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Messages - pancaketom
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551
« on: January 08, 2019, 11:54 »
.38 seems to be the most common amount I get for SODs these days. Very rarely are they more than 2.85 and mostly they are under $1. I got one higher value sale last year - and it was under $8
I sure miss the days of double digit sales amounts, and I am no longer making it up in volume either.
552
« on: January 04, 2019, 22:25 »
Phone companies are developing computational photography, which means taking multiple photos with different exposures and baking them into the final image, plus reducing noise. Computational photography is advancing faster than sensors, which is why phone cameras are advancing faster than DLSRs these days. Computational photography as an option on DLSRs would be definitely cool.
According to what can be found on google and youtube, Google Pixel 2 and 3 and maybe iPhone XS are probably the best for point and shoot photography. LG V30 and V40 are also up there if you prefer manual controls and if you don't mind lack of image stabilization.
I guess we can conclude that the new high-end phones definitely provide good enough quality for microstock. But what about sales? Is there a significant demand for higher resolution and quality or mobile photography is good enough for most of the buyers?
That "computational photography" is a fancy name for what we can already do in Photoshop, since quite a while, actually: stacking photos as smart objects, followed by a lossless noise reduction, using the median function.
True, smartphones do it internally with minimal lag between burst shots, but when using the same technique with a big sensor camera, the results are far superior!
Of course, there is no mystique in computational photography, it's all about processing data. I would say however that baking multiple photos with various exposures can have it's advantages over taking only one photo with one exposure which you process latter, maybe not right now, maybe not soon, but there is no doubt that the progress of computational photography will continue over the years. There are already mentions of AI which is supposed to further reduce noise and estimate what should be in each pixel, and maybe even enable increasing resolution. Only downside of this is that more computing means more CGI and less "real" photo. I guess some people will debate on this subject.
No doubt that big sensor cameras are far superior, and they will always be when it comes to the "real" photo with more details, but if point and shoot mobile phones are more than good enough, carrying big camera and lens(es) plus using manual mode plus processing latter on the computer makes sense only when you have a good artistic or other reason.
Or in our case - actually get paid decently for the work. I haven't looked at the output of the latest generation of phones, but all the ones before that that people said were digital camera killers and so wonderful were seriously lacking. If they aren't there yet, then in a few generations they might be. If all you need is something that looks nice on a 5 inch screen then sure, no reason to have a "real" camera.
553
« on: January 02, 2019, 11:53 »
25.8% of what I made 2 years ago and 34.3 % of last year. I think 123RF fell off the biggest cliff in the last few years. What was that "exciting news" again?
554
« on: December 31, 2018, 20:31 »
I have to go back to May 2007 for a worse month at SS - that was when I had ~250 images.
555
« on: December 29, 2018, 16:55 »
It has to be because Getty dont want us to have this information, there can be no other reason, all the other sites provide up to date stats.
The question should be, Why does Getty not want this information to be available?
The question is " we all know IS reporting is awful and will stay that way is it reason enough not to submit?"
no, but 85% is
556
« on: December 19, 2018, 22:04 »
In the first decade of the 21st century they were able to do it. Maybe they will report yearly sales by October in the 3rd decade.
557
« on: December 19, 2018, 20:28 »
That looks nice...
I noticed this part -
"... went all the way back to 2006 to send a portion of profits to everyone who contributed to Envato's success since our founding... "
That's nice - anything for the people that contributed to your success before you decided they didn't meet with your standards or whatever corporate mumbo jumbo you used to justify it. I suppose you did create less animosity in 2018 than you did in 2017, so I suppose that is good.
I suppose it is a good thing as my taxes have a lot less mess now without your weird misleading accounting.
558
« on: December 19, 2018, 16:28 »
decent sales numbers for a decent amount for which we get a decent percent.
We will put up with almost anything if you can deliver those three.
559
« on: December 13, 2018, 18:12 »
stockxpert, Istock, Veer, 3dstudio, photodune, bigstock, 123RF
Mostly because they lowered my take beyond my threshold or threw me out or were closed.
560
« on: December 04, 2018, 12:17 »
Et tu Alamy. Sigh.
In their defense when they went from 60 to 50% and started pushing sales in the US my income went up a lot. I don't really see any plan like that here except the idea that if they take a bigger percent they will have more money. Perhaps it is time to be a student. I'm sure there is something I need to learn - like how to make some money when sites keep taking a bigger percent.
It didn't make me more money from Getty, 123RF, Dreamstime, or anywhere else I can think of.
561
« on: December 01, 2018, 00:32 »
I am guessing that withholding (or not) as well as reporting income to the US IRS are the implications.
562
« on: November 30, 2018, 20:43 »
It looks like a little above the average for the year - so ok for now I guess. highpoint - Alamy - a few biggish sales and a number of smallish (for Alamy) sales. Low point - 123RF - wow, this site has gone from being a solid mid performer to an also ran. I made more there my first full month with under 200 images. SS, AS, and Canva all down from last month for $ and DL.
563
« on: November 28, 2018, 13:22 »
Well, that was a crappy move to pull on the long time contributors who got them where they are today. Sort of like ignoring the best of their photographers when they started offset. Hopefully they can at least dial down the oversaturation of their pet content at the top of the search.
564
« on: November 22, 2018, 15:30 »
for starters the month is barely more than 2/3 done. also how can things be the same and down 60%? It seems about the same as Oct for me except a few more big sales at Alamy, but the obese female has not sung yet so I don't really know. So, a lot less than during the good years (2011 - 2015) but things haven't fallen off any new cliffs.
565
« on: November 16, 2018, 22:54 »
Not nearly as much a sign of disrespect as paying us less and less for each sale. Of course if you stop uploading your images don't wait in the queue forever either.
566
« on: November 13, 2018, 20:03 »
Getting sales is nice. I am glad I started back when a significant number of a batch would get uploaded in the first day or 2 after they went live on SS. I doubt the level of sales today would motivate me to stick with it if I was starting now.
567
« on: October 27, 2018, 07:58 »
They were doing pretty well for me until they got greedy and grabbed a bigger share, sometime near the end of last year the sales plummeted again, and they took a bigger share. My take has dropped an order of magnitude and I no longer upload there. I think in their exciting news they said that paying me less was going to motivate me, but it only motivated me to send my files elsewhere.
568
« on: October 23, 2018, 00:51 »
yay - you got credited. since money isn't what makes you happy that should be enough.
569
« on: October 15, 2018, 07:11 »
Looking at this month's sales it looked like the new normal - ie <50% of 2012 ish sales up until the 5th, then it dropped to a newer lower normal? I hope not.
Every once in a while I go back a few years there and look at sales in a month - what a change and not for the better since then.
570
« on: September 27, 2018, 17:40 »
Today I had my first "good" day on SS since July 31 - this is a completely arbitrary definition of a "good" day that I am sure would be a horrible day for some of you. In contrast in Sept 2013 I had 13 days that met this criteria. I don't know what normal is at SS anymore, except it seems to involve a lot less downloads and a lot less $ than I used to get and the occasional 0 download day which didn't happen for a number of years - I am not going to go look at all the data but probably about 2007 - 2014 or later.
571
« on: August 27, 2018, 17:36 »
I rolled my eyes and threw up in my mouth a little when I saw the link to the post. I didn't even bother to look at it. There is so much more they could do if they wanted to improve things for contributors.
572
« on: August 02, 2018, 12:13 »
Thanks for the report. It seems most of their gains are in areas where most of us are not represented. I wonder how different it would have been if instead of kicking the people that got them there they had pulled images from regular submitters to fill their upper level offerings.
They contacted me in a roundabout way asking for a $2 EL recently. If that is how they are operating maybe I'm not missing out on so much (unless they are charging full price and offering peanuts to us little people).
573
« on: August 01, 2018, 11:22 »
They really fell off a cliff a year or so ago. My 12 month credits have dropped over 50% in the last year. I think my RPD is now lower than a subscription DL from SS. I stopped uploading when they last announced the exciting news that they will pay us less. I will probably try to delete my portfolio if I can't deactivate it.
574
« on: August 01, 2018, 10:12 »
Best month this year (a little better than an average month last year). Most sites were about average or a little better for these days with Canva down quite a bit and 123RF still really low (although almost double last month's really pathetic total).
Alamy made it a good month with a few big sales. While these are welcome, they are pretty random and certainly not anything I can count on. Still it lifted Alamy to my #2 site so far this year.
575
« on: July 16, 2018, 15:40 »
So if members buy a clip are they going to give the artist a cut of the membership fee - say like 50% of it?
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