Well, it has been three weeks since I dropped my exclusive status at Dreamstime and went full out to upload to all sites.  Here are the updated numbers

                                           accepted              pending                waiting                needs work                sold

123RF                                    386                      120                      0                           0                           0
BigStock                                 712                       0                        0                            0                           0
CanStockPhoto                       828                        0                        0                            0                           2
Crestock                                551                      223                      0                            0                           0
Cutcastor                             113                        0                        0                            0                           0
DepositPhotos                        865                       47                      0                             4                           4
Dreamstime                           1081                      41                      0                             0                           41
FP                                          112                      464                     0                             0                           0
FOTO                                     727                       51                      0                             0                           6
GL                                         680                        84                     86                            0                           1
ISIGN                                     410                         0                       0                            0                           0
IS                                           29                         18                      0                            0                           3
PANTHER                                574                       85                       0                            0                           0
SSP                                        501                        0                        0                           0                            0
Shutterstock                            630                        0                        0                           0                           189
SF                                          869                        0                       21                          0                             0
VEER                                      144                        68                      611                       141                          1
YAY                                        894                        37                       0                           0                            0      
3d                                          194                         0                      0                            81                           0

Dreamstime was the anchor store with images online, about 900 at the start of this diversavication.  Still more images to get on the sites.  All images were uploaded to the following:  BigStock, CanStockPhoto, DepositPhotos, FOTO, SS, SF, VEER and YAY;  others only got partial uploads because of FTP problems, or other related issues.

Acceptance rates;  IS is at 53% (issues with artifacts, struggling with this issue), Shutterstock at 75% (issues with focus point, they want more depth of field than most of my wildlife images), BigStock and Fotolia at 80% (Fotolia mostly because they do not want certain images), all others above 90%

My sales at Dreamstime have dropped since dropping exclusive status, still to early to tell the long term effect.  Shutterstock sales are very steady, $2-6.00/day.  IS has not taken off yet, only three sales total.  DepositPhotos is encouraging with four sales; Fotolia is discouraging with only 6 sales.

My macro has a built-in hood.     Wide angle all depends on the situation.  It casts a shadow when using a flash, and since I use flash quite a bit with the wide angle, I usually keep it off.  But, I'll put it back when there's too much glare.

Agree with Karimala, use it all the time except when it is a problem

Hi Tom;

I like this image because but it missed the mark on a couple avenues.  In stock, we must think of concepts.  In tennis, line shots great because they show the skill of the game but you have two balls in this image; so this can not be used to show that the ball hit the line-why would two balls hit the line at the same time.  The shadow is also going to cause problems at many agencies, just a bit to dark.

If it was me, I might put a bit more thought into this concept, it is a good start.

Maybe same image but suspend the ball a couple centimeter above the line with piece of fishing line (clone out the fishing line after the shot).  Or, a more challenging image, do a multi-flash image of the ball approaching the line

I agree with you, shoot what you love.  You love tennis; put a lot of thought into the game and images you think convey the love of the sport and the intensity of the game.

Another interesting shot;  close up of only the racket head with ball hitting the racket, ball shows a slight flatten area where it hits the fabric of racket and fabric shows a bit of stretch from impact of ball.  This would be another challenging shot to do but I believe you can do it.  maybe even step it up more, have the racket slightly blurred by using rear-curtain sync on your flash and a slower shutter speed but the impact would be sharp because the flash would stop all action at the very end.

I believe a good solution for image reviews is to say: submitted images must have been accepted at one of the big four agencies. 

Quote from: visceralimage on March 07, 2011, 21:09

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on March 07, 2011, 20:59

Quote from: ShadySue on March 06, 2011, 08:40

The difference is that most wildlife photographers are doing it for love, anyway.
Obivously if you are shooting business concepts on white, or other 'set ups', you're doing it for money, and you wouldn't be doing it 'anyway'; so you'd need to look at whether it was 'worth it' (e.g. what other uses could you have for the images?)

Oh c'mon, I love shooting handshakes on white. It's my passion.
And it's a bonus when it costs me more to produce than I make.

Paulie; you need to find models that actually own suits so that your expenses are not so high.  Getting the local bums or homeless from the park is cheaper but buying the suits gets expense

Hey, c'mon now. Those manicures cost a lot of money so I can get the perfect handshake shot. I try to use twins for models so their hands are perfectly symetrical. I hold hand auditions.

Yeah, I know; because you only see the hands: you could have two trolls shaking hands for all we know because you only see the lower arm and the hands.

I think I really need to start a parody microstock business; my mind keeps doing all these shots as a parody.

This one:  A really large rough oily hand shaking a real feminine delicate hand with perfect nails

Or, how bout a business suit arm shaking the flipper of a sea lion.

I submitted an image of an alligator, it was rejected because of selected focus. The game winner, was they recommended using a tripod to increase the depth of field. I want the reviewer to show how it done, with more depth of field, using a tripod, and without getting becoming alligator bait!

Wait till they tell you they want a lower angle; laying on your belly photographing alligators is not so smart-speaking from experience!!  When the gator "charges" you and hits your lens, jamming it into your face, it smarts (maybe "smarts' is not such a good pun here).  Such are the joys of being a wildlife photographer.  Snapped at by alligators, chased by bison, struck at by rattlesnake, kissed by a moose (she was a good kisser but a bit sloppy), etc.

Maybe not iSTock's fault, but still embarrassing:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=311312&page=1

Ooops!

Quote from: visceralimage on March 06, 2011, 19:26

Is it better to upload images as RGB or sRGB?  ...

Do you mean Adobe RGB or sRGB?

AFAIK the only common denominator across all sites at the moment is sRGB. If a site does not convert  images in spaces other than sRGB to sRGB when creating thumbs, lots of browsers will display the image with really unpleasant colors. As more browswers become color management aware (i.e. can read ICC profiles) it'd be OK for any image with an embedded profile, but I doubt sites will ever put profiles into thumbnail images as it'd make the files too large.

iStock is the only site that handles automatic conversion for thumbnail creation and web sizes from whatever profile you upload in - ProPhoto or Adobe RGB - but that's been broken for a month or so (fix supposedly just around the corner).

When I was independent, I always converted to sRGB when making the JPEGs to upload.

Yes, Adobe RGB or sRGB; to me this is a bit amazing.  sRGB is a much smaller gamut color space so the sites not doing the conversion for web viewing means we must upload lower quality images for purchase.  If a client is then going to print the image, they lose even more in conversion to CMYK

Is it better to upload images as RGB or sRGB?  I know RGB is a wider gamut color space and will have more information; I assumed this was the best color space to be uploading but sRGB looks better on the web and may result in more downloads.  What do other do?

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on March 06, 2011, 01:05

Quote from: visceralimage on March 05, 2011, 23:51

Quote from: Morphart on March 05, 2011, 09:33

Quote from: visceralimage on March 01, 2011, 03:38

i somewhat agree.  My numbers are so bad it will make anyone look better compared to mine.

I just left Dreamstime exclusive at mid-month. 
Dreamstime at about $70, down from $125  (1000 images online)
the rest based on 15 days of being active (ranging from 19 images to 700 images online)
Shutterstock at about $33
Veer at 3.50
Fotolia at 2.00
DepositPhotos at 0.60
all others (14 of them including IS) at a big whopping zero

Wow with 1k images online it must hurt to only see 70$ for a whoe month. I am surprised you are not getting more sales off that many images, Shutterstock usually pay good money when you have a large portfolio.

I am wildlife photographer, different market

Yeah, dude, 1,000 photos is an extraordinary level of effort. I've put in 20+ hour weeks for 3 years and haven't hit 1,000 photos yet. I'd have to question whether the effort was really worth the return. Just sayin...

The difference is that most wildlife photographers are doing it for love, anyway.
Obivously if you are shooting business concepts on white, or other 'set ups', you're doing it for money, and you wouldn't be doing it 'anyway'; so you'd need to look at whether it was 'worth it' (e.g. what other uses could you have for the images?)

I am certainly doing the wildlife photography for love; I am putting the time into getting the images on the microstock sites for money.  Sometimes, it is difficult to concentrate on the love part when you are hungry!

Quote from: visceralimage on March 05, 2011, 23:51

Quote from: Morphart on March 05, 2011, 09:33

Quote from: visceralimage on March 01, 2011, 03:38

i somewhat agree.  My numbers are so bad it will make anyone look better compared to mine.

I just left Dreamstime exclusive at mid-month. 
Dreamstime at about $70, down from $125  (1000 images online)
the rest based on 15 days of being active (ranging from 19 images to 700 images online)
Shutterstock at about $33
Veer at 3.50
Fotolia at 2.00
DepositPhotos at 0.60
all others (14 of them including IS) at a big whopping zero

Wow with 1k images online it must hurt to only see 70$ for a whoe month. I am surprised you are not getting more sales off that many images, Shutterstock usually pay good money when you have a large portfolio.

I am wildlife photographer, different market

Yeah, dude, 1,000 photos is an extraordinary level of effort. I've put in 20+ hour weeks for 3 years and haven't hit 1,000 photos yet. I'd have to question whether the effort was really worth the return. Just sayin...

If we were only counting last month, I would agree the effort did not match the return; the advantage of wildlife images are they are a bit timeless-no changes in clothing styles or other similar problems.  Hopefully, in the long run, it will all even out.

Quote from: visceralimage on March 01, 2011, 03:38

i somewhat agree.  My numbers are so bad it will make anyone look better compared to mine.

I just left Dreamstime exclusive at mid-month. 
Dreamstime at about $70, down from $125  (1000 images online)
the rest based on 15 days of being active (ranging from 19 images to 700 images online)
Shutterstock at about $33
Veer at 3.50
Fotolia at 2.00
DepositPhotos at 0.60
all others (14 of them including IS) at a big whopping zero

Wow with 1k images online it must hurt to only see 70$ for a whoe month. I am surprised you are not getting more sales off that many images, Shutterstock usually pay good money when you have a large portfolio.

I am wildlife photographer, different market