Oh yes, as well, they do give you the credits....that I know for fact

They are pompous...I guess thats the best to describe.  They were #1 for a long time and it tends to get lonely at the top so they tend to lose touch with reality.  I always thought and still do think that categories suck.  Period.  Most people will prefer (if not all people) to use the search which will turn up the results they want.  Protect those by stopping keyword spamming and the problem is solved.  So until iStock gets dethrowned...they won't change.  Unfortunately they give Canadians a bad name.   

In the long run, the best thing to use would be a polarizing filter or ND grad filters. They will save you lots of time and effort on the computer.  That being said, good ones are expensive and they take time to implement - but the results can be very eye-popping.

With that also being said, I don't have ND grad filters yet because they take way too much money to buy (the good ones can be up to 100 US a filter - so thats on the waitlist behind L lenses, more memory, and a step-up ring for my 62 mm polarizer 

Wow! 2000+ photos.  If only I could have that kind of range

How are you fairing in terms of return on your photos?

-gareri

Hey everyone,

I just want to see what you guys think about this scenario at 123RF:

Well as we all know its becoming one of the slower sites and, for me anyways, a bother to keep uploading to.  So I asked Mimi at 123 to contact me to discuss taking my pictures out and cashing out my $8.80 that I have on there since that site is a complete waste of time for me (no FTP, that stupid Java uploader makes my computer type funny when its on).

So it took her 2 days to get back to me, but I responded quickly - within the hour - and she hasn't gotten back to me yet - its been almost 3 days.

Now I know they are busy but I'm going to assume that they do not want to cash people out and give them their money so easily.  On my part its only $8.80 and I don't really care if its through Paypal or cheque or whatever, so I don't see why its proving to be such a hassle to take my photos off their site.

Any input is appreciated....I want to make sure that I'm not off the wall on this one.....as well, if anyone knows how to do a professional portrait mask (so that I can change the background when its difficult to isolate, I'd love to know how to do that)

I'm not sure where Lucky Oliver gets their copyright information, but a park out in a field is NOT copyrighted, and neither is the word CASINO.  That being said, it seems that the site is being VERY picky (even pickier than SS).  A toy dog is not copyrighted either. 

I'm probably not going to bother submitting to them if they have unreasonable rejections like this in the future (keeping in mind that some of these pictures do not sell on Shutterstock or elsewhere, I'm not caring too much about those)

Hopefully it works out otherwise...but it did take 3 days for my FTP'd photos to show up.

Hi

I was just wondering if anyone could tell me what the best way to print a 20 x 30 photo (its for a friend for his birthday) and I found a place in Toronto that will print it for about $35 CDN. 

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to print it another way?  As well, what is the best way to mount it/plaque it so that it will hang on the wall (also being a bit cost efficient - I have a maximum price of $130 CDN.

Just looking for suggestions since I've never done this before and I don't want it to turn out shotty.

I think that StockXpert should get some consistency in their approvals

"thanks but we are not looking for such an image" is the worst rejection especially when the same building but a slightly different angle gets approved.  Same thing with a tower that I took a picture of.  Its the funniest thing ever.  So that taken into consideration, the keyword cleanup should be just as much of a joke as approvals

Well, June is over.  It wasn't that bad for me considering its my 2nd month - I tripled my 1st month's earnings (which is nice, and I plan to try to triple June's earnings in July - who knows) and Shutterstock has emerged as the top dog.  iStock is next on my list.  Lets see what happens.

Anyhow, here's my breakdown (in brackets is the all-time breakdown)

Bigstock - 7% (8% overall)
Shutterstock - 42% (32% overall)
Dreamstime 20% (25% overall)
Fotolia - 8% (8% overall)
FeaturePics - 8% (6% overall)
123RF - 8% (17% overall)
StockXpert - 7% (5% oveall)

These % were done by Excel, so if its 1 percent off (like out of 101% or something) my apologies.

I hope everyone is doing well.  Good luck for July.

Luckyoliver is a waste of time in my opinion. �I haven't gotten one sale and I have given up. �There are few proven microstocks that provide good money, but I have no idea where these other ones come from or how they stay in business.

I've made the same amount on SS this month as I have on DT in 2, and SS makes up almost 40 percent of my all-time earnings.

I recently came across the technique to create a new layer, do a high pass at around 1 pixel or so (i've gone as high as 8 or 9 pixels too) and then overlay that with the original layer to get more sharpening. 

Just wondering what you guys use (for those with crappy lens kits like me .  I have been using both but the high-pass tends not to bring out noise as much.

Any comments?

Does anyone know when the FTP/internet upload is starting on Alamy?  I'd like to get on them because my main goal is to build up cash to buy a CoolScan from Nikon, scan all my dad's 35mm and slide negatives and upload them onto there.  But I really don't want to go through the hassle of sending DVDs (and I haven't made anywhere near enough to buy that scanner). 

If anyone could give me a date of when thats starting that would be great

Thanks

Hi Lizard,

You virtually see nothing on the LCD.  You need to look through the viewfinder at all times to take a picture.  You may think this is a bad thing, but really it is not.  The viewfinder is much more accurate than most LCD screens, if not all.  The only problem is that your face has to be in the camera. 

That being said, I have a 350D and its fantastic.  I have the kit lens and its a piece of crap, but you have to understand that the camera can be the cheapest part of the deal.  The best lenses cost boatloads of money, which makes me sad since I'm a student and photography isn't my profession ( hopefully my profession will make me money so that I can afford the little photorgraphay things I want).  I don't want to discourage you, but I'd like to make sure that you know the camera isn't the end of the line.

About the 350D, I would suggest it highly.  Its compact (some say too small, but I don't mind), its easy to use and its got a GREAT censor.  8MP is more than enough for many people and with Photoshop CS2 interpolation techniques, you can get the photo to be quite large without much quality loss.  2 things about the camera, its got a small viewfinder and I find, personally, that its hard to tell if the pictures that you take have good exposure with the LCD screen.  Other than that, its a great piece of equipment.

I hope that helps.