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Messages - Anyka

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701
Adobe Stock / Re: Fotolia: New Subscription Commissions
« on: August 16, 2011, 11:37 »
Can you believe this?  I just turned emerald 1 week ago, after crawling up very slowly to 25000 downloads.  So 1 week ago I went from 33 to 34 cents for subscriptions ...  ;D ha ha ha, now I'm back to 33 cents!  (with a larger loss for the XL subs). 
Oh well, they did allow me to celebrate for 1 week ...

702
iStockPhoto.com / Re: iStock Location Aware search test
« on: August 15, 2011, 08:54 »
Okay, food/business/people it is!  Here are the results from Belgium :   http://home.scarlet.be/anneke.schram/test3.jpg

703
iStockPhoto.com / Re: iStock Location Aware search test
« on: August 14, 2011, 15:00 »
Maybe we should aim for Monday, say: 12 midnight Sydney time, 9pm Bangkok, 4pm Berlin, 3pm London, 10am New York, 8am Calgary.... (+/- 1 hour?) seems to be a time when its not unreasonable anywhere. I think emptying cache and doing a search both logged in and out coule be good.


I think we should follow the above suggestions :  clear the cache, do the search on the suggested hour, do not forget to sort for "Best Match" (not downloads), go for all images (not just photos) ...

Let's go for location sensitive searches like suggested : 
- pregnant (human)  (Asian searchers should get Asian pregnant people if it really is a location aware search)
- harbor (-) or cityscape (-)
- football (player)

I did the test a few minutes ago, and as far as Belgium is concerned, there's no such thing as location aware search.  Have a look at the results for cityscape/football/harbor/pregnant :


What shows op are New York, South Africa ...
does not look very location aware ...

Is this a good way to report tomorrow, or should we come up with more than the first 5 images?

704
iStockPhoto.com / Re: iStock Location Aware search test
« on: August 12, 2011, 15:25 »
Count me in for Belgium.  How shall we be reporting?

705
Off Topic / Re: Kiva!
« on: August 02, 2011, 08:08 »
As far as I know, they only use PP. I find PP a safer solution than buying with a credit card, but I understand people may have issues with either method.

Anyway, a solution would be people giving you the money and you buy Kiva gift cards for their use. The problem is if/when they want to cash out.

Yes, I agree, I prefer PP too, but I can hardly ask my friends to start up a PP account just for Kiva.  But your idea of buying gift cards for them is great.  I 'm convinced quite a few friends/family would be interested!

706
Off Topic / Re: Kiva!
« on: August 01, 2011, 23:51 »
I've been participating a few months now, paying through PayPal of course.  I'd love to suggest Kiva to my friends and family, but I cannot find anywhere on the site how payments can be done if you do not have PayPal.  Many people don't even like paying on the internet with visa/mastercard ... 

707
General Stock Discussion / Re: July 2011 Earnings
« on: August 01, 2011, 11:37 »
July was better than expected.  Despite the Istock decline (which is about 30% YTD), Shutterstock and 123rf are doing very well, and DST and Fotolia are also showing some growth, which gives a bottomline growth of 6% in dollars.  In euros - sigh - it's a different story :  going down just a bit, but I can hardly blame Istock for the financial crisis in the world (or can I ?   :o ).

708
Software - General / Re: Windows adds RAW support (finally!)
« on: July 27, 2011, 05:55 »
Great!  Thanks Leaf!

709
Dreamstime.com / Re: DT, is flagging images!!
« on: July 05, 2011, 14:23 »
I got flagged a few times.  They flagged old images from the times I just started keywording and I have to admit they were absolutely right to flag them!  I think I removed more than 40% of the keywords while cleaning up.

710
Yes, I export after keywording, and then use an FTP program (mine is Filezilla).
Which sites give login problems?  I can use it for SS, IS, FT, DS, CAN, 123RF, but not for GLO and CC.

711
iStockPhoto.com / Re: June sales
« on: July 02, 2011, 00:55 »
SS :       33% june11/june10 - 32,8% of total sales
FT :       1% june11/june10 - 25% of total sales
DS :     66% june11/june10 - 17% of total sales
IS :   -34,4% june11/june10 - 12% of total sales
123RF: 138% june11/june10 - 4,5% of total sales
ALAMY: -13,6% june11/june10 - 2,9% of total sales
BS :    -13,5% june11/june10 - 2,9% of total sales
CAN :  510% june11/june10 - 1,5% of total sales
RODEO :  -72% june11/june10 - 1,2% of total sales
GLO :  200% june11/june10 - 0,4% of total sales
CUT :  (4$) - 0,1% of total sales

So, Fotolia is stable. SS, 123rf and DS covered the loss of IS.  The success of CAN and GLO is a bit misleading, as I only started with them last year February.

In dollars this means an increase of 10%, which is great (and unexpected), but in euros it's -5%  :(

712
General Stock Discussion / Re: Red Cross logo
« on: June 26, 2011, 01:47 »
Sorry, forgot to sharpen it.  I started from the raw unsharpened image.
I also blurred the logo a little bit, as the arm/sleeve are not the main focus of the picture.
Here's the sharpened crop.  There's texture in the sleeve, but less in the badge, probably because it was made of filt or velvet.
I really appreciate your help (and patience with me) !


713
General Stock Discussion / Re: Red Cross logo
« on: June 26, 2011, 00:58 »
OK, I think (hope) I made a neutral badge on the sleeve now.
As the badge is not the subject of the photo, it should not stand out too much.
I'm afraid it still looks like a logo, so I'll need to add a note to the editor telling him/her I made the badge myself.

Here's a new crop :
Would this pass inspection?  (as far as copyright is concerned of course, it can still be refused for 100 other reasons  ;D )


714
General Stock Discussion / Re: Red Cross logo
« on: June 25, 2011, 15:19 »
Thanks Sean,
So may-be the best/easiest thing to do is :  leave the white patch, remove text and cross, and put some generic sign or the letters "FIRST AID" in it.
What about the medical snake symbol - that's not protected, is it? 

715
General Stock Discussion / Red Cross logo
« on: June 25, 2011, 14:36 »
Just a question about logos :  should I remove the red cross logo from my photos?   It's on the sleeve of a jacket, and not easy to remove.  And in case the answer is yes, what can I leave on the sleeve?  For instance : a white square with a green cross, and the text around it removed?
This is a crop of the sleeve :   
Removing the entire logo would be a terrible job.

716
If you buy a lastolite hilite, you can reduce the distance between subject and white background.
Look at :   http://www.lastolite.com/hilite-backgrounds.php
I think if you buy a smaller one, you can use it with only 1 strobe in it.

717
In that case, don't add people.  I wouldn't want you to be the first person to die for microstock  :D

718
Correct.  Don't specialize in drinks, because you absolutely need different subjects to pass the entrance test.  Add at least 1 people shot.

719
It is a much better image than the road signs (better subject matter, better sharpness).

720
It's a little better yes, but this is what you should do to make your next shot pinsharp :

- never go beyond f16, unless you need more depth of field.  f22 does not make sharper, it adds depth of field, which you did not need in this case.  On the contrary, f22 takes away some sharpness.
- shoot at 1/100s or faster.  if you use a tripod, use your timer (the 2 second one if you have it)
- sharpen at the end of your processing.  If you don't use photoshop, sharpen in your raw conversion program.  If you do use photoshop, then sharpen at the end.  RAW alsways needs some sharpening for final use (but don't exaggerate).
- if after sharpening during raw conversion you find some purple fringe (chromatic aberration) like you have now, try to correct this (Lightroom has this, but  I don't know about the other programs).

721
Did you shoot in jpg or in raw mode.  And if your answer is RAW mode, then my next question is :  how did you convert to jpg, and what method of sharpening did you use.  Did you sharpen during conversion to jpg, or at a later phase in post processing ...

722
General Stock Discussion / Re: Movies on a roll
« on: May 26, 2011, 11:13 »
I've been thinking about video these last months, but the thought of using my DSLR for it scares me off.  For many years (before photography), filming and editing movies was my n°1 hobby, so returning to my "first love" would not be a huge step.  But I don't know the stuff that's on the market this year.  Are the HD video cameras by Panasonic, Canon and Sony equal in quality to the DSLR's ?  I know DSLR's offer shallow depth of field, but if you put that aside, is the video quality the same?

723
Microstock Services / Re: Keyword Comparison Tool
« on: May 26, 2011, 00:02 »
Very useful and VERY quick!  I used it to compare keywords generated by the three keywording sites I know (dusegard, findphotokeywords and Yuri's).  As for the most important keywords, the results were of the same quality (dusegard slightly better). 
I wouldn't know how to improve this, it really works well, thanks for sharing.

724
iStockPhoto.com / Re: P+ How are your sales?
« on: May 19, 2011, 23:50 »
Lisa, I don't think P+ is the problem.  My downloads for May are down 50% too compared to May'10, but P+ is well represented in the downloads.

725
20% down in RC's, and even more in $$$ sales. 

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