I dont like their inconsistent sales, their unreliable search engine (keywords), and the fact that they give priority to production companies (free advertising, featured photographer of the month, only showing top 10 busy photographers).

What makes it worse is the fact that they used to be a top agency, but they dont seem fair anymore. At least at shutterstock when your upload a lot you are guranteed some downloads from that batch, but with Dreamstime, you could go 3 months before any of your new images from a particular batch has been bought.

Hi Guys,

I have noticed a trend with my portfolio at istockphoto, the more I upload the more I earn each month, this used to be the case at shutterstock but is no longer. I also find that at dreamstime that sometimes in spite of the heavy upload of images there isnt that much of a progressive change in downloads and earnings.

Those anyone know why this? Is it down to the efficient search engine system that istockphoto has and restrictions on monthly uploads, that contributes to this progress?

Hi just curious do you already have a client base (a few customers) that are fond of your work from when you sold through microstock sites?

Hi Guys,

I was wondering how many of you employ or pays someone to retouch your images for you? Have you ever made use of these photo retouching services?
I have a large bulk of images that need to be retouched, and I have been working on them for a long time, and speed up I want to speed up this process by employing a photo retoucher.

What can I do to ensure my images wouldn't be stolen or used by the retoucher?

Hi Guys,

I was wondering how many of you employ or pays someone to retouch your images for you? Have you ever made use of these photo retouching services?
I have a large bulk of images that need to be retouched, and I have been working on them for a long time, and speed up I want to speed up this process by employing a photo retoucher.

What can I do to ensure my images wouldn't be stolen or used by the retoucher?

Does anyone know if Yuri Arcurs uses Lookstat, and if not does he plan to? Cos Andresr is big earner and he uses Lookstat, didnt he have any concerns?

Also I think Lookstat should do more to promote their certified level of security, and prove that they have systems in place to hold themselves accountable in the event that photographer's login details is stolen/copied etc.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the response, all the info you have given has been really helpful. I especially benefited from the link Adeptris posted http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5FubCsniEQ, it is really good it has cut my photo retouching time by 65%, thanks  .

Yeah, hopefully they will because it would be great idea, I have posted this in the forum of the sites concerned I hope to get the sites to notice.

Thanks

Hi Guys,

I was just reading some of the info on Lookstat, and it occured to me that it would be really good if microstock sites could introduce, another layer of security for requesting pay. That way it will be easier to sign up to sites such as Lookstat without worrying about anybody stealing your earnings. This extra level of security could only be reset via the email by which the photographer signed up with. Infact if microsites provided an extra feature that allowed photographers to login just to view their stats, and a seperate one for uploading and requesting pay it would be very useful.

What do you think?

Hi Guys,

Do you any of you guys have any links to video tutorials or websites that explain how to get a perfectly even lit white background, for a full body shoot?
I find that when I do 3/4 body shoot the background seems to be evenly lit and there are no inconsistencies in the white background, and this is due to the way the crop the shot during shooting. However when I do a full body shoot, I always have to spend ages in photoshop removing the background.

I normally use two elinchrom lights for the background, and 1 key light. Should I be using 4 background lights instead to cover the four corners of the background?

Thanks

Hi guys,

I have noticed that dreamstime provides its photographers with the search term that was used for the last image bought from their portfolio. I believe this is a very good feature and encouraging when it comes to keywording. The question I have is, when the last download has n/a does this mean the buyer went directly to the photographer's portfolio and scrolled through to make a direct purchase? Is this also a good indicator for knowing how many buyers are aware of your brand (bookmarked/added as favourite) and therefore chose to go directly to your portfolio rather than using the general search which shows images from other portfolios?

Thanks