do something else. When ready they are automatically set "Pending" for every site. Now I only have to submit them on the different stocks. When they are accepted I set them "Accepted". Otherwise "Rejected" or "Resubmit", depending on the problems that are found by the reviewers. When clicking on an image I can see immidiately the results for every stock. Also when uploading of an image has failed it is automatically set : "Upload failed". Reasons given for rejection can be written at "Comments", so by clicking on a image I can see the whole list of reasons for rejection from the different stocksites for every image apart in a list.
When I click on the different Stocksites on the left, I can see the maps with "Accepted", "Ready to upload" etc. for that stock. Also I can update financial statistics for the supported sites by one click and simply back up everything bij copying only one file  (Cushystock.dat) from the program to 2 other harddisks. I have set my my backup program to do that automatically every day, together with all my images.
The program is also translated in different languages. Also it's possible to add Stocksites by yourself.
There are a lot other options. Some I don't use, some I didn't explore yet.
I have searched the web for programs that do the same thing for stockphotographers, but could not find anything until now.
When there are more people who are using this program: Would you like it if there is a topic started to ask questions about "How do...", or discussing workflow problems? It costs me some time to learn to work with it, perhaps I can be a help for others and perhaps some of you will have answers for me...
There are also some bugs in the program yet. For that reason I use version 1.8.5 and not the newer versions. I did not try the newest versions (2 and higher).
When FTP is not supported by a stocksite, or it doesn't work well, you can do the settings by hand for that sites. Not a big problem, but costs some extra work.

I hope you understand my bad English and the info is helpful for someone... ;)


« Reply #14 on: June 30, 2009, 10:30 »
0
I submit a new batch of photos each week. I keep a folder for each week of the month and start loading them up as I edit at the end of the week I submit the current weeks folder and move it to a "submitted" folder.

I keyword in Bridge and upload via ftp.

« Reply #15 on: July 02, 2009, 16:37 »
0
I wrote a spreadsheet in Excel to track all my sales by each agency and in total...contained the file name, size, my storage data on the hard drives, blah blah blah....  and..
worked great in the begining... but once you get up near 1,000 images or more.... it is a real pain in the hiney.... it STILL does the job, but is way too cumbersome now....  I have a need for speed.

I'm still waiting to find a good solid simple piece of software to do it.

A lot of folks dont bother.... but my experience has been that trusting some agencies is not .....an option. You have to keep track yourself.  8)=tom

« Reply #16 on: July 31, 2009, 12:36 »
0
I use a number of programs because I find that as someone else said there is no single tool.

I've only just started shooting stock but have been shooting weddings and a variety of other work for some time already. I use newbielink:http://www.photools.com [nonactive] Imatch, it is insanely powerful and if you are up to it it's easy as pie to track what you are up to.

Imatch can also be set up to automatically create categories from the IPTC keywords which could be very useful a few hundred images down the line. I have well over 50,000 files ranging from social to work stored in the db, I can easily pull up a wedding I did or find the photos I took the day my 7 year old little girl was born in seconds :)

I personally would not bother trying to track every single stock image because I know I'll get lazy soon enough, what I do for now is create a category by date for each batch I'm about to upload. I.e "2009.07.31 Tamarin Mobile - Headset - Makeup - White BG" I do this especially when I have to break the download up into batches, that way I can make sure I don't upload the same file twice at some point.

Also for the above, using the format year.month.date first means that all my folders are chronologically organized and of course "keyworded", the structure itself is a database of sorts :)

Before adding the files to Imatch I make sure they are tagged (trying out cushystock at the moment) all the images will automatically have keyword categories created for them when I import into Imatch... Imatch does have the ability to enter IPTC keywords but I find it klunky when you can't see an overview of all the keywords in an image I much prefer cushystock.

It's a mission make no mistake! I've been doing it for nearly 8 years and have a fantastic setup where as I said above I can get hold of just about any file, if it's not online then I at least know exactly which archive it's in :)

Greg.


Moonb007

  • Architect, Photographer, Dreamer
« Reply #17 on: July 31, 2009, 16:24 »
0
Cushy stock is a great program for organization and key wording.  I suggest getting the earlier one and not the new version that just came out.

For me I keep them on a media drive:
I have a folder with Complete images broken down to several categories...landscape, architecture, animals, details, textures, etc.  From their I number each image in order...landscape 01, 02, etc.

All the images that have not been processed I keep in a unfinished folder
All images I am working on are in a pending folder.
After all the pending images have been uploaded to each site I move them into the complete folder per file.

That's my process.

« Reply #18 on: August 01, 2009, 06:35 »
0
I made page that can display all my microstock in one page using iframe check here .

For FTP upload I'm using pyrobatchftp, it's uploading to all agencies when I'm sleeping.
« Last Edit: August 04, 2009, 11:33 by erwinova »

« Reply #19 on: August 01, 2009, 15:36 »
0
I personally would not bother trying to track every single stock image because I know I'll get lazy soon enough,
--red highlights, my doing...

For sure, I can personally attest to that... I sit here now days behind. Obviously I should be doing that instead of this... and yet, here I am.
      My advice after 3 years of excel tracking is....  find a good piece of software to do it and when you find it.. let me know which one is best. If I'm going to switch over all that data, I only want to do it once.. life is too short.  :D
      The spread sheet thing works good up to a point. I'm way past it! LOL 8)=tom

In the meantime.... track it all someway... dont trust 'the man'

« Reply #20 on: August 01, 2009, 15:52 »
0
I submit to 6 places and keep an Excel spreadsheet of what photo was uploaded and if was accepted or rejected. I have one folder for all my uploaded images. That's it.

« Reply #21 on: August 03, 2009, 13:16 »
0
I don't track what is accepted/selling but I do track what I uploaded to where because of the different U/L # constraints. I use Picasa as a photo database and have created albums for each of the sites I U/L to. When I U/L a batch, I put those photos in that site's album. (It's not multiple copies of the photos but references to the photo.) That makes it easy for me to see what I have U/L'd and to where. Oh yeah, and I keep all my MS in a pending U/L directory until I've uploaded the photo everywhere. Then I move them to a monthly U/L directory for all U/L's completed in a particular month. Not a great system but one that is working for now. If I read about a better one then I'll dump this one in a second.

« Reply #22 on: August 03, 2009, 17:19 »
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I was doing the folder for each site thing at first...but after new sites started coming on...I lost track of them and now it is just a BIG mess!  Some photos I have on some sites and not others....it is a real pain!

« Reply #23 on: August 03, 2009, 19:52 »
0
Make two folder, one for edited photos one folder is for ftp, before save in edited folder it come to ftp folder first, pyrobatchftp program will upload all file in ftp folder automaticly betwen 1am-6am, in the morning everything in ftp folder are uploaded to all agencies and move all image in ftp folder to edited folder. that's it.

Editing categories, keyword, model release etc on agencies sites, I alway open this page to avoid so many tab in my windows, it's like my guidance page, but still can open new tab by right click on that page if I want to.

« Last Edit: August 04, 2009, 11:30 by erwinova »

graficallyminded

« Reply #24 on: August 11, 2009, 09:37 »
0
erwinova, that page directs to featurepics - something is screwy there. 


 

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