If you go to https://submit.shutterstock.com/admin.mhtml, and opt out of everything underneath the "minimum payout" box, your images will no longer be available for sale.

Why? Thinking of going exclusive with iStock ?

Quote from: ShadySue on June 30, 2010, 14:59

Yebbut they could make it so much better by implementing some method of keyword phrases, whether by commas or "..." or whatever.
I accede that changing things now, when they have 19m images would be an utter nightmare, but I can't think why they didn't do it long, long ago.

Adding the "Exact Match" or the [related words] as they have proposed would be fantastic and stop a large amount of the inappropriate results. (it's in the submitting FAQ, however not implemented.)

Keep in mind that "Cat" is different from "Cats" which can help in searches if you have a single subject vs a group of the same. If I have a single, it's the same as the location conditions, I only include the word for one of the subject. I try to avoid views that would drop my Alamy Rank, but since all the problems you and others have pointed out are the same for everyone, it's the same flaw for everyone, no one benefits except people who avoid more of the problems by very carefully crafting keywords for best matches, instead of many views.

It's not the same as Micro where spamming keywords helps in some peoples opinions. It's a penalty on Alamy. Anyone reading this, should only add exact relevant words and limited concepts. Stop thinking like Micro where more is better and start thinking smarter is better.  

So why do people have seven different words for the color red, for example. People doing the search want a "Red Car", and my opinion is that the other six words for red are a waste of time and effort. If you were looking for an image like yours, what would you put into the search? Not "Carmine Motor Vehicle" just plain old Red Car!

Also with the Alamy match, Less Is More because while you are avoiding bad matches and lower rank, you are also raising your relevance. Say you have seven words and two are matches. Then you have 17 words and two are matches. The image with two of seven will come up first in a search.

The other point is, trying to trick the search into finding bad matches, proves nothing. Buyers with any sense will look for the obvious. You want a girl talking on a phone, that's what they search for!

Sure a search for London Bridge will find every image for every bridge in London, because the same two words are there. Try the same on any other site, you get the same problem. Either you want the search to find the words you put in the box or you don't. It's a dumb computer, it doesn't guess related images, it doesn't interpret, and again, it's not psychic! What you enter is what you will get. It's that easy.

The start of this thread asked some simple questions. Yes images come up by rank of the photographer, but also best match using the importance, which we decide, so that means we're in control more than other places. No new or older images don't get a boost by age. As far as I can see it's all best match, ranked by photographer, and then the diversity splits those up so one person doesn't get their images all in one group. More people will have their images seen as a result.

Essential keywords     The most important words and phrases for the image. Although you have 50 characters, try to limit yourself to just 35 - about 6 to 8 words only.     50     Very high
Main keywords     The next most appropriate words and phrases. These keywords are not displayed to clients.     300     High
Comprehensive keywords     Any other words and phrases. Put all the remaining terms that apply, but which are not as significant as main or essential keywords. These keywords are not displayed to clients.     856     Medium
Caption     A short factual description of the image used by customers to summarise its content.     128     Low
Location     Put the location where the image was taken using the convention of street name, town, city, state, province, country. This information can make or lose a sale.     100     Low

Description     Explanatory or background text relevant to the image. More appropriate for historical, reportage and editorial images than for conceptual or commercial material.     2000     Zero

The idea is use the system to our advantage and understand how it works.

http://alamy.com/contributor/help/captions-keywords-descriptions.asp

Quote from: ann on August 11, 2010, 19:24

What super timing to see that great link you posted, Warren.

While talking with my daughters at hospital today, I reminded them how - when their grandma had been in hospital - I printed out a large photo of Mom as a 20-something opera singer, wrote her name under it, and then taped it on the wall over her hospital bed, to help staff see her not only as their elderly patient with limited ability to communicate, but also as the vibrant, beautiful young adult she had been.  

Thank you for that idea. My grandmother will be in and out and I'm going to use it. Thank you more than I can say.

Quote from: ann on August 06, 2010, 16:18

Based on the watermarks, the blogger didn't pay for usage license, which I find annoying (whether or not it's legal). The last 2 shown on August 5 look fine, certainly not worthy of being labelled as awkward.

If you click on the photo it takes you directly to the sales page of that particular photo so I'm not sure how that works with usage?

Yes, it happens at times.

As sales occur at different sites, I would rule out search engine changes.

There may be a correlation with current events?

Or just our tendency to find patterns in actually random statistical data?

start a facebook page, publishing this on facebook, saying ebay is evil and partner of piracy and squeeze the artist's earning..support piracy.

just spread it..maybe it will be in CNN or some channels, maybe they feel it is too negative images to their business..

many people wants to support it and help it..make a petition. It used to be a parade on street, but now is so digital..and i will click the page to support it.

I raised the issue because I saw many bloggers were advising newbies that they could go to royalty-free sites to get free photos. In the advertising space of the same blog, there usually an ad from ShutterStock, DT or someone else. How convenient!

I've seen nothing, but prices going up. I've heard nothing, but the main agencies talking about increased revenue. "Free" just sounds naive. If you're worried about free, stop submitting to 8 million agencies all trying to make the same dollar. Back the sites that are making you real money and keep prices moving in the right direction.

If you were forced to do a microstock shoot with only one lens, which one would you pick?

I am starting to look at primes more recently and thinking they might be a good choice for shooting micro, but if I was forced to shoot with only one lens I think I would be tempted to go with a zoom.  Perhaps the 24-70 f/2.8  That way I could get some nice wide angle shots as well as have a decent portrait lens and get good diffused backgrounds using f/2.8

That said I also really like the 70-200 f/2.8 but if I was only using one lens I think I would really want a wide angle.

How about you?