I also use a Samsung - SyncMaster 940N.  I can see all the bars.

I'm probably not the right person to answer your questions, simply because I am a fanatic.  On the other hand I have 97% acceptance out of 460 submissions to SS so being a fanatic is sometimes okay (I believe sharply_done has an even higher acceptance rate, but then he isn't human......).

Firstly, your D50 is a noisy camera.  Technology has moved on since then.  Also, with 6mp you are going to eventually have cropping problems as agencies continue to increase the minimum file size requirements over the years.  Upgrade to a D40X if you have the money; the image quality is a huge improvement too.

Every digital camera produces noise and artifacts in some shape or form.  To minimise this, you MUST get the correct exposure.  As soon as you tweak the levels you will introduce problems.  Learn how to 'shoot to the right' and take a small white card with you to judge exposure by exposing for bright white with the histogram.

Turn all your camera settings down to neutral; that's sharpening, saturation etc.

I never use noise reduction software.  Some people use it very successfully.  The key is to not get any noise in the first place.  If you expose correctly you'll minimise the noise.

I always check every image at 200% magnification.  I look for noise and artifacts in shadows, reds and blues.  In fact I check every inch of every image, but then I'm weird.  If I see any slight hint of anything that the image inspectors might interpret as noise or artifacts, I gently smooth that area using a soft brush and Photoshop's smudge tool set at 2% or sometimes 3%.

I don't use RAW.  I found that by getting everything right in the first place my D200 could produce wonderful images as jpegs.

Watch out for sharpening.  Do it in the PSE file before you finally save as a jpeg 12.  I rarely apply sharpening, but when I do it tends to be very small - around 45, 1, 0 or sometimes 65, 1, 0.  If you need to sharpen more than that you'll just introduce more noise and other 'orrible stuff.

If you've got a great picture and noise etc is a problem, the solution is often to reduce it to a point where the problems disappear; okay you end up with only a small image at the agencies but at least it gets there and can sell.  This is where your 6mp is a limitation.  Upgrade to 10mp if you can afford to do so.

Hope this helps.

I had a look at your iStock portfolio.  My first observation is that nearly everything appears to be underexposed - that includes nearly all the pictures of the girls.

Also, you have lots of uneven lighting, even in studio conditions.  What lighting arrangement are you using?

If you are going for white backgrounds, you must make sure that they are lit to achieve an even RGB 255 - that will require at least two strobes aimed solely at the background, and for full length shots you'll probably need four to achieve an even spread.

Use your camera's histogram to take a reading of a plain white board positioned where your model will be, and adjust exposure so that the white falls exactly at the right hand edge of the histogram.

If you habitually underexpose you'll generate noise, which is what is happening.

Hope this helps.

You can get an interesting and well informed analysis of most Nikon lenses at Bjorn Rorslett here:

http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_surv.html#top1

The D2Xs is a wonderful machine; you shouldn't be getting any noise so long as you turn the in-camera settings down to 'low'; that's sharpness, saturation etc.  If you are getting noise it's because you are not exposing properly.  Learn to 'shoot to the right' and 'shoot to the left'.

Also, that camera produces fantastic quality jpegs, so you don't need to use RAW unless you prefer to.

You've made quite a jump upwards in cameras; note that the better the camera quality, the more it will show up ANY mistakes in your picture taking; focus, exposure etc; you will need to spend a lot of time finding out how to get the best results from that machine.

Three months isn't lonf enough Chode - you need to give it six months or a year.

However, if your pictures are good quality and good 'stock', you'll be earning more at SS within two or three weeks than you'll ever earn at FT.

I am disappointed with my progress at DT.  Can't work it out - I am uploading high quality, creative and commercial images which are giving me new BME's almost everywhere else, but not at DT.  Confused and disappointed with that.

I have noticed that page views at DT have been sliding downhill rapidly, and are almost as bad as BigStock.  At the same time they have been building the library at a significant pace.  So I thought I'd crunch a few fairly obvious numbers:

Going back to Steve's 'how many images' thread, back in April DT were approaching 1.1 million.  Now, just six months later, they are approaching 1.7 million.  That's an increase of 600,000 or 54%.  That means that unless my portfolio has also increased by 54% my 'exposure' to buyers is gradually being diluted.

Over the same period, according to Alexa, page views have declined from a reading of 0.0058% to a present level of about 0.0038%.  That's a decline of 34%.  Or, to put it another way, page views need to now INCREASE by 53% to get back to ealier levels.

So the library has increased by 54% but at the same time page view activity has declined 34%.

Any mathematicians out there?

I reckon I would have needed to increase my portfolio (everything else being equal) by (100*1.54)*1.53 just to stand still.  That's 235 or 135%.

This assumes that the number of buyers has remained constant.  It may have increased or declined.

Lincoln, please change your camera and get a DSLR.  You could find a used Canon 350D or 400D on eBay for not much money.  You can then concentrate on creating great pictures instead of spending so much time wondering how to achieve what you want with your existing camera.

Yes, so did I (at long last).  41 images, 100% acceptance.

I already dropped a quite note to Peter, sharply, and he sent me a reassuring reply.

I'm a little concerned to hear that yours have been approved and mine haven't been looked at yet - perhaps there's an allocation procedure and mine are allocated to the guy who's off sick/on hols or whatever.

Now 13 days........

I am still uploading, but getting concerned - this is such a huge change from the speed we are used to with StockXpert.

Now is not the time to be making too many judgements about Fotolia - they are just emerging from the V2 nightmare, and at the same time we have had the slower summer period.

After Sept 5th it will be possible to judge FT based on 'normal' business with everyone back to work.

Even though it is holiday time in Europe I have noticed that my page views are climbing sharply and easily reaching new record highs on a regular basis - this suggests that FT is gradually sorting the situation out.

There are many people who were very impressed with FT in 'the old days'.

Nonetheless I'd never be exclusive there.  OZ is correct in recommending SS and IS - both very difficult to get acceptance at BTW, and becoming more difficult with each passing week.

I'd advise to forget DT - they appear to be swamped with the flow of new pictures, and the customer base doesn't seem to be growing at the same pace.  Perhaps have another look at them in six months.

I'm singing too......