As a matter of interest eendicot, can I ask why you have decided to upload to only DT and no other agency?

Your 'starry night' is excellent BTW.

Marco I couldn't diagree with your statement more.  Exclusives are THE profit centre for iStock, and for any other agency that chooses to run an exclusive contract.  In any business 80% of the profits are generated by 20% of the customers etc etc.  The exclusives give a constant supply of high quality unique images, highly saleable and commercial.  In stark contrast the non-exclusives are made up of thousands of weekend and holiday snappers many of whom bombard the agency with images that get examined and rejected.  Think of the cost of examining and rejecting all those hundreds of thousands of images.  That's money down the toilet.  That doesn't happen with exclusives.  Many of the exclusives run their stock as a business; they provide the best and only the best, generally speaking.

The thing that sets iStock apart from the rest is its exclusives.  THEY give it unique images to market and sell and do special deals NOT the non exclusives.

And another point: how many high quality exclusive type photographers are there in the world?  Fewer than some people think I reckon.  There will be a battle to get the exclusives and it wouldn't surprise me at all if in a year or two an agency like iStock closes its doors to anyone who is NOT exclusive.

No - its the exclusives (generally speaking) that drive the profits and the marketing.  Its the OTHERS that are not profitable.

Just my opinion.

Well, that's an education....

Glad to learn new stuff here.

Well, ever since I started looking at this microstock business a few months ago I have believed that prices and commissions would rise over the next two or three years.  The days of the 25c are numbered.  It is just a question of time.

Two comments in SS's release above are important.  One suggests that they are raising prices (and hence commissions) in order to continue to attract the best images.  That suggests a commission increase is indeed on the cards.

The other remark is their 'supply of fresh images in each search'.  This ties in with observations made on this board that once images stop being 'fresh' their sales die away.

Unlikely.  I have been having difficulty working out exactly how SS makes a profit.

Think about it:  a monthly subscription costs $159 for a maximum of 750 downloads.  If each of those downloads pays a commission of 25c, the COST to SS is (750 x 25c = 187.5).

Unless I am overlooking something.......

So perhaps it has been operating as a loss leader, and now it has a library it can increase subscription rates to generate its profit.

Unlikely that contributors will get more.....

Two or three days should be about right at the moment.

Inspections and approvals take six to seven days.  They are very fussy in some areas but more flexible in others.  In my first 70 uploads I have had only 2 rejections, but on the other hand I am a fanatic......

Interestingly, same 70 uploads to SS also only got 2 rejections......

None of the above.  Technically perfect isolated shots need to have the background at RGB 255.

I don't do isolations, but I suggest you use your favourite metering method and adjust the distance of the lights in order to get the background at the right level (using the histogram should help).

Trial and error I reckon. 

I agree with sim's comments.  Also, note that StockXpert doesn't want anything related to travel.  They seem to want to focus on business and food (just my opinion).

BTW Dave, I'm about a kilometre from you, in Roma Street Parklands.  If you fancy a coffee one day, send me a mail at [email protected]

You probably know that we also have hidesy here (in Clayfield).

David F (another David in Brisbane)

A tracking spreadsheet is a relatively simple thing to create.  You can do it yourself in less than half an hour.

I have a spreadsheet which I update weekly.  It includes number of images, number of downloads, total income, average income per download, rolling ten week averages of all of the above, percentage increase in sales and income each week, rolling ten week average of income increases etc etc.

Only takes ten minutes or so to update it each week.  The major numbers are then converted into bar charts.

Yes, sharply, I think I am already aware of that.  Tom's advice to stagger uploads to a regular daily flow looks sound.

Yes, it's about time someone came up with an improvement on jpeg.

RAW is fine, but in today's world there is no reason why we can't have a simpler, higher quality format with smaller files and greater manipulation ability.

Yes, I noticed that.  Lots of grey in the backgrounds too.

Buy another flash unit simply to light the background.  A cheap one will do.