I received 2 sales of this:
Amount received €0.10
Date 1/27/15 10:38 AM
Item High-res: 183370 (0983 Scale.jpg)
Purchase method Monthly package
Filename 0983 Scale.jpg

What kind of monthly package generates this sale? :-( Looking at their offers and prices at https://www.mostphotos.com/billing I see quite decent prices vs number of downloads included. Those numbers aren't supposed to generate such ridiculously low revenues (?)

So Envato is the other example of a mindless support who responds to your e-mails kindly but without any sense.

I'm asking a thing about uploading via ftp, the support answers twice they can't figure out what is the problem uploading via http. (?)

Also the new phenomenon along web services, of answering support tickets, the original (my) message isn't included. So support answers something and after the 2nd answer I don't know what was the thread of our conversation...
Adobe added to this group, I hardly feel, today the fresh software isn't tested... If it works at the first glance, it's OK.

The original topic was the archaic and figure-out ftp upload of Envato. It's a piece of cake to code a decent upload system. With 2 photos they may subscribe to any agency to see, what's the industry standard of uploading...

I can't find anything related to this when googling: how to submit an image that has 2 people on the image who are practically unrecognizable???
Here is the photo I'm talking about:
If I select '2 people' and 'no model release', the license is grayed out. If I select 'no people', it's incorrect. Due to the fact that these people wear masks and the same protective wear during the event, they are practically unrecognizable.
I was thinking about a dummy release that may have no luck during the review, or some random releases assigned...

Hi all!
I would know your experience @SS regarding the uploads vs. sales based on the upload style as follows. Which is better nowadays?
1. Uploading and submitting 2 or 3 times a week, uploading as many as possible and wait until all batches have been reviewed (Example: upload 300 files in 10 batches)
2. Uploading each day a certain amount of files and submitting these, providing a more constant upload flow (Example: upload 300 files in 30 batches)
Regarding the content, let's say, 300 files covering 10 topics, so 30 files per topic.

Thank you!

Hi folks,
somebody uploads sound effects to IS?
Just wanted to upload several hundred wav's and I sadly saw, a talent release must be uploaded with every audio. This is ridiculous, why they need talent release for bicycle rings, door opening/closing, etc. sounds??? For sure it's more work to complete, scan and manage talent releases than the actual work with the audio recording...
I'm missing something?
Or they accept a generic talent release and that's it?

No, now it's not DT...

I'm thinking, when will these agencies close their uploads due to the fact that everything has been uploaded and they no longer want to accept new submissions of the existing topics...

I'm experiencing these rejection reasons on (seamless) textures and backgrounds. I have no problems selling these at other agencies.

Examples include:
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-152405483/stock-photo-seamless-green-grass-and-clovers-texture.html?src=BBaRKvNWwfl6vJTzp89E1g-1-16
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-152405477/stock-photo-seamless-concrete-brick-wall-texture.html?src=BBaRKvNWwfl6vJTzp89E1g-1-21
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-152405480/stock-photo-seamless-grey-rough-wall-texture.html?src=BBaRKvNWwfl6vJTzp89E1g-1-22
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-152405489/stock-photo-wooden-wall-texture-fir-wood-background.html?src=BBaRKvNWwfl6vJTzp89E1g-1-20
etc.

I'm building my own site some time ago. I thought, I will include the discovery/search feature on image copy spaces also. Recently I saw the ™ mark near the CopySpace on iStock. I'm unable to find anything related to this trademark on iStock...

However I see on many sites the term "Copy Space"...

Can somebody enlighten me, will I infringe somebody's copyright by including a similar copy space search functionality or even the term "Copy Space" cannot be used???

Something's wrong with the licenses...

http://help.mostphotos.com/customer/portal/articles/967687-licences

"Royalty free Standard" would be the license for FREE images... With MP's Royalty-Free, there's no need for any kind of Extended License!
I think, there's a problem with the expression "...infinitely larger formats and also enjoy unlimited use in your future projects."

The time arrived to start developing my own personal stock site that will be open for other contributors also.
Since more than a year I started to develop web sites (webshops, company homepages) just to learn linux+php+mysql to create the best site I can...
I want to sell photo, vector, audio and video licenses, all these via a web site that has all the whistles and bells that a stock site needs. Yes it's a huge amount of work, but I wrote my own object-oriented php libraries and the code it's based on the Yii framework. Note that I'm putting together the pieces of the project since 2 years ago...

A brief list of targets and features:
- photo, vector audio and video licenses
- privately owned and - as the circumstances permit - upgraded servers. (To exclude the high, dedicated servers costs)
- ~1 year testing and image uploading period with zero advertising, just SEO
- in-house development, not waiting/paying programmer teams to achieve basic results/changes
- unique features & offers that agencies have partially (image fingerprints, copy space and important colors recognition and very fast search engine with detailed filters) - these may be the key features over other stock sites... I need to offer something extra...

I'm on the final stage of the project's documentation and I thought, before finishing, I will ask the people here what they always hated/liked or wanted at stock agencies. I want to have an ultra-friendly buyer/contributor portal...

Where can I see the tax withholding amount???

As I was looking at my support tickets, I saw a message from 2009 I forgot about, they said my tax withholding amount is 30%. However Romania has a 10% tax treaty with US. FL says in the ticket response, I need an ITIN number. But as far as I know, ITIN numbers are given only to US residents... True?

... very sad if they withheld from me 30% instead of 10%...

I'm shocked about the list of the keywords of this image:
http://us.fotolia.com/id/49296327
and also about the other keywords from this portfolio...
I remember, 1-2 years ago, almost all the agencies became very upset on keyword spamming... Except FL?

So I had a problem, I didn't hesitate, I contacted support because I had further questions. That was in 2011, month 10, day 20. Today I received the long awaited response. That's more than 7 months. Wow! I thought, I had the longest response time from PantherMedia, (6 months).
I have further questions. Should I hesitate to contact again? (I'm far away from retirement so I have time)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canned_response

If you have experience, please share, how are agencies accepting these character sets made of leaves, flowers, colorful beads, etc...
I know only about SS and DT. As I saw, SS accepts standalone characters, and DT likes only groups (based on some forum discussion, years ago), however, I browsed the newest images @DT and I saw standalone characters.
How complex must be one letter to go standalone?
It is better to group 2-3 characters together?
What are the rules at the agencies (= how they accept characters? (Standalone, in 3-6pcs/image or whole set)

Thank you!

When everything seems to be going well, @ SF there is a problem with the illustrations, especially with objects that has "Screen" blending mode: Preview file is not the same as in EPS which may mislead a client. (...)
To figure out what does this mean, I contacted the given e-mail and the response (I will not copy paste here because it isn't nice) told me that temporarily I should switch the document color mode into CMYK to check the document how it's looking. I was screaming and running up-down for 5 minutes then sitting down to figure out the proper response to this.
Intro: if you are familiar with the RGB-CMYK thing... Switching from RGB there is an another parameter coming in the game, so it's only a "figure-out" game, given by an icc profile. If the illustration contains complex blend modes, this is supposed to be rendered in the color space wit was designed. When switching the color space, the entire color set must be reworked. Sorry.
I was making this 6 years when preparing graphics for screen printing. No ICC profile on the world can handle RGB-CMYK conversion as the given technology wants (Screen, Flexo, Offset, etc.)

First at all, we are talking about this illustration:
ttp://www.dreamstime.com/sun-and-moon-in-yin-yang-symbol-image21532090
The moon is made of 3 objects that has "Screen" blend, 2 of them is going from pure black to a gray so this way the glow is made. When somebody converts the illustration into CMYK, the pure black is rendered as a dark gray (because in real printing there is no pure black so the ICC profile that converts the colors simulates this) so our "Screen" blend is rendered very ugly.
At SF, it's a part of the reviewing process to convert the document into CMYK and check what happens... (I'm running up-down again and screaming)
In short...
RGB illustrations should be verified in RGB mode, CMYK illustrations in CMYK mode!!!!! Any RGB-CMYK or CMYK-RGB conversion is LOSSY, there is a distortion of color data. Don't confuse photos with illustrations! Illustrations contain layers with specific blending modes. Converting the colors before FLATTENING the illustration results in a total mess...
I guess, this reviewing method was well going with EPS v8, where blending modes weren't working.

I prepared an answer but I'm afraid it's too long. Somebody pls. help me to answer in 2-3 phrases... It's just too much theory involved...

I just started to do some more illustrations and I'm facing this banding problem...
See this image: http://www.canstockphoto.com/social-network-members-with-text-clouds-7533900.html (You can magnify but don't see the banding because I removed)

When I simply turn the illustration into raster, due to the 256-step gradient approximation, there is a heavy banding in the background. (in fact there is everywhere but in the darkest shades it's more visible to the human eye). I was scared in the first moment, the artifact is almost unacceptable. To handle this problem I'm converting to raster the bkg separately, apply a slight amount of noise (to simulate dither), then put the other stuff over the bkg.
Illustrators, how do you make the jpg previews for your illustrations? If I export from AI or import the eps into PS, banding is unacceptable. Regardless of 8 or 16 bits.
Do agencies reject jpg previews because of banding? I didn't tried this, eg. DT also sells raster, so I didn't wanted to provide images with banding for those who buy jpg...

Today I got a reject from SF, "jpg preview it's not the same as in eps". The file in question was one of those with background banding removed. Probably this is the problem.

All the renderings form the last batch were rejected with "We found the overall quality of this rendering could be improved." But weeks ago all was accepted, my problem is that many files are from the same series, what suddenly happened with the quality... Last week everything was good (all accepted), this week everything is rejected.

Was there and announcement about rendering quality or IS doesn't accept renderings from non-exclusive contributors anymore?

I'm sorry about the time spent with their archaic upload system. For the 15% I can earn, it's better to sell my files with other agencies. They simply don't deserve quality images for the percent they give. And they still have the highest needs...

Anybody had mass rejection lately, related to the rendering quality?

Anyone knows how do I check the actual version of an EPS file?

I'm saving eps's from CS5, but after 20 files I'm getting really tired saving as eps v10 (I have to pull down the combo box to select v10) and after some time happens that I forgot to pull down the combo.
Is there a way to check the version without installing AI 10? In the metadata there is written CS5 (since this is the software from where is saved).

At agencies how they check the file version?

I made my own property release, see the attachment. I'm using it since the beginning of the year, every agency was accepting, even iStock, when suddenly an editor at IS "discovered" that the "witness" section has no "date signed" field and therefore rejected the PR. (Note that other ~50 images were accepted by IS before the "discovery").

I started to download the property releases from agencies and saw that they all have "Date signed" field for "witness".

For me is completely illogical to use this field (even in model release forms).
When a witness "witnesses" the completion and signing of a model/property release, he/she must be there and watching, at the end he/she also signs the document, so the whole witnessing procedure MUST happen on the same day/hour and place.

What's the logic behind "Date signed"?

I uploaded my port to Panthermedia, but due to the slow submitting process, I was finishing 10-20 files a day. Now a lot of unfinished files has disappeared.
My wife's port was uploaded earlier, the whole bunch of unfinished files were deleted. In that time I contacted support, they said, they delete unfinished files after 6 months. But our files were uploaded max. 2 month ago. I said, maybe a server failure or something like this.
But now my files and a friend of mine also is in the same situation...
It's ridiculous... When I uploaded the files I selected them carefully, now everything is messed up... Which one was selected and which one was in unfinished section?
Is there something I don't know?

At the bottom of the submit page there is a switch:

Commission
( ) 50% - Image is only offered via PantherMedia (and equally/more expensive stock agencies)
( ) 30% - Image is also offered in cheaper stock agencies

It is unclear, which one should I choose?
Which agencies consider cheaper, equal and more expensive?

Anybody knows something about http://www.footagefirm.com?
I was looking for a contributor back-end or a register link but there isn't.
They also have a free footage site http://www.stockfootageforfree.com/ (at least says provided by ~)

OK, I saw many times this behavior, but this isn't really an option unless it's done massively by all.
The example in history: When StockXpert was closed I felt really bad since I saw 1 out of 5 of really working agencies will be missing, but after months, my statistics show no drop in the global income from microstock. This means automatically that buyers at StockXpert were spread along the remaining microstock agencies. I don't think, buyers are stupid in searches and choosing the agency, instead they are clever than we (contributors) think. Also they saw the prices and the same images at agencies.
At StockXpert all our portfolios vanished into the cyberspace, regardless of we wanted or not, so everybody of us needed to live on the remaining options. Now, removing our ports from IS can bring us the support of the independent agencies (who are our future), true, not in one month (when StockXpert buyers were helped to migrate to other agencies), but our independent future is based on independent agencies.
Note that i'm not a sticked/paid member of any agency, I simply talk about facts. 20% is a shameless low payout.
If we disable our portfolios at IS, a lot of content will be available only at competitors. I don't count the exclusives and those who aren't interested, or doesn't read the forums, but in theory this move can help us a lot. Another problem is the timing when everybody of us does the same move to achieve maximum impact on both sides.
Opinions wanted.

It's the nth case when my image is on hold and waiting for me to upload a model release, but in the reality the image doesn't require mr. I'm unable to create a scout ticket since the image isn't rejected. I created a normal support ticket.
My last image:

The following note was supplied by an administrator:
After serious consideration, we would require model release(s) for accepting this submission into the iStockphoto collection. In the context of this image, we feel that the people are recognizable. Thanks for your understanding.

I'm wondering, for how many people is useful the topicseen#new in the address since this causes a jump to the end of the topic and it's still annoying to me. Except frequently visited threads, the jump is always followed with a navigation to the first page and first post to see what they talk about. Also the jump is made incorrectly (somewhere in the middle of the page) when page elements are downloading but not fully downloaded.
A switch "Don't jump to the end of the topic" would be very useful at the options.

I was wondering many times about the "Technology" category at the agencies since this category contains almost only computer-related terms. Even at iStock.
Since drilling a hole in wood, or making gears is also technology, the term itself covers many more concepts.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technology

From the rules
"... Contributor agrees not to sell images assigned to custom or premium pricing, on other websites or sales channels for less than you sell them for here..."

This has no sense unless the photo is exclusive to BigStock. Also other agencies may modify the price without notifying me.
So it's a useless feature (for non-exclusives)?

I found today a nearly flawless free stock photo @ DT.
It is possible somehow that the author ticked the box "If this image doesn't qualify as commercial, offer for free" when submitting?
This image is commercial at other agencies as many others from the portfolio.

In one hand this can be the total lack of understanding the way the things are working, also lack of self-management, in the other hand this is a sophisticated self-promotion where very common subjects does not matter anymore they only serve as magnets to the other side of the portfolio.

?

http://www.dreamstime.com/fresh-vegetables-imagefree4389058

Foto-Lia or Fo-Tolia?

In the beginning on this forums I saw the correct abbreviation of FL when talking about Fotolia, but after some time users started to use FT.
FT to Fotolia is like ST to Shutterstock or DS to Dreamstime
As you can see at fotolia.com, lia is emphasized with green so I believe, the correct abbreviation is FL

Any thoughts?

Since planning calendar (or any calendar) designs are suitable as stock, I made some and uploaded as vector design, but due to nature of calendars, we know, they expire often...

Today I was surprised to see a 2008 planning calendar design being sold... Sundays are emphasized, texts are converted to curves so there's a lot of work to upgrade the design to 2009 or 2010. Also the design is pretty simple, nothing special...

I was thinking how to deal with images (vectors) that do expire. Ex. 2007, 2008 balloons, calendars, candles or any other scripts. I saw that many contributors upload such images. Where it's easy to deactivate/delete there is no problem but some agencies require special procedures/limitations to deactivate an image, regardless of the image content's nature.

Anybody opened mov files in Virtualdub from the 5dmk2 so far? I tried many ways, downloaded some plugins from http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Virtualdub, but the best thing was the correct size of the video but blank (green or black) screen, no chance to see the video.
Currently my working method is to convert those mov's to avi and open them in Virtualdub, but I want to jump over this step because of the very possible quality loss, even if I compress in 100% quality I often see the compression blocks and banding.

I'm just tired to write again to Crestock support: I requested payment 1.5 months ago and I'm still waiting for payment.

I see the bright side of the things:
- I will not spend that money until I get
- My money makes interest while it's sitting in the Crestock's bank account. (Of course I will kindly refuse the 5% offered)
- I'm talking again about this agency. I have no problems with the other agencies so they don't receive any focus from me.
- I'm a kind of lazy person who likes to extend the things until the deadline knocks hardly on the door. Now I see myself in this mirror and it's saying: don't do that. This is a positive feedback for me.

Also I kindly ask Judge Ross to judge this situation and pick the best payment period beside of the worse-and-longest payment period.

Thank you!

Recently I bought some HDD's to save my data (backups, photos, music, movies, etc.) and I decided to copy all my existing CD's and DVD's onto HDD and throw away the disks to keep everything in one place and to get rid of the increasing backup DVD stack.

Guess what. I can't read half of the disks written 1-3 years ago!!! I knew that the design life of a CD is 20-100years but the actual 2-3 years is dangerously low.

I tried to read the CD's in question in many drives, the reading always stops at the same percent. I have CD's which aluminum foil (the actual data carrier) comes down so no way to recover the data but 99% of the CD's has prefect, unscratched surface, those simply doesn't read. Most of them is eProformance so don't buy this brand.

I decided to move on HDD backups (instead of DVD's), so all my data is stored twice on 2 separate HDD's. These are external, USB HDD's.

It can be useful for someone but from the start it was very annoying to me that every time I visit a thread listed in 'Home', the page displays the very last post of the thread.

OK, I didn't read that thread, I want to read from the start. Is there an option to disable this behavior? If not, can be implemented?

I see this as a sign of a bright future.
Microstock has grown out his boundaries.
I'm wondering, the time has arrived for nanostock, since microstock is dealing with big clients who can be pioneers in the industry, making new rules. Or just forget the micro and just say 'stock'. With the current need of standards, we can proudly say stock, with the time, money and energy invested; everybody earns what he invests.
The future is now?

OK, I'm not interested in opinions like "it's fully safe" or "it's a hobby so I'm too lazy to upload to many more agencies".

I agree, exclusivity can put an agency in a good light but from the contributor's viewpoint I don't see the reason.

I was looking at my exclusivity estimator and multiplied these numbers with 3 and I still got a number of 1/3 of what I earn when I'm present at multiple agencies. If I produce something why sell this only in one store???

I think about putting all eggs in one basket. Risky? It's good to live in the shadow of a big but when something good/worse happens this big pulls everybody with him. See the new iStock's best match search algorithm. Except non-exclusives, many exclusives had BME/WME in November while at StockXpert, FL, DT, etc. there are no changes. Do they expect this???

Again, except a 'fully safe' and 'hobbyist' membership, an exclusive contributor only looses money not selling material with other agencies. We need to find the roots of exclusivity in the human behavior?

I had several rejections at SS and IS they say, limited commercial value. Other sites accept without problem and some of them started to sell! I see these as commercial, however they are not truly photos/illustrations... I'm a little bit sad, because IS and SS have selling potential and I feel their editors have a little distorted vision about what sells since in the reality these images do sell at other agencies (not only at one single agency).



Honest opinions please...

Thank you!

Hi!

Let's assume what I earn at DT, IS, StockXpert and SS is 100%. 123RF is only 10%, BigStock is 30%. Meantime I earn the same amount at Crestock, ScandinavianStockPhoto, etc. like at 123RF.

My wife is doing this business and a lot of my friends, they have the similar income percent.

The question is: is there something special to do at 123RF or I simply upload and wait for downloads? I think here about lightboxes, forum activity, faved members, blogs, etc., etc.

Hi all,

here is a thing and I want to hear your opinions about.

I want to give up my day job and I want to live from microstock. Currently I'm earning the same money from the stock as from my day job. I like my day job but I like stock photography too... I'm a graphic designer/engineer at an advertising material company, I have a good position but stress is my biggest problem.

I started to make stock from 2006, I feel what the stock needs, but somehow I feel I don't have much time to provide this. I want to change and do this full-time.

Any thoughts...
Thanks!