Hi Tom,

Thanks for the histogram. Like you said, with playing with shadows/highlights you could have got far with only this image. But i understand your motivation
And lucky enough for this scene, only the water can move by wind so I guess architecture in combination with evening/night shots is a candidate for HDR.

The contrast in 7307136 is extreme, i understand you can't do that with 1 shot.
Nice shot, and done at a great time of the day.
Did you only sharpen it for this smaller version? (or perhaps photo.net did it) (the stones & tree give a sharpened feel).
The only comment (if you want to hear) i have is the light spot on the bottom left. My eye moves over the photo and goes to the castle and its nice towers, but instead of staying there, it then moves to that spot on the bottom left and wonders 'what is that?' I guess its water, but how come its lighter then the rest.  Which is a pitty since that is not where you want the 'looker' to focus.
Anyway, back to HDR, didn't you want to make the bushes/green a bit lighter?

You may find Charlie Waite's photo's interesting, (so i guess a dramatic sky would be nice see:
http://www.charliewaite.com/image-details.asp?LibraryID=2331
http://www.charliewaite.com/

regards,
bjorn

Hi Tom,

Nice shot!
i like the 155737 better, i guess on that shot the windows of the building come out better (compare the pink building at the back) Also the sky has more detail.

But did you need HDR there? if its not too much work, can you show the histogram of the middle image (assuming you made 3 shots)? In your opinion, would playing around with curves on 1 image, not have given the same result?

thanks/vielen dank,
Bjorn

About PovRay....

have a look at this:
http://hof.povray.org/

I love Gilles winning image:
http://www.oyonale.com/image.php?code=464

thanks!

what about PovRay?
http://www.povray.org/

found this image on IS (made by povray)
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/style_and_design/illustrations/3d_renderings/95164_tulips.php?id=95164

The tulips looks a bit plastic still, but sold 100x...

Hi,

What 3d raytrace software is used for generating stock images? 
I want to give it a try (used autocad/inventor at work), but don't want to start with buying a $$$ 3d software package  . And perhaps something more image related (iso technical)
Is there something free or cheap around that generates good enough quality for the stock sites?


Thanks,
Bjorn

Hi ldambies/cshack ,

Yes i can see IS reject Idam's sample image on "Over Filtered"
the sky looks too blue on my screen. sort of over saturated...
Ironic, since those images used to sell very well on IS, customers seem to like them...
but it may turn out well when printed.

I agree Idam, its what I think too so far, the better the camera, the less hdr need...

Hi Bateleur,

Do you sell Licensed or royalty free on alamy?

Quote from: ldambies on May 24, 2008, 15:37
I wrote something on my blog about HDR and microstock some time ago:

http://microstockexperiment.blogspot.com/2007/09/hdr-and-microstock.html

Since then I used it much less but still sometimes  on landscape and architectural shots. They can even pass IS if the HDR looks natural

L

hi Idambies,

>"They can even pass IS"
doesn't sound very promising  ...

in your blog you write:
>"HDR pictures represent 60 and 65 % of my portfolio on SS and IS respectively."
now you say:
>"Since then I used it much less"

Can i conclude you move away from HDR?
What is your motivation? the noice?

Hi oboy,

I guess, your car in motion picture will be impossible to do with hdr. But i get your point...  But in my experience, the less fuzzy (movement) the better the sales....

>and movement photo do get accepted and sell.
Can you pass a link? I can't find a sale on the 2 you mentioned...


>I cannot see why it should not work for web use.
since pc screens only have 256 colour shades per R,G and B.
for printing ok i can understand, but for web/pc???

Hi Bateleur,

-About ghosting: don't you have trouble with eg. wind? moving clouds or grass? & sharpness

-about contrast, do you shoot in RAW? eg. my canon 5d uses 12bits, if you convert that to tiff i hardly have trouble with contrast, only on extreme sunny days... So i don't really see the point yet in HD (for microstock)... but perhaps i change my mind after this...


Ohoy,
looking forward to see how the HDR software will handle the moving water!!  And if the palm trees move by the wind...
if you did it, please submit some 100% details.

I'm selling images on the micro stock sites for a few years now and I'm thinking now of submitting photo's to Alamy too.
Can you give me some tips on submitting to Alamy (compared to micro)?

Thanks,
Bjorn

Hi,

3 questions about HDR (high dynamic range, combining exposures of multiple photo's):
1) Do you use it for (micro) stock photography? (and why? since 90% is used for web)
2) What is your acceptance/submitting experience related to ghosting (moving objects), artifacs & sharpness.
3) What HDR software are you using (if any)?

Thanks,
Bjorn

hi,

Thanks again & nice shot!

bjorn

Hi Oliver,

Thanks!
yes, i guess sales will be slower, but the reward is better, so it may be worth it...
Haven't really looked into it yet but do you know if there is any record on what sells (and what not)?
May i ask what sort of photo you sold there?

regards,
bjorn

Hi,

Any (dutch) out here who submit to http://www.nationalebeeldbank.nl/ ?

I would like to hear your experiences.
Is it worth translating all your keywords back to dutch?

Thanks for sharing!

I guess you all know, but anyway, its good practice to keep your body facing down when replacing
lenses. I know electric static will go against gravity but at least the 'heavy' things fall out and not on top of your sensor this way. Also make sure your 'new' lens is clean on the side it faces the sensor. Also when outside, try to do it inside a bag.

Just google for copper hill
1 of many results http://www.copperhillimages.com/index.php?pr=Tutorials

Hi,

just looked at the new balance sheet on stockXpert to find out it changed.
now got both the (old) credit and the new subscription sales & $, nice they show it both, but not so nice that the link is gone telling you which photo(s) sold on that day 
Do you know any other way to see which of your photo's sold for a day (or week)?  (don't want to go though all) you can't sort them on download date...

http://www.stockxpert.com/balance.phtml

regards,
Bjorn

congrats RMR!

>Are you guys getting creative with your picture titles or are they just descriptions?
I have the feeling that a simple name like 'EGG' would do best (in searches etc), but from time to time i can't stop making it funny/creative

Hi leaf,

Can you add this one?

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=4403071

thanks,
bjorn

Nice subject...
My first one is in the queue... (hope its not too dusty & gets accepted ;-)
It has to sink in a bit more & i have to shew on it, to get the more creative things...

I uploaded 7 photo's last week, and all where rejected with comment "subject too blurry" this although they are pin sharp photo's & accepted by the others. (StockXpert photo no. range = 5139271 - 5253361).
Have the same idea, that they want to clear the queue.

send them an email, when they did the same trick a while ago, but it was never answered.

If you have mass rejections of last week, what range are you photo's in?

regards,
bjorn

Rated and commented.

Here is one of mine:
http://www.stockxpert.com/browse.phtml?f=view&id=5085301

Yes, Leaf come on, lets hear the next subject/round...
(as long as its nothing with people...).

I still have 20 eggs in my fridge, if anybody is interested ;-)
Amazing to see, how difficult it is to find a white egg here, had to see 5 supermarkets...

% earnings per agent


Istock           38.78%
Dreamstime    23.64%
Fotolia            6.07%
StockXpert    27.58%
BigStock        3.94%  (only 10% of portfolio uploaded)

Hi,

Not that i'm too serious about it but, just as a mind game...
Reading the complains on the existing agency's made me wonder...
What would it take to set up a non profit micro stock agency?

With the focus on the photographers (& customers) in stead of the company itself.
The goal to give as much return to the photographers as possible.

Obviously there are some cost, the hardware (servers etc) & marketing/advertising.
I guess if we keep the site simple there would be a few of us that could work together to get something in the air, saving expensive software engineers. When successful, it can always be expanded. (so eg. only keywording and no categories , to save us time on both sides)

Instead of hiring people to look at the photo's for acceptance & quality, we could set the rule that if a photo is accepted at any of the existing big 6 agency's its good enough for us. So when you upload an image, you also give a link to an agency where your image is online. Checking this can be done in exchange (i do one for you you do one for me), randomly generated by the software, or in case you don't want to check other people's photo's, you can choose to pay eg 10 or 20 cents to have it done, hoping your photo will earn it back on its first sale.

Big changes and introduction of new ideas could be done by voting. Where all contributors have the same vote right or some system based on the number of photo's you have online.

Here on the forum there are 800 registered users, lets say that there are 500 active one's with an  average of 200 photo's () that would bring in 100,000 photo's a nice start. But i'm sure that if we give 80%(?)  to the photographer it would draw new uploaders quickly. By setting the pricing a bit below the big 6, will draw customers and since the 'company' doesn't have to make a profit, both contributors & buyers are happy.

Big question is, how much do we need to spend on marketing to get it moving?
Does this require a financial injection or would it be possible to set up a system where eg. every contributors first earned $10 would be used for marketing. And i'm sure that with so many creative people around, there is one that can write a nice article/press release (free marketing).
As soon as sales start moving the 20% on each photo earned could be used to keep the site in the air and for advertising.

Any brainstorm ideas?