Thanks a lot, I got it!

I am new to 123rf and so far there have been 2 sales. I can find the monthly and daily statistics but where can I see which pics have been sold? Is there also a views stats like at Fotolia?

Thanks for your advise, Jochen

Quote from: vannphoto on January 02, 2013, 22:44
you'll learn that diff agencies have diff likes and dislikes. 123 is pretty easy to get accepted on. when I first started submitting I uploaded some snaps to them and they were all accepted, I was so happy. zero sales on those images though, due to lcv (low commercial value).

you may also learn that despite your pics being a "byproduct" of your real work, you end up spending a lot of time on them and the return doesn't justify it (compared to your mailorder business).

You are right. So far my 123rf portfolio is 225 pics but no sales yet. IS and DT rejected my first samples while at DT they are commenting the reasons for each photo. This is most helpful to figure out the problems. The time consumption is not yet a problem because the photo project is something like a hobby or challenge to me. Other guys of my age do have more expensive "toys".

Update: SS rejected all 10 pics due to poor composition while they are my "bestsellers" at FT. My plan B is to submit next month again 10 pics which where rejected by FT. It seems to be like a lottery anyway. But since I am registered I uploaded 3 videos and wait for acceptance/reject message.

123rf has accepted my new batch of all 15 pics which where rejected by FT. Here I uploaded also the 3 videos (which where rejected by FT)

http://de.123rf.com/profile_buddelbini

At iStock I passed successfully the quiz and submitted 3 sample pics. Waiting for result.

@ Oldhand: At our 2.800 sqm compound are several residential and commercial buildings constructed. At present there are 7 households with about 25 persons aged 1-84 years living there. Plus several pigs, dogs (Dobermann, English Bulldog, Rottweiler and Labrador plus mixtures of all...), cats, chicken, roosters, rabbits, pigeons, ducks, frogs, lizards and sometimes a snail. It`s like a zoo. One of our youngsters is studying vetenarian and takes care of all animals. Unfortunately there is no caretaker for some of the noisy and drunk humans...

@ all: Thanks for your suggestions. Today I uploaded and edited 10 FT bestseller pics to SS and are now waiting for the result. Next will be iStock. Does it make sense to use the same photos, descriptions and keywords as in SS?

@ M M: Your site is most helpfull, I bookmarked it already

@ Oldhand: Well, but you do not have a brother-inlaw who raises cockfight roosters which start to crow at 3 a.m. and no neighbours who sometimes runs videokes with a volume like an aircraft engine for 24 hours or until they collaps due to alcohol ...

@ all: Thanks for your helpfull comments. In the meantime I tried to improve the quality and FT is now accepting about 80% of my submissions, the actuall portfolio is 369 pics, 52 had already sales . The other day I registered at 123rf and submitted 10 pics which have been rejected by FT. I was very much suprised that all 10 have been accepted by 123rf.

The plan is now to submit first the rejected FT pics and then those from FT with sales or many views. I am aware that I have to further improve the quality before I will try SS and iStock.

There is a technical issue where I need your advises: I found a very nice motif, a coconut tree in front of my 3rd floor bedroom. That means the coconuts are in a horizontal position to the camera which is very unusual. These photos where rejected by FT. I introduced that in the FT forum and the advise there was that my kit objective is not suitable because of the approx. 4 meter distance. I am still scared to invest a lot of money for a better objective. But 123rd was accepting the photo. Now I am confused if it is realy a lens problem. What is your opinion?

Cheers, Jochen

The question is: What is a customer doing if he can not find the proper photo within the big 4 or his usual agency? If he is trying i.e. google photo search he might find matches at smaller MS agencies.

When searching in FT for with term:

privatweg benutzung verboten (English: Private Road no trespassing)

only my photos will appear. In Google are many matches but from MS agencies only my FT photos are among the top listings. In SS zero matches.

I think the marketing of such niche market photos is very different to mainstream motifs. What are the options of a customer who is realy in need for such photo and can not find it? At the worst case he has to order such sign for 20 EURO and pay a photographer 100 EURO or more for picture taking and editing. Plus the delay / time consumption of several days.

Or am I wrong with these thoughts?

Hi Poncke,

thanks for the tip. I have just registered, passed successful the photographer test and are now FTP uploading some photos. Review time is 30 days.

When checking the stock I found much more German signs rather than in FT, but almost nothing simmelar to my style. We have to wait and see.

Hi Click, you are right, but I am still in the very beginning. The vektors are no good, I tried that last year. The point is that we do have about 1.000 different signs, just for the German market. When researching MS I found several contributors specialized in signs but most of them offering illustrations or vektors. There is just a few choice of separated photos with screws which are suitable for further PS compositions. Actually we are experimenting with little shades at one side of the signs for more realistic appearance when combined with background wall images.

The recent photos like the oval ones are made with Canon 550D. All settings have been manual f 5.6 - 100 ISO), including WB. I am still puzzeling about the reason for the different color temperature. I think that was not the reason for the rejection. What I did was to submit first 4 photos. After all of them where accepted I uploaded the othe 8 of that design and all of them where rejected. I guess there have been 2 different selectors involved who have different preferences.

I think it is like Mantis explained. So far I did not tried other agencies because I do not have yet so many different themes to fill up the 10 samples at SS. I was just concentrating on the signs, backgrounds and motifs from our tropical farm because I am most time of the year at our little factory in the Philippines while our family business in Germany is managed by our 3 daughters.

The good thing here is that I do have a helper, a young guy who is very talented in PS editing. That is a great help for me.

Best regards from the tropical office, Jochen

Since 1980 we do have a little handicraft factory in the Philippines. It is a family business because my wife is Filipina. One of my brothers-in-law is tax accountant. According to him taxes are negotiable... Anyway, what we are paying is very minimal.

Some month ago I started with photography for better product photos of our online shop and also stockphoto as a sideline business / hobby. At my last stay in Germany I made so many photos. Now I am in the Philippines and I found a young guy who is very talented in PS editing. He is now working for me, top quality and very cost efficient.

We also put up a little studio in my house, was also very cheap because we do have a carpentry and metal works. Also some requisites were already produced.

For foreigners it is very easy to live in the Philippine because a tourist visa can be extended up to 2 years. Then a weekend trip to Hong Kong and thats good for the next 2 years...  Provided a foreigner has some good connections life can be very cheap and save, infrastructure is good, people are friendly and 365 days per year summer.

The main problem for a photographer is to find blond models with blue eyes...

Hi, I am a newbie here and like to ask for some advice. Since more than 30 years I am running a mail order business in Germany. Some month ago I deceided to improve the the old, poor quality photos in our online shop. Since these are thousands I can not affort a professional photographer. Instead, I bought a Canon 550D, spotlights and other equipment, studied the basics in photography. With every session the photos became better and to check the quality I submitted some to Fotolia.

One of our product lines are metal signs. In my research I found out that there are not so many simmerlar motifs at the microstock agencies. For sure it is a niche market and it requieres a large quantity of photos in order to generate significant sales. Since the stockphotos are like byproducts the cost of production is very minimal, mostly my time consumption for uploading.

Here my problem starts: FT is accepting only a part of my photos, more than 50% are rejected for technical reasons. This is very hard to understand because mostly the photos are from the same design series and session, same settings and quality. There is no system in accepting and rejecting. Very confusing.

The question is, how can I built up an almost complete portfolio?

Here my actual FT portfolio

http://au.fotolia.com/p/200905542

A good example for the problem are the white, oval doorplates. Only this 4 where accepted, all for bathroom / toilet doors. But all other like kitchen, guestroom etc. have been rejected.

Thankls a lot and best regards, Jochen