Quote from: panicAttack on June 27, 2015, 10:16

Quote from: ferdinand on June 27, 2015, 09:15

...this is a beginning of the end of EU - Tsipras is a historical figure - true hero!...

if you are not joking i would like to say that he would be a hero if he had any courage at least political kind of courage, and he was elected to have some. Greece choose him to do what he is supposed to do now, and what he does, he make referendum to wash his hands of any responsibility.

...I am very serious - this is a critical moment for the Greek people - a referendum is the right thing...

You and me can do the same thing. Anyone can. We should be Greece presidents. And heroes

...this is a beginning of the end of EU - Tsipras is a historical figure - true hero!...

if you are not joking i would like to say that he would be a hero if he had any courage at least political kind of courage, and he was elected to have some. Greece choose him to do what he is supposed to do now, and what he does, he make referendum to wash his hands of any responsibility.

I agree.  People in Greece are going hungry and dying because they can�t afford medical treatment in order to make rich people even richer.  Whatever the legalities, this is morally reprehensible and the EU governments, especially my own, should hang their heads in shame. 
The referendum is a way of standing up to bullies and very courageous in the circumstances.

I am all for referendum, but people of Greece are not going hungry or dying. People in some African countries are, but not in Greece. They have higher pension and wages then people in many others countries in EU, and once they had income even above Germany.  It's sad and unfairly that Croatian, Slovenian, Slovakian, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish or Bulgarian people (tax payers) sending financial help when you check this map:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage

and it was even worst few years ago (even Greece was already in crisis, wages were on pair with Germany, France or UK)

Governments are chosen by the people, and those people wanted to live luxurious much above their standards, they choose politicians who are promising them higher wages or not lowering wages...  and then, when it comes to paying dept, they suddenly became poor.

Need more details, you using strobes, flashes or continuous light?

lens hood only if light leaks from your strobes (or you use regular flashes?) or if you use continuous light.

if you have good softboxes or other light modifier you do not need it. (with strobes/flashes)

With continuous light you already know your exposure, if your strobes have modeling light it also help you to see where you light will be (hair, face, fill light) but you will probably need to adjust settings (power) or position of your strobes several times to get effect you want to achieve.

Strobes have more power then continuous light (in the moment of taking shot) but it can also depend of what do you have in that studio. It doesn't have to be the case if you have very weak (power) strobes.

to many of us saw that sudden increase (continuing today also) and in last 3 day i sold more SODs then in last 3-4 months.

it's good thing but something changed/happened.

Same here, very strange.

for this month until yesterday I had 4 total

yesteday I got 8 all 0.36 and 7 of them are same image

today I got 3 already

I also expect SS to lower royalties (or introduce some new program or change terms which will have the same effect) to compete with Adobe.

Thank you, but I really hope you are wrong with this

I wouldn't because I get $1.50 per sub and 9 or 10 dollars per regular dl already as an iStock exclusive along with higher sales at Getty.  I do think SS will need to do something to differentiate itself from Adobe, maybe a premium (think Vetta) offering of exclusive images.  They seem to be going that way with the PMC deal so it might not be too far fetched.

I know you are "the Istock guy" (not meaning you work for them besides being a contributor), but can you say honestly do you see less sales in last year or two? I dont know if you have your portfolio visible, or share your statistic (earnings/image numbers).

Alamy 50%, Getty 40% (30% for some), Offset 30%, Corbis not sure (depends on type).  Alamy and Offset nonexclusive, Getty image exclusive, Corbis depends.  Offset is RF and nonexclusive but I don't think you are allowed to contribute to the microstock sites, so it's not completely nonexclusive.

You were very helpful, thanks. I thought Getty was in 20% range, looks like it's not.

Yes, Offset is something different.

@toro thank you also. There is always niche even in beauty shots, but it's harder to find and create it. You are right about comparison of beauty and carpenter subject in terms of supply, but demand for those images is another story.

Thank you for adding examples. The images you posted are not rare, not on macro, not on micro.

The key to success in both worlds is to keep uploading into this niche if you decide this is the theme for you. Then the customers will remember your portfolio as a specialist for that niche and bookmark you.

You can do this on either macro or micro agencies, or you can go exclusive with one place, but maybe when you are starting out exclusivity is not a good option.

But uploading regularly, at least every month, is always the most important.

Shoot.Upload.Repeat.    Welcome to stock

Oh, thank you but I am not new in stock (microstock), I'm doing it for several years (photos and vectors) in it is my highest household income.

I was just putting example of trying to do step forward (if it is) in terms of earning, or atleast earning per sale.

I know that even for high quality beauty shots series of 20ish photos it's very hard for last few years to earn more then 2-3 hundreds dollars in a period of about a year.

In my way it is something like that shoot(few hours for whole shoot), post processing (few weeks for whole series of about 200 photos, very long period), keyword and upload (one day per week only for that)

Exclusivity is not an options, only image based.

Thank you

First, I am a single person. 

I was talking about expected income per for example 15 or 25 images which are assumed that will get approved on any macro or micro stock selling site. They are not some angry, happy, cheerful, pensive woman on white that are usually seen on micro sites. I know it's hard to tell anything without pictures but if I had to compare them with something already online it would be something like this:

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/natural-beauty-portrait-of-young-brunette-high-res-stock-photography/451807293

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-smiling-portrait-close-up-high-res-stock-photography/sb10068434b-001

so it is some kind of different feel/lighting/model/post processing then classic microstock in those photos.


And all of you were helpful, I am not macro stocker, but wanted to know and learned from your experience that those 100-200 � sales on macro sites are just rare as 100$ single sale on for example SS.

However I do see many of makeup/beauty shots on Getty, Corbis etc.

if you think you can ask for higher prices go somewhere that licenses your work for higher prices.

and that's why I opened this topic. That "somewhere" is my real question

What are my options?

You edited your post later, isn't offset artist exclusive?

Let, for example, say that you made series of your highest quality photos that you believe most or all RM (or even RF if you really want) agencies would accept and sell.

I understand few people want to tell their secrets and make him/herself more competitors but maybe there is someone out there.

Also, let say that those are makeup, beauty studio portraits (not usual isolated on white with microstockish screaming all over them).

I submit images to microstock agencies so I can't be exclusive anywhere, only image based exclusivity is an option.

I was thinking Alamy image exclusivity, or to send them to Corbis or Getty. Can I even sell there if I am not exclusive? Am i newbie or are those three best sales/earning wise?

Are there any specialized RM agencies for those kind of shoots?

Thank you for your time and excuse my English