Quote from: tickstock on March 08, 2014, 16:41
I think contributors will see income from the ad revenue generated by images in the embed viewer.

This income can also be clawed back after a year or two, when they discover a "glitch" in the viewer. These muppets cannot even calculate subscription royalties, why do you expect they would be able to report ad revenue? It would be rocket science for them.

After the google scam I expected this kind of scheme. However, I thought they would create freestock with the Flickr and Istock collections possibly with some other collections too. The scale of this scheme is surprising. After the google scam I have been only deleting stuff from IS. They offered me a contract through Flickr, I even printed it out, but never signed it because I was sure they wanted to scam me.

No doubt SS and DT will be hit, I will be hit personally because my photos are often used in editorial contexts. I think the chances that Getty succeeds are 50:50. The more top photographers quit, the lower Getty's chances are.

Did Getty devalue photography? In the lower end of the market – yes, definetely. As for high-end commercial photography I would say no, at least not for now. Most of all they devalued their own collections. It actually raised the value of independent exclusive commercial collections, like Stocksy. Who would now licence Getty photos for big bucks? Their photos will float everywhere, why would big brands use them in their campaigns? This is a Getty Images picture, even losers and hobos can afford it.

I don't want to whine about Getty. I haven't read the whole thread. I will try adapt to the new situation and look for alternatives.  I started to learn programming this week... I am happy I can upload my best work to Stocksy.

What can be done about Getty? I believe the only solution is a big, multi-tiered co-op run by the right people. The Stocksy team did an excellent job and is very successful, but it is not designed to challenge the whole of Getty. Two years ago I was very skeptical about co-ops in the context of stock but Stocksy proved that the co-op model can work, and that "happy cows give more milk".

A big, multi-tier, multi-collection co-op could now challenge Getty, even if particaption in the co-op required buying shares to fund it. For sure many top Getty photographers are sick and tired by now. A co-op could have a lower end collection to challenge Getty's freestock if the real profits are distributed among photographers. It's not impossible. The only way to fight Getty is to deprive them of content.

Quote from: spike on March 04, 2014, 21:42
Can you imagine iStock tweeting something similar to what Sean tweeted if Stocksy were to experience downtime, repeatedly?

No, because they probably cannot react so fast. They need more time to think, to act.

Tune of the day: Radiohead Down Is the New Up

Radiohead - Down Is The New Up [In Rainbows Disc 2]

Get yourself together
Let the light pour in
Pour yourself a hot bath
Pour yourself a drink
Nothing's gonna happen without warning

Down is the new up
What is up, buttercup?

Down is the new up
Is the new up

Your services
Are not required
Your future's bleak
You're so last week

Ladies and gentlemen
Without a safety net
I shall now perform a 180 flip-flop
I shall now amputate
I shall now contort

Because down is the new up
What if I just flip-flop?

Down is the new up
Down is the new up
Down is the new up
Is the new up

You crawled off and left us
You crawled off and left us
You crawled off and left us

All on candid camera
The chink in your armour
Topsy turvy town
Topsy turvy town

Shake your pockets out
Pass it on
Pass it down
Topsy turvy town
Topsy turvy town

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on March 04, 2014, 18:33

Quote from: Pickerell on March 04, 2014, 18:17
The customer will be paying a flat fee for a subscription. If they buy the higher level subscription they will be able to download as many images from any collection as they want. Effectively, the customer is paying the same price per image regardless of which collection it comes from.

That's not what the announcement said though (I thought the same thing).
"Our new Image Subscription model allows our customers to download a specific number of Photos or Illustrations, of any size, monthly, from our Main, Signature, and Signature+ collections, depending on the tier."

So, for $X, you can have 100 Main, 20 Signature and 10 S+ .  Or whatever.

Then it is somewhat similar to the system that DT used in the past:
$0.35 > $0.70 > $1.05 according to the DT image level
Customers complained and DT abandoned it.

Changing the File of the Week turned out to be more challenging than expected.
The person who knew how to do it had been banned by Lobo.

Quote from: ArenaCreative on February 05, 2014, 16:01
I'm not lowering my commissions there either, because people just buy what they see and like regardless of the prices.  It's a retail trap, and women with credit cards on sites like zazzle are dangerous ;P LOL

You might be on to something, Todd, you might be on to something...

Quote from: Mantis on February 04, 2014, 22:05

Thanks.  that's where I would want to be, but I would need to get help on setting up my own site....etc. But that is an idea I have been tossing around with my wife, paying someone to do the initial work then "teach me" the stuff I'd need to know in order to work the site, get good placement, etc...as you describe. There may be a thread soon about me asking if anyone wants to book a development job

Mantis, I'm afraid you should do it yourself
To have a succesful website you should understand well how it works. It's not difficult.
Have a look at video courses at lynda.com, they will guide you through Wordpress installation and setup. Piece of cake, really. I have a lynda.com subscription myself, there are lots of interesting courses.

Ron, you seem to be a generalist and as such you compete with all microstock sites.
A specialist site with good articles about the subject might have better chances.

Since this is a niche where you are an expert, I would be tempted to sell directly and set up a site specializing in underwater images. You must have a pretty good collection, take an SEO course or read about SEO. Divide the collection into categories, locations, etc. Describe the photos in detail, write some blog articles about your adventures and the stuff that you have photographed etc. If you do it the right way, as a specialist you might get decent Google traffic.

In the long run, only the biggest sites and specialists will be successful.

Having a refund would suck really bad

5. When you're an IS exclusive.

6. When you start to suspect that DT exclusivity wasn't such a brilliant idea.

7. When you're an IS, DT and FT exclusive at the same time and luissantos84 discovers it.

Quote from: Ron on January 10, 2014, 12:25
Roughly you get one EL on every 500 DLs, thats seems to a reliable average.

Interesting. I checked mine and in the years 2008-2013 I had 1 EL per 250.21 downloads (including footage sales).

However, in 2013 I had only 1 EL per 361.08 downloads.
4 of my best-selling photos had very frequent ELs before 2013, then the new most-popular sort hurt them, which may explain the drop.

Anyway, I think SS is currently the best place for the type of images that Sean decided to upload there.
The real fun at SS begins when the images reach high positions in the most-popular sort of popular searches. Unfortunately it seems to be more difficult than 2-3 years ago.

Quote from: ShadySue on January 09, 2014, 04:32
AllPosters has been around for years.
Don't know about Art.com or any agency tie-ups though.

AFAIK they both belong to Getty, but I may be wrong.

No increase for me and unfortunately FAA terminated the deal with amazon.com.
All my images except one are gone from amazon.com.

Sony A7 (24 MP) or A7R (36 MP).
Full frame mirrorless cameras.

There is a kit lens (28-70) for the A7.
I am waiting until they start to sell the Zeiss 24-70 f4 and then I am going to buy the A7R.
The sensor performance is similar to Nikon D800E, but in a much smaller and lighter body.

Sure, there are smaller and lighter options but to me A7 / A7R seem to offer the best compromise between quality and weight.
The main problem at the moment is the lack of dedicated lenses for full-frame E-mount.
I just hope Sony will release a telezoom and an ultrawideangle zoom quickly. 17 mm tilt-shift would be cool as well, but this will probably not happen too soon.

I have a 5D II + 6D + many L lenses but travelling with them is very hard, I need something lighter, too.

You could probably pass Shutterstock inspection with cheaper cameras, but for me personally it wouldn't be good enough.

Quote from: oxman on December 15, 2013, 23:34
..!

+1

Quote from: gostwyck on December 10, 2013, 21:26

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on December 10, 2013, 20:47
Jumping into a 250k 'investment' with no knowledge of the industry, and one contributor doesn't seem very smart to me.

The $250K for the domain name is probably not as risky as it first appears. My guess is that the name itself will remain a saleable asset which will probably increase in value faster than most investments.

I don't think so. Soon new top-level domains should be available and then this domain will be worth a fraction of what he paid now. The availability of new TL domains will be like an earthquake for "domain investors". It will open new opportunities, too.

IMHO now is the last good moment to sell existing domains.

Quote from: Ed on December 01, 2013, 02:41
I think you need to take it one step at a time....do you have a work visa in the UK or just a student visa?

Ed, he doesn't need any visa whatsoever.
Here is your homework :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union

Quote from: ShadySue on November 30, 2013, 18:42
As I'd assumed it was lifestyle, I never imagined it was for me.

Lifestyle is not a photography style, it's subject matter.

Quote from: Ron on November 30, 2013, 10:26

Quote from: Snufkin on November 29, 2013, 20:49t.

Check out this guy:
http://www.stocksy.com/ShaneGross

A true master in his niche, he brings something completely new to the table.
Awesome pictures.

Mantis does that too. Is underwater photography new?

You miss the point. What I wrote is that if you are a master in a niche, you might have better chances of being accepted than when you shoot the most common subject matter. Or you might not.
You can replace 'underwater photography' with 'shooting fantastic pictures from the Earth's orbit' or anything else that has a relatively high barrier to entry.

Then again, you might be a master of lifestyle photography and have better chances than somebody who shoots a niche subject matter but is less convincing. There are many factors to consider.

Quote from: Magdalena on November 29, 2013, 14:44
I'm very surprised, I think that Julie has very good images. May be they want to see more photos in portfolio? I don't understand this rejection.

Indeed, Julie's presentation was somewhat small but many images were brilliant.

DISCLAIMER: What I'm going to write below is not advice or recommendation. It's only my personal observation and I may be completely wrong.

Julie shoots lifestyle and lifestyle is probably the best represented category on Stocksy. There are quite many brilliant lifestyle photographers on Stocksy who can submit or already have submitted images of comparable quality / style.

Stocksy is different from microstock because the plan is not to have 10 gazillion contributors submitting 100 fantillion pictures every year. Stocksy is not about growing the contributor base like crazy but rather about building a strong collection. Lifestyle sells nicely, but I would expect that for applicants it is now the most difficult category - there are not so many holes in the collection and the standards are very high.
Are Julie's images beautiful? Yes. Would they fill a hole in the collection? Probably not.

Check out this guy:
http://www.stocksy.com/ShaneGross

A true master in his niche, he brings something completely new to the table.
Awesome pictures.

As I said, I do not recommend anything. I may be completely wrong.

Quote from: Ron on November 27, 2013, 12:29
I still have the feeling that the Stocksy start up was more about getting friends and big names in rather then sticking to their own marketing ploy.

I was nobody's friend and no big name for sure - the curators must have seen my name for the first time when I applied.

I have a 4TB HDD where all my photos and related files live. This drive is named "PHOTO".

I backup this drive in two ways:
1. External USB enclosure which holds 8 disks. My other HDDs are also backup up to other HDDs in this device.
2. My computer case has an open slot for HDDs accepting 3.5 and 2.5 HDDs. Basically I can use internal SATA disks as you would use floppy disks, they are hot-swappable.

Backup software: I use SyncToy and SyncBackFree and simply mirror the PC drives onto backup drives.
Some people will say there are more sophisticated ways than mirroring but I am afraid that the backup file might go corrupt at some point. With my method I have (at least in theory) exact copies of my drive.

Of course I back up the raw files and Ligtroom catalogues. They are most important.
Folders and file management:
I use Lightroom to manage RAWs, TIFFs, PSDs only with basic keywords allowing me to find the photos quickly.
I manage JPGs in AdobeBridge using a "batch system", e.g. BATCH 2013-01. Each agency has a separate folder and the BATCH folders are pasted into Agency Folders. I upload them immediately. This way I know which batch has been uploaded to a given agency. After some time I delete the jpg files from agency folders leaving empty folders to save space while keeping track and they stay only in one master folder e.g. BATCHES - 2013.
I don't care if an agency rejects a photo and usually don't go back to it. Most are accepted anyway.

I am thinking about renting a small bank safe and keeping some back up drives there. It is recommended to keep at least one backup offsite. Bank safes are much cheaper than online storage but you have to make a trip to the bank from time to time.

Quote from: alexa_adrian2001 on November 23, 2013, 20:46
Regarding raws: i understood and have seen that is not so easy to backup a raw file. The changes are saved by lightroom in a separate folder. So in case you want to move a raw on a backup disk what do you do? I found out that is complicated.

No, the changes are stored in the lightroom catalogue file. You just need the RAW files (keeping the original folder structure) and the LR catalogue file to recreate your photo library on a new drive or machine. Just write down the partition letters where the raws are stored. When you move your stuff to a new drive just assign the same letter to the new partition (e.g. Start > Computer > Manage > Disk Management). I've done it several times, it's painless. You  don't need to care about preview files, they can be recreated automatically.

Quote from: ShadySue on November 17, 2013, 18:47

Quote from: gostwyck on November 17, 2013, 18:36

I particularly liked "Shutterstock should be building space ships". I've absolutely no idea what Yuri is talking about but the sentence does have nice syntax.

I assumed he meant so that he could work out how to light it in outer space.

Only the bravest ones would board a space ship built by iStock.