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Topics - redbaron

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Adobe Stock / Fotolia: wrong ICPT fields

« on: February 16, 2008, 07:50 »

Maybe you can help me with this. After lunching V2 version of Fotolia I've the problem with their ICPT script. I've informed the stuff twice about the problem: they instructed me to use different FTP client (they recommended FileZilla which I'm using all the time).

The problem is that after FTP uploading script reads data from "description" and place it in the "title".

I upload photos to about 10 other agencies and have no problem with this except Fotolia. I use standard software for ICPT edition: Adobe Bridge.
It is so frustrating when I have to cut each description to make it shorther (64 characters) and generally making it ridicolus. The truth is I have no time to look for each uploaded photo on my computer, check what is the correct "title" and paste it to form.

Have you the same problem? If not: what software do you use?
Thanks!

General Stock Discussion / Why $1 only per photo (not more)? - The beginning of microstock industry

« on: January 26, 2008, 05:05 »

I've seen this question many times (and also didn't know the answer). Here's a very interesting part of pre-published chapter of Jeff Howe's book I've just found:

[...]In 2000 Bruce Livingstone was running a small graphic design and Web hosting firm in Calgary. Bruce is an avid photographer himself, and over the years had developed an extensive network of photographers and designers. Early in the year he took 2,000 of his images and put them online. Anyone could download his photos in exchange for giving him an email. Livingstone’s friends decided they wanted to share their images with the public too. That June the budding community instituted a credit system: A user could download one image for every image of theirs that had been downloaded by someone else.

It was a classic example of the gift economy, the non-monetary exchange that grew up alongside the World Wide Web. Money, it has become clear, isn’t the only, or even the most important incentive driving the explosive creative output that one finds on the Internet. People contribute for the simple joy of participation, or to learn something, or even for enhanced status within a community of like-minded creators. On iStock, everyone took something and gave something in turn. Everyone profited, but no one made—or spent—a dime. Soon friends of friends heard about Bruce’s nifty idea, and started uploading their images too. Then around 2002 a wider public got wind of iStock, and the site began to hit critical mass. Soon Livingstone was paying $10,000 a month for the bandwidth to support it. He could have taken advertising to cover the cost of hosting, but felt it violated the spirit of the site. “The focus was on the community, and good design. Advertising would have cluttered the site,” says Livingstone.

Instead he started charging a quarter for each image, and opened the system up to the public. Traffic to the site, now christened iStockPhoto, started increasing exponentially. Livingstone raised the prices to $1 per image. “I thought it might become a sideline business.” It quickly became much more than that. The emergence of the Internet, digital cameras and user-friendly photo editing software combined to undermine the boom in stock photography. Suddenly anyone, it seemed, could take a half-decent picture.

You'll find all the text here: http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com/cs/2008/01/chapter-two-the.html

StockXpert.com / Opt-out subscription on StockXpert - how it looks from buyer's POV?

« on: January 26, 2008, 04:36 »

Anybody (Steve) knows how it looks from buyer's point of view? I've just opt-out this option. I analized which photos and sizes I sell this way and decided to opt-out.
StockXpert is one of my best seller but because of credits sell, not the subscription. That's really fair that there're subscription opt-out option.
But I'm curious how 'opt-outed' photos looks like from buyer's POV? Are they see them in their search results but have no option to buy them or they don't see ones at all?
It obvious that first solution would show them what they're loosing (for example all Yuri's business photos) and maybe tempt to buy credits. But maybe StockXpert choose different politicy and don't want to make them knowing and unsatified.
Thanks!

Cameras / Lenses / tip: cheap method to clean DSLR sensor

« on: October 20, 2007, 06:44 »

I've a little useful tip for DSLR users. Probably you have the same problem as I - dust and dirt on the sensor. I shoot most of my photos at clean studio but it is impossible to keep my 5D's sensor clean. Because of electrostatics all small pieces clinging to the sensor each time I change the lenses.
I've used "SpeckGRABBER" but it is very expensive set and use up very fast. It is necesary to clean sensor every 2-3 sessions or spending tons of time at photoshop removing swarms of the black dots.
I found a very cheap and easy tool to clean the sensor. It's regular straw. I cut it at an angle and use it like goose-quill (look at the photo below). It is a very precision tool and because single-use always clean.

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