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Messages - etudiante_rapide
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1076
« on: August 07, 2015, 17:52 »
CGI is more expensive than photography by quite a bit. It's much cheaper to hire a model to hold a baby than to create that same scene in 3D. Not to mention it will never look natural and you can differentiate it really easily. 3D renders have this stiffness/unaturalness about it and the moment you can make something close to realism, uncanny valley will rear it's ugly head.
I don't think 3D renders will ever replace photography.
i agree. it's like in the early 2k when they got the nerdy teens going crazy over computer generated girls over the real thing. i actually had a group of guys tell me they like them better than the girls they find on porn site LMAO. but eventually, they got over that like scarlett johanson guy in don john movie, the real thing is warmer LMAO. you cannot replace the real thing. photography and movies will still rule with real bodies 
1077
« on: August 07, 2015, 12:20 »
no surprise. a long time ago, some od chinaman wrote a big about how you run an army.
it said something like this...
you have problem with the army, you kill the generals.
you don't kill the soldiers.
you starve the soldiers, you lose the war.
or something like that in loss of translation due to mandarin book.
but more or less this is the base of many successful great modern business CEOs of big corporation.
ss failed this art of war lesson the moment they went public and listen to the shareholders.
they cut off their ricebowls as the chinamen call it. you do not cut off your ricebowl at any cost.
you cut off the heads of the generals, yes. but you never cut off the hands of the soldiers.
we are the soldiers. the fall of the shares reflect many months of the complaints by contrbutors.
investors are not stupid and do not read the ss forum.
the smart investors know the moment ss cut the hands of their little soldiers,
this is like pleasing the corrupt courtiers so they get rich quick but will cause the fall of the dynasty.
the emperor falls as long as the emperor does not follow the old rules of war.
ask any intelligent businessman and they will tell you the word of this old chinaman is not rubbish.
even the wisest of the millionaire in china like alibaba CEO etc all follow the words of
this old rule for running an army.
many businesses in my country who are not chinese (here speaks portuguese)
still follow the rules of ancient chinaman laotzu or what his name.
this is what happens when you listen to shareholders to cut off the hands of the soldiers
once they reach 38 cts a download and please the shareholders to placate those
who cheer when they reach payout once every 5 months.
1078
« on: August 06, 2015, 11:40 »
No doubt you are aware that many people are reporting slooooow sales so in way way the answer to your question is simply 'yes'. However, I fear it is likely to be a very long dead season.....
Shutterstock shares apparently down 30% virtually overnight, another key player deserting...
The remaining Big Bosses will seriously want to deter more shareholders from bailing - inevitably they will want to boost profits which is unlikely to help us......
but that's exactly what i said about shareholders quick money scheme with total disregard to the interest of shutterstock's long term existence. it has always been this way in the markets with speculators. they are not interested if whether the contributors who made shutterstock what it is today nor do they care if tomorrow shutterstock no longer exists. if Oringer falls for their demand to deter them from bailing out, he is a bigger fool that i give him credit for.
1079
« on: August 06, 2015, 10:44 »
I am becoming wary of new participants sporting encouraging user names and recounting glowing site reviews. This site will not be useful to the majority of contributors, if it is filled with users promoting sites.
no kidding gbalex. as i say, it's like those pyramid schemes , looks like ss is becoming one of those sending out the wooyay brigade ... slowly becoming a joke these days ss. 
1080
« on: August 06, 2015, 10:29 »
Defecting IS exclusives may be new contributors, however they are a talented bunch and with content that is every bit as good and in some cases better than content which was available on shutterstock. And many of them have large fully developed portfolios.
The difference was the price point shutterstock has to pay contributors for this content. Which images do you suppose the stockholders expected shutterstock to display?
fully developed maybe so... but buyers no doubt have already taken all they wanted with all you can eat sub. another thing re your insight remark of istock exclusive refugees to ss. that could well explain the conflict of interest mass rejection of existing older ss contributors. it used to be that way with istock when they used exclusives to review indies work. lots of garbage went through while the good works strangely got rejected with the strangest reasons... typical of what has been going on at ss. in short, istock ex-exclusive is at ss and ss is repeating istock attitude.
1081
« on: August 05, 2015, 16:14 »
disorderly , your trend may not be far off different from most of us. when you consider end of august is when the buyers come back from vacation. also peak in february is because the buyers not only come back to worth after the year end holidays, but also they receive the budget for the next year and buying begins. oct is when they too spend all they can within line of their budget .
all makes sense.
1082
« on: August 05, 2015, 15:57 »
You've exposed me. I am a SS community leader and my mission is to recruit new contributors by the millions so that our overlord, SS can meet the $104 Million revenue target for the 3rd quarter of 2015.
Our shareholders have not been happy with our linear growth. They want to see exponential growth and in order to do that, we must keep our portfolio fresh and in demand. This will ensure our sustainability and consistency as the market leader and crush all with our steel heel boots, especially the maker of Flash, which has cause more security problems than people can count.
As a SS community leader, I'm going to share what type of photos will be in demand for the next year...adorable rodents. If you have a lot of those in your portfolio, get ready for a killing in 2016. You're welcome!
been there and back with being community leader and all that. it's like those pyramid schemes where they hire cheerleaders to come on at recruitment gatherings to say " wee wee yay ya i was broke, had to foreclose my house until i join xxx . now i bring in enough to not only buy a new house twice as big as the one i foreclosed with cash, bla bla bla". as for shareholders flat line... the only flat line you will see is after the same shareholders cause ss to flatline when they take profit just before ss do a sky dive. don't be too happy about listening to shareholders because they won't be holding your company's share very long. it is not to their interest if shutterstock loses all their top contributors because they really don't care what happens to shutterstock in the next decade.
even that is thinking too long term for these shareholders because they do not intend to be there
for shutterstock.
1083
« on: August 05, 2015, 14:37 »
is your old corvette or your old les paul PAF guitar obsolete  are masters of guitar music and people who know about hot rods and sportscar throwing away those old cars??? the same thing will happen to digital media. are those ppl throwing their vinyls for cds dvds only the ppl who believe in latest is best with the most bells and whistles are going to keep trading in their cameras for the next years' model. maybe just maybe the ones with 40mb with the stock zoom lenses that came with the camera will downsize to 50% while the same old ppl with xx mb using prime lens or zoom of superior glass will just submit their work as is. i think the argument is like someone telling me her mobile is twice as good as my camera because it shoot videos and photos at twice my camera MP. i don't know about all those technicalities. it was the same thing in the 60s when they told us all those things about hi-fi and all those numbers, while the honest salesman told me it's just to get you to spend your money. you decide. but naturally, with the latest, biggest, best-est... you look more professional 
1084
« on: August 05, 2015, 12:02 »
What is decent money? $50/mo? $200/mo? $500/mo? $1000/mo? The last one is a huge challenge for anyone, but $500/mo is very attainable with the right portfolio.
Which is exactly why so many people have said if your expectations are to pay for your gear and have some pocket money, it's not too late, but if you want to quit your day job and support yourself, then yes, it is too late.
Depends on where you live. With U$ 1000/month I can travel endlessly in the countries I like the most.
If you live in US/Northern Europe/Australia/Japan micro is a complete waste of time now.
It provides me 20-50% more than a minimum wage in US. Not enough for a decent living, but it is a nice bonus by any standards. Especially since it only involves some weekend work.
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
i think that just sums it all up. we are not being sarcastic or anything towards hongover etc although it may sound harsh. but the fact is not the problem with you and me and all contributors old and new. it's like when global economy took over and greedy politicians back boiler room businesses with subsidies to their quick turnover of employees. all just to fill the pockets of these businesses who got rich off the backs of taxpayers before they close down their HO in countries like USA, Canada,Uk,etc to move to India, etc. ss is no different. they no longer care if 1k is crumbs for someone living in USA or UK, they can pay out 75 bucks to someone in some 3rd world country where 75 bucks buys alot more . it's not rocket science to make snapshots for microstock. you don't even have to have photography 101. many of the "masters" of microstock were no better than the newbies coming in today. and if you ask the shareholders , they really don't give NFA whether contributors who made ss what they are today are now pissedoff with their attitude . they see the bottom line and they will prefer someone who will cheer with getting a mere 75 bucks a month than someone who expect to continue to get even 40 K p.a. like they say with bandboys too, clubs will hire bands who think getting a case of beer is great when we were kids, we got paid 400 bucks a night. microstock is no different. who cares if the kids today don't play anything like they do in the 60s??? no one cares when they think lady gaga is incredible. microstock is no different
1085
« on: August 05, 2015, 09:48 »
as i agree mostly with digital66 and michealjay about saschadueser portfolio i don't really agree on the fact that RM agencies sells only high quality pictures....you can find an enorumous amount of TERRIBLE/crappy pictures even on corbis,getty, and what else....
this is just to say that maybe, after the reaching the minimum decent level of photography knowledge, the next step (for the market) is not to improve your level but to organize your work properly in order to present it to these agencies
+100 best examples are those celebrity images where the photographs make even the best looking women look like (dogs). even a photography 101 attendant could have taken a better photograph... except they were unable to stand in that box called "credential photographers" or whatever bs.
1086
« on: August 04, 2015, 21:50 »
"If the image is amazing, and you keyword it correctly, people will find it. It takes time, but it will start to move up the charts with enough consistent downloads."
So much you have learned from your seven months at one agency.
You have to learn fast if you're going to succeed in this crazy environment known as Microstock. 
And I'm on 4 agencies (SS, 123, FT, and DT) now, soon to be 5.
way to go hongover, you tell this newbie who calls himself sean locke photography seriously, we have to give you some credit for your expertise and optimism, hongover. you sound so much like those experts who reveal their great secrets of "how i slept with every one i meet... and you can do it too"
1087
« on: August 04, 2015, 13:00 »
Out of the million image submissions a week to SS I wonder how many are resubmissions and how many of those get approved on second or third submission? Reality is probably more like 600,000 original submissions per week, of which 300,000 are first time acceptances. All the other numbers involved are resubmissions.
SS want to cut cost? Remove the poor reviewing and reduce having to pay for the same image again more than once.
+one Million
in a utopia of exemplary corporation, maybe. but in cut throat businesses where the shareholders are not holding your shares forever like you hold on to bluechip , the only interest is quick buck. they don't care if tomorrow there is no shutterstock. also, when accounting for dollars, they never ask why little minions like reviewers are double dipping. it's like politics, they kill the bigger fish because the noise is louder. cut cost on contributor eg flip the switch on 38 cents earners, and give the crumb earners the sales. anyone care to make a little graph on how much the shareholders want to see who get the shaft . just take a million images and multiply that by what? 6 cents? also, remove the large earners we used to get eg 20 to 120 dollar SD. multiply that too and what you get. shafting contributors who made shutterstock please the shareholders more than saying we will fire one, two, even ten renegade reviewers who came out of atilla womb. what is that in dollars? minions... not millions.
1088
« on: August 03, 2015, 12:22 »
I'm sure that gets discussed. Then the R&D guy gets up in front of the mike and talks about how "AI" will be more accurate than humans, in the very near future, they're already working on it, can't tell you more today but stay tuned, etc. Then his budget gets approved.
+10. nothing's changed. in the 80s, we had those experts coming in to tell the company how they can save by laying off mid management , replace them with the minimum wage assistance . hint, just get the mid-mgt ppl to make a job-description so give step-by-step instruction of their projects. when that was done, a month later, all mid-mgt was laid-off and the company boasted stellar increase in profit. thanks to the experts. next thing we knew, the company closed down . in the 90s, same thing. different companies, same expert sent in. they replaced the ppl who made the company . the same ppl who implemented the programs, the winning of the contracts of the stellar companies at that time . replaced them with numbers ppl . new boss comes in and called us "you people... instead of our names". then, before we know it, they closed the headoffice and moved to some place where like it is now with india, etc. the experts are still in business. only the corporations they advised from 80s , 90s, 2K... are no longer in existence.
1089
« on: August 02, 2015, 15:03 »
I still go back to the "is it worth it to you" question. Even with stuff laying on your hard drive you still need to select, edit, add IPTC data, submit, get rejections, resubmit, and then actually make a sale. If you have two people working 40 hours a month one may make enough to buy a cup of coffee while the other can make a house payment. If I was the cup of coffee person no way would it be worth it regardless of how much of a hobby it was. If it covered my mortgage it would be absolutely worth it. I just wonder what percentage of micro people are coffee vs mortgage for that 40 hour a month scenario.
+10 Paulie. i still remember lisafx always saying things like good thing my hubby has a fulltime job so i can do microstock. we don't know if she is still doing it as i hear she left us a long time ago due to her standing up against some nasty character assasin . shame because i like to know what lisafx thinks of micro today
As I recall it was treatment over her decisions in regard to DPC. She was treated in a less than respectful way in this thread & PM. I was really sorry to see her go.
http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/fotolia-d-day-%28deactivation-day%29-may-1/msg379076/#msg379076
hmm, really??? off topic i know, but , i would like to see lisafx back here and her participation was always beneficial to msg-ers. otoh, i can think of at least 3 ppl still around who should have been taken out instead of lisafx and in terms of constructive comments provided us by lisafx, i think at least 50% of the comments made these days are either just coming in to be sarcastic with no useful comments (eg ...ok???) totally redundant compared to what lisafx gave us.
1090
« on: August 01, 2015, 23:48 »
The thing to keep in mind is that reviewing by skilled humans is a huge expense for SS and a very large and obvious target for cost reduction. And cost reduction is what they need, to increase profits in the short term and quiet those howling first-round investors.
They probably have big stockholders standing up in meetings and asking "why can't we automate this, or just send it all to China? I don't see why that would be so difficult". Those sorts of know-nothing questions are hard to answer, because the answers aren't simple. But that's what you're up against in a public corporation.
that is the most realistic account explaining why since ss went public they behave like some bolier-room telemarketing company. yes, it is not uncommon for a public company to fawn to a big shareholder. we know of even banks and other companies outsourcing to India after sending their top team leads to India to train the new office; send them back to North Am and then fire them the next day . then a week later announce the head office in California,etc is closed, taking away with them all the subsidies they got from the city and state leaving an empty business. in another case, we also know of a big shareholder insisting his chimp of a son becoming manager of the branch without any objections from the rest, laying off an experienced manager who was worth the wages she was paid. the son of the main stockholder was paid a 3rd of the wage. he had no qualification whatsoever. yes, money talks.
1091
« on: July 31, 2015, 18:20 »
I still go back to the "is it worth it to you" question. Even with stuff laying on your hard drive you still need to select, edit, add IPTC data, submit, get rejections, resubmit, and then actually make a sale. If you have two people working 40 hours a month one may make enough to buy a cup of coffee while the other can make a house payment. If I was the cup of coffee person no way would it be worth it regardless of how much of a hobby it was. If it covered my mortgage it would be absolutely worth it. I just wonder what percentage of micro people are coffee vs mortgage for that 40 hour a month scenario.
+10 Paulie. i still remember lisafx always saying things like good thing my hubby has a fulltime job so i can do microstock. we don't know if she is still doing it as i hear she left us a long time ago due to her standing up against some nasty character assasin . shame because i like to know what lisafx thinks of micro today
1092
« on: July 31, 2015, 18:15 »
If the software causes rejections, why do I send back the same photos in a week and they pass, with no change. The theory is flawed but useful for somebody looking for something to blame or find some conspiracy. My answer is much simpler. The reviewers are incompetent, and pressed to make numbers. SS doesn't care because they have 1 million new photos a week to be reviewed.
+10 last statement . reviewers are incompetent. correction, SOME reviewers . i say it's some reviewers who are using their own software to earn money recklessly , or having their chimp or children do his/her job to review the images. ss can easily find out who is incompetent and not doing a proper job of reviewing but getting IT to identify who is giving out mass of rejections with wrong WB, focus is not where we think it should be,etc.. but again, your other statement is right on the button... they don't care because they have 1 million weekly . the only people who care are the legitimate reviewers who is getting blamed as a whole . i guess these good reviewers are getting far and few as i am sure they've gone to other agencies already along with their managers like Scott.
1093
« on: July 30, 2015, 21:10 »
it's better you write in korean or mandarin if that is your native language.
1094
« on: July 30, 2015, 19:07 »
the key to it is keep your cost down close to zero. then what you make from microstock will be money to pay for your equipment , service charges for ISP ... you can consider it as opposed to just making pictures that will sit at home collecting dust anyway. if that is the case, then it is not too late for microstock. just don't give up your office job like some of the vets here 10 years ago. it will be a cold day in hell for anyone entering microstock to replace that income. even ss, as they keep flipping the switch as soon as you reach payout or 38 cents. that never happened before. ss used to be upright and transparent. today, not
1095
« on: July 30, 2015, 18:51 »
According to SS TOS any changes to your account must be made before the end of the month to be paid in the following month. Now that your account (card?) is activated you should receive your funds during the August payment cycle. SS only pay everyone once per month, if you miss that date you wait until next month.
I know that is disappointing but that is the way it works.
SS is 100% reliable IF your payment account is setup properly. If not then it takes time to correct issues.
Have you gotten past payments properly?
i think the delay may be the same problem with NSF ,wrong email address to paypal, etc there is the procedure of recovering the money sent to the wrong place. it's not just simply saying OK, we will send it to the right place now. the accounting may be the holdup. ss may be charged for certain service fee for sending it to an empty account. just my guess. which is why you get those warnings in paypal, bank transfer, etc to be sure the info is accurate . nothing is free for making mistakes.
1096
« on: July 30, 2015, 18:10 »
"i have to laugh at this . in what business is this you say where the most once reputable agency hire reviewers who cannot understand that it is impossible to have WB during sunset sunrise or in sodium vapour lighting etc. the light is not white during those times."
That's not really what white balance means.
maybe in the procedure of translation from portguese to english, i misphrased the intention of my statement what i wanted to say is unless you are prone to doomsdom of producing same old same old studio white flash lighting which are the mainstay of microstock, you are going to be facing a bunch of stuck in the mud mentality of reviewers who would reject anything that does not look white like you get with flash or peak hour sunlight. we already see how some oldtimers complain of their images shot during certain hours or mixed lighting being rejected for wrong WB. i know what what wb is, i just don't think there is anything other than white boring studio white be it bluish cool or orange warm that is considered acceptable wb. bluish cool orange white is still not absolute white. wb is a hyperbole.
1097
« on: July 30, 2015, 13:36 »
1098
« on: July 30, 2015, 13:26 »
From what I see your better versions are on Shutterstock. That's just opinion but those aren't the kinds of images I was saying belong at higher priced sites, they are good just not unique enough especially when you have very very similar ones on microstock sites. And you're selling the ones on Getty as RF, I'm thinking more about RM with a much higher royalty rate or somewhere like Stocksy, also with a much higher royalty rate.
sorry if quote the wrong person. but who said my red quotes is indeed very right. we have to realise rm and rf are 2 different kinds of animals. micro is all about volume, cheap to zero cost productions earning pennies to the odd super large 108 bucks SD. rm don't sell often but when they do they make up for the lack of daily ( fries and baby burgers sold a million a day at the big M little s's... is and ss if we look for options, perharps here is the option to leave ss as they are with our old port intact. and just make rm images that belong at higher priced sites, unique enough . the energy wasted on waiting for ss to become accountable and responsible like they were pre-going public will be put to more productive use going for such a change in workflow. i will take what you say as my new course today... even though it was not directed at all of us here. but stocksy is not an option either. it has no history (yet) and does no rm (do they?) well said tickstock
1099
« on: July 29, 2015, 13:19 »
ss can be questionable in reviewers conflict, search, lack of transparency these past year,etc..
but one thing i am sure of is they always pay us on time.
i repeat, never ever did they not pay me.
at times, they may miss the zero first day after reaching payout, but they never miss a payment.
if they did, it is something wrong on either side. yes, you won't get any other answer here
from us on this issue.
go back to ss site, in your portfolio page, fill us the CONTACT US sheet
1100
« on: July 28, 2015, 10:18 »
? are u referring to the payout being reached? if so, reaching payout and beyond at the end of the month is good. the killer switch comes on late. it's only when you reach payout in the first week, which i usually do, that you don't want to say anything, because from then onwards your portfolio suddenly falls off the cliff and no one seems to be able to find it... and then the zero days become mysteriously common. (conspiracy??? what conspiracy??? everything is lovely for me. the sky only falls after i reach payout... no crisis whatsoever, i am so much a happy camper!!! 
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