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Messages - ShadySue
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1001
« on: July 11, 2019, 09:57 »
The whole blockchain thing made no sense.
1002
« on: July 07, 2019, 14:32 »
. (a problem of issing keywords and captions in IM sorted by a refresh 
1003
« on: July 07, 2019, 07:50 »
I haven't experienced that ... so far.
Now I might not get neurotic if it happens!
1004
« on: July 04, 2019, 07:20 »
1005
« on: July 03, 2019, 16:13 »
They are modelling themselves on iS.
Or else it's contagious.
1006
« on: July 03, 2019, 12:07 »
Legally you're OK, as stated.
Ethically you are too, probably. If the person knew what they were doing and were happy to be a model and knew all the implications, I don't think there's any ethical issue. Others may disagree.
If you persuaded the person to model and sign, you might feel differently.
If the person was legally incapable and you had the legal right to sign on their behalf, again it's up to you.
If it makes you feel uncomfortable for any reason at all, then for your own emotional well-being, ask for them to be taken down.
1007
« on: July 03, 2019, 10:25 »
Animals dont sell
Flowers dont sell
They do sell, but the competition is intense.
1008
« on: July 03, 2019, 09:57 »
Why not go outside and use natural light and real life subjects? Still life probably isn't a great stock seller and so much has been done already. Take a really good look at your competitors in any genre you're thinking of. That's who you've got to beat.
1009
« on: July 03, 2019, 06:39 »
You're right about what you said. Since I started from scratch, studio shots are not perfect. But what confuses me is the sale of SS. I don't understand this part. Turkish proverb: Every bad commodity has a buyer.
E6633 cihazımdan Tapatalk kullanılarak gnderildi
It may be that Turkey isn't a great source of stock sales. And even that saying wouldn't apply if there were better goods on offer at the exact same price. Also, even if these were beginner exercises, one of the purposes of these is for you then to learn which photo from a set is best. Even if these were useful stock (which mostly they're not), you need to learn to edit and cull.
1011
« on: July 02, 2019, 18:25 »
You may have 600 pictures, but you have a lot of series of 'slight variations on a theme', with no obvious reason why you have submitted so many similars.
Your table-top 'similar sets' look like exercises which beginning photographers do to practise variations of composition or lighting rather than stock images.
1012
« on: June 30, 2019, 18:50 »
Quite correct Uncle Pete but Alamy provides a date and location field in the optional data tab so having the location/date taken in the description field is largely redundant.
Except that for sure the location field is unsearchable, and at least IME, locations are pretty important, and for some years now the caption has trumped the keywords. Usually I have the location in both, sometimes only the keywords, very rarely not at all.
It looks like the date field must inform 'date taken' searches, though.
Sounds interesting, I'll need to search the search and see about location. Yes I think that's important.
What I was pointing out is my images have over 150 characters and they are not live news. I never knew I was over the limit and they never bounced or clipped or rejected anything.
Nononono. Your captions are indeed under 150 characters. What you have over 150 characters for is the "More Information" field, which is optional and unsearchable. Also it's not visible when someone hovers over a photo in a search, whereas the caption is. The caption is what's important. 'More Information' is for anything which might be important to the buyer which isn't in the caption. No need to repeat anything from the caption in 'More Information'. E.g. file #JRX4GK https://www.dropbox.com/s/8gcleavrk6nyn11/Xfinity.jpg?dl=0NB, there isn't a field called 'description', and the caption and title are the same.
1013
« on: June 30, 2019, 06:29 »
Quite correct Uncle Pete but Alamy provides a date and location field in the optional data tab so having the location/date taken in the description field is largely redundant.
Except that for sure the location field is unsearchable, and at least IME, locations are pretty important, and for some years now the caption has trumped the keywords. Usually I have the location in both, sometimes only the keywords, very rarely not at all. It looks like the date field must inform 'date taken' searches, though.
1014
« on: June 29, 2019, 12:28 »
It's not all doom & gloom...
Latest May 2019 Earnings Report:
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2019/05/31/may-2019-brutally-honest-earnings-report/
Very nice and informative. May I ask if most of your iStock collection was submitted as a non-exclusive?
I'll just mention, if you look under his messages, there is a row of agencies he submits to. He can't be an iStock exclusive. 
You don't see mine, for example, because I don't choose to disclose, but Brasilnut shows his.
But if he was iStock exclusive in the past, the photos submitted as an exclusive would still be selling at a higher price and generate more revenue.
Didn't know someone could do that. You mean old exclusive images, which aren't anymore are paid at a higher rate, even thought we could upload someplace else? And they stay as exclusive. I wouldn't have imagined that. No I was never an IS exclusive. JoAnn would know best... she was exclusive and changed.
Now the question becomes interesting. 
No, their tech isn't very sophisticated. If you were an exclusive and went indie, your existing files stay at three credits*, but you only get your indie rate on them. Your subsequent files go to one credit. If you were indie, and go exclusive, your old files sell for one credit, of which you get your exclusive percentage, and your new files will go on sale for three credits. *unless already demoted, of course, but they allegedly haven't done that for a few years.
1015
« on: June 29, 2019, 12:00 »
I get rid of that stupid town/ state/ country - date that you have to have on SS it leaves more room on Alamy for a bigger desription.
The Dateline is standard for news and reporting.
The OP wasn't talking about Live News.
The Date Taken is an auto-populated field on Alamy, I guess unless you have done something to change it or it's an old scan. No point in wasting characters, of which you only get 150 on repeating it. I assume that if the buyer specifies a date, the Date Taken field is what is used, as I have searches with [DT] and I very seldom put the year into my caption or keywords.
Alamy editorial stock is secondary editorial. Nowadays, there is no tickbox for 'unaltered' (I can only assume that wasn't something their editorial buyers were using much, if at all), so non-Live News doesn't have to follow the news editorial rules. In fact, they can be as altered as one chooses.
Yes I think in terms of events and news, which ethically should not be altered beyond some minor adjustments, color correction (not alterations), exposure, white balance, no cloning in or out, no additions or subtractions, or filters.
At any rate, all agencies accept the same and require location and date, a brief description in present tense.
Only 150 characters, wow, that's potentially limiting. Here's one of mine... on SS Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin USA, June 25 2017 : Verizon Indycar Series Driver Scott Dixon, during the Kohler Grand Prix. Fast formula car rounding a corner. I count 152 
I've slowed on Alamy of late but: https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/245438.html
Alamy file: Newton Iowa, USA - June 29, 2017: NASCAR Xfinity Series, American Ethanol E15 250 race. Presented by American Ethanol Iowa Speedway. Ryan Preece, Toyota. Victory circle celebration at Iowa Speedway Xfinity race.
192, where's the 150 character limit? I'm missing that? Is that new this year?
The 150 limit has been around for as long as I can remember, except for Live News (and, apparently, Reportage/archival files), which have a much larger limit. For ordinary stock files, it's easy to see in the Image Manager, where you can see how many characters your caption has vs the limit, so it could be 119/150 if your actual caption has 119 characters. If you run over the 150 (e.g. if you prepped your file in Bridge), the caption is truncated at 150, even in the middle of a word, but the whole caption as you wrote it is repeated in the 'additional information' (which, unlike the caption, isn't searchable). If you type your caption in directly in IM, you can't type a character 151. I can't find either file with selections from the captions you have above. For the first one (Scott Dixon) there are a few files, but none yours, under a search for "Scott Dixon, during the Kohler Grand Prix." If that is in your caption, it should be searchable. There are other hits, but not yours. (all by Justin R. Noe, via Zuma - all uploaded via the reportage/archive route, so have a longer caption) For the second, (Nascar Xfinity) I get 'No files found" Can you post the Alamy file numbers, please? (I'm very curious to discover why your captions has over 150 characters) Your first file as I see it on the page linked to above (Your portfolio) only has "ALMS Racing Road America 2008" as the caption. The next file's caption only says: "Formula BMW Americas Road America 2009"
1016
« on: June 28, 2019, 17:21 »
I remember that, but that really tells us nothing to make an educated business decision.
I think that, and the lack of information you alluded to above, tells us all we need to know.
1017
« on: June 28, 2019, 15:55 »
And who exactly are you?
From 2017 (I can't believe it's that long ago!): "My name is Mike and I am new to the community. I am a fan of photography and been involved with numerous art/photo tech projects in the past. Currently, I and my friend are thinking about creating a new peer-to-peer stock platform where artists will have the ability to sell images/videos directly to buyers with very low transaction fees (5-10%). We are doing research in the space and would really appreciate your feedback. Would you be kind to fill out the short survey below:"https://www.microstockgroup.com/selling-direct/peer-to-peer-direct-stock-selling-platform/msg499156/#msg499156
1018
« on: June 28, 2019, 15:34 »
True I also dont find it very sustainable for their business, theyll get really busy very fast unless they plan on using one of these automatic keywording tool which is terrible.
After looking at their website faq, it seems they dont do it for editorial, only for commercial photos. Contributors will have to do their own editorials.
I didn't look at their site: that's even less attractive, then, if that were possible.
1019
« on: June 28, 2019, 14:28 »
Nothing of interest of me.
I suspect you'll find this to be pretty much unsustainable on 15%, what with different keywording standards for the different agencies. I'm only on iS and Alamy and they're totally different: iS has its controlled vocabulary which doesn't apply elsewhere and takes up time on uploading; Alamy doesn't stem, so you have to make individual decisions on whether to stem or not on many keywords on virtually every file. Then on Alamy you optimally have to go back into the image manager after acceptance and 'manage' the files to indicate supertags, and it's probably best to complete the 'optional' fields too.
Even the standards for editorial are different on the two sites, the captioning has to follow a specific format on iS (maybe the same on SS, I don't know), what's allowed on Alamy isn't often allowed on iS (which isn't allowed to compete with Getty togs on news, sport or celebrities), Alamy is stricter on what needs releases so must be editorial, iS often needs 'permission' for certain editorial shots (even if in a public place).
A blanket approach wouldn't work for these two alone of the agencies you suggest, and presumably the others have quirks of their own.
Keywording: Again, you'll be doing a lot of research for your 15%, unless you just leave out things you're not sure of, which is hardly good practice.
Plus everything Jo Ann said.
1020
« on: June 27, 2019, 13:03 »
I get rid of that stupid town/ state/ country - date that you have to have on SS it leaves more room on Alamy for a bigger desription.
The Dateline is standard for news and reporting.
The OP wasn't talking about Live News. The Date Taken is an auto-populated field on Alamy, I guess unless you have done something to change it or it's an old scan. No point in wasting characters, of which you only get 150 on repeating it. I assume that if the buyer specifies a date, the Date Taken field is what is used, as I have searches with [DT] and I very seldom put the year into my caption or keywords. Alamy editorial stock is secondary editorial. Nowadays, there is no tickbox for 'unaltered' (I can only assume that wasn't something their editorial buyers were using much, if at all), so non-Live News doesn't have to follow the news editorial rules. In fact, they can be as altered as one chooses.
1021
« on: June 27, 2019, 07:04 »
Thanks Sue. I never had live news access even though I shoot live news.
You should apply, prices are much higher in general: and you get pinged out to appropriate newsdesks immediately. I am always amused how Alamy changes things, like what fields are searched, based on contributors using them inappropriately, which results is all the rest of us losing rights or access.
And every now and again someone rattles their cage and they send out bizarre emails. Examples I can remember: Getting a blanket email asking me to remove restrictions on my files as they were limiting sales, yet my restrictions were all due to 'by their rules' needing releases. (Even tiny pixel blobs which might be people need MRs and essentially every piece of property needs a PR, even stuff which the micros accept (architect dead for centuries). And even if you upload a blade of grass isolated on white, it shows up on the image page as 'no MR, no PR'. (That said, I haven't found any Alamy editorial sales being misused, which is pretty common on iS) Getting an email highlighting a particular image as being improperly designated for number of people visible. By their rules, it was correctly designated. Getting an email telling me to remove a URL link, and it wasn't even my file. (Conspiracy theorists among you, relax: they weren't persecuting me personally. On each occasion there was a rush of posts on their forum from people in the same situation.) We took the decision to remove automatic access to the news feed as this past yearwe've seen a dramatic increase of imagery that isn't suitable.
Yeah, so instead of just banning the people who caused the problem, Alamy chooses to throw out the baby with the bath water and ban almost everyone.
Yup, and it seems to be inconsistent and not according to their own criteria. E.g. an aquaintance had made several good Live News sales, even this year. He had the Live News facility removed. When he re-applied, he was refused, and no reason was given. Yet some people are still uploading stuff which in no way is Live News, but presumably because they have sold a lot of real LN, they are still doing so with impunity.
1022
« on: June 27, 2019, 06:27 »
Out of the agencies listed here alemy does have that tick box. You do see these cretited in media.quite often.
Alamy changed Live News recently and now they really only want people who are committing to seeking out and submitting sellable Live News on a very regular basis.
There is some thought that if you have Live News and submit it directly to their editors, your files may be looked on favourably, but I don't think that's been established.
You also have the option of submitting news as Reportage. The advantages are that reportage files go into general stock very quickly (immediately), and you get a much longer description field. The downside is that for ever afterwards there's a note on the file saying it might not be up to normal standards, even if it is; also Reportage files don't go into the Live News feed, or get pinged out to editors.
I'm not sure that Reportage is News. Not the way Alamy handles it. I've applied and they said, my content was news, not "reportage". But of course we speak different English across the pond? I could try to find the reply and information, it was last year.
Yebbut watch my lips: "Alamy changed Live News recently and now they really only want people who are committing to seeking out and submitting sellable Live News on a very regular basis."
In short, many people had their Live News upload facility closed. At first it was supposed to be if your Live News hadn't sold as Live News (not counting future general stock sales of these files), but in fact, some people (I know one personally) who had sold Live News files as such, had their uploading stopped, and weren't reinstated on appeal, no explanation given.
If people were never Live News submitters, they can apply with recent tear sheets of news files in use, but it seems to be taking a long time.
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/11370-live-news/?tab=comments#comment-206491
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/11585-how-to-successfully-apply-for-live-news-image-upload-service/?tab=comments#comment-210699
https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/11627-my-live-news/?tab=comments#comment-211466
About a week after they sent the emails out to people from whom they were removing the Live News upload facility, they sent a second email out to those who have had Live News images subsequently selling as stock to tell them they could now upload via the Reportage route. So although I had never applied to upload Reportage/Archive, these are now in black on my upload page, so I could do it if I wished, but my Live News is now greyed out.
Here's what I was looking for. I finally had some time to sit still and find the email from Alamy
Our archive and reportage upload route was created for content with historical value that otherwise would struggle to pass our quality control. A few examples of this are collections of scans from WW2, vintage poster designs or coverage of war zones like Syria where it is very difficult to avoid technical errors as camera shake etc.
So all though the work might be classified as reportage or editorial it might not fit our criteria for the upload route. Images uploaded through archive route will come with a warning about possible damage to quality for our customers, so its beneficial for the photographer to upload these images to stock if the quality allows them to do so.
The Stockimo app has a News function which you can use to upload directly from events, but this is only for images shot with camera phones. So if you mainly take your pictures with a DSLR then its better to upload you Live News content directly to our News team, or through stock if the content is older than 24 hours.
She called it the archive and reportage route and the question was, why do I keep getting rejected for reportage when I'm shooting newsworthy events?
Meanwhile you read the Alamy forum more than I do, and the programs have changed, yet again? Live news only on a regular basis? I think they don't know what they want sometimes. Oh but Stockimo for news, which is forbidden to discuss on the Alamy forum is what they do want... but there's no forum for that. LOL
Repeating, I shoot sports events throughout the Summer, and I was refused for Alamy "reportage" as they said, I was providing the wrong kind of content for that classification. At least that's the way I read it?
If you can make sense of the latest version of Alamy News, please try.
The links to the latest policy are above. However, if you didn't get the email rescinding your news access, and if your Live News Access hasn't been greyed out, you still have access to Live News, and it isn't an issue for you. The first email I got, on 4th April 2019, said: "This is just an email to let you know we are making some changes to the Live News feed. These changes will ensure our Live News clients receive the content they want, quickly and with all the relevant information needed to publish good news images.
From today, Thursday 4th April 2019, you will no longer be able to upload to the
Live News feed, however, the stock upload route will still be available without the
strict requirements of Live News.
If you wish to upload to the Live News feed, you can apply to do so but you'll need
to follow the official application
process<https://www.alamy.com/registration/news_upload_apply.aspx> under the
'Additional Revenue Options' section of your Contributor Dashboard."Then, on May 7th 2019: "This is just a quick email to follow up on the recent changes we've made to the
Alamy Live News Feed.
We took the decision to remove automatic access to the news feed as this past year
we've seen a dramatic increase of imagery that isn't suitable. Dealing with this is
taking up time that could be spent pushing the best pictures to our Live News
clients. You can still apply for access to the news feed under the 'additional
revenue options' section of your dashboard.
As you are someone who has uploaded news imagery that has later sold as secondary stock, we've given you access to the archive / reportage route which means you can upload similar work for secondary sales, but it won't be pinged to the news desks."The times they are a'changin'. I think it must be a struggle for agencies to know what's best. Only a very few years ago, iS used to tell exclusives to nominate heavily for 'plussing' images, because allegedly, "customers are asking for premium content and are prepared to pay for it"   and very shortly afterwards, it turned out that customers really wanted super-low prices. (No surprise there)
1023
« on: June 26, 2019, 07:37 »
There is no need to follow anyone else's rules for Alamy. However, I can't see how the way you're formatting your caption can have any possible adverse effect on sales. Alamy have a format for Live News, but that's not what you're talking about. You're talking about secondary editorial. Just describe what's in the image. Captions currently weigh higher than keywords, so make sure you have all the important terms in your caption as well as your keywords. Be aware that their system merges any word from the caption with any word from the keywords, even taking one word from a keyword phrase. As for sales - well, it can take up to six months for a sale to even be reported, so you might have had sales you don't know about. As guidance, I had over 800 files/8 months on Alamy before my first sale was reported, and that was over ten years ago, when the collection was a fraction of what it is now. To most of us (not counting Live News contributors), sales seem to be random, no way of predicting what will sell - it just seems to be what a buyer wants. Last month on Alamy was my best for a long time, this month looks like it will be my worst month for even longer. Ho-hum. Most people (in fact all that I've ever read) do better on the Micros than they do on Alamy with a similar port size. That includes me, and I have different files on iS (exclusive) and Alamy (RM). Last month was my only exception to that rule in nine years submitting to both (my port is now c10% bigger on Alamy). However, with micros on a general slide downwards, it's a useful extra pie to have a finger in. To head off a possible future question, sales prices are what the buyer has negotiated (based on quantity) and have nothing to do with the quality or rarity of the image (same as micros). The jury is out as to whether or not having images on micros and on Alamy is shooting yourself in the foot as far as Alamy sales are concerned. Alamy themselves "don't know". But you could think of it as 'covering all the bases'. If you haven't read it already, it might be useful to read: https://www.alamy.com/contributor/how-to-sell-images/captions-and-keywords-for-images/?section=8
1024
« on: June 25, 2019, 12:31 »
Thanks for the answer!
I tought the field wasn't important
I had only 2 ($12 an $45) sales
To increase the change of a sale, i gonna fill fields
Did you read a word Joe wrote? Fill in the fields by all means, but there's very little chance of that increasing your sales, unless you have releases and hadn't bothered to include that information. I guess it could also be that some editorial buyers might search on a specific number of people, but I've only ever seen WP (with people) and WOP (without people) indicated. Possibly at some time in the future categories might be utilised, but nothing is done with them at present.
1025
« on: June 24, 2019, 18:15 »
I've had a handful of Alamy sales netting me under a dollar, but the lowest (so far?) has been 66c. (Not NU, which I'm not in.)
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