Quote from: leaf on July 02, 2008, 12:05
so how is the image editing going by the way?  I uploaded 20 today after we got the releases.. heres hoping they get accepted.

Not too good, my Nikon (or me?) produced quite some back focus junk. But my Canon is back from service now and I'm busy shooting L-editorial for Alamy.

I also consider to grab my Canon and make another trip to Malta later this year (when it's a bit cooler there). I discovered so many nice L-editorial opportunities, maybe it's time to add some more images to the 14.121 at Alamy (no istock exclusivity ref5esh restrictions then for this future trip ...).

Some photographers are carefully investigating what "micro boys", "idiots", "corporate slaves" like us are doing.....oh boy....

http://www.alamy.com/forums/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=2448

istock, will you please stop organizing events at "holiday destinations", burning all the "photo opportunities" for these poor guys?

These discussions are so weird and illogical. Malta is burned now for photo opportunities? Yeah, it was a well hidden secret before....just 14.121 images at Alamy to compete with. And Alamy claims that  most of travel images sales are RM(L) editorial - no istock competition here.

Obviously microstock-phobia beats logic.

Tonight I had my first sub-sales, 0,95$ for a medium size.

Numbers compared to May-2008 (was BME).

Revenue down -20%

Percentage:

istock                       46,2%
shutterstock              17,7%
dreamstime                10,0%
stockxpert                   7,4%
shotshop (german)        5,8%
fotolia                         4,8%
digitalstock (german)     4,1%
123rf                          2,6%
bigstock                      1,3%

Not a singe sale at panthermedia, first time this happened since Sep-2007. Worst revenue since Oct-2007 at the other two German sites. 

Highest relative percentage ever for istock (although revenue there is down 13%).

Quote from: bigmac on June 25, 2008, 16:02
i've got some which have been in the queue for over 10 days.  went exclusive with istock recently.  had one good week and since then i am worse off than when i was non exclusive.  on top of that, i know everyone says istock inspectors always get things right, but i have had the most  spurious and inconsistent rejections over the last four weeks.  in addition, it seems that my poorest images fly through, but those which would be in competition with the top downloads are thrown out.  i wouldn't mind but when i see some of the images that are displayed on the home page.....

uuhh, ohhh, what a nice comment about going exclusive at istock... ...what is the correct term in English (michealo, I need your help again...)..... "negative advertising"?

Interesting post ..... without any istock account info......

Quote from: leaf on June 25, 2008, 13:15
well i'm waiting to see some pictures from you guys, michaelo and faber!!!

I'm working day and night on these images.....so don't disrupt me.....

Seriously, I already uploaded some images (so far just travel images stuff because we have to wait for the releases). But....may I remind you that I'm not exclusive and so it will take some time until the images are available (let's hope some of them will be accepted by inspectors).

But you can see the first Ref5esh images online by "gioadventures", his first event image is a very nice night shot.

Perrush, I'm just curious: why did you stop uploading?

BTW: leaf, you must have missed this because of your early return flight
-> michealo won the award for being the best rookie in Malta!!

Congrats again michealo, great job, way to go!!

Quote from: michealo on June 23, 2008, 12:10
Just got back last night. And was it undoubtedly worth going, iStock ran a suberb event from beginning to end. The administration and creative teams were excellent, the hosts epitomised hospitable, the participants were friendly and sociable and the location was amazing.

I prefer to agree with Micheál (michealo) instead of adding my bad English here (btw: Micheál, thanks for being my English teacher in Malta! ).
Just one more aspect: for a (relative) newbie like me this event was a great opportunity to learn and gain in experience. Definitely worth going there!

Slave workers for microstock? Of course we are!! Will-less victims of a cruel industry!

For example: I was forced to attend the istock ref5esh in Malta last week ->(http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?topic=4145.msg53255;topicseen#new). Worst experience ever in my life as a photographer!! Merciless istock staff whipping us to produce images in the mediterranean heat, drink beer, doing boat trips, swim in the ocean....and lots of other terrible activities. DREADFUL!!

I will definitely quit microstock photography and go back to work in a stone pit. 

Good question but wrong thread (I guess). Better post this at istock, there are all the experts who run this event.

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=67469&page=1

I will just bring my very basic stuff.

uups, I didnt read.....

Quote from: Bateleur on June 08, 2008, 08:49
...
...
How would a farmer react if Tesco (one of the big supermarket chains in UK) said, "Hey! Give us your carrots for free and we'll put them on the front row of the vegetable stand, so everyone will see them first thing, and give you full credit."...
....

This is what crossed my mind too.

I doubt that the promotional aspect really works in the today's world of stock photography. So if you ignore this aspect, it comes down to the question: do you  want to work just for the honour or for money?

If I look to the supply chain:
...
phog -> microstock agency -> web-designer/photoshop artist -> customer
.....
from a pure business point of view (who is creating revenue/benefit), than... ..well......judge yourself.

Plus, I realize more and more how clever/smart this microstock business model is.....triggering the right psychological/ego switches in the heads of the majority of phogs.

I suppose you misunderstood Cranky MIZ:

............
....I ask all you less than mediocre, P&S stock "Wannabies" to voluntarily get out now.....leave. Find another hobby........
...........

He meant "leave and ascent to the next level: Macrostock". These sites are doomed anyway, so all those top phogs with a promising future stay with thriving microstock sites and will earn a fortune.

(For the fellow Germans here: I'm sure MIZ is somehow related with Harald Schmidt.....)

Quote from: rjmiz on June 07, 2008, 10:14
.......
.......
I ask all you mediocre, P&S stock "Wannabies" to voluntarily get out now.....leave. Find another hobby.
Please make room for us photographers and graphic artists with a more promising future.

Cranky MIZ

Big mistake....just mediocre...? I consider myself not even mediocre, but shoddy. So I stay. 

mmhhhh........14?......really??? 
This means that I would have to spend my additional exclusivity royalties on viagra....

I don't know, would it really be so confusing (at least not more than RM/L)?

If a stock site would be able to properly manage a "you get what you need for the best/appropriate price" approach, everybody would be happy.

Prices could range from 1$ to maybe thousands of dollars depending on the use of the image. And all this heated microstock vs. macrostock discussion would just implode and vanish.....

Maybe that's naive - but being naive is one privilege of newbies...

Quote from: Bateleur on June 06, 2008, 07:13
There you go ... HermanM posted his response just as I was typing mine.

We're beginning to see a movement amongst the good photographers whilst the snappers stay on the Microstocks and post "Yay! iShutterstime rocks!" on their forums.

Well, this was not my intention when I started this thread....I don't even know whether or not I'm a good photographer, that's up to the customers to decide (still have no sales yet at alamy....).

And I wouldn't say that everybody who praises microstock is a "snapper". A lot of excellent phogs are there. But all the time since I joined this business I asked myself: "why do the really good phogs sell their excellent photos at microstock sites - couldn't they earn more at traditional sites?".

It was just to share my uncertainty - and to receive sentiments of those who know more about this business than I do.

Quote from: helix7 on June 05, 2008, 19:42

Quote from: faber on June 05, 2008, 12:02...There are other threads here and in other forums about "undervalue your work" - and I think this example fits well...

Betsy Reid? Is that you? 

This is microstock. We all know quite well when we sign on with a company that our images will be bought by a wide variety of people and companies for an equally wide array of uses. If it leaves a bitter taste to see a microstock image in the cover of Time, maybe this isn't the right place for you to sell images.

well, I don't know who Betsy Reid is....but otherwise I agree with you.

When I signed up at microstock sites I was fully aware of the regulations and I do not complain about being cheated by them (it was not my image anyway...).

But as time goes by, I learn more - not just about photography (hopefully) but about the photo - business (definitely). Based on this knowledge and insight my perception is changing. And therefore my decisions might be different in the future. I guess it's the usual learning process if you enter a new business. Nothing wrong with this.

I don't know about LR and the LR File format....
My workflow:
1) shoot RAW file
2) adjustments are done in Canon raw-editing tool (Digital Photo Professional)
3) save as TIF
4) open TIF in PSE and remove dust spots (that's what I hate most.... )etc.
5) up size and save as JPG

....just learned in your other thread that you shoot with a 8 MP camera. Be careful not to stretch the up size process too far, it has its limits that might result in the "soft" rejection. Maybe you should try to up size just enough to pass the 48MB requirement.

It is. I use Photoshop Elements 4.0 and so far no rejections.

I just browsed though the thread at shutterstock....and I only found one post that I completely agree with -> from epixx (page 4):

.......Am I the only one who see a dark side here? You get to the front cover of TIME, you are not credited and you're paid $28............

No big reaction of the other phogs, but a lot of "hurray, microstock rocks..."

There are other threads here and in other forums about "undervalue your work" - and I think this example fits well.

I began to upload to alamy last month so maybe this changed my point of view compared to what I thought when I started doing microstock in March 2007.......

http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38865

That's sure great for everybody who was involved.

On the other hand, I begin to understand why macrostock pro-photographers are so angry about the microstock business. Mixed emotions here....

Leaf, I owe you some drinks in Malta.....

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=5929109
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=6058913
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=6067433
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=6233343
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=3360268