well you just have to live with the fact that people can have their say and opinion about things, because, hey, maybe that's what forums are actually invented for..

Wrong. Forums are organized around an area of interest to share experiences and tips. It happens that this forum is organized around microstock. Since you're not interested in stock, your opinions are pretty worthless. Have a nice day and ploink.

In a previous life, I was a divemaster/instructor with 600+ dives when I stopped logging. As diving deep in deco (I wasn't a PADI diver) puts too much strain on your body in the long run, I stopped it. The last period I was into UW photography, but not digital.

Even when snorkeling (I assume you're not just splashing at the surface, but you'll go down) you need to consider this:
- practice your snorkeling well beforehand in the pool since the key to sharp shots is buoyancy control UW - get a proper lead-belt for that;
- never go down alone; since you'll need to hyperventilate to stay more than 1 min down comfortably postponing the CO2 stimulus, you can faint by lack of O2. You'll need your buddy to throw off the lead belt then and turn you head up at the surface. No kidding.
- don't buy a non-transparent case since you won't see when it's flooding; make sure the O-rings are perfectly clean, especially no sand grains.
- buy a deco balloon. You can fix it to your gear and when you have to let it go, it's easy to find it back at the surface in strong currents and amidst waves. As an alternative, tie the gear loosely at your wrist.
- if you want to shoot some decent stuff, you'll need an UW strobe too since red and orange are gone mostly even at 2m.
- UW photos don't sell in microstock.
- The standard in cases is Ikelite but they don't come cheap.
- If you're splashing at the surface in a (sub)tropical area, wear a t-shirt and pants since without, you can easily get bad burns without noticing it.

Crowd milking.

I was just giving you a compliment...

I know, but I can't handle compliments.  I'm used to being scorned. Thank you so much.

I don't know exactly, but I would try exiftool. It has a very powerful command line interface and I am certain that it's possible to create some easy scripts to automate such actions.

Yap. Somebody (perhaps you?) mentioned this set before. It's just great. I've bookmarked and downloaded it but no chance yet to have a look.

I now send out low res images to have them keyworded - then I use GraphicConverter to copy all the metadata from the low res jpg files to the high res tiff files. Files have to be named identically, but can be different types.

Last weekend I was with a volume-microstocker that outsources his metadata and he used - weirdly enough - a Nikon program that does exactly that: automatically copy the IPTC from the lores jpgs to the production TIFs with the same file name. He's under Windows.

The spreadsheet method of Jazz sounds awkward at first glance, especially when uploading to many sites. Is there a way (desktop app) you can hard copy the spreadsheet data into the image IPTC?

Quote from: FD-regular on October 08, 2010, 03:45

Can you spot a tiny moon next to a blazing sun?

FD, you little Baudelaire that you are...  

Aaaah, Les Fleurs Du Mal   Those were the days! Although I prefer Verlaine for microstock: Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne blessent mon c�ur d'une langueur monotone. Translated: why so many subs on Dreamstime in autumn?  

Quote from: FD-regular on October 07, 2010, 03:14

Too late. Arcurs is there. 

a friendly question: does it matter?

Yes, since he is a top photographer with gorgeous models and a huge portfolio. So he will dominate the searches. Can you spot a tiny moon next to a blazing sun?

I am already on Pixmac via FT and DT.  It's impossible AFAIK to tell when sales come from there, but I assume I am getting my correct commissions from these sites via their partner program.  Of course I would love to get the 50% commission instead, but not sure that's possible in my situation.

That's what I was hinting at. Those 3d party sales on FT and DT have to pass an extra middle man. Why not negotiate with Pixmac directly since they apparently can block out the dupes. They even don't have to resort to image recognition technology: they can just filter on the user name.

You've got your referrals nicely hidden :-p

I've got a good tracking record on leaving sites 6-12 months before they go under (Snap, LO,). If that counts: I left CutC, Vivoz, Mostph, Crest, but I didn't leave FeatureP, Deposit, CanStockPhoto.

Rule #1: No microstock site established after 2005 will ever make it.

Maybe you will have better luck than I did. I have about 300 images with them for 3 years. 0 sales.

Perhaps they are not focused well on their niche, which should be Asia. I'm not aware of any stock site focusing on Asian real people and surrounds. There is Phildate of course, a Singapore photography celebrity. Why don't you start it? You have the domain already. 

Rest assured that FStockphotos will not be going anywhere anytime soon!

Too late. Arcurs is there. 

1) Yes, but my umbrella is longer and thicker than yours.

Alas, size doesn't matter. It's how you use it. Don't brag too much mate. Only your parliament is hung.  

2) Could you enlighten me as to how one manages to stand in a queue and be alone at the same time?

Well, jolly good Sir. The Britt will stand alone in what he thinks is the queue, while everybody else (unBritts obviously) bunches up in front of the desk, scorning and yelling at each other I was first. The strongest umbrella of course wins.

@Microstockphoto.co.uk : "Are there still un-British places in the world? Which un-civilised world are we living in?"
Take London for instance. All you can get there for a bite is chicken tandoori, Peking Duck, D�ner Kebap and that insult to global cuisinerie, the horrible Big Mac. Where's the fish & chips gone and the lukewarm ale served in bars that are only open 30 seconds per day? Even the Hastings pier burned down, the centre of Brittish amusement.

PS - we are getting grossly off topic.