Quote from: PowerDroid on August 20, 2009, 15:20
I can't believe anyone is this concerned over a few bucks.  You'll get the money, but it will just take a bit longer.  If your argument that it will take you forever to get there, you should reevaluate whether the return from submitting to BigStock -- even microstock in general -- is worth your time and energy.

Well as we say in the UK, I am skint at the moment, every penny counts and I am fed up to the back teeth with every company under the sun from ebay to Dreamstime trying every trick in the book they can to hang onto our hard earned pennies.

I would rather that 'few bucks' which belong to me, was earning some pithy interest in MY bank account, or being spent on my bills, than be used by a company who haven't the decency to get it right when they decide to move the goalposts.

didn't anyone tell you there is a recession on?

I normally cash out at $30.

I am over the threshold and 7 day grace period has passed. I also saw the alert, dated 19th August, stating that they would be raising the threshold NEXT WEEK.

So, quick as a flash, I decided to cash in my earnings before the threshold rise NEXT WEEK, only to be told I have not got enough in there.

Looks like they have actually implemented the raise NOW, rather than the next week in the message.

naughty naughty Bigstockphoto, and shame on you.

Just found my images on there.

as well as saying "powered by 123RF" at the foot of the page it also says
   
"© Copyright 2003-2009 EPICTURA IMAGES"

I think they should make it clear that they are claiming copyright in the web page/design, as this implies they are claiming copyright on the images.

Great idea.

And of course there would be no barriers to entry?

No matter how small your portfolio.

No matter what the quality of your work, you would still be accepted as a member of this co-op? Right?

I really do think it is a great idea, and I have been hoping for something like this, as I watch the amounts we earn dwindle.

I fear that those with a higher standard of work and higher output might become a little fussy about who gets to join this co-op, especially if it aims towards becoming a stock site in itself.

It must be administered in such a way that ALL stock photographers are protected, not just the top sellers.

But, at which point does one become a stock photographer? As soon as a microstock site has accepted your image? As soon as you sell an image?

How would this co-op decide who to accept as members?

Who would make these decisions? In fact, who would decide, who should make such judgement.

A great idea. Us microstockers need it.

Sadly, whatever you call it, collective, union, co-op, whatever, there is going to an ego or two out there who sees this as an opportunity to take charge, and keep it all for the big boys and their buddies.

I can't believe I have got to page 4 of this discussion and no-one has mentioned ebid.net or the Google Checkout payment system.

With all of ebay's upheavals over the past 18 months or so,ebid.net (which has been going for about 10 years now), has seen a huge increase in its membership.

This has mainly been sellers, fed up with being ripped off by ebay AND paypal (rising fees, restrictions on payment methods, paypal forced down their throats, not being able to leave non-performing buyers neg feedback... ... ... ).

The latest being a maximum shipping charge of £2.75 for books - this does not cover sufficent insurance for items over £36 or even allow for trackable post. the upshot being that sellers have to (again) raise their start or BIN price (again) to offset fees and postage costs - this has further implications when items get lost or missing in the post.

Simply put, it is becoming ridiculously difficult for any one man seller to make a living from ebay.

Many of those sellers have moved over to ebid.net - however, the ebay buyers who don't have to worry about fees etc are staying put.

Ebid is FREE to sell with small Final Value Fees which you don't pay if you don't use Gallery and have Seller+ membership.

Ebid allow Google Checkout, which is cheaper for the seller to administer. It is also easier from the buyer's point of view as they don't need a paypal balance.

Ebid is also pretty much a buyer's market at the moment.

The whole community is still small enough to keep an eye on scammers, who are dealt with more or less immediately. All sellers must be verified, as (I think) are buyers. no-one is allowed to have two or more accounts , not even a forum posting ID.

People are afraid of change and may be timid to try ebid.net and Google Checkout (either as seller or buyer).

At least you all know of them now.

http://ebid.net/

http://checkout.google.co.uk/

For non=UK http://checkout.google.com/

Not quite sepia, and one of my first microstock efforts.
Sold once on fotolia.

http://en.fotolia.com/id/3546423

P.S I dont know how to make the image clickable, so if you need to see a bigger version follow the link. Any hints on making the image clickable most welcome.

My recent experiencs with fotolia amount to:

Last batch 7% acceptance

2nd last batch 23%

Most have been rejected for quality, followed up by similar (similar subject, but clearly different images), then overabundant.

Previous to that my batches were between 50% to 100% acceptance.

The most annoying thing though is my that recent batches were taken on a EOS450D, the previous (more 'acceptable') ones on a Powershot A640.

Due to the fact that I was previously using a compact, I would go to great lengths to reduce the noise, sharpen the areas of photos where necessary and minor curve tweaks.

When I got the 450D the images I was getting out of the box (jpgs) were, as expected, far superior to my tweaked A640 images, so in theory my DSLR images should get accepted at a better ratio than my little A640?

Even though I now have a better camera, my acceptance ratio has dropped dramatically, despite the far improved technical quality of the DSLR over the compact.

Puzzled!!! 

Perhaps Fotolia is 'doing an ebay'

I am brand new to Istockphoto and there is a uniquely different feel to it compared to the other microstock sites. I have a few questions.

The upload and keywording process seems SO SLOOOWWWW.

Am I missing something or can I really only upload ONE image at a time, i.e. is FTP posssible?

And would I be right in saying that on upload to Istockphoto, the IPTC data is stripped away - or have I prepared the file wrong and somehow the IPTC data has been left out?

Once the image is uploaded. it seems I have to keyword there and then. Or can I close the window and key word later, once I have a batch of images for instance, in a pending box?

Does anyone know if uploaded files go serially into a queue with everyone elses, and each individual file is checked depending on its position in the whole queue OR does the reviewer eventually get round to you and check all the images you have in your pending at that particular time?

Also, are there any other 'quirks' of Istockphoto I need to know about?

Thanks for your help.

Quote from: bittersweet on May 01, 2008, 03:08
No, I did not say that you voiced those intentions, and I'd like to think that you were not planning to do that at all. My comment was for the consideration of future readers of these lists. It is just disheartening to see the trend of some new contributors is to look at the top sellers on a site and try to copy those specific images in hopes of jump starting their portfolios. Of course my asking them not to do it will not change their minds if they already believe that is an okay thing to do.

I meant no offense to you personally and I wish you well in your efforts.

Thank you for explaining, and I appreciate your good wishes 

Hi John

will you be making payment to contributors by moneybookers possible

thanks

Quote from: bittersweet on May 01, 2008, 02:14
Study. Be inspired. Please don't copy.

Yes I said study, and I certainly do intend to be inspired, but where did I mention my intentions to copy??

Hey thanks for your help. I have a few portfolios to study.

I hope this isn't a too irrelevant question.

I know of Yuri Arcurs, Kirsty Pargeter and Lise Gagné, but who are the other big names in microstock whose work I should be endeavouring to be inspired by?

Quote from: PecoFoto on February 19, 2008, 22:29
They check all 4 images, and all have to pass, they will give reasons for each one that failed.  If it indicates all 4 failed then I think its safe to assume they may all have been soft.  Don't be tempted to sharpen any future submissions as they will fail them for this also.

Are you using a 6MP or above DSLR and something like Photoshop to do the resampling?

Good luck.

Thank you for you reply. These submissions were taken on a 10mp Canon Powershot A640 - PhotoShop 7 to resample. I know some might say I am pushing my luck by NOT using a DSLR for Alamy, but let's just say I was inspired to try Alamy (even though I am not using DSLR) by other microstockers (i'll mention no names), who contribute to Alamy using non-DSLR digital cameras.

I ONLY shoot at ISO 80 due to the limitations (noisy above ISO 80) of my Powershot.

At my newbiness level of using digital I am still not sure of what is acceptable noise, so I am very fussy about this and seem to spend an age getting rid of noise, which I try to do selectively rather than the whole image. Of couse the trade off of a relatively noise free image is the softening that goes with it, which of course can't be sharpened for Alamy.

I have read elsewhere that Alamy are not as hot on noise as other stock agencies. I am wondering if it is worth, for my next test batch, to not bother removing noise in order to preserve the sharpness. What is everyones experience with Alamy's attitide to noise in images?

The good news is my Alamy test submissions went through from upload to QC in less then three days. Hurrah! 

The bad news is they all failed.   

What puzzles me though is that although all four failed, the first one on their table is the only one that has a rejection reason given, that being "Soft or lacking definition", which I am putting down to the upsizing (there are no definite hard edges in the image which doesn't help).

Now I am curious as to whether the other three actually failed ( I understand that on test submissions if one fails, they all fail), or if they didn't bother checking them, as the first one in the table had already failed?

Would they check them all and give a reason for failure for all, or can I assume they did check them all, one failed and the other three passed, but "failed" if you see what I mean because of the "they must all pass QC for your submission to be accepted." guideline .

My main reason for asking this is, I don't know whether I should resubmit the three that were not given a failure reason, plus a new image, or upload four new images alltogether.

Any advice, thoughts and opinions please.

thanks

Quote from: PecoFoto on February 16, 2008, 20:55
Yes...

If you don't you may limit your earnings potential.  All it means is that you give your permission for Alamy to licence your images through certain third party distributors. You can pick the territories you want to be represented in from a list and the current sign up period is until 31st March 2008.

The break down is like this -

Alamy commission 15%

Distributor commission 40%

Contributor commission 45%

There's a FAQ on Alamy all about this.

Thank you once again.

Quote from: PecoFoto on February 16, 2008, 21:01

Quote from: tommroch on February 16, 2008, 15:13
Hello Madelaide, I am currently reading through Alamy's agreement and Iam also having trouble understanding section 7:

It means if you sell an image directly to a client that was first seen by them on Alamy then you are to advise Alamy of the fact and pay them 10%

Thank you PecoFoto

I have just signed up with Alamy. A nice and straight forward sign-up process, though it seems, as well as uploading some images, my next step is to "Join Alamy Distribution"

What is this all about?

If you don't join this, does this mean you don't get the full 65% of the buyers fee.

I must say, I find Alamy unclear on much of its wording.

Any pros and cons from experienced Alamy users will be much appreciated.

Here is the related section 14 that Madelaide mentions.
I can't make much sense of this either.


14 Audit Rights of Alamy on Contributor

   1. Alamy shall have the right, not more than once every calendar year, to audit the records of the Contributor to check that sales made by the Contributor which have either originated from a search of the Alamy Group web site, or where Alamy has provided a high resolution Image for the fulfilment of the sale by a Contributor, are being reported and paid in line with the reporting requirements detailed in the sections entitled Contributor reporting of sales to Alamy Clause a). An independent accountant or lawyer or a member of the Alamy Group internal audit team may carry out the audit.
   2. The Alamy Group shall give 30 days' notice before any such audit shall take place.
   3. The audit of the Contributor shall be paid for by the Alamy Group except where the Contributor is found to have underpaid amounts due to the Alamy Group in excess of US$500 in any 12 month period, above which level the Contributor will have to pay the costs of the audit.
   4. Alamy also reserves the right to carry out spot checks on Contributors to assess whether they are complying with the requirement to report sales which have originated from a search of the Alamy Group web site. These spot checks may include, but are not limited to, contacting Customers or other third parties who have downloaded an Image to see if they have bought the Image direct from the Contributor and buying via a third party an Image from the Contributor, in respect of which the Contributor agrees a refund shall be given if demanded.

Hello Madelaide, I am currently reading through Alamy's agreement and Iam also having trouble understanding section 7:

7 Contributor reporting of sales to Alamy

   a. The Contributor shall report all sales made by the Contributor or the Contributor's Sub Agents where either a sale was made where a Customer has stated that the Image they require was found on the web site maintained by any company in the Alamy Group, or where Alamy has provided a high resolution Image for the fulfilment of the sale by a Contributor. A statement by a customer as to where they first found an Image shall be conclusive evidence as between the Contributor and Alamy as to whether the Image was found via the Alamy web site.
   b. The Contributor shall report the sale and pay 10% of the sale value (net of any transaction or sales tax including VAT) to Alamy within 30 days of receiving payment for the sale.

Would anyone else care to interpret this please?

thanks

Quote from: madelaide on January 20, 2008, 00:20
There is nothing like a rainy night to give me patience to read the license agreement...  Can anyone help me with some comprehension issues?

1) What is "Novel use"?

2) What does this paragraph mean?

QuoteWhere the Contributor appoints Alamy as its agent to grant Royalty-Free Licences in respect of an Image, Alamy may vary the Licences it grants in respect of that Image from Royalty-Free to Traditional by giving 45 days prior notice to the Contributor at any time. If the Contributor notifies Alamy during the 45 day notice period that it does not agree to such variation then Alamy may either continue to grant Royalty-Free Licences in respect of that Image or, at Alamy's option, may delete that Image from the System.

3) And this one?  If someone buys the same image elsewhere, I have to pay Alamy a commission??

QuoteThe Contributor shall report all sales made by the Contributor or the Contributor's Sub Agents where either a sale was made where a Customer has stated that the Image they require was found on the web site maintained by any company in the Alamy Group, or where Alamy has provided a high resolution Image for the fulfilment of the sale by a Contributor. A statement by a customer as to where they first found an Image shall be conclusive evidence as between the Contributor and Alamy as to whether the Image was found via the Alamy web site.
The Contributor shall report the sale and pay 10% of the sale value (net of any transaction or sales tax including VAT) to Alamy within 30 days of receiving payment for the sale.

Also in paragraph 14d they talk about that.  How can I know if a buyer saw the image first in Alamy and they purchased it elsewhere??

4) Does selecting distribution locations work for RM only or RF as well?  Can it be set on a per-image basis?

5) As far as I understand, they call RM "Traditional Licence", yet it can be with or without Rights Protection, is that so?  I'm confused.  RFxRM I understand.  What is "Traditional" then and if it's RM how can it be "without Rights Protection"?

Regards,
Adelaide

Quote from: ParisEye on February 16, 2008, 13:35
You must work from a TIFF file which is superior to 48 MB. Then you save it as a JPEG (maximum resolution : level 12) and you upload the JPEG file.

Anyway, when uploading if your file is not big enough there will be a message error.

Thank you.

I am now at the stage where I want to try my hand at Alamy, but I am very unclear as to what file format they need. Any suggestions, i.e.

48MB TIFF?

or

Level 12 JPG that has been derived from a 'working copy' 48MB+ TIFF?

or

Ready JPG upsized to 48MB+

Thanks.
Confused and in need of help! 

I have just signed up with featurepics, and have just uploaded a small initial batch, waiting approval. I am expecting a wait before my first sale, though I feel from listening to other contributors on various forums that this is the one we should give support, commitment and a little patience to.

Uploading is simple, with ten at a time via the website. FileTP is available, though I have not applied for that yet. After upload, the submission process seems a little daunting, but this is only because of the licensing choices and pricing options - once we get used to the system it will be second nature and quicker than DT and FOT.

I am still brand new to Featurepics, so can't tell you too much, so I might be wrong in what I say next - you can't see how many downloads images are making. This is info I would find useful as a relative newbie to microstock in general because it gives me an idea of the type of images that sell, the other reason I like to see this info is that it would give me an idea how well the site is making sales on our behalf

I don't think it will do you any harm to add Featurepics to your list of sites, and as I said earlier we microstockers should make an effort to publicise this site, for allowing us to choose the price.

Anyone think Albumo could be doing with a forum?

After a couple of months or so and about 1200 accepted images, I have had one sale so far.

It would appear they are currently offline due to "system upgrade and server relocation"

The pricing structure suggests to me that buyers are getting a bargain