MicrostockGroup

1

General Stock Discussion / Progress in earnings and downloads?

« on: September 03, 2009, 12:01 »

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?

2

General Photography Discussion / Employing a photo retoucher or using services?

« on: May 27, 2009, 01:24 »

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?

3

Microstock Services / Employing a photo retoucher

« on: May 26, 2009, 12:06 »

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?

4

General Stock Discussion / Different levels of security for login in and requesting pay.

« on: March 30, 2009, 08:40 »

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?

5

General Stock Discussion / Perfectly even lit white background?

« on: March 13, 2009, 08:23 »

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

6

Dreamstime.com / Dreamstime Last Download Search Term not available?

« on: February 25, 2009, 03:25 »

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