Will, you may be getting the impression that microstock is difficult and requires years of training in order to enter its hallowed portals. But there is a hidden side, the side no one talks about - and it's filled with microstockers who didn't know what . they were doing, or which proper button to press, but started doing it anyway and learned on the go.

Most martial arts masters would say you are the perfect student, coming with an empty ricebowl just waiting to be filled up with juicy fat learning. I mention martial arts, because while bladed weapons aren't permitted or possible in virtual space, I can see them metaphorically slicing through this thread if I focus hard enough.  I also saw rainbows once too, but apparently that just means a giant migraine is coming. Which is slightly unfair when you think about it.

Quote from: cuppacoffee on July 16, 2011, 17:47
It seems you want those here to do all your work for you.

Most successful people don't say "I want to" or "I'm going to" do anything without putting in some time before making such statements. They usually do the research, learn by trial and error or by study then "do" before they give opinions or make statements they are not qualified to make. "Personally I believe the Olympus PEN E-PL3 is the best, but I am no expert in cameras or photography."

From your previous posts it is hard to tell if you are some teenager with enthusiasm, high expectations for something that you know little about or a hobbyist who has had friends and family ooh and aah over their snapshots. You have obviously found this forum through some internet search and that is a place to read and take in the past wisdom without jumping in as if you are an expert. Many here are generous to share their wisdom and experiences.

Your enthusiasm is heartening and it makes us all think back to when we started. There is nothing wrong with asking questions but try to ask ones that need more than basic answers here. Perhaps you don't know the difference. And, unlike some other forums this is not one of the typical places to just "chat" back and forth (well, sometimes it is). This is a forum with professional photography members who have been at this for some time.

It seems you would do well to take a community college class first, ask the teacher many questions and then come back here to fine-tune what you've learned after you have taken many photos. There have been some young shooters who jumped in with both feet and have become very successful but it was through much trial and error. They will ask a question here and there but only if they are entirely stumped after reading everything they could get their hands on or finding a mentor who is a pro.

Good luck to you but this will take dogged perseverance. It's a little late in the game to enter this market. How about selling fine art prints? Is there an outlet for that in your area. Perhaps a camera club nearby that you can join? Camera club members like to talk and give advice as well as tell you that they like everything you shoot. As others have said, learn the technical details but begin by shooting what you like and then trying your hand at selling, whether it be stock photos or craft fair prints.

No disrespect given, I wish you much luck but it takes more than luck. Do your homework.

Luckily plato didn't say to his students 'fe*k off from under this tree and look it up in a book.' 

And why is it so late in the game?  Is there a photographers' constant, so finely balanced that any new microstocker coming in could explode the universe?

There is a valid and legitimate place in microstock for those who've never read a book and thinks a classroom is one of the lesser comfortable places to fall asleep in. It's great to be stern and serious and stuff but saying things like "Most successful people don't say "I want to" or "I'm going to" do anything without putting in some time before making such statements." is just disheartening and quite frankly false.  Some of us don't, you know. Think, I mean. The fact that it doesn't work out OK is just a myth.

Anything that's flat like a cigarette packet is probably a point and shoot. DSLRs are bigger and clunkier.  The rule of thumb is 'can i fit it in my pocket or down my bra?'. If you can't , or if people point and look at you funny, it's probably a dSLR. 

You'll definitely need a 50dd bra cup, coupled with an actual 75a cup in order to wedge a dslr down there. Try to avoid bras filled with gel, because they can burst all over your camera and do a lot of damage - even with this so called 'weather-proofing' bait n switch lie the camera makers pedal us.

I'm confused - did you get your account terminated even though you didn't break the Terms of Service?

So, everyone who uses a legal font should go, so should anyone using the high pass filter in PS,  people who add motion blur, in fact anyone who uses software at all instead of digging their picture out of sand with a stick.

So is it true  that our accounts can get terminated for arbitrary reasons, without a robust appeals process?

I like your images, but the bw ones seem a bit flat and are unlikely to do well in the land of supershiny. It may be an idea to start learning one of the black arts of photoshop - frankenscaping. Frankenscaping means ignoring reality because that's too piffling and just creating the world like a jigsaw.   Keep a box of skies, and have a box of foregrounds and sprinkle in windy paths and lonely trees and terrifyingly powerful sunrays.  

There seems to be tons of frankenscapes on the front pages (unless I'm massively confused about what reality normally looks like) - and most them just seem to be fields, so you don't have to climb annapurna, canoe through the sundarbans at the risk of tiger attacks OR get up at 3am in order to land the one shiny quarter dollar that many agencies assert as being appropriate recompense for our intensely hard labour.

Mine are all training partners or teammates. Pretty excited at the moment because we just formed a state frisbee team and some of the new players are freakily acrobat. Such a wrench though - do it or photograph it : S (or third option surgically embed the camera - although that hasn't gone so well -bacteriologically- so far)

Quote from: Slovenian on July 08, 2011, 08:26
If you missed the 2005/2006 train, or didn't at least start before 2008, you never really stood a chance.

Isn't believing something like that the same as encasing your feet in concrete before setting out for a nice brisk walk?

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on July 03, 2011, 05:07
As for the "you get more out of helping others than you put into it" mantra, fair enough if you are using it as a marketing tool to sell yourself or your products or to get referral earnings (as Yuri does) but casually showing people how to compete against you without having a clear idea of how to monetise that (and at a level that will compensate for iStock's new commission system) is counter-productive.

This kind of thinking only works if you base your decision-making entirely on the values of profit and self-gain. 

Life's a bigger box than that isn't it?  How about the unquantifiables?  The happiness you get from helping someone do something they never thought they could do? And the mixture of annoyance and excitement when they start competing against you? The despair when they beat you to the ground?  The devilish enjoyment of creating a cunning plan to defeat them? The desperate training montage where you become a master in 3.2 minutes? And the dénouement where you both, lying broken in the dirt, overcome your differences and decide to go and conquer the world together?

I'm a big fan of money but you know what the dalai lama would say - he'd say (i get his fb status updates) the only chance of real happiness is through acts of compassion. 

So the real question is: is it an act of compassion to introduce someone to microstock - or is it more humane to club the idea to death while it's still young?

I like them. They do better than BS and they pay fast.

Quote from: shank_ali_reborn on July 01, 2011, 20:25

Quote from: luceluceluce on July 01, 2011, 13:13

Quote from: shank_ali_reborn on July 01, 2011, 07:02

Quote from: madelaide on July 01, 2011, 01:18
I think the biggest risk for a traveler in India is the food!

Buffalo is quite tasty by all accounts.....

Oh buffalo. You know you've got that when the butcher said it was beef when you're still chewing your first mouthful at 3 in the morning.

And mutton is goat, and lamb is goat. Who knows what goat is because i've never seen it on the menu - maybe lamb?

Do they have Tesco's in India ? .Must have a few  McDonalds or Burger King's ?

If you're in Delhi you don't have to worry about food at all. At all. You'll be able to get everything and anything (not monkey). 

On this beef thing - best steak I ever ate was in India. $2 for a kilo of fillet.  But you have to cook it yourself because most restaurants don't distinguish between cuts.

Muslims and christians = meat.  A sentence that sounds so wrong in so many ways, but is actually very innocent.  I'm not sure if three nouns, a conjunction and a maths sign is a legal sentence but the underlying truth is solid.

Quote from: shank_ali_reborn on July 01, 2011, 07:02

Quote from: madelaide on July 01, 2011, 01:18
I think the biggest risk for a traveler in India is the food!

Buffalo is quite tasty by all accounts.....

Oh buffalo. You know you've got that when the butcher said it was beef when you're still chewing your first mouthful at 3 in the morning.

And mutton is goat, and lamb is goat. Who knows what goat is because i've never seen it on the menu - maybe lamb?

loads of us have to submit a property release even for things from our own imagination... would a reviewer let a (non-editorial) shot like this pass without one? 

Quote from: shank_ali_reborn on June 30, 2011, 08:02
The boxers will obviously contain something special,for the winning bid 

My head just swam through all the possible options for that and none of them are good

Quote from: WarrenPrice on June 28, 2011, 14:22
Maybe unrelated to your subject but I did notice that "Most Sales" is not necessarily "Most Popular" on SS.  It seems their "Most Popular" is based on a ratio of Sales to Views?

Not sure but do see that a new image makes it to the front of Most Popular as soon as the first time it sells.

I have an image on page 1 of most popular (for martial arts) that hasn't had a dl in 6 months.  So that's weird.

Quote from: LSD72 on June 29, 2011, 15:29
I just shot with the left eye in viewfinder... slid the camera over to the right eye and used the same focus point and shot again. I have a program I picked up for free on the net that does the anaglyphs.

: ) lol... simple

My dream would be to make a hologram of yoda, one that could really cut things up with a lightsabre.  Tables, stuff like that.  Hoping for a slight amendment to the laws of physics in my next firmware update (go canon go - i believe in you)

Quote from: traveler1116 on June 29, 2011, 16:47

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on June 28, 2011, 00:06

Quote from: shank_ali_reborn on June 27, 2011, 19:22
Getting a Visa is going to be a PITTA imo....

Don't call yourself a photographer, they will want you to get a journalist's visa (double the price) and provide guarantees that you won't take photos. Logic doesn't come into it. Just be a tourist.

When I applied for mine to China I wrote photographer on the visa form, the lady at the embassy told me to change it to something else and proceeded to white out what I wrote and said I should write "unemployed" since I wasn't working for anyone.  I again wrote photographer for my India visa and they said that it is really bad to have that on the form so I quickly told them China let me change it to unemployed and they agreed it would be better and they whited out photographer so I could write unemployed.  I think it's pretty funny that the world's largest democracy and communist country have both come to the conclusion that a photographer is worse than an unemployed person.  You don't need to write photographer on the form and you shouldn't unless you want to pay a lot more, send in credentials, explain a lot, and wait months for a visa, you aren't a journalist so you won't have any problems.

Depends what kind of visa you're applying for. If it's a tourist visa, definitely don't put dancer, volunteer worker, photographer or anything like that. The indian government will want a letter from your employer guaranteeing you won't be doing those occupations during your stay.

Quote from: shank_ali_reborn on June 28, 2011, 19:36
Oh and i dont eat curry so whats tasty in india?

Tandoori!!!!!!!!!! : )

Quote from: abracadabradesigns on June 28, 2011, 14:46

It wasn't like I stuck a cattle prod up your butt to make y'all squeal the information I needed.

Y'all squealed willingly and y'all loved every minute of it, lol.     

Duane

Squealing and cattleprods and evil laughing. That's microstock. You've already mastered everything you need to know about the industry.

So proud of you! You've come a long way in this thread, and from uncertain beginnings you've become the man you are today.

Love a happy ending : )

Quote from: LSD72 on June 27, 2011, 21:51
Put on your glasses 

no glass dammit : (  did you make this by taking a series of shot in a parallel line and then choosing the left and right eye?

Interesting. I have to admit I've never seen a 3d movie... but I do run to the stereoscopes in photography museums and I have to be pried off with a large spatula.

But don't you think it HAS to be more than a fad. I mean, our eyes see 3d. 2d just isn't natural in this world. Isn't the only thing holding this back the technology?

Sure the technology isn't there yet... but they've already made computer screens that don't need glasses and paper is defnitely on its way out.  How many bookshops and newspapers are closing?

Hi Guys,

What do you think?  The new Lytro camera is able to take 3d images. They've invented new microscopes able to photograph 3d bacteria.  Many gamer machines are 3d ready. Are we now at the start of the 3d age?

This is speculation but technology moves fast, and if it's already in the consumer market - does that mean the clock is ticking on our 2d images?

Does a 3d image agency exist? Anybody here already using this technology?

Interesting tho. I wonder what will happen to the value of our 2d ports...

Quote from: Mantis on June 27, 2011, 01:38

2. Always ask if you can take someone's pic.  I was taking a pic of a lady behind a flower stand and she kept shouting at me in her native tongue and pointing her finger at me.  Then she came after me with her fist and started pounding on me as I curled to protect my equipment and my face.  Police came.  They laughed.  Then educated me on what not to do.

This doesn't help if you want good editorial shots - it's better if they're not posed.  99.99999% of people won't get angry - and for the tiny percentage who do, it's an opportunity to apologise and make friends.

Indian is a dreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeam for people shots. They're not all 'oh no my face is precious like gold don't even look at me' like westerners.  A little smile with the eyes, and the head jiggle, and you're away.  Also, there is no truth here, only debate - so if someone tries to stop you there's always a way around it.

If you're lazy just sit down until a crowd gathers in front of you, then snap away on the portraits as much as you want.

One thing's for sure though, more people will take your photo than you theirs.

Indians will charm you : ) they're so generous and light of spirit.

edit: don't take photos of fishwives! they'll beat you up and be foul-mouthed about it too. but i think that's everywhere in the world?

Quote from: abracadabradesigns on June 26, 2011, 04:23
The only thing I don't like about Photoshop Elements is that you can't batch process photos. 

I take a lot of photos under the same lighting conditions, just the composition of the shot changes.

If I shoot 50 shots of the same thing, I would like be able to use the same settings (level adjustments, contrast, etc) and apply it to all of them.

Photoshop Elements does allow batch processing, but only with their automatic presets... which kind of stinks.

That's why I was looking into using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop Elements together (AL for batch processing and PSE for editing) or just using Paintshop Pro which can do both.

Duane

My opinion, stop focussing on the batch processing. You're probably gonna find it difficult having even one of the images accepted, so lavish loving care on a few rather than a blanket process. And leaf is right, go for photoshop or elements. Photoshop is a universe all of its own - you'll never reach the end of it (I suspect it of being spherical - possibly with it's own moon).

If you've never had a dSLR, never used photoshop, and never submitted stock get ready for a huge shock... it has technical requirements all of its own which are absurd, ludicrous and hinderingly frustrating. 

Huge shock.  Massive. Ginormous. Seriously.

Skip the rebel go straight for the 5d mark2 - starve if you have to, use your neighbour's bathwater - we don't have to smell you so it's not a problem. It's a very fashionable time to be in debt and there'll be a lot of people to share your experiences with if it all goes pear-shaped. Life is risk! Cowboy up goddamit!

Quote from: lagereek on June 25, 2011, 19:37
I always thought it was some silly little girl, with legs up on the desk, filing her nails, chewing gum and the odd weed puff,  hence the weird inspections. Ten hours later she is so dizzy from all the garbage shes been watching that for the next ten hours, everything is accepted.

What women have you met?  We can definitely be silly, with our legs anywhere we want, filing what we want , chewing puff, smoking gum AND do a serious job all at the same time

I think you need to direct your suspicions to another quarter.