Quote from: ShadySue on February 13, 2013, 02:41
That would only be relevant if the client wanted exclusivity. [1]
IME very few of Alamy's RM clients want any degree of exclusivity, they just buy a specific RM licence.

I did say "exclusive" sale in my answer. Yes, very few clients want exclusivity – but chances are higher, the more images you've got on there. Last month, I had a buyout of one of my images (through another agency, not Alamy). Bagged me a decent amount of money. The image was a 3d illustration, and very "microstock" in style, I was surprised someone wanted to do a buyout of that particular image.
In other words: exclusive licenses DO happen, and it's hard to tell when and where.

Imagine a scenario where you place images with Alamy, and over the years forget about things and THEN you get that exclusive sale.

Quote from: ShadySue on February 13, 2013, 02:41
I used to worry in case some piddling wee RM use that earned me $10 would prevent me every getting a later big exclusive for that, but I don't even think of that aspect now.

One RM sale doesn't cancel out a later exclusive RM sale, if there's no conflict of territory and usage period. (And at $10 I would expect a very limited usage period anyway).

Quote from: 1Stockman on February 12, 2013, 20:30
I will deactivate at least a part of my portfolio at iStock and would like to sell part of it as RM on Alamy.

Does Alamy accept images that have been RF somewhere else and that have sold as such before?

Well.... the way you asked this question, I'd say you know the answer already!!
If Alamy ever sells an exclusive license of such an image, you better have a good insurance that has you covered, in case Alamy's client finds out.

I always check my "Zooms" that never sold, for copyright infringement. (Via google images reverse image search). Really worthwhile – particularly if it's a RM image and is registered with the US Copyright Office. Unless the infringement happens on a blog or chinese/russian/... website: Pay day, big time.

Obviously, a differentiation between RM / RF. And – very important:
I would like to see a good shopping system for physical products, particularly for Fine Art print sales:
- different sizes
- different print materials (canvas, paper, c-type, etc...)
- an edition number for each image AND how many prints have already sold in the respective edition (= attracting buyers if the edition is to be "closed" or unavailable soon)

From a web-design point-of-view: It'd be nice if it was based on Wordpress (easy to incorporate within a wordpress blog, or Wordpress FlickR plugins for example)

Quote from: grsphoto on February 13, 2013, 00:24
Have you been talking to buyers of images?

It really doesn't matter too much what sellers ( us ) want, but what do the people who will be putting money into our pockets ( hopefully) want.

Glenn

What the sellers want matters VERY much indeed! There's too many e-commerce packages out there that don't do everything I want. I could have the perfect Seller's website, but I would have to incroporate 3 different systems to achieve it.

What the buyers want is: good prices, good imagery, good keywording, good web-design,... And THAT is down to the seller, not the backend-system.

Quote from: ShadySue on January 11, 2013, 12:52

Quote from: BelIblis on January 11, 2013, 12:45
I thought it would be... still, a bit annoying considering Alamy say "This tool allows you to see all searches from customers who have spent money on Alamy within a specified date range."

I can't find the page that explains Alamy Measures, all I can find is a video.
I know that the information was somewhere in writing, I just can't lay my eyes on it.

It's on the actual Customer Search Activity page, right next to the results.

And yes, I would think it IS a rather useless tool given the fact that even "high profile" destinations such as Grand Canyon & Tikal show hardly any sales.

I thought it would be... still, a bit annoying considering Alamy say "This tool allows you to see all searches from customers who have spent money on Alamy within a specified date range."

Dang it 

Guess I'll have to bite the bullet, at least for those images that I want to market as limited edition giclee prints...

Hi,

Out of curiosity, I had a look at the "Customer Search Activity" on ALL images (not just my images) on Alamy for the past 12 months. Not many sales there at all....

For example: there were only about 40 searches related to "Tikal" (famous ruins in Guatemala, UNESCO World Heritage), and only 4 sales.
Searches related to "Grand Canyon": only 8 sales in the past year!

Surely this can't be true – Alamy wouldn't be able to stay in business with that bad a sales performance!

Quoting Alamy: "If you are contemplating which images to submit to Alamy, you can use this tool to research how often a subject is requested and how many sales, zooms and views were recorded."

Well.... not much of a tool if they don't show us all their data, no?

Yep, I thought it would be that.
But I guess this would also mean that my images can't be reproduced as postcards either, right?

Hi,

Does anyone know what "restriction settings" I should use, so my images on Alamy can't be sold for fine-art print sales? I've found some settings for other merchandise, but not explicitly for fine-art prints.

If necessary, I'd be happy for customers to produce posters/postcards with high print-runs and/or on standard paper. But I'd like to stay in control of what gets reproduced as fine-art giclee prints etc...

Any ideas?

Quote from: Equus on January 07, 2013, 19:32Our own dear ClaridgeJ constantly tells us how much more he makes with his macro portfolio.

Exactly, same with my portfolio: I have a way higher return per image with macro than with micro. The other day I sold a very(!) basic still image in macro RF – $50 in royalties for me, from ONE sale. (fruit, cutout, "mugshot" lighting... really not a very exciting image). Plenty of similar images in the micro world, but for some reason the customer chose my macro RF one.
2 months ago I sold a RM image, nearly $900 in royalties for me. Night-time shot of a city landmark in Paris (not the Eiffel Tower!), shot from a very popular vantage point. Plenty of very similar images in micro editorial. (I was actually surrounded by another 5 photographers when I took the image).

A friend of mine works in the marketing/design department for a big Fortune500 company. Despite the current economy, she doesn't have any budget restrictions whatsoever. If she finds the right image, she'll buy it – whether it's micro or macro prized. She's got a lot of work on her plate, so she doesn't have the time to keep searching different agencies, just to save a few bucks. Once her gut feeling tells her that she found the right image, she'll move on.

Hi,

I do a blend of travel and studio stills (mainly food). Been with Alamy for a long time now, but it's been over 4 years since I last submitted to them. In the old days, it often took up to 6 months or more before an image sold on Alamy.

From my other agencies (both RM and RF), in the past 2-3 years I found that quite often I get sales within 1-2 months after I uploaded an image. Is it the same with Alamy these days? Or is it still around the 6-month mark?

Of course, each image is different. But what's your overall "benchmark" so to say?

D'oh 

Sorry about that....
Indeed, I should have looked on the My Alamy page first. (Instead of googling & searching both the Alamy and the Microstockgroup forums, like I did

"Images must have the necessary releases and permissions"
"images cannot be included on a per pseudonym basis"

So, if you have just one unreleased image in your collection, you won't make it into Alamy Creative? Sounds a bit unfair, no?
How about unreleased travel imagery, which is fairly common in Getty's creative collections (for example The Image Bank)!

Does anyone know if it's worthwhile moving into their Creative collection? I mean – does it really produce more sales? In theory, it should.... however, buyers might not use that function very often.

Hi,

I've already got around 400 images with Alamy, and want to contribute more. Does anyone know how to get into Alamy's "Creative" collection? Is it possible to move certain pseudonyms into creative, whilst keeping others non-creative?

Thank you

http://www.abouttheimage.com/4486/agency_frees_up_400000_free_stock_images_to_combat_illegal_downloaders/author43

Is this Dreamstime gone completely bonkers or what?

Quote from: lagereek on January 24, 2012, 06:57ecause in the RM house-collection, its person exclusivity, Im sure of it and with both Stones and Image-bank, the RM stuff was person exclusivity.

Hi Lagereek,
Are you sure about this? At which point in their contract does it say so? I'm in a housecollection and I could only find this:

"All Content submitted to Getty Images is on a Content exclusive basis. This means that Content submitted to Getty Images and any other content that is substantially the same (a "Similar") may not be licensed to any third party unless Getty Images has notified you that it has been rejected."

That's unless Getty does any art direction or pay for production costs.

Quote from: click_click on February 03, 2012, 16:01
All agencies mentioned (besides Alamy and Zooner I presume) are exclusive agencies or at least require image exlcusive submissions. So I can't imagine that these suggestions qualify to the OP's question.

Corbis is not image exclusive, at least not if you don't want to.

Quote from: lagereek on February 03, 2012, 07:10
Why Getty via Flickr?  thats no good, why not try for the real Getty RM,  if your stuff is original, that is. Also you have Masterfile and Corbis, although Im not sure Corbis is selling anything nowdays.

I know this discussion is about RM, but anyway:
Corbis IS selling things. Through one of my RF-agencies, I've got images with Corbis. They're doing alright.

I'm debating whether Getty RM is still worthwhile my time. Sometimes I get a real good sale there (3-4 digits), but most of them are selling for less than RF, thanks to their Premium Access scheme. Quite a lot of sales for a low 2-digit figure with licensing times of 4-7 years... which kind of makes it RF anyway.

Quote from: archibald1221 on January 07, 2012, 15:35
Well, reading all these answers i was a little bit surprised, that travel photos aren't very popular. Maybe there could be a good idea to take photos of famous buildings and other objects and then in Photoshop make it isolated objects. Like this:
http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-78671p1.html#id=85458973

Too much work & visually often doesn't work for many buildings. Editorial customers probably prefer the "real thing". Advertising customers -> could be problematic with releases. (UNESCO, London Underground, British Heritage,...)

Quote from: archibald1221 on January 07, 2012, 15:35
I think this type of photos should be quite popular in microstocks and could help earn a little bit more money from travel photos.
I guess after all we could conclude that travel photos won't make big money. But it can compensate at least part of travel expenses. And this is very good thing.

So in other words: If you're shooting sill lifes for stock, and the props cost $10 per image, would you be happy to only make $9 back? (Sorry for the cynicism, but I had to ask
Thing is: If you do it on the side, during a holiday you would have taken anyway, it's OK. But serious travel photography takes time & effort. And that might not go down well with your partner/kids who want to go to the beach, visit museums & have dinner. (Dinner often interfering with the "blue hour"

Quote from: archibald1221 on January 07, 2012, 15:35
Personally i am interested in travel photo not because i expect to get rich from it - it's just that i'm already bored of spending most of my time near computer (i work with computer graphics, vector illustrations). And traveling a little bit with photo camera would be a good and interesting experience

Travel is always a good experience. Get to see new things & meet different cultures. But don't underestimate the time spent on computers: cataloguing, editing, colour-correcting, retouching, keywording, and (in your case, see above) creating cutouts.

Quote from: microstockphoto.co.uk on January 07, 2012, 15:01
We're all gonna die sooner or later, and at that point the equation time = money will mean nothing. All the rest will mean nothing as well, but at least I had fun.

I agree. Downside being: if you look at demographic statistics you'll see that today's 30-40 year old generation will have to put money aside in order to have an OK pension time. Personally, I'd find it rather depressing if I had enjoyed a good life until I was about 50/60. To then find myself broke as a pensionist & not have enough money to do ANY traveling whatsoever (let alone go for a beer with my buddies in the evening). State pension = non-existant in 25-40 years from now.

Quote from: microstockphoto.co.uk on January 07, 2012, 15:01
Indeed - except I am not so sure about the "young" part, being almost 40.

Sorry – I meant "young AND don't have a family/house/insurances back home".

Quote from: sjlocke on January 07, 2012, 14:59
...and get a drill through the head?

Most of the time you do get a drill through the head. It usually comes around 2-3am, in form of snoring room-mates who just came home from partying. Ear plugs don't usually help either.

Quote from: microstockphoto.co.uk on January 07, 2012, 09:07
In the end, I think I can recoup a £500 one week travel in any European country in about 2 years with a few hundred usable pictures. It used to be just 6 months when I started in 2007. £500 includes everything (accommodation, travel, food&drink).

What do you mean by recoup? Just the £500, or also putting into the equation your own time (i.e. 7 days travel at £xx/h + 1 day retouching & keywording). Following the equation time = money.
IMHO, travel photography (whilst it's good fun) is NOT the "dream job" that many people think it is. And it's hard work, with lots of walking. Working as a waiter you may be on your feet the same amount of time but earn way better money.

Quote from: microstockphoto.co.uk on January 07, 2012, 09:07
Especially since I would travel anyway.

Exactly – That's what it is about. You gotta love it. And it's particularly fun when you're young & don't have a family/house/insurances back home.

Quote from: ShadySue on January 06, 2012, 23:30
Ha, I was going to point out that you're only supposed to keyword 'travel' on iStock if the photo actually shows someone travelling, but I see that the top pic you referenced shows someone 'actually travelling'.

That's the beauty of Alamy: liberal keywording. And I do thinkn that "travel" should be the keyword also for landmarks. Why? Because I think many image editors / researchers for travel magazines (or travel sections in newspapers) will use "travel" as a search term, in order to bypass non-travel related images. After all, "travel photography" is kind of its own genre (or at least niche).

I've done a fair bit of travel myself in the past 15 years, over 50 countries. Everything from backpacking to commissioned photography. Commissions pay WAY better. Pure travel stock is a bit hit & miss and you'd better be doing it budget-level in order to make it worthwhile your time & effort:

Let's say 1 month of travel in Europe is around 1200 Dollars (Italy / France): Busses, trains, hostels, food, maybe a beer now & then, entrance fees,... Also: Do you give up everything back home (longterm travel), or do you keep your flat (if you only go for 1-2 months).

On top of this: What hourly rate do you charge yourself? As with every business plan, start from the back: How much money do you need a month? (pension scheme, insurances, tax,...) Then divide it by the amount of time you're willing to put in.
Of course, whilst traveling you might only need those $1000 a month. But in the meantime, your friends back home are actually saving money & paying into their pension scheme. And they're sleeping in their own bed, have their own kitchen & don't have to put up with snoring room-mates and dirty dishes.

Just out of curiosity, I did a quick search for "travel Laos" on iStock. Bestselling image sold >100 times in 5 years. Not really that much, considering the low licensing fees in Microstock.
Personally I think Alamy is the better place for travel. But maybe that's just me.