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Messages - Morphart
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351
« on: October 03, 2011, 20:19 »
Why a US bank account, Alamy is in Great Britain?
Alamy uses Citibank in the U.S.
I don't trust paypal either. I have two accounts - one for the photo business and one for my personal business. I received an email from them last month that all money deposited into my personal account will be held for 20 days. Most of the money coming in is from eBay auctions - and I hadn't had any transfers in for 5 or 6 months so I'm not sure what prompted the issue.
A wire transfer is just fine for me. I'll pay the banking fees.
Interesting and thanks.
I've seen people unhappy with PayPal holding funds and locking accounts, never the why that made sense. I've never had any problems and I have sold my 70-200 IS-USM to someone in Sweden, my 400mm 2.8 to someone in Peru and those were thousands, not a few hundred here and there. Might be that I've had an account since the 90s - eBay Member since: Sep-27-96 might be that I'm located in the US, who knows why they do some of the things they do.
But it makes sense that if they are going to hold it anyway, you save nothing in time by using PayPal instead of checks. Yes I have two PayPal accounts also, one was for business one for personal, nice way to keep the transactions separated and under the old system on had lower fees.
After all that, I'm very happy to get my next payment electronic through PayPal, just hope I don't think it's "free money" and find things to buy on eBay before I get it into the savings account! 
Yes I am also in the happy customer from Paypal. I'm in Canada, and opened a US banking account which I managed to link to Paypal to avoid them doing the conversion fee and since then I never had any issue. I think I got my account locked once for security reason, but a phone call and 2 minutes after it was back in business. I like having all the stock site send to my Paypal then send it to my bank account without 0$ fee in the whole process... I don't burn the free money... I use my CC to buy on ebay then I reimburse it with my Stock money... ... 
352
« on: September 30, 2011, 15:16 »
Well DreamsTime is a nice name if you ask mean.
I have always thought it was DreamStime. Well, maybe it's both
Rolf it could actually be that also... let's ask them
353
« on: September 30, 2011, 11:57 »
Big THUMBS UP for Cutcaster for my part. FTP works great. Submissions work even better (or if that is not new then it's new to me). Love how simple it is now to submit images, quick and efficient, definitely worth the time to upload now that submission is so quick. Thanks for the good improvements you made so far, hope this will translate to good earnings for you... and for us! Cheers!
354
« on: September 30, 2011, 08:30 »
Yeah just got the email for Paypal today from Alamy... Good new it is for me!
355
« on: September 23, 2011, 21:01 »
Yes Alamy is making surprising... sales . What I thought would sell there never does... and I sold something I never sold to any other site and I got my first 235$ sale. Let's be happy for that Good to see we are not independent for no reason, each sites has their different market and clients preferences it seems ;p
356
« on: September 21, 2011, 13:18 »
Hello,
My colleague has just made me aware of this post. Indeed Reflex Stock was taken over by Ingram Publishing a few months ago. As some of you have already mentioned we have a number of partners including 123RF, Panther Media and Canstock.
We are currently working on a number of site improvements including the way we display our partners images. We are very excited about the future of Reflex Stock and hope many of you will benefit from existing and futures partnerships.
Best regards,
Johnnie
Dreamstime is one of them too I think. I think most would agree with me that you NEED to have the copyright information show on our images. Then we might get as excited as you are
357
« on: September 08, 2011, 13:45 »
What do you guys find more future in my case, photography or illustration? Either way I will start making more illustrations, are easier to make and cheaper. Is fotolia a good place to sell illustrations? Maybe I should start a new thread on this subject...
In my opinion, I prefer you illustrations in that short 6 images portfolio. (I like the old guy and the guy walking, the girl the colors seems a bit off). For the photography I like the first one on the left, but the other 2 I don't find a high commercial value to them, but I will say, it's normal with only 6 images online not to have any sales.
358
« on: September 08, 2011, 13:36 »
Want a little feed back from you pro's. I am a newbie here and to microstock. I have been reading these forums and other internet sites for a couple months now to get a feel of what to expect when submitting to microstock. I will admit I do not have a good quality camera, (only what you guys call point and shoot)
About 5 or 6 months ago I submitted photo's to a public domain site, (yes the unthinkable to some) but needed to know if anyone would even like my work. I submitted 35 photo's and so far have had 8,089 downloads on those photo's.
Well just this week I submitted 11 photo's to two different microstock sites and have been rejected for low quality and no commercial value. It seems to me with 8000 downloads that my quality and value has been useful for someone. With that being said, and knowing I will not be able to purchase a good quality camera for a very very long time if maybe I should just give up on this idea as it seems I don't stand a change. Oh one more thing to add. Some of my photo's that was rejected for no commercial value I searched on that site afterward for those type images and found pretty much the same thing, one in particular was just a different bowl color. Go figure.
TIA for advice
Microstock is photos aimed mostly for graphic design, ads and marketing purpose (not all but a big portion of it). You will have to think in that manner for sellability. A cool desktop background photo might now fetch a lot of $$. Also, investing in a decent start for Photography can be as low as 300-400$ (Ex: Rebel XS priced droppped a lot, I saw lot of them at 10% of, a decent 10megapixels camera). If you cannot invest this to start and learn while doing a bit of $ that should cover the price of this in the following months, then yes, better give up now. That's my opinion. I am mostly an illustrator but am investing in camera gear and learning along the way, but I am paying what is required for good gear to start (T3i to learn, and when 5D Mark III come out I will consider). Can't earn nothing with nothing 
359
« on: September 08, 2011, 13:31 »
I know about GraphicGravy in this forum who has a site related to Illustrator Stock: http://www.graphicgravy.com/Shutterstock also have interesting technical information you might look into: http://buzz.shutterstock.com/ See Vectors section. Good luck!
360
« on: September 05, 2011, 10:16 »
Hi friends,
yes I'm agree that the whole design style,logo, web, etc is not the best in the world maybe. They told me that they are working on it, that's only a sketch. But, you have an example with Canstockphoto, I think their design is horrible but I'm selling many licenses there, that's the most important for me
I have post this thread because I think it's an opportunity to enter a new site without any effort. If it doesn't work, OK, you haven't loose any time, but if it works (obviously in other level than Shutter, iStock...) I think it will have been well worth it.
All of us are free to decide what we do, but I think we should be respectful of the work and efforts of others, even if we don't like it.
Sorry for my english
It's sometimes good to know about new sites... but let the site owners come and answer our questions here. Unless you have a great and fruitful experience why would you want to share it? Like many said, there are tons of ''new'' site, and if you stick to their promotional pitch hell we should all be rich by now. I think that there is a hell of a different approach and marketing from Canstockphoto than Stockclown here. First the name. Canstock not flashy, but at least looks a bit more serious . Stockfunny is a really bad name, they offer translation but the site is not translated well... or some part not at all. As a client, I wouldn't be inclined to spend my money there. I say let them settle and prove they can do better, myself like many other is not convinced at all by this first impression... and first impressions are hard to change once they are done. If you have to start something at least start it right, or in the right track... they will need to change track and the whole train now, not sure it will go far.
361
« on: September 01, 2011, 11:18 »
Hi!
I have been working for a few months here and there and developed a whole process to make my life easier to process my Illustrations for all the different sites I am uploading too. I hired some scripting professionals to help me out also on some points.
I was wondering if anyone would be interested to buy say for a lower than 5$ price the full walk-through and the scripts and how to easily personalize them to do the following:
1- Batch open ALL EPS files found in a folder into Photoshop, at a given size. Opening them in Photoshop as the advantage of keeping all the IPTC data intact.
2- (Simple) Action to add a white border around each Illustrations automatically, and save the EPS as a JPG in a folder of you choosing.
3- Use a free software to auto-rename the files to remove the '' copy'' added to the file.
4- Have a script and free software automatically ZIP all files with the same filename (ex: image1.eps and image1.jpg) into individual ZIP so they are ready to be uploaded to Fotolio or other agencies that requires the JPG and EPS to be processed.
I can also add explanation on how to use Image processor in Photoshop to batch resize a list of JPG to a specific size of thumbnails (say for vectorstock they require 380 x 400 thumbnails). I have a method to do this automatically for any numbers of files.
Before spending hours writing down some clear explanations and simple step by step process I would like to know if this would interest anyone in the Stock Illustration business, or if you already had all those techniques or do not find any use to it?
Thanks for the input :p
362
« on: August 24, 2011, 13:13 »
Yep!
That's how you do it! They usually take 1-2 weeks to process a new batch, sometimes faster.
~ Eli
www.GraphicGravy.com
hello, just put all files and previews in one zip? or just only one file and preview in one zip?
thanks!
Yes all in one ZIP, max 2gb per zip.
363
« on: August 24, 2011, 08:26 »
...This should beat FTP by all means.
In my opinion no browser source uploader beats FTP. FTP is fast, reliable and not prone to crash, and can easily pause and resume download. Will give you JAVA uploader a try but I am not sure a browser uploader will as easily support a 6 gig of files upload as FTP would? Thanks for listening to the comments, it can only draw more contributors to your site!
364
« on: August 23, 2011, 17:42 »
Unable to connectFirefox can't establish a connection to the server at www.artfilmstock.com.
365
« on: August 22, 2011, 20:24 »
Ok I should have checked my emails first... here is how for those interested: Once you have set up an account (signed up)
Please supply your Vector EPS + JPEG previews in one folder and zip it.
JPEG Meta data / key words will be imported so please also include these.
Enter your VectorStock USERNAME in the subject field.
Click here to transfer your files to VectorStock :
http://dropbox.yousendit.com/VectorstockAdmin1259075
Subject: [YOUR VECTORSTOCK USERNAME]
Select your folder of zipped EPS files
(Max 2 GB file size )
Then click SENT IT, a large file can take a while to upload depending on your connection speed,
don't close the browser until the upload is complete. The page will let you know when it is completed.
We then check and process your files. This can take 14 days to fully check and process all of your files.
As they are processed the system will email you as they go live.
We look forward to your submissions.
366
« on: August 22, 2011, 20:23 »
Hi! I read at Graphicgravy blogs just recently that he just sends in batch of Vectors and they simply processed them to the site for him. http://www.graphicgravy.com/2011/02/vector-microstock-power-rankings-january-2011/ Vectorstock went up a little. I love how I can just send them my vector files in large groups, and they add all the keywords free of charge! I would love to know how to do this as the only reason I am not sending anything to them is simply that they submissions tools are just a pain to use... Any help? 
367
« on: August 22, 2011, 20:03 »
I recently got help to design a Script to open small EPS (2 x 3 or 3 x 4 inches EPS) into photoshop at high res and save as JPG. You can use this to open the files in batch. Then you simply create an action that Saves as PNG and close the file (didnt put that in the script).
If you want to open the file as the same dimension of the EPS, remove:
epsOpts.width = new UnitValue( 603000, '%' );
epsOpts.height = new UnitValue( 603000, '%' );
If you want to open a specific width or height, change % to px and insert the value.
If you want to open a relative size, change 603000% to something more reasonable for your needs (test with 1 file in a folder and change the value until you get what you need).
The script will open all EPS found in a folder.
var epsOpts = new EPSOpenOptions();
epsOpts.antiAlias = true;
epsOpts.mode = OpenDocumentMode.RGB;
epsOpts.resolution = 72;
epsOpts.constrainProportions = true;
epsOpts.width = new UnitValue( 603000, '%' );
epsOpts.height = new UnitValue( 603000, '%' );
#target Photoshop
app.bringToFront;
var inFolder = Folder.selectDialog("Please select folder to process");
if(inFolder != null){
var fileList = inFolder.getFiles(/\.(eps)$/i);
var outfolder = new Folder(decodeURI(inFolder) + "/Processed");
if (outfolder.exists == false) outfolder.create();
for(var a = 0 ;a < fileList.length; a++){
if(fileList[a] instanceof File){
var doc= open(fileList[a],epsOpts);
}
}
};
368
« on: August 18, 2011, 10:26 »
Is this only for JPG image or do you accept also EPS submission? Thanks!! Looks a pretty cool endeavor
369
« on: August 18, 2011, 10:19 »
I think you need some big portfolios to make your stock images section appealing to buyers. How do we sign up and do you have FTP?
Agreed 100% with the big portfolio comment, sharpshot. We don't offer FTP at the moment, no, but zipped files direct to our S3Hub. If people would like FTP then we'll absolutely consider developing it - we're new to stock image sales so we're happy to be guided by those more experienced in the field.
Please feel free to sign up and give our back end a spin /www.superhug.com/users/new
If you are asking if I would want FTP to upload to your site? It's a Must... FTP with IPTC data. I have a lot of vectors, and for new sites, I like when you can upload your portfolio without have to process every single images. Best example of this would be Canstockphoto. Upload the EPS, go to your Unfinished section, tick Select All Images box and hit Submit. Be it 10 images or 100 images, all IPTC data is read, and makes the processing really simple. iStockphoto is a pain to upload because we have to process each image individually unless you are building your IPTC exclusively for iStock and not the other sites. Vectorstock is an example of site I will never upload to unless they add batch processing and FTP. Basically, if you want images to sell on your website, get this feature and let it be known here, there are a lot here who likes to give a chance to new sites which are simple of use for us, and have the (cross our fingers, be optimistic, who knows) possibility of making an extra payout each month. First you need to attract thousands of contributors images to your site, second you need to make it appealing to the customers who buys images, and to have a chance if you stay ''small'', you have to develop a niche for specific image buyers out there... or jump in and try to compete with the bigger Stock sites. Good luck, and let us know when the FTP and IPTC is out
370
« on: August 18, 2011, 10:12 »
I think some of you are forgetting about "Dreamstime". That name says absolutely nothing, but that hasn't held them back.
Well DreamsTime is a nice name if you ask mean. Relative to Dream, dreaming time, all the images you can dream off, anything that you can image, time to dream!
371
« on: August 15, 2011, 14:04 »
Hi! I read that in the about us page of your site: Our site is all about what we call "artistic curation". We hand pick the files to our collection and we focus on artistic expression and value. We intend to be your "Unique Royalty Free Library" where you can get the files you can't find anywhere else. Unique files, files which are a bit more than stock photos. Then, you check the most popular and downloaded files on your site, and it's: http://www.artfilmstock.com/photo/white-cat-in-enoshima.htmlI guess art is everywhere . Where is your website located and where do you target your clients? It clearly shows that your clients who buys image are looking for something other than traditional stock photos? Thanks.
372
« on: August 15, 2011, 13:13 »
It's been a slow summer everywhere for me too.
At Canstock, I am already nearly at my July total, and it's only halfway through the month. July was a slow month of course, but August at CanStockPhoto is looking to be quite a bit better.
At Shutterstock I didn't see any decrease in sales yet. Canstock been very good on July, I just guess like Duncan says, my ''luck of the draw'' this month is bad. I feel like I will do 50% less on Canstock. But still anything can happen from today and the end of the month. Nice to see at least that I am not alone Thanks for the input!
373
« on: August 15, 2011, 08:13 »
Hi!
Was just wondering if I were the only one experiencing a very poor month of August so far on Canstock? I am usually getting around 100-120$ per month at Canstock. Were are at the middle of the month and I am only at 13.50$.
Is this just my case or is anyone else experiencing a slow income for August at Canstock?
374
« on: June 21, 2011, 07:47 »
Whatever strobes you buy, make sure they have a fan in them. The heat is what kills strobes. You can get great deals on used equipment, but make sure there's a warranty, and a new flash tube and modeling lamp. Umbrellas don't work for still life unless you like seeing a little umbrella in all your shots. For still life, you want to be able to soften the harsh light that comes straight out of a strobe. You can use lumilux ( made by Rosco) or some other diffuser. The ideal would be a 4x4 silk scrim ( matthews or mole-richardson). They last forever. You'll need c-stand with a clamp head to hold it. With this you can use the light very effectively. Sometimes you want to blast the light straight in and fill with a silver or white card ( get them at an art supply store, or the Set Shop ). But other times you can try "feathering" the light away from the object a little bit, which gives a nice roundness and evocative light. Since this is microstock, of course you'll fill in the shadows, but don't do that until you see what the main light is doing. Since you're in the studio, try to shoot tethered so you can really see whats going on as you set up a shot. Keep going til you get the best shot you can. Don't send in 10 versions of a shot, send in one great shot ( my opinion). If you try to cut corners you'll end up with a flat boring light. You can also cut little pieces of silver cards and use them to fill in small areas. You can put them behind drinks to make them glow. Another thing that never gets mentioned is little blocks to prop things up. The best is a good quality hardwood kids block set ( all the sizes are the same, so they work together). Plexiglas blocks also come in handy. Armature wire ( get it at a sculpture supply) helps hold things where you want it, and it stays where you bend it. A-clamps, C-clamps ( sears has the best), sawhorses, a good heavy 4x4 tabletop ( 3/4 plywood, best quality), and sand bags. These are some things that make your life a little easier. Attention to detail is the key to good still life. The advantage is that your subjects don't talk back or work by the hour, and don't complain when you gaffer tape them or shoot a staple into them. BTW get gaffers tape and a staple gun. 
Hehe very nice and condensed information here. I will definetly take you advice as like you say, I know there are a lot of small details, accessories and props that can make your life easier to get the "good shots" working. I own a small advertising company that I have been running for 6 years now. I am a major client of microstock photography for most of my projects, and I did my studies in Arts and video animation, and did a lot of semi-pro or past time photography. I know I can trust my eye and "judgement" (not sure it's the right term in English) to get quality shots that sells, so I will head your word also not to overuse a subject and kill it with too many submissions. The only thing I need to learn is how to get the shots I want or see in my head... and I guess like everything I'll learn when I have my two feets in it for hours Thanks everyone, I definetly am happy to see all the interest, help and advice you are giving me in here. Will definetly post what I bought and how it worked out for me in the future, Thanks again, and any other advice or different opinion not mentionned yet is welcome!
375
« on: June 21, 2011, 07:39 »
I would certainly check out some alien bee lighting. They aren't sold at BHPhoto, but they are very cheap and I was impressed by their quality (I recently purchased a set for use while traveling (but fixed in one spot for a while)).
I also see that Sjlocke uses them
If you don't have a reflector already, I would put that on the top of your list. They are light, very versatile, never break, and great for outdoor portraits. You could shoot for a long time with only reflectors outdoors and not need any more equipment.
Thanks leaf. I will definetly look into the Alien Bee lighting. I have to trust you professionnals experience on this, like I mentionned there is so many things out there. It's not the first time I hear about those Alien bee, will definetly look into it. No I don't have any reflectors, but I took a lot of information here and there and it's definetly something I will need for outdoor whenever I am not early morning or late afternoon light to reduce the harsh shadows natural light can produce. I love all the advice I get it's definetly appreciated!
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