One of my stock models is extremely upset, threatening legal action as he has found his photo used by a 'hair replacement' clinic and his photo has been doctored to show a receding hairline and patches of baldness. His friends have seen it and are rather amused - he on the other hand is seriously annoyed and is threatening to sue us.

Does this break a site's T&C, to use a photo in this way and to doctor the image. I am not sure which site downloaded it but I need to get some advice from you guys before I go after the hairloss company.

Thanks in advance

Phil

Thanks for all the replies and helpful insights. We are only thinking of selling the portfolio as I might be moving countries and it will be difficult to maintain the partnership - I'm certainly not destitute - it's just one possible solution that's all.

Putting a value of year's of hard work and future earnings is definitely going to be a difficult exercise.

Hi Microstockers,

Due to changes in personal circumstances, my partner (business) and I are thinking of selling our stock portfolio of almost 10,000 images. How do we begin to try to put a price on this given the fluctuations in sales and revenue and lack of clear understanding on what the future might bring.

Can anyone point us in the right direction. We believe we have a strong portfolio and it does generate a good income each month.

The portfolio is probably best seen here : http://shutterstock.com/g/eastwestimaging

Appreciate any bits of advice.

Phil (for EastWest Imaging)

Thanks for clearing that up. Actually it turns out that if the model is paid the legal age is 18 so we are ok.

I have a couple of questions regarding the model release. Anyone with a legal background who can answer - thanks in advance!

I have always required models under the age of 18 to have a parent present and sign the model release. However now we have a situation where a model was almost 20 but two and a half years after the shoot the mother is kicking up a fuss since she has seen an image used at a educational establishment where the woman does not attend. Her argument is that in Singapore, you must be 21 to legally sign a contract (I am still checking this out).

So where do I stand? All the model agencies require a minimum age of 18 and therefore that is what I have been using. However if it turns out that you need to be 21 before you can be a legally consenting adult in Singapore, does that mean my models have to be 21 to sign or since the MRF is legally binding under the law where the agency is (Calgary in iStock's example), do I go by the legal age in that country.

Any definitive answers would be most appreciative so I can go back to the irate mother and sort this out!

I just joined the MSG on Kiva, have been making loans there for a long time but had some Kiva credit to re-issue today and did it as part of the group. Everyone has re-paid their loan so far which is great, means the scheme works and I can re-loan to someone else.

I have just done some analysis and although it is not certain to be 100% accurate because of the different credit packages people can buy, based on current earnings of 50% commission (and ignoring ELs), I would see the income on my last 250 sales drop from $303 to $229 which is a drop of 24%.

Quote from: PixelBytes on July 05, 2009, 01:58
BTW, anyone contributing to Infinite on Fotolia have anything to report about income from those sales?  I haven't heard anything about it in a long time.  Is it dead in the water?

That's what I was about to post? I was thinking more seriously about shooting some stuff just for Fotolia Infinite, probably on-location lifestyle shots and submit the studio stuff to the usual micro sites.

The way that sales have plummeted at DT for me makes me think that all those admins at DT should be spending their time doing something a little more constructive!!

I definitely notice the summer slowdown now, it started in mid June (well, mid Feb on Dreamstime) and I expect sales to be depressed until September. However, I am about to take a month off so I can't really be annoyed if others do too!

We only shoot people and make money doing so. The trick is to not use model agencies who will take you for every penny you've got. The economic situation has hit models quite badly too and many are willing to freelance on the side since their agencies are just not getting work for them at the moment. The most we've ever paid a model is $200 for a whole day's work, our usual is around $20 per hour.

However, I've found this amount is well worth it over using non-professional models. Working with a trained model who can smile on demand, knows their best angles and how to use them to achieve the desired result is worth far more than what we pay them!!

Quote from: Danicek on July 01, 2009, 14:50
This is the first ever I see only red arrows on the right side poll. Interesting...

Sorry, my votes turned 123rf and CanStockPhoto to green...

Quote from: Dook on June 28, 2009, 13:35
Are Lumix-LX3 files suitable for microstock? Have you tried? I wanted to buy one, but I am not sure if I can shoot stock with it.Thanks.

I am hoping to get some LX3 files accepted somewhere (I don't think IS or SS will accept them) at some point. I actually shot some studio stuff with it since it has a hotshoe attachment for the wireless trigger and a Manual mode. Will see if I can get one accepted somewhere and let you know.

I've just come back from five days in Cambodia armed with film cameras and my new LX3. Haven't had the film developed yet but thought some people might be interested to see what this little gem of a 'point and shoot' can do.

Pics shot in A mode, RAW and edited in Lightroom 2.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phildate/sets/72157620516583843/

Just did a quick calc in my head and my ratio is pretty much the same as Lisa's.

iStock is so much easier with DeepMeta - if you upload to iStock and you're not using it then do check it out. It changed my life!

Easiest for me has to be 123rf - no categories and simple MRF attachment. After that, CanStockPhoto, CS are easy too. Mind you, the good news is we've just employed someone to do all this for us - yay!! :-)

I think it is just ebb and flow. With a portfolio of close to 4000 images I am seeing a fairly consistent level of downloads and commissions. Weekends are obviously only about 20% of weekdays.

I have some exclusive images on Fotolia and I like the ability to set prices there, to a certain extent. They have sold as well which is always good.

I've been dropping through the ranks quite consistently and although it's not really something to worry about, it's kinda reassuring that it's happening to others too.

I had a pretty decent month with 123rf last month and am sticking with them for now. They certainly did better for me than Bigstock, which really does seem to be dying a slow death, which is a shame as I have a lot of respect for Dawn and Tim. But new site improvement for photogs there just don't mean much if there are falling sales.

It read the same as all my other per image sales:

12 credits (2008) for a Large image (Green level whatever that is!)

Anyway,have emailed support at DT and will see what they say.

When I followed the link in the email I found myself logged in as someone else, with access to their account details and all their personal information. This is quite worrying. When I finally logged in as myself, images were transferred from SV but no thumbnails showing.

At the moment I am quite discouraged by the number of errors found by the users here. You would've thought that they would have spent a bit longer testing this.

Any hope for the future here I wonder.....

As I understand it, the commission at Dreamstime is still 50% and this is approximately what we should receive for each per picture sale. I understand that this fluctuates slightly depending on the credit package purchased and when it was purchased but I am confused by a sale recently.

It was a 12 credit sale for which I received $2.94. Can this be right? Thought I would ask advice here before taking it to Dreamstime support.

I am a UK citizen living in Singapore. There is no tax treaty between Singapore and US so am I right in thinking that I apply for this from my UK address and using UK passport?

I can't see why they couldn't just prepare an email for submitters from each country explaining clearly what was needed from us. I don't have time to wade through pages of forum posts or the IRS website.