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Messages - hairybiker777

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1
This is going to make scuba diving very confusing. You have to use "ok" for "ok" in that world, because "thumbs up" means "ascend". I'm picturing an international group of divers underwater with one of them wanting the group to ascend and the rest of the group getting incensed because they're being called a zero, an a-hole or being subjected to a racial slur. Beam me up... I'm done with this world.

2
Dreamstime.com / Customer support
« on: November 24, 2017, 03:04 »
I sent DT an email with some suggestions on how to improve the submission and keywording process. I got back a copy and paste reply, talking about all sorts of things I hadn't even mentioned in my mail. I won't waste time communicating with them again...

3
Alamy.com / Re: Unable to login
« on: May 28, 2017, 07:00 »
Thanks for that. I couldn't remember my password, so I went through the reset process and it's all OK now.

4
Alamy.com / Unable to login
« on: May 28, 2017, 06:36 »
I'm unable to login today - I get an "Invalid Captcha" message despite there being no Captcha dialog anywhere on the screen. Anyone else getting the same problem?

5
iStockPhoto.com / Re: I don't understand Getty
« on: February 23, 2017, 18:31 »
I'm completely lost! I can log into the new DeepMeta but I can only see my images in the old Deepmeta. The browser plug-in script that used to show my account balance no longer shows it, and it doesn't show any sales since mid-December. I haven't got a clue what to do with ESP. The only bit of good news in all this chaos is that because I didn't know how my sales were going, I just got a payout that I wasn't expecting :)

6
General Stock Discussion / Credit for image
« on: November 06, 2016, 19:09 »
Hi folks,

When your image is purchased through a stock agency and then used on a website, is it mandatory for the customer to credit you by naming the agency and your userID on the web page? I have an image that is currently being used on a popular tourism website and also in promoted posts (that is, adverts) on Facebook, and there's nothing on the web page to say that it's my image, or which agency it came from. The image was purchased in the normal way so there are no dramas there, but this is some of the biggest exposure I've ever had and I'm keen to maximise it...

TIA

7
General Stock Discussion / Viewbug blog
« on: September 06, 2016, 21:27 »
Hi folks,

I've just received an email from Viewbug.com, where I have a few images. They're encouraging me to upload more, saying they want to feature me in a blog. Has anyone else who uploads to Viewbug had a similar email in the last few days?

I suspect that they're just after some new content...


8
I have just used "at sea" in the editorial shots that I've taken onboard ships. In the caption, I also mention where the vessel is headed.

9
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Latest DeepMeta
« on: August 02, 2016, 02:15 »
Your pain threshold is very high, my friend, if you still upload there and follow DeepMeta updates.

Clearly :)

IS is still my #2 money maker after SS, so I'll put up with the pain for now! Alamy is closing the gap though...

10
iStockPhoto.com / Latest DeepMeta
« on: August 01, 2016, 21:39 »
Among all the doom and gloom, it's nice to see a feature that I suggested has made it into the latest version of DeepMeta; it now has the smarts to recognise editorial captions in JPEGs, and if the city/country/date part of the caption is all uppercase, it converts it to title case as required by iStock. It also ticks the editorial tickbox, and populates the description with the caption minus the city/country/date. This will save me a ton of work as I do a lot of editorial stuff and I always do my captions all-uppercase in Photoshop.

They're still taking a month to approve images, but it's nice to have one little positive at least...

11
talking about flip down LCD,
isn't it amazing how the amateur market got it before the pro models?

This is what annoys the heck out of me about Canon. In my view, your camera should be better than the cheaper model in every respect. But no... this one has better low light performance, that one has better focusing, the other one has a faster burst rate, this one over here has a flip-out screen...

The sooner DSLR builds become modular and we're able to specify exactly what we want and swap out individual components for something smarter when it becomes available, the better.

12
A hypnotise function, causing every one in the shot to instantly sign a model release. Failing that, I'd settle for an Angelina Jolie sensor that causes the camera to turn blue when she is close, like Frodo's sword.

13
If your concern is that people browsing your port will never get to your better stuff because of your weaker stuff, maybe use the Catalog Manager to break your port down into sets. The thing is, you never know when the search algorithm is going to change and maybe all of a sudden, some of those images will start appearing higher up in searches and start selling. I've had some very old images that have never ever sold suddenly start selling for me in the past couple of weeks... microstock is a black art...

14
Photography Equipment / Re: Battery charger blinking
« on: March 30, 2016, 01:59 »
I'd say that's it... Canons typically flash once when they're really low, twice when they're on the way, three times when they're nearly there and solid green when they're done.

15
Software / Re: Nik Software Free
« on: March 29, 2016, 20:29 »
I'm with you - high pass in soft light, 5-7px @ 75-90% opacity. Anything more seems to get over-sharpening rejections. The Nik sharpening looks pretty brutal, although they reckon it looks fine when printed. I've never tested that...

16
Software / Re: Nik Software Free
« on: March 25, 2016, 04:39 »
Hmm... I'm not getting my hopes up for any great enhancements or new products in the suite now that this has happened. I'd rather that they keep on charging if it means they're going to keep developing the tools. Ah well, they're pretty much indispensable already.

17
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Rejected - no resubmit
« on: March 06, 2016, 05:34 »
I find them incredibly picky on captioning of Editorials so much so I decided it wasn't worth the grief. Also can be very fussy on Property Releases.

I feel your pain. Not accepting city/country/date in upper case is bad enough, but I'm having absolute nightmares with them at the moment with some shots I took in Hawaii. They've rejected captions with "city,state" and "city,country" in the last few days, and the rejection notice doesn't say what's wrong. At one time I would have raised a ticket and got to the bottom of it but now I just think, stuff them... those images will sell just fine for me on Shutterstock.

18
General Stock Discussion / Re: Quickest Review
« on: February 25, 2016, 22:50 »
Yeah, I get that periodically - most often with editorial stuff. Seems to me that editorial shots go to different reviewers as when I submit a mixed batch, the editorial stuff can get approved really quickly - presumably because there's less of it as a %age of total submissions across all contributors - while the other stuff can be a day or two behind it. More so in the case of IS...

19
Dreamstime.com / Honest review
« on: January 30, 2016, 07:48 »
Well, there's a thing! I just had an image rejected by DT for being "not quite what we're looking for". How refreshing to get an honest comment in a rejection instead of putting it down to sharpness or somesuch when the image is fine from a technical perspective.

20
Photography Equipment / Re: Sensor quality vs lens quality
« on: January 27, 2016, 23:36 »
> Are you asking because you have an APS-C camera and are considering whether it's worth it to upgrade to a full frame one?

No, Jo Ann - just curious! I went full frame some time ago, although I do sometimes wonder about getting an APS-C body to get a bit more reach for sports & wildlife. Then I think "...but maybe I could just stick with the full frame body and crop the image, and end up with the same shot as I would have had on APS-C".

Looks like I've got some reading to do! Thanks for the links.

21
Photography Equipment / Sensor quality vs lens quality
« on: January 27, 2016, 21:55 »
Hi folks,

Let's say you have 2 20MP SLRs, one with an APS-C sensor and one with a full-frame sensor, both fitted with the same prime lens, both pointed at the same subject from the same location. Assuming the usual APS-C crop factor of around 1.5 - 1.6, if you take a picture on both cameras then you end up - obviously - with 2 20MP images, with one looking like it came from a lens with around 1.5 - 1.6x the focal length of the other. Let's say that you now crop the image from the full-frame camera so that the two images now look identical.

What I've never understood is if - or at what magnification - there would be an appreciable difference in sharpness between the 2 images. I get that the image from the full-frame camera would now be down to around 13-14MP but wouldn't the APS-C image only come out sharper if the lens can deliver enough detail to let it do so?

Sorry this is a bit muddled... I guess I'm just not sure of whether the sensor's ability to resolve detail is typically greater than the lens's ability, and whether it matters. TIA!

22
Newbie Discussion / Re: Shutterstock - Contributer Branding
« on: January 18, 2016, 02:23 »
I wouldn't bother. On SS, you can break your portfolio down into sets anyway... I have people, sport, wildlife etc. It's useful because you can track your sales by set.

23
Photo Critique / Re: And I want criticism
« on: January 14, 2016, 06:24 »
As a *general* rule for wildlife & kids, it's better to get down to the "head height" of your subject than to shoot from above.

24
In my experience, it's not even about faces being clearly visible... it's more to do with - as Jo Ann said - can you tell who this person is? As an example, iStock rejected this shot of mine because it didn't have a model release:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-349918988/stock-photo-surf-lifesavers-power-their-dinghy-through-powerful-waves-at-manly-sydney-exciting-shot-with-lots.html?src=ccwSTzQJhhdN90RHqQOyVg-1-19

The guys have their backs to the camera, through a wall of spray...

25
How can you know who are your customers on microstocks (except the [few] one you are in direct contact with)?

It's easy - I see their publications here and around ;)

I find that Google image search works quite well... paste in the URL of the preview of your image on SS and it finds the real thing wherever it is on the web. Of course it doesn't pick up use of your images in hard copy, but it's useful for seeing where it has been used online.

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