It is best to know how separate parts of the photographic system works.

Lens contrast: it's the quality of the glass, it's transparency. Less transparent lenses produce low contrast and washed colors.

Lens precision: it's the ability to reproduce the image clearly. Very precise lenses reproduce sharp images, even at the border.

High pixel count in camera produces more noise since less photons fall on a smaller surface (the discrete pixel's surface). But the noise appears at pixel level, this means more fine noise, in this case stronger noise filtering can be applied while the actual image details are less affected.

Basically the best camera system is one with the highest megapixel count as possible and the best mechanically executed lens with the most transparent glass.
Disadvantages are high storage capacity needs and stronger computers to process the images.

Quote from: Perry on December 26, 2009, 17:14
You should have shot this earlier, with more natural ambient lighting.

As we know, the rule says so.
But there is no such rule. This is a photo taken nighttime when the sky is black. An another kind of photo is when the sky is dark blue.
It can be better from some points of view but as we know the buyers, somebody may need a dark photo, regardless how night shoots must be taken.

I see, it's a good feature for most of you however for me it's still annoying since most of the times I have to go back to the previous page to see what others have said before the last post.

@admin:
Can we have a simple checkbox which cleared removes the "topicseen#new" from the address? I consider the default value "checked" so for everybody the change will be transparent.
Thank you!

I'm wondering, for how many people is useful the topicseen#new in the address since this causes a jump to the end of the topic and it's still annoying to me. Except frequently visited threads, the jump is always followed with a navigation to the first page and first post to see what they talk about. Also the jump is made incorrectly (somewhere in the middle of the page) when page elements are downloading but not fully downloaded.
A switch "Don't jump to the end of the topic" would be very useful at the options.

I was very interested in slow motion video so I asked for price for a HD camera. Basically from $180.000 I can buy 2 things: a big mac and the slomo gear
$111.000 the camera, $40.000 the memory bank, and $30.000 the other stuff, lenses not included (f-mount)
So I decided to wait a little bit for the prices to go down. Seriously. With the current technology advance, prices must go down to $25-50k. Standard definition cameras are far cheap but the future's standard is HD, no question about.

I used the Total Commander's built-in ftp but after having more issues with the staying at 100% uploaded forever, I changed to Filezilla. I'm just saying this because at the Toatlcmd forums the author said, he will not find and correct the bug, use an another ftp client, anyway, ftp it's not the main feature of totalcmd. Very unprofessional way of thinking.

I don't know how it's made, but filezilla uploads with 120kbytes/sec while other clients were uploading with 20kbytes/sec. Very nice.

Sometimes I'm using the Windows Explorer window to upload something. It's always there and available, but needs smooth internet connection since it's the simplest that can exist.

Yes, categories are complete waste of time.
However, an acceptable category system exists at SS, it's simple and quick, 95% of my images fit into one or another topic.
Categories like People, Food&Drink  or Objects are probably full, browsing them is useless, while cat. like Transportation contain several thousand images.

I was wondering many times about the "Technology" category at the agencies since this category contains almost only computer-related terms. Even at iStock.
Since drilling a hole in wood, or making gears is also technology, the term itself covers many more concepts.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technology

Quote from: lisafx on September 14, 2009, 22:06
Unfortunately, right now there is not the sales volume there to support submitting exclusive images.

Well said!

From the rules
"... Contributor agrees not to sell images assigned to custom or premium pricing, on other websites or sales channels for less than you sell them for here..."

This has no sense unless the photo is exclusive to BigStock. Also other agencies may modify the price without notifying me.
So it's a useless feature (for non-exclusives)?

Quote from: PowerDroid on September 08, 2009, 18:28
I think this type of thinking leads into the "feed the beast" mentality, which is a negative one for microstock... contributors, buyers, even the agencies.

Which kind of thinking?

If you refer to the "uploads=increase in sales" this also isn't a way of thinking, it's a fact.

Quote from: Allsa on September 07, 2009, 23:02
Subs are bringing down my earnings on all sites. It's reached the point where if it were not for the waste of rejections, I'd seriously consider iStock exclusivity. Up until the epidemic of subscriptions, I never imagined I'd say that...

Together with . of rejections and nearly only subscriptions you will earn always more as non-exclusive than exclusive at IS. You will depend only on one agency. There is also subscription on IS. So what will change?

I have more and more subscription sales at all agencies, and I'm thinking, what can be worse...

So, ladies and gentlemen, I think, today we are living in the Golden Era of Microstock Photography since there are many more per-photo sales. Compared to the future when we, the rich photographers, we will pay for our images to be downloaded and at the end of the day wins who paid more.

Seriously, with the today's technology and equipment availability virtually everybody can be a photographer. Forget the old days when only composition and message was important via the photo, today it's very important also the volume what this army of photographers produce. Volume production needs volume selling.

But the theory remains the same: it has value what is rare.

Quote from: gaja on September 07, 2009, 07:55
Hope they manage to get a decent pile of money out of Disney.

Very good! They have money, considering the unusually high license fees for using their characters.
Let's see from the other side. What if the lamp factory starts to use Mickey Mouse as a lamp in 1937, named Mickey Mouse Lamp and today Disney discovers this? That would be a sad story for the factory...

Edit: Also I like the idea, the factory can only win, stating they are selling the "original" Pixar lamp, nothing more. In return, name the lamp "Pixar Luxo L-1". Both sides equal.

Quote from: sgcallaway1994 on September 05, 2009, 06:11
1. I'm curious if at Shutterstock old images continue to sell -or- is it just the newer ones? 
2. Does anyone know how the search engine works there? 
3. If a picture has lots of downloads will it be positioned higher in the search engine or favored over images with less downloads?

1. Old images do sell, but not all of them, only the successful ones. Some of my old images have constant flow of downloads/month.
2. Yes. (Personally I don't know how. But the signs show that if I upload, my downloads do increase. Probably the engine takes in consideration the activity around my account = downloads from my portf., new additions into my portf.)
3. Speculatively thinking - yes. The agency is also interested to sell images so very probably they position first anybody's successful material.

Quote from: Adeptris on September 06, 2009, 22:23
Both have two people so should require two releases.

It doesn't matter how many people contains an image, only recognizable faces, tattoo or any person-specific sign(s) do matter.

Subjective reviews, maybe the two images were reviewed by 2 different editors.
Both images require 1 model release.
Annoying, but DT support will solve your problem for sure.

I just decided to buy the 300mm f/4 L IS USM lens. A friend of mine has and last week I had the chance to try this wonderful piece. I have 5dmkII.
Here is the pro list:
- IS. This counts really much. At the test I took pictures at 1/200 and a few at 1/320. 75% of the images perfectly sharp, 20% slightly blurry (means very little motion) and 5% moved.
- f/4. I shoot several images at 8 and 5.6 but mostly at 4. If a lens is 4 then it's interesting at 4. Stopped down everything is better but it really counts from where we start. The f2.8 version of the 300mm is simply too expensive. The results at 4 are amazing. Especially when the light has contrast the DOF and the sharpness is amazing.
- The 1.4x extender is a must. With 1.4 this lens becomes a 420mm f5.6 lens, virtually the other lens you want to buy, BUT the IS remains in the game.
- 1.5m closest focusing distance and the magnification ratio makes possible the macro photography but expect huge crops when shooting small objects (butterflies, frogs). At least at FF is significant but even on APS-C, a cropping is needed to make the photo well composed. Simply because you can't go closer. Manual focusing is flawless.
- 77mm filter size
- weight makes possible holding the camera without holding the lens also
- CA visible only in strong front light but perfectly removable in ACR.
Con list
- slow focusing. Almost impossible to focus on moving subjects, only fast prefocus and manual correction helps. Also focusing from 1.5m to infinity its faster to turn manually the focus ring than wait for the USM. Backward the same. When the extender is used the situation is worse, focusing is deadly slow.
- cyan/green fringe around dark objects in front light. I saw this kind of fringe with sigma lenses only but it's level is much lower here.
- (for me is) too long for walkaround nature photography but too short for real wildlife photography. Even with the 1.4x extender I expect small crops from the center. Going closer is not always an option. Basically carried on a second, aps-c body it's perfect while the second body carries a wider tele (70-200) or a real mid-tele zoom like 24-105 or 28-135.

At home, the raw files convinced me. This lens is really sharp at 4 (stopped down of course is better), it has very good color reproduction and contrast.
I can send you some test pictures at full size, give me an e-mail.

If I shoot today and a week later and then upload 1 week later... It's ok to upload 1 release? How will they figure out when was the second shoot made?
I don't consider reading metadata since I simply can eliminate the metadata from the file.

Sorry if this is answered in the IS post but I have no patience to read those "Great article", "very useful article", "Good info" and such bigoted posts. what can be soooo good, useful or great??? It's a simple information.

Quote from: JerryL5 on August 24, 2009, 23:23

Quote from: icefront on August 24, 2009, 21:26
Re: What Happens When You Die?

Your soul goes to heaven.
Your body goes in the earth and recycles.
What will happen with YOU?

You soul goes to heaven if you have accepted The saviour. Only if.

You didn't understood.
I'm talking about you.

Re: What Happens When You Die?

Your soul goes to heaven.
Your body goes in the earth and recycles.
What will happen with YOU?

I found today a nearly flawless free stock photo @ DT.
It is possible somehow that the author ticked the box "If this image doesn't qualify as commercial, offer for free" when submitting?
This image is commercial at other agencies as many others from the portfolio.

In one hand this can be the total lack of understanding the way the things are working, also lack of self-management, in the other hand this is a sophisticated self-promotion where very common subjects does not matter anymore they only serve as magnets to the other side of the portfolio.

?

http://www.dreamstime.com/fresh-vegetables-imagefree4389058

Foto-Lia or Fo-Tolia?

In the beginning on this forums I saw the correct abbreviation of FL when talking about Fotolia, but after some time users started to use FT.
FT to Fotolia is like ST to Shutterstock or DS to Dreamstime
As you can see at fotolia.com, lia is emphasized with green so I believe, the correct abbreviation is FL

Any thoughts?

Answer: right now isn't possible to open 5dmk2 mov's in VD, but almost the same app, AviDemux can open and convert the mov's

I don't like to watch simple tutorials, and this is a big problem for me (and I know, for many) since I miss the simple and useful things. Like the "Contact sheet II" in PS. I had no idea about it's existence I always missed that menu point.
I have to change my behavior urgently...
Beside gathering the model releases, this tutorial gave me an another kind of lesson, to be open at everything, because it's possible that a simple tutorial can teach something very simple and useful I didn't knew before.
Thanks!