|
MicrostockGroup Sponsors
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Messages - Freezingpictures
Pages: 1 ... 7 8 9 10 11 [12] 13 14 15 16 17 ... 45
276
« on: January 02, 2009, 00:14 »
I would go with what your friends have, if you do not see obvious advantages with either brandt. I occassionally borrow lenses from my friend. Also consider how lenses are priced. It seems that Nikon lenses are more expensive here in Germany than Canon lenses. Personally I have been very happy with canon and I think the canon bodies and lenses look better 
277
« on: January 02, 2009, 00:06 »
I really do not understand how some people can do so well on BigStock. I earned there less than 0.4% of my microstock income last month. And BigStock allways was consistently under 1% of monthly earnings. 123 Rf is about twice as good and struggles just to get over the 1%. To both of them I uploaded until 2-3 month ago my best work, but my hopes that they will finally give me a decent return are dwindling and so my motivation to upload my work to them. To me it seems there are only the big five agencies and there seems to be a huge gap between the 5th best agency and the 6th.
278
« on: December 19, 2008, 08:13 »
Fotolia went really good so far. The increase of credit price is one reason.
Dt is not so good this month.
IS is doing very well
StockXpert is doing good
SS not as good as the last two months.
If the month would go on like this it would be almost as good earnings as November which was BME
279
« on: December 18, 2008, 04:42 »
I also check the dollar value daily. I hope it wont go back to where it came from.
Lately I have some very very good prices on lenses from the uk in ebay. 30% cheaper than in Germany. I have my eyes on a 135L.(~700 Euro in the UK, 1000 Euro in Germany) So far of what I have read I do not need to pay taxes when delivered to Germany from the Uk. But I guess I have to do some more research..
280
« on: December 17, 2008, 10:49 »
I can confirm that the Canon 24-70 is excellent and was well worth the money. I have no experience with the sigma. You can read the ratings at fredmiranda. I guess that not only the image qulaity will not be as good as with the canon lens, but also the focusing will be not as good. Since I bought the canon it I made the descision if I buy a lens I will buy the best available, since I will keep that lens anyway much longer than any camera. Personally I would rather wait to save money for a high quality lens, than spent it right away on cheaper lenses. Since currently my living comes from photography and quality is important, that will be my way to go. After image quality bokeh is for me the most important thing, thats why I would choose the 24-70 over the 24-105, even if the image quality is the same and the 24-105 has IS. If it would just be a hobby I might choose a cheaper lens.
281
« on: December 14, 2008, 03:42 »
Thankyou Caspixel, I remember when people of this forum asked how to get in contact with buyers if there is a forum, designer forum etc.
I think it would be great to actually have a section on microstockgroup for buyers and designers with topics of interest to them. Like where to get good deals etc. I guess no one else knows better where one can get a good deal and where the photographer still gets a good share then the people on this forum. I think that this can be very benefitial for both sides, the designer/buyer and the photographer/illustrator.
282
« on: December 13, 2008, 17:43 »
I did not know that you get cresids if you submit to the designer Spotlight. Thanx for showing up here, it REALLY is interesting to know what buyers think. I wish more buyers would participate in this forum..
283
« on: December 13, 2008, 17:24 »
Oh, so they can still raise the price further without loosing you, someone should tell them  No just joking 
284
« on: December 13, 2008, 13:54 »
In my experience very few members who are buyers only participate in istock forums. Generally the buyer view comes from members who are also contributors.
Agreed ... but still compare the forum participation at the last 2 price increases this past May and same time last year ... tons of buyers complaining - but not this time ...where are they?
I'm (strictly) a buyer over at iStock and I've been purchasing since 2003. A couple things on why I think you haven't heard from many buyers yet about the price increases:
1) Many probably didn't see the announcement and will only find out when they go to purchase an image. Then you will hear from them.
2) Many are so used to it they don't care anymore or have already moved on.
3) Those buyers that have spoken out about the price increases are immediately smacked down by the contributors and forum moderators to the point that they don't even want to speak up anymore.
The last is my experience and that of other buyers that I've talked to. Most of the iStock community would rather insult its customers by criticizing their business practices, opinions, and concerns than listen to and take into account the thoughts of the very people that made it a million dollar entity and major player in the stock industry. The buying habits of many of us have changed drastically there due to the price increases and terrible customer service.
Just out of curiosity, why are you still buying at iStock? I know quality is good and for searching images I would prefer iStock, but there are cheaper places out there. I do not buy a lot of images, but occassionaly I do, but never at iStock, because they are so expensive (compared to other microstock agencies) and I feel better when I buy an image where the contributor gets a higher percentage. I do not want to bash iStock (in fact they are still my no. 1 earner), but I am interested why buyers choose iStock instead of other agencies which are not far behind in image quality and cheaper.
285
« on: December 11, 2008, 04:01 »
Maybe because the price increase is not that drastic..
286
« on: December 09, 2008, 15:18 »
Interesting news ! And more to come. Aparently there will be also an announcement about the best match soon.
287
« on: December 04, 2008, 07:42 »
The 24-70 2.8 from canon is a nice lens. Although it is quite a bit heavy, as a walkarround lens.
Argh! 950g? Well I think I can stand that for less hassle when correcting pictures!
I've got no primes, I was thinking about trying the cheap EF 50 1.8 II.
I've read enthusiastic opinions about it. Is its image quality superior compared to the 24-70 at 50mm?
In short: should I spare my money and spend it on the bigger one?
If you have equipment like the 5d, I would not buy a cheap lens for it as the 50 1.8 II. Since I bought the 24-70 2.8 my 50 1.8II is gaining dust. The 1.8 is pretty sharp 2.8 upwards, maybe better than the 24-70, but there is not much difference. The problem with this cheap lens is not that the image quality can be great, the problem is to focus it well that it will be great. Sometimes it is spot on, but very often it is not, in this regard the 24-70 is much much better. I have a much higher keeper rate then from the 50mm. There must be a reason the 24-70 is 10X more expensive :-) If you come from the these tamron super zooms 28-300 as I did the 50mm 1.8 is amazing in the beginning, but it does not stand a chance against the 24-70. If you want a good 50mm go for the new sigma 1.4, I have heard that it is better than the canon equivalent.
288
« on: December 04, 2008, 06:11 »
One of my favourite lenses is the 135L. I rented it a few times. This lens is amazing and sharp at 2.0. To go save I mostly shoot 2.2, 2.5 with it. I believe it is one of the lenses with the best image quality you can get from canon. I would prefer that over any 70-200 although it means the inconvenience of no zoom. It is also a bargain for the quality you get.
The 24-70 2.8 from canon is a nice lens. Although it is quite a bit heavy, as a walkarround lens.
289
« on: December 03, 2008, 11:29 »
Maybe, but that images must be at least interesting to look at, because if a buyer searches and finds an image which is absolutely not relevant, why should he look at it (click on the thumnail which counts as a view)?
My guess is that top contributors can generate more views/image/dl, because of all their admiring fans and those who look for inspiration. So they automaticly are coming better up in searches. That might be an explanation why top exclusives seem to do better than others.
290
« on: December 03, 2008, 10:32 »
It should not count at all, because it does not say anything about the image.
1. There are interesting photos which are nice to look at, but do not sell at all = a lot of views and not much downloads
2. There are interesting photos, nice to look at, and people love to buy them = a lot of views and a lot of downloads
3. There are not so nice images to look at, but they sell great = low views high downloads
4. There are not so nice images to look at and they do not sell= low views, low downloads
5. There are featured images which lots and lots of views. Compared to that downloads are always low even if the image has thousands of downloads
So does the view to download ratio help in any way to find out which are the best images?
Not at all!
291
« on: December 03, 2008, 06:03 »
Perrush, I agree with you, although I think you cannot make best match position dependent on a dl to view ratio at all.
292
« on: December 03, 2008, 04:39 »
No doubt, that exclusive files are favoured, but in this case the download/view ratio plays a big part I believe. iStock seems to favor with this best match a file which has a lot of views compared to downloads. Liliboas's file has ~20 views/dl while your file has just 12/dl. That also explains why an old file with almost no dl the last year has a prominent place in the best match in my portfolio. It was once offered as a free file and has ~425 views/dl.
293
« on: November 29, 2008, 06:39 »
IS 29.4% BME SS 22.74% BME FT 13.12% 2nd to BME DT 10.55% BME StockXpert 5.89% Smugmug 2.99% (Selling through www.penguinphotos.net, however currently spending almost as much in advertising for it...) Panthermedia 1.99% Disappointing Rest: referrals and low earning sites November was great..
294
« on: November 27, 2008, 03:58 »
I had 6 Els in the first half of the month, which is good, but in the second non so far..
295
« on: November 25, 2008, 14:23 »
I think the only interesting tendency we night get from this poll is if we separate exclusives and non-exclusives. Otherwise the results won't say much.
Pretty much everyone here says/believes that every non-exclusive is down, so can we assume that the poll results simply mirror this fact? Funny thing is, I didn't think there were 13 exclusives on this forum. Some of them must be in hiding. 
I am actually one of the rare non-exclusives whos earnings went up and I am well on the way to a new BME.
296
« on: November 25, 2008, 02:52 »
Thanks for posting that! The results are really great! Nice work!
297
« on: November 24, 2008, 03:17 »
Another observation: Dezember was just 22% down in total earnings from November which was a good month last year as it is this year. I actually had December much worse in rememberance, then it actually was.
298
« on: November 24, 2008, 03:09 »
I just looked at iS, since at that time I did not do daily stats. Maximum was Dec 11th. And sales were normal till December 21st.
299
« on: November 18, 2008, 03:15 »
Congrats, very deserved!
300
« on: November 14, 2008, 14:05 »
A little less than a year ago I started to use smugmug for wedding photography mainly but also to try out to sell my stock photos on my own. However I never really put much effort in my smugmug site until 1 month ago. I started to invest more time in upgrading the smugmug site,put some more images on it and linked it from my homepage. I also started to do a little advertisment with google adwords. But I do not spent a lot right now on advertism. I still need to update the galleries and have not yet put so many images online. But now within 1 month I received sales worth ~ $ 50. Just today I had a $30 Sale netting me ~ $25 (Smugmug takes 15%). I am now thinking to focus on marketing the smugmug site. I just wanted to share my experience with this and am kind of excited to market my own images. Is anyone else doing this and has some tips? Here is the site: www.penguinphotos.net
Pages: 1 ... 7 8 9 10 11 [12] 13 14 15 16 17 ... 45
|
Sponsors
Microstock Poll Results
Sponsors
|
Show Posts
