Quote from: KiwiRob on September 10, 2007, 12:02
I wonder if she would make more buy spreading her work around to other sites as well; I think she would, what do others think?

Well I am not sure, I am to the point now that iStock makes more than all other agencies combined. So I would be at diamond level (which I am not) it would be worth for me to go exclusive.

Also if you have the portfolio of her size its nice to have the security of iStock (all illegal use will be prosecuted).

Also it is much less work to upload to just one agency.

my 2cents

to sbonk:

I think what they mean is that no display can snow more that 8bit (as far as I know) so there is no point of doing it.
But printers can take advantage of 16bit so their answer is kind of weird.

Sorry, I am probably not much help.

This is mostly to Francisco (but applies to everyone else who is thinking the same).

I was misunderstood and I am sorry (I should have been more clear).

What I meant by "serious work" is serious microstock.
I plan on using my current setup (20D) for pictures I planned to take (e.g. setup shoots, nice well composed landscapes,...)

And I plan to use the A570IS (compact) for times when I don't have the 20D on me and I happen to take an interesting picture (e.g. I am commuting and I take a picture of something that I wouldn't anticipate)

So I would imagine that 95% of my picture for microstock would be still taken with the 20D and the 5% will be these "chance pictures".

I use it and I like it a lot. Sometimes it is really hard to get normally looking results but sometimes it works very nicely.

It is a stand alone application.

I use instead of split neutral density filter in landscapes where the sky is much brighter than the land.

Here is an example:
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=3725439

If I remember correctly I took 3 RAW exposures from a tripod (so they will be aligned) and then processed the RAWs in photoshop (so they have the same WB,...). Then I took the jpegs and made one HDR image in photomatix.
It is a lot of work but for this particular image it was worth it since it is my current fastest seller (I uploaded just in time for the pre-autumn sale of autumn pictures).

I have the latest version of photoshop. Is there a setting that is favorable for resizing pictures from a point & shoot (i.e. oversharpened pictures)?

I am open to all comments. Anyway, when I get it I will try to process some pictures and try to get them accepted to see how much you can push the agencies.

Hey,

I just ordered the Canon Powershot A570IS and I am planning to use it as a everyday camera and probably occasionally use some of the photos for microstock.

So my plan is to take the 7Mpix photos and resize them to 4Mpix (or even less for iStock) to get rid of the noise. What is the best software to resize images to achieve good (noise-free/less) results for microstock?

Do you think that the results would be decent? I have the 20D with very good glass for serious work so if you think that it will look cr@p don't hesitate and let me know (I can take the truth).

69%

I am surprized that some of you (which I consider to be lot better photographers) have lower acceptance rate than me.

And I totally upload everything I have to iStock (since I hit the upload limit only couple of times in a year I have been doing this).

I am in the oposite situation. Today is the 25th and I am one download from having a BME (best month ever).

I have: 214 files, 620 downloads, have been on iStock for 1 year.

The funny thing is that beginning of this month was dreadful but the middle was fantastic and it made up for it.

I hope you downloads pick up.

P.S. Still not enough to go exclusive by any means:)

OK, I filled up the NON-exclusive questionnaire.

My biggest reason for not going exclusive is that rejected images get absolutely no chance of selling. I just had a sale at BS (they accept 97% of my pics) of a picture that got rejected from the big players for various reasons.

Can anybody tell me who is Ron and where I can find his portfolio? I am just curious what you guys are talking about.

I checked the startup folder and I didn't have adobe gamma running. Any other suggestions?

I also have a general question about ICC profiles:
When you make a profile with a spyder, does Windows load it at startup and uses it for every application.

The main reason why I got the spyder is that images is Photoshop look lot different than in ACDsee.
My guess is that PS CS uses ICC profiles but ACDsee is not capable of using ICC profiles.

So my questions is: When windows loads a profile globally and then you run a application that is not capable of using profile (ACDsee v5.0), is the profile used or not?

Thanks everybody.

I just got the Spyder2Pro and I am trying to calibrate my Dell E1505 laptop with SXGA+ screen (1680x1050 resolution and glossy screen).

I did the calibration 3 times and every time I get pretty heavy color cast and the result is definitely worse than pre-calibration.

Has anybody have the same problem and how did you solve it.

I read somewhere that some laptop screens can not be calibrated, is this true?

about the medium sale for 84c:

If you buy a lot of credits you get a better deal on the credits.

Here is the link:
http://www.istockphoto.com/istock_credit_offer.php?

So somebody bought 115 credits for $120 and used those to buy GeoPappas's photo. So:
$120/115credits = $1.0434 per credit.
4credits = $4.1739 and you get 20% so 83.47 cents (I guess they round up).

That's my understanding of the new pricing. Anyway, we are getting more $$$ and that makes me HAPPY

My numbers (~150 pics, started in July 2006):

SS   45.7%
IS    31.3%
DT   12.3%
FT    8.6%
BS    2%   (joined couple of months ago)
FP    0%   (joined couple of months ago)

I am sure most of you are aware of your numerical rank (all-time and last 7 days). I am talking about the number, not white, bronze,...

Is the whole list available anywhere on the web site?

I don't see any practical use of this except bragging rights:)

I have 48 sales and my rank is 2658 (all-time). I would like to know roughly now many you need to be in top 2000, top 1000, top 100 at this time (obviously this changes all the time).


(I like to brag to my friends:)

Little off this topic. Phil, I remember that you once said (few months ago) that iStock was your best earner. Did you ever consider going exclusive with iStock? I know that you are not happy with them right now because of the lowered upload limit but if you would go exclusive you could upload all you want.
Also, is the Getty offer appealing to you at all?

Quote from: phildate on December 07, 2006, 17:21
Haha, I thought that would raise some eyebrows! Actually it's true, I've just uploaded five images to Fotolia and they are going to be exclusive there. I have set the max prices for sales and $1000 for exclusive buyout so we will have to see how the sales go.

I have had an amazingly busy November, with not much time to shoot or think about stock so apologies for the absence on the forum. Thanks to everyone who continues to compliment me in other threads!!

Hi,

I signed up with them about two weeks ago and I was facing the same question. I priced all my pictures at $5 and I allowed smaller resolutions. I don't think that it is a good idea to offer just max resolutions because all the other web sites that I submit to offer that. And I think it's nice for the customer to decide how big of a picture they need.

Anyway, I haven't had a sale yet and from what I have heard they are not a great seller so your pricing probably won't have very big impact anyway.

I also set my extended licenses to maximum because I think if somebody really needs an extended license they don't mind paying $20 instead of $10.

I started submitting right after the increase in commission and I had two sales in first few days with 12 pictures. Since then I added bunch of pictures (I think I have about 80 now) and I haven't had a sale in about 7 days. I will keep submitting since it is very little extra work since I submit to many sites and I have all the keywords embedded in the files.

I am hoping to make about $100 in a year from BigStock

Hi,

I just got my first extended license today at iStock and I got $30 out of it. That means that the buyer paid $150 for the license, which surprises me since it is pretty mediocre picture.

The funny thing is that I have the same photo at Fotolia and he could have had an extended license there for $10.
I didn't really think about extended licenses much before but today got me thinking (I have had extended license sale on FT before which gave me $3.3 each).

So here are the questions:
Since I make a lot more money at iStock from extended license should I cancel the option of extended license at other web sites so customers go to iStock and I get a big payout?

Why did the guy pay $150 for the photo at iStock if he could have got it at FT for $10? (laziness to search around or the license is better at iStock)?

Are you offering extended licenses at all web sites?

Thanks,

Matej

The list of diamond members can be found here:
http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=91126 and click under blog of that member.

I have had downloads for past 18 days (including weekends) and I have only 63 pics on-line. It has been little slower lately but I haven't uploaded much either. I only joined about a moth ago.

What type of images do you have. I have mostly travel, no model released yet.