I've had five so far today, and I don't read their forum.

I think there is a big demand for creative content ... there is a lot of people that just want a finished template, but it's rejected fairly often.  - Yuri Arcurs

Couldn't agree more, there's a huge misconception that the majority of buyers are designers who want design element images, most aren't and they want an image they can use 'straight out of the can'

I'm not sure I buy into this 'picture of model holding a release' jazz, and I don't plan to do it anytime soon.  I feel the new convention of a dated release with shoot description is plenty.  As I recall, no one took a photo of me signing my mortgage,  

Nobody says you have to it's just another option that would save a whole lot of hassle should you ever need to legally prove the model signed the release, in the case of your mortgage if you turned round at a later date and denied signing the form they'd just take your house back!

or any other legal document, ever.

Passport, drivers license, membership cards 

I don't have any hard numbers but both Fotolia and iStock who spoke on the Photoplus panel for 'Microstock: What We Learned in 2009' talked a bit about free images and how they were a BIG referral for them. 

Big referral for the sites absolutely, but for the contributor no evidence that I have seen to suggest it will increase your sales, in fact I've seen the exact opposite and even tried myself a couple of years ago on 123 and I saw no increase whatsoever in my revenue.

The sites are more than willing to give away our images because it costs them nothing, say for instance they give away 10,000 images and get maybe $100 back in increased sales, how much of that is the individual contributor going to see?

If giving away free images is such a good thing as the site owners suggest lets see them put their money where their mouth is and give away some images at the sites expense, i.e they give away the images but we still get our commission, shouldn't be a problem for them because of the big referrals they'll get from it 

Dreamstime latest offering will mean a number of your images that are selling on other sites will end up for free on DT, they should concentrate on selling those images not giving them away.

Unfortunately there are enough stupid people out there that will believe this hype.

Photographing the model holding the release is something that's been common practice for many years in macro stock, but the most important thing to remember is that you do it as a RAW file, and then keep a copy of that Raw file straight out of the camera, a Raw file is your digital negative and if you keep a copy that has not been converted should the worse happen you can produce it in court as irrefutable evidence (the court will assign someone to convert the file), you can't do that if you take the shot as a jpeg. You can change the file name to help you keep track of the releases as long as you don't open the file, for Canon shooters it'll mean you have a copy named for instance: JohnDoe_261009.CR2

It's always been my recommendation that every shot you do for stock is done in Raw and an original copy kept, but for some reason a lot of people only shoot jpeg, trust me when I tell you that if they ever had to go to court over any issue concerning an image they shot they'd be wishing they'd shot Raw!

Lisa on a side note you might want to check the compellability of a spouse in legal matters over in the US.

Here's the reply I've just got:

"Dear Richard,

Level Ground is open to accomplished photographers and artists looking to enter or expand in the microstock industry.
It has been designed to bring on board leading artists, with strong portfolios that will compliment Fotolia�s collection. Any online contributor looking to transfer images, can only do so from one site of their choice, as opposed to accumulating content from various sites. Enhancing our collection drives more consumers to our family of photographers, and as a result everyone benefits.
Level Ground is a limited time offer, requires interested contributors to apply, and is subject to Fotolia's discretion and approval.

Kind regards,

Fotolia Team U.K.
0208 816 72 84"

Which didn't answer my question and is more a 'statement' that has been made up as a blanket reply, it also doesn't fit in with their application form or the announcement whereby they specifically ask for all the sites potential contributors are on.
I'll await an official refusal from my application before contacting the OFT, there's been a huge issue in the UK about unequal treatment of suppliers by supermarkets and a brief look into the Competition act leads me to believe this might have similar undertones.
I don't want to leave Fotolia because I actually like the site but there is no way I am going to be paid less and be put further back in the search results than somebody new who's sold less than me, the last ranking fiasco was bad enough.

Quote from: RT on October 23, 2009, 06:03

Implementing things like this that are aimed to assist buyers is something that puts sites like DT in the big 6, rather than treat it with negativity and opinions of how it won't work maybe you should learn from what is making the site more successful than yours.

Frankly seems like your trying to bait me by a) not responding to what I wrote directly other than to imply I don't know what a mouse wheel is, b) implying a negative connotation when there is none, and c) slagging "my site".

You don't want to talk about UI's, that's fine, i'm outta here. 

No I'm not trying to bait you, a) you said "you still need to click and drag the vertical scroll bar" which you don't if you use a scroll wheel which I'd hazard a guess most people have on their mouse and probably use. b) You implied the negativity about Dreamstimes new feature in your first post by referring that you'd tried it and your opinion on that trial.

But I must be honest you do seem to come here and criticise other sites procedures, which IMO a) doesn't look professional for a site owner to give his opinion on another's business practice, b) carries no weight because to me it's a bit like a newbie contributor coming here and telling the top 5 contributors where they're going wrong and c) I didn't "slag" your site it's a fact that DT are more successful than your site.

.... but you still need to click and drag the vertical scroll

Treat yourself to a new mouse with a scroll wheel!


I think this is a great new feature, and very simple to use.

Under the new offering I like others here qualify for sapphire, I've written to Fotolia asking them if it's a simple process to be 'upped' to my qualifying rank or whether I need to delete my portfolio and start again. Let's see what response I get, I think I know what they'll say!

While I agree, the same discussion came up on Alamy. Search for "silo" and you won't just find farms. For some reason the word has become a slang version of isolated.

Photoshelter gathered a lot of information about the stock industry before starting their stock agency, but then they jumbled it all up and made a complete b*lls up before going bust, a lot of the info they put out was correct but not in the way they said it. 'silo' is a Corbis term for 'cut outs' but on Getty it is meaningless (except for farm buildings) whereas 'cut out' means what is does on every agency around the world including Corbis.

A lot of folk on Alamy unfortunately bought into the Photoshelter waffle which I imagine is why they added silo to their object shots, they then spent a fair amount of time bleating when Photoshelter failed.

'Solo' would make more sense wouldn't it? 

That chain and that key do not go together, if you want to do a shot of the key isolated then fine, add that chain and I hazard a pretty good guess you'll kill off any potential sales.

Too risky for a photographer from a business point of view, don't forget you have the agencies search algorithms to contend with!