MicrostockGroup Sponsors


Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - stockastic

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 160
1
Why would an "agency" need "contributors" to generate this stuff?  Why not just have their own employees do it, on demand, in response to customers' requests?   And eventually, of course, those former customers will learn how to generate their own images. 

2
Sounds like Getty just had a quick meeting with their lawyers and decided this whole thing is one massive copyright lawsuit just waiting to happen.  So they've banned "AI" generated content, at least until things are clarified.

3
The copyright violations are blatant and they can't be hidden behind "used to train the AI".   Getty is slime, but they're smart, corporate slime.  Their business is based on this legal stuff and their lawyers know what's going on here.

4
Print on Demand Forum / Re: Pictorem.....Worthwhile?
« on: September 20, 2022, 13:39 »
Pictorem is one of the labs I evaluated for Shopify integration. They have a Shopify app that offers one of the best integrations I've seen because it creates one Shopify listing with multiple product and size variations in one listing. Most of the other apps all create a different listing each for canvas, paper, metal, etc. So unless you manually combine them you end up with a mess of what appear to be duplicate product listings. FAA's Shopify app creates multiple listings.

Beyond that, I wasn't impressed. I ordered canvas and photo paper sample prints. I think their production time when I ordered was 4 days and it's now 6 days. I finally got the prints a month later. Left a voicemail with support and never got a call back. Emailed support and finally got a response about issues with suppliers. Paper print arrived in a generic brown semi-rigid mailer and no other protection. No cellophane, wrapping tissue or anything else. And prices are about double the average cost I've seen. If that order had actually been for one of my customers they probably would have either been angry or cancelled the order.

High cost, slow production, low quality presentation, and poor support is a pretty bad combination.

Sounds like they're not much different than FAA - I wouldn't be surprised if they're using the same print vendors.   

After following FAA's forum for a few years, I see the pattern.  Usually, they do ok but since the pandemic, shipping costs have skyrocketed and (as many forum posters have pointed out) become wildly inconsistent.  Usually the order is filled on a timely basis, but sometimes things go off the rails and I've seen forum posts from angry customers who got nowhere with customer service.    Quality is usually ok, but sometimes it's a disaster, probably because FAA just found a lower-cost supplier.

Looks like Pictorem is a mixed bag.   I'd just like to know if it has a future - will it get better, or just go away?       

5
We're all being conned by this "AI" bullsh!t, there's no "intelligence" behind this,  and "train" is market-speak.  What's really going on is a new form of copying - one that's untraceable and unproveable - with multiple images used to create a mashup that's then refined by clever algorithms and filters.   If you want an analogy, think of "sampling" in the music business - and the lawsuits it's generated.

The real "training" going on is tuning this software to produce stuff that people like - and will pay for.

Yes, I'm ranting.  I'm a former software engineer and all this bogus hype is ticking me off.  Let's quit repeating marketing bullet points and defending this stuff.  The people behind it know exactly what they're doing, and just hope to make a ton of money before copyright law catches up with them - if it ever does.

6
The guys saying "it's just another tool" and telling us how exciting it is now that they've tried it....  it's like they've been hit by a car and are still in shock, not comprehending what's happened.

This stuff is going to flood microstocks and PODs. But wait - those companies can now generate their own "content".  On demand. Oh wait again... the customers won't need the agencies because EVERYONE can generate what they think they want, and just pay they "AI" company. Or pay Meta after they buy all the technology.

Any existing work that's visible on the web can be copied, in subtle and unproveable ways.  Oh did I say "copied"?  I meant "used to train the AI". 

This will take years to play out and it's going to be hilarious.   Eventually, some photographers and artists will figure out how to effectively sue these fake-AI companies and pull back the curtains to expose how the software really works.  You won't see anything you'd call "intelligence".

7
Ok then, I can read a book that you wrote - take detailed notes page by page - then "write" my own book and sell it. Hey, I just used yours to "train" myself.  Or as you put it, to "move towards" my own version. You can't point to any identical sentences so my conscience is clear. 



8
You realize that by "used to train" they really mean "ripped off"?

9
Print on Demand Forum / Re: Pictorem.....Worthwhile?
« on: September 17, 2022, 09:35 »
First came the plague of stolen work - then the plague of public  domain images.  Next will be the plague of "art" generated by so-called "AI" in response to text entered by the "artist".  Watch for that stuff to be uploaded by the ton, to these POD sites that run on autopilot. 

"Moody black and white photo of Brooklyn bridge with lonely person walking away"

"Beautiful painting of canal in Venice at sunset, gondola in foreground"


10
Print on Demand Forum / Re: Pictorem.....Worthwhile?
« on: September 16, 2022, 09:33 »
Have 250 images up with zero views, let alone zero sales. Four months and counting.  Not surprising.  I get zero sales on FAA as well, except for the occasional $2 postcard.

My sales at FAA this year are half of my average of previous years, and still declining. I assume they're heading to zero. 

11
Print on Demand Forum / Re: Pictorem.....Worthwhile?
« on: September 16, 2022, 09:32 »
Just looked around, first portfolio I saw sells stockphotos from other authors:

https://www.pictorem.com/profile/Shamudy (did a tineye search on some photos, all other authors)

I dont know how bad this is at FAA, but this doesnt give me a good feeling about uploading artwork.

FAA is full of "artists" with bulging portfolios of stuff they didn't create. Sometimes it's just stolen, sometimes it's arguably legal but definitely nothing to be proud of.  Lots of vintage photos, which I suppose are public domain, but with a nice markup for the "artists".    Also vast amounts of repetitious junk, "color variants" etc.   

I guess I thought Pictorem might be different, but no surprise if it's not.

12
The future for "free images" is more free images.  The future for "10 cent images" is that they'll be free.  There is no more race to the bottom; it ended, and all the prizes were awarded. Basically, everyone lost.

13
Print on Demand Forum / Re: Pictorem.....Worthwhile?
« on: September 14, 2022, 17:05 »
They seem to be doing some things right, like reading metadata. I won't even worry about the pricing unless/until I get sale #1.

I'd just like to feel like if I go to the trouble of uploading hundreds of images, the site won't go away a few months later, or be bought and downgraded.  And I'd really like to see some more control over the appearance of my pages there.

Basically I'm looking for an alternative to FAA for the future. I think FAA is going to change in ways I won't like.

14
Print on Demand Forum / Re: Pictorem.....Worthwhile?
« on: September 14, 2022, 15:49 »
Do you get the impression the site is still being actively developed and maintained? Are the owners interested in making it better in the future?

For example - you currently can't do much with your main page there - you can't even control what images it shows. 

So it would be nice to hear some positive from the people running Pictorem, about future plans.

15
Print on Demand Forum / Re: Pictorem.....Worthwhile?
« on: September 14, 2022, 09:24 »
Any recent activity on, or thoughts about, pictorem?   


16
Computer Hardware / Re: Dirty camera sensor
« on: June 02, 2022, 13:30 »
Why does cleaning the sensor have to be so different from cleaning a lens? You're cleaning glass, not the actual silicon - why not use a microfiber lens cloth? 

17
The best month was probably when this thread was started.

18
Print on Demand Forum / Re: Etsy Strike
« on: April 13, 2022, 10:40 »
I've never sold on Etsy because all I've heard for years is that it's a major PITA.

It's only going to get worse.  Technology stocks have taken a beating this year, investors are still demanding the moon, but the moon is moving further away.

19
Back in January, I closed my Alamy account after getting some 4 cent sales.  And today, just 3 months later, I got a final payout of my last $100 from microstock.   

Now there's a SUCCESS STORY!

20
Alamy.com / Re: $0 sale on photo
« on: March 30, 2022, 16:26 »
I'm on a roll!

"Race to the bottom" doesn't even describe it anymore.  The game now is "what would it take to make photographers actually close their accounts?"   I get the feeling that people at Alamy have a betting pool going. 

21
Alamy.com / Re: Alamy sale for 7 cents
« on: March 30, 2022, 13:39 »
And there we go again... 50 sales today for $0.12 each ($2.86 in my pocket)
I have an impression that the buyer plans to resell them somewhere

I think that's obvious and it's a big reason I closed my account.

22
Alamy.com / Re: How to opt out of penny sales?
« on: March 30, 2022, 10:54 »
I closed my account as soon as the penny sales showed up.  Done with Alamy, done with microstock.  I feel great about not being ripped off like this anymore.  But, I didn't need the small amount of money I was making.  Everyone has his own situation to consider.

23
Alamy.com / Re: $0 sale on photo
« on: March 24, 2022, 18:00 »
For years, we've been cheering on the "race to the bottom".  So what comes after that? 

24
Alamy.com / Re: Alamy sale for 7 cents
« on: February 25, 2022, 17:35 »
Earnings on FAA last year blew away all my stock earnings by a mile

You are lucky with FAA. Because you signed up in 2010 and the FAA greatly favors the artists who signed up early. If we look at recent sales, 90% of them are made by artists registered before 2013-2014.

I have more than a thousand photos, but for their search engine I am practically invisible. I sold 9 prints in 2021, but 6 are from clients I personally referred to the FAA/Pixels from my website

With my 4 POD shops  I only made 4% of my total earnings with microstock. PODs for photographers basically is a waste of time. It is difficult for photographers to sell prints, perhaps for a painter or illustrator it is easier.

On all kinds of sites getting in earlier helps.

I re-enabled my port on ss last week after disgust at those 15 cent China sales on Alamy and more for pennies on Getty and my first license was an upload from 2010! I'm just sorry I uploaded most of my stock photos to Alamy rather than the micros back in the days (2008-2012?) when you could earn real money in microstock.

I remember when I joined Fine Art America in 2010, watching friends who joined in 2008 selling so much more than I did and wishing I'd joined sooner. Twelve years later, I'm now an old-timer there. But I still feel like I don't show up in searches as high as I'd like even for images that have been selling multiple times a year. I'm just glad most of my sales are prints, because otherwise I'd need to sell hundreds of puzzles LOL.

Keep selling on FAA and you will rise in the search ranks. From my understanding past sales are the best predictor of search rank and future sales there. Twelve years passes faster than you think. Although by then perhaps people will be licensing images for pennies to hang in a digital frame and you'll look back on the past year's sales with fondness. (I hope not - there's nothing like a beautiful photograph)

FAA's internal search is a chaotic mess - I'd call it broken.  There was a thread about this on their forum a couple of days ago.   Rampant keyword spamming, flooded with auto-generated similars - and big corporate sellers that go straight to the top of the results for searches that seem unrelated.   

25
Alamy.com / Re: Alamy sale for 7 cents
« on: February 19, 2022, 18:10 »
Following up my earlier posts...  it looks like Alamy has now closed my account, and it didn't take 45 days. I'm totally out of microstock and not looking back.

My final thought on microstock is that it was made possible by the web; but ultimately destroyed by it as well. The nature of web commerce allowed the market to be controlled by middlemen who added no value, and competed on nothing but price.

On to something new...

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 160

Sponsors

Mega Bundle of 5,900+ Professional Lightroom Presets

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors