Still waiting to get my images online (posted 19th this month..).  So review times are now very slow.

Nice idea. Good Job! I hope you can get enough support to keep things running.

br, Mikko P.

Hello Miz,

Do you have the page where all your tutorials can be found from the same place? It is hard to spot every thread here

br, Mikko P.

Hi,

If you have more time you can easily take train from Helsinki to Tampere(+1,5h trip) or to other central Finnish cities. There are also some natural areas around the Helsinki (for trekking etc)

Helsinki is nice city, but I prefer other parts of Finland (I live on the country side ) But in helsinki you should visit at "suomen linna" (do not know what it is in english,it is castle island near the harbour, very nice place go to picknick or something), Suomen kansallismuseo (finnish national museum) and check the few nice churches around the central. There is quite nice gardens as well.

PM me if you need detailed information about Helsinki or other part of the Finland.

br, Mikko

Quote from: yingyang0 on May 20, 2007, 19:17

Quote from: fintastique on May 20, 2007, 08:58
OK cyber cafes are not safe unless you set up a temporay travelling e-mail acount to say hey I am still alive

How safe is using your own laptop in wireless cafe/zone?

The same as using their computers, infact less safe because multiple people can read what you send wirelessly versus only one person that has control of the wired computer.

If  you use your own laptop and use only sites with SSL connection (or if possible use highly crypted VPN connection) it should be safe (since the all traffic from the your laptop browser to end point (e.g. your web mail server) is crypted.) )

But if you use non-ssl connection then you are not safe. But remember that you have good firewall on your laptop, because they can hack your computer and install some nasty spyware on it

Hi,

Did you all find bumb in your sales when people started to join your CN and giving rankings? I got huge bumb in my sales at first, but not sure how the rankings counts nowdays (sales are low at the moment)... Any ideas how we can still improve sales on IS? How we get more buyers to join our network??

And you can always add me to your CN under name: "mjp"

br, Mikko P.

Hi,

Your plan sounds great. It really helps to get shadowless pictures.

I do not have picture of my old lightbox but mine was made from 8x 50cm painted wood slabs, few nails (to make box with only top and sides), roll of white butter paper (from the kitchen)  stapled on wood slabs. I also had white paper card as background. Worked out great (the white butter paper is actually better light diffuser than commercial light box fabrics). I used 2x 300w halogen lights. (butter paper can tolerate heat so you do not have problem with melting plastic bag )

br, Mikko P.

Hi,

I ordered SEKONIC L-358 light meter last week to help me get correct lightning ratios with studio lights (I shoot about 90% of my work within studio like environment in my living room )).

I found out that it is very hard to get lights powered correctly with on-camera meter (canon rebel xti). So I hope I can get better exposures.

I did not order any spot meter accessories to it, but this meter has option to use one of these external accessories (+150$). I try to post my initial comments when I receive the meter in 2-3 weeks.

br, Mikko P.

I use Elinchrom Style Fx-400 series light (220v). They cost around 1000€ with stands, umbrellas, softbox and a hard case. There is also a cheaper light units made by Elinchroms (d-lite2 and d-lite-4) and the price is for these items are starting from ~600euros....

I'm happy with style-fx series light. Nothing more is needed at my skill level

br, Mikko P.

My images can be found here:

http://www.luckyoliver.com/portfolio/mjp/popular

I try to comment many of your photos I can, it's quite hard bcoz my english is not so good.

br, Mikko P.

Hi,

If you want to add me your CN you are welcomed to do so. My user name under Istock is : mjp

br, Mikko P.

Hi,

thanks for the great idea! Here are few of mine (I hope I understand rules corretly)

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=2558144
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=2450459
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=2576843

br, Mikko P.

Here is few of mine:

http://www.dreamstime.com/wineglass-image1638282
http://www.dreamstime.com/womansendingatextmessage-image1625363
http://www.dreamstime.com/coffeecup-image1306458

br, Mikko P.

Quote from: Dante on January 25, 2007, 19:43
What do you mean by"- Keywording process similar to Dreamstime (fast way to process large batches)" ?

I mean these things :
1. Batch processing of several image (e.g. categories copied from selected images)
2. Good process flow. No need for extra mouse clicks (page loads) between images your are processing. Just hit the submit button when categories/keywords are selected and you get next image from the queue (like in the bigstockphoto). This will make system work faster because sometimes sites are under heavy load and each page loading takes up to 30-60 seconds.

I like to see categories templates which you can save for later use (e.g. object-->isolated & computer-->laptop) so every time you have similar image you do not need to search categories again just select the correct template. Maybe it work if your portfolio have lots of similar images.

IBAN/SWIFT based bank transfers sounds nice, but I prefer paypal.

br,Mikko P.

Hi Dan,

I'm hobbyist who submit most of the major microstock sites. I also submit to one local macro stock agency as well. The high rollers might have different viewpoints but these are the things I really like. I basically submit 50-80 new images on a month.

things that makes my life easier are:
- FTP-uploads (no hassle with web uploaders, forms or similar)
- Categories chosen by inspectors (easy uploading)
- No limits for numbers of upload if acceptance ratio is good enough
- EXIF / IPTC keywording
- Automatic PayPal / Moneybookers transfers on each month if balance is over needed level (no need of requesting money and this payout level should be 50usd or similar (hobbyist can get some money faster (than waiting few years to get first payout))).
- Automatic inspection process after ftp upload (no need of interaction on the web site / e.g. click buttons or similar)
- Keywording process similar to Dreamstime (fast way to process large batches)
- Some kind of grouping on similar items / sub-portfolios for buyers to see similar shots easily from same photographer
- Fast enough system (good site usability and reliability)

Sorry about my bad English, because it is not my native language (no grammar check on WEB browser ) So hope you get my points.

br. Mikko P.

Hello Andrew and welcome to Finland Ok, it's bit cold here (-18celisius at the moment), but just get enough clothes and you can manage.  What part of Finland you are living on?

I started shooting microstock last spring and I do it mainly on weekends and I have little bit over 500 images on each major microstock sites (except istock, over 100 there). My focus in this year is past over 500euros / a month barrier on microstocks. I'm just a hobbyist, so my image concepts and techniques needs lot of work, but I think it is quite possible. I found out that Istock, ShutterStock and fotolia are the best revenue sources for me.

regards: Mikko P.

Price is not a bad so I have to check this out. My current local backup solutions is quite good, but I do not have off-site backups yet. Initial upload would take long time, but incremental backups (e.g. everyday work) is smaller so it won't be a problem. Local phone companies will start offering similar solution here in Finland next year (5euros/month) but I do not know how big the storage capacity is. But thanks for the nice information about this new system.

My current setup:

I have Ubuntu linux (server installation) box with ~1TB disks and samba installed. I use Nero BackitUp to backup my image folders to the network drive everyday (incremental copies) with compression options disabled (this way the Nero copy the files like they are in normal file system). I use http://www.brandonstaggs.com/filecheckmd5.html file check utility to check image folders integrity over time (first I make md5 file from the local computer and then run that file against network drive). This way I can notice errors on network or local drives (e.g. windows can not detect if the controller is causing problems in every case). You can use USB discs also, but I prefer real network computer, since you can build raid controller on the network computer or add external drives to mirror actual backup partition.

I also try to take DVD backups few times on a year, but this process is too time consuming progress. BlueRay discs will be solutions to this...

You need a Raid controller and supplied software. Many new motherboards supports raid configurations or you can buy raid controller (ide,sata,scsi).

br, Mikko P.

I found out that my growing image library is harder and harder to backup. Here are several reasons:
- The space you need for backups (at the moment it is +150 gigabytes)
- The integrity of the backupped files (do you really know that the backup files are ok?)
- The integrity of the original files (do you really know that the backup files are ok?)
- It takes a long time to backup images on the DVD discs (34 discs)
- Cheap DVD disc's can not be used for storing data since they get corrupted very easily
- How to protect against fire, power failures, high voltage peaks, lightning, etc..
- New equipment costs (NAS-server with battery backuped raid controller with multiple discs, UPS, blue ray burner, safety deposit box at the off-site location)

I only backup original RAW files from files I upload to stocsk, jpeg versions, psd-versions (curves etc on own layers), raw files of them and model releases.All the other raw-files will be deleted on short time.

My current solution is:

I have Linux based file server which have big harddrive(Ubuntu linux on server mode). I use Nero Backit-up program to backup images with the verify to file server daily with verify option enabled. I use file integrity check program monthly to detect errors on original & backuped files (it works but not good as I want (lot of work with it)). I burn Image collection to DVD's once a year or similar (high grade verbatim discs and record them at low speed).

This system works some what good. I got hd-interface crash about 6 months ago, lot of images got corrupted  (originals and the backuped ones, because I didn't use that file integrity check program that time and the backup program backuped the corrupted files on the backup system). But I got allmost everything from DVD's (only few images got lost because  corruption of DVD discs).

So what I really need more is security againsts fire, lightning, hardware crash, burglary etc..  And I have to replace dvd's with blue-ray or similar high capasity optical media.

So do you know any good online backup systems, where datacenter is located in safe place and the monthly fee is low?

br. Mikko P.

The program run in the background if you want (minimized on system tray), and it has somekind of auto complete feature ( I do not use it, so I don't really  know what kind it is).

You just click the site name in the passwd manager and paste the password to web page password field. I store my non-critical passwords on own computer web-browser so it can do the autocomplete. But newer use that feature to sites like paypal or similar (in case somebody breaks in my home network and take control my computer(s)). The Keepass program have other security measurements like (it cleans password data from clipboard automatically etc. )

br, Mikko P.

You should allways use different password on each web-site. Ok, it is hard to remember each password if they are good (e.g. '"jeU3#&kdUemx786" style). But you do not need to remember them all, just use some kind of password vault programme and your password security is way better. The excel sheet sounds usable, but you need to encrypt the whole sheet with good cryptiogprahy algorithm (like AES, CAST, TRIPLE DES etc..) because the inbuilt protection of excel is very easy to crack. But here is better solution:

-Get memory stick (usb)
-Go to http://keepass.sourceforge.net/ and download KEEPASS program. (it is free and open source)
-Install it to your memory stick
-Start the programme and make new password vault and add entries into it. You can generate password just moving mouse or typing randomly to keyboard.
-Save your password vault to same folder where you installed actual programm (usb stick)

Now you have all passwords in portable secure place. The program runs any windows computer without re-installing it, just run it from usb stick. The system uses AES and TWO Fish algorithms to protect your password so do not forget your main password.

I have used this this program over two years and it work like a dream. You just need to take backup of the password vault directory in monthly basis (prevent problems if you usb stick broke down) to another media.

br, Mikko P.

Hi everybody, just joined this great forum. Here is some tips for isolation I have found usefull

I agree that pen(path) tool is the best way to do isolation(if you use photoshop). There is also a bonus because the clipping path is stored inside the JPEG file. Some sites (like bigstockphoto) have option to mark that clipping path is included. This may incrase your image sales.

You can also use channels try to isolate the background, but this is little bit harder to do(select high contrast channel and use channel mask). Very good book about the isolation (and other advanced concepts) is Katrin Eisman's book

Photoshop Masking & Compositing
New Riders Publishing
ISBN#: 0-7357-1279-4
October 2004

www.photoshopdiva.com