|
MicrostockGroup Sponsors
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 - steheap
Pages: 1 ... 4 5 6 7 8 [9] 10 11 12 13 14 ... 62
201
« on: September 08, 2019, 19:31 »
No, it is very solidly built and I put my Sony A7R3 plus 90mm macro lens on it without any issues. As a outdoors slider it may have issues, but it is certainly very flexible for rotating around a point on your subject. I do that to add some movement around macro shots of coins or similar small objects.
Steve
202
« on: September 08, 2019, 10:28 »
Hi Sean I've played around a lot with ways to add movement to my video clips and I ended up with the Edelkrone Dolly One. It isn't the same as a slider at all, but on a flat piece of wood it would do the same thing as the slider - ie move slowly and smoothly forward along the wood holding the camera steady. You can set start and stop points and it can smoothly build up speed and then it slows down at the end of the travel to come to a smooth stop. I've written about my experiences with it, but it has definitely earned its (substantial) price with sales of video clips for me. Here is one of my articles about it: https://www.backyardsilver.com/2018/12/another-interesting-sale-edelkrone/Now I haven't tried this on location anywhere for time lapses - I would have to find a way to fasten my board to a tripod (or pair of tripods). However, I think a nice long piece of plywood with some raised edge to make sure it never ran off the edge would make an interesting test case! However, for studio work, it is great. Steve Steve
203
« on: September 05, 2019, 13:23 »
Can you upload illustrative editorial to Adobe Stock now? Is this an option anywhere in the settings?
Steve
205
« on: August 28, 2019, 16:28 »
I was turned down, but nicely!
Steve
206
« on: August 28, 2019, 15:08 »
I just had 2 out of 3 stitched panoramas of the same scene rejected as similars... They, of course, were from different shooting locations and were different in framing from each other, but it does mean that they are applying their policy to me!
Steve
207
« on: August 05, 2019, 07:42 »
I found I had two images in their collection at FAA. For some historic reason, I have a different artist name on Shutterstock - steve heap, than I do on FAA (steven heap) and so I was able to just search on FAA for artist - steve heap. Up popped the two images. Pretty strange choice: https://fineartamerica.com/art/steve+heap?searchType=artistnameI think SS is really pushing the envelope though. They place the images for sale without licensing them (probably arguing this is marketing usage) and probably pay $25 or so if the print sells. Meanwhile they pick up the rest of the margin. I doubt they ever lose money on a small print so the $25 is variable I would think, but certainly capped. If they upload the same image as I already have, then they are really cannibalizing my sales on FAA and I end up with less money. If they upload a different one (as they have), then I'm in two minds. I would never have uploaded the ones they did, and if they sell, I would quite like the money. So the issue for me is the duplication with an artists existing work. I think I will keep an eye on this portfolio and if something appears that duplicates one of my better images on FAA, I will delete it from Shutterstock. Steve
208
« on: August 04, 2019, 10:23 »
Yes, what prompted this thinking was that yesterday I got a lot of messages from my hosting company that SQL was down and there were errors in my various wordpress databases (on associated sites) and the performance of those sites was pretty bad. I found out that there were many, many attempts to download various pages and files from my symbiostock site. It seemed like Russia and China were the sources of the attempts. The CPU was through the roof. I blocked some IP ranges and I could see they were then just getting 503 rejections and my other sites started working properly again. As far as I know there are no database corruptions - it was probably insufficient CPU to read them and they timed out.
Luckily all the downloads were of the watermarked files (new Symbiostock doesn't store the master files in the normal wordpress file structure) and I doubt if any damage was done, but it did make me think about the pros and cons of having all those files online.
But things seem back to normal again (and I guess some regions of China can't buy my images any longer!)
Steve
209
« on: August 04, 2019, 09:30 »
Thanks, Martha! I did wonder if that was the best thing to do. I think there is a plugin that redirects all the old URLs for the deleted pages back to the home which might help.
Did you try to work out which was the best agency for a casual buyer to buy your image in case they wanted to - I guess the question is - which agency is the best for someone who doesn't want a subscription plan or a complex account to just buy one image?
Steve
210
« on: August 04, 2019, 09:04 »
I spent a lot of time building my own personal stock site with the Symbiostock plugin for wordpress, but it is time to close it down. So few sales although it does rank well for individual images on Google. But I don't want all those incoming visitors to see a 403 page missing notice. How have those of you who have taken down your personal websites done it and what did you replace it with?
Steve
211
« on: August 02, 2019, 14:30 »
I was referring to the iStock ESP reports we get. Some of the sales have Getty across them. I don't have a separate Getty account for video (or stills). Sorry for confusion.
Steve
212
« on: August 01, 2019, 17:04 »
Well, the Zoonar results were published a few hours ago and so I can complete my own earnings review. Pretty good month although it was massively helped by $333 in earnings from Society6!!!  Here is my overall progress chart - earnings in July ended up much better than the previous years results for this summer low month. I finished with $2866. Full details, as usual, in my blog post: https://www.backyardsilver.com/2019/08/selling-stock-photos-july-2019/Steve
213
« on: August 01, 2019, 11:09 »
Great stuff, Alex! And those Archangel shots are really intriguing. You have certainly got the eye for what they like!
Anyone else waiting for Zoonar to report for July? I normally see at least some sales from there before I do my own report.
Steve
214
« on: July 29, 2019, 11:58 »
Thanks Uncle Pete! I've been playing with different exposures on this slide from 1980 of the Chateau de O in northern france. I think this was shortly after it was renovated. I used my base exposure which was that the white card just over exposes with no slide in the tray. Then I took two more at one stop more exposure to see if I could get better detail in the shadows of the trees using the blend to HDR function in Lightroom. As it turned out, it didn't make much difference over the standard exposure because there is enough latitude in the 100 ISO raw image to simply boost the shadows. There doesn't seem to be any increase in digital noise or film grain that I can see. The original of this is 6000 pixels wide, which is far more than the resolution of the underlying film.  It is reasonably sharp, although I haven't got rid of the small dust spots in the sky yet. Maybe there is a demand for slides from the 1970s and 1980s? I just need to find the examples that show how things were different - unfortunately this chateau looks the same today as it did then, so what is the point of an old slide version? Steve
216
« on: July 28, 2019, 09:32 »
One for the old folks among you all - I wanted to make something that allowed me to copy all the slides and negatives I have from years back. Not necessarily for stock purposes (although I suppose there might be some interesting ones in there) - but I just wanted to be able to look at where we had been on past vacations etc. Here is my DIY slide scanning rig in all its glory:  And the full article on how I built it: https://www.backyardsilver.com/2019/07/diy-35mm-slide-and-negative-copying/Steve
217
« on: July 28, 2019, 09:15 »
Editorial usage is pretty much everything you can see. If you work at a newspaper or something for instance, you don't need permission from people or about a property to take and use the photos... It's still polite but, fair game.
That's not fully true here in the UK, and I'm sure it's very different in different countries.
I don't believe it is true in the USA either. Try taking a picture of Minnie Mouse at Disney's theme park and post it for editorial use. The images in question in this thread were not newsworthy and were taken on private premises (the plane). Hence the photographer is open to being sued, in my view. But, of course, you can all take whatever risks you want! Steve
218
« on: July 23, 2019, 19:50 »
Quote from: steheap on Today at 18:42
However... The poster referred to images inside the plane of the staff and images through the window. Unless you were give permission to take and sell images on the private property of the airline, then you have no legal right to place the images for sale under any sort of license. You can't sell an editorial license for an image that you didn't have permission to take in the first place. Taking a plane from a private airport (and some are privately owned and operated I believe) may fall into the same category although less risky.
Steve
So waht you are saying is that there is a risk to actually do what site allow you to do ?
... and sell it...
What I did was to take some picture from inside the plane during the traveling. Pictures are allowed... selling them... who ask ?!
Fact is that I think someone did not use those images as editorial like it should and Air Canada (the copany) are upset about it.
The fact is that the bad usage of those image is not my problem as I undersand. Sometimes the agencies will reject images because they don't believe you have the right to take the photo - the thread recently on Disney locations was a case in point. I personally think that if the airline believes that you took the images inside their plane with their employees, then they are definitely within their rights to stop you selling them and displaying them. When you buy a ticket you sign up to all sorts of legal conditions - one might be to not use the airplane for commercial photography (I don't don't mean editorial usage here - just taking pictures with a financial gain in mind). The agencies can't catch every possible legal issue which is why you are ultimately liable. Perhaps others have another view, but that is why the airline are taking that stance - nothing to do with first amendment rights. Those apply to a public place, not a private location. Steve
219
« on: July 23, 2019, 18:42 »
However... The poster referred to images inside the plane of the staff and images through the window. Unless you were give permission to take and sell images on the private property of the airline, then you have no legal right to place the images for sale under any sort of license. You can't sell an editorial license for an image that you didn't have permission to take in the first place. Taking a plane from a private airport (and some are privately owned and operated I believe) may fall into the same category although less risky.
Steve
220
« on: July 23, 2019, 11:25 »
Prores is now part of Premiere in the Creative Cloud suite for Windows. I don't know if it is available directly for Windows outside this program.
Steve
221
« on: July 22, 2019, 14:42 »
I know EyeEM might not be one of the bigger earners, but it has been pretty consistent for me recently. As I was adding quite a number of new images, I spent some time trying to understand exactly how the upload process worked and how the keywords went into the system. I learned some things that could really screw with your earnings over time and have tried to summarize all my learning points in a post I made today on my blog. https://www.backyardsilver.com/2019/07/eyeem-issues-to-avoid-when-uploading/I'd be interested if others have come up with workarounds - especially for the way that your keywords get thrown away before the image is uploaded to Getty! Steve
222
« on: July 12, 2019, 19:59 »
I also tried directly entering my user name and password for SS into Microstock Plus - the next upload cycle failed again with the same error.
I then forced the upload from within the desktop App to Shutterstock and that worked fine. But how do I tell Microstock Plus not to attempt these images again once this issue is resolved?
Steve
223
« on: July 12, 2019, 11:04 »
I've just encountered this problem for the first time. I uploaded 4 files from the desktop version of StockSubmitter to Microstock Plus. The ones headed to Shutterstock are not uploaded yet - the error is shown as "Invalid login or password". I haven't changed those for a long time on Shutterstock (or in the desktop application).
And I just tried in FileZilla - the connection was OK although I didn't try to upload files.
Steve
224
« on: July 10, 2019, 14:20 »
I'm not sure, but it seems to me that in programs like LR, it will take longer for the image to appear (as it needs to create and show a 4K size preview and what will you gain? You will still have to look at it at 100% to see the focus, and will the normal editing functions look different when you are seeing a higher resolution preview? I think not.
Better to spend your money on accurate color management and a wider gamut perhaps.
Steve
225
« on: July 09, 2019, 13:22 »
I don't use StockSubmitter for this because I want to keyword my images in Lightroom so I can later find them. I could keep a separate catalog of my stock images, but I like to have the originals keyworded.
Steve
Update metadata from file !! when finished keywording in SS 
It will reorder alphabetically though, not keep priority order as defined in SS !
but all will be there in LR  You could then copy to RAW file if required ;-) All of my files in LR are either the Raw files or PSDs if edited in Photoshop. I export those to JPEGs with sRGB etc at a slightly smaller size onto a different drive in my PC and those Jpegs are the ones that StockSubmitter sees. So although those Jpegs have keywords in them, I would have to first import them into LR (which makes my catalog bigger as well) and then do a whole lot of copying of metadata to update each original file. That is a lot of work. So I prefer to keyword in LR and do my sync'ing there and then export Jpegs with keywords and descriptions to StSub. I wish there was a smoother process than the one I follow (or I really wish that LR didn't only have alphabetic order for keywords which would solve many issues). Steve Steve
Pages: 1 ... 4 5 6 7 8 [9] 10 11 12 13 14 ... 62
|
Sponsors
Microstock Poll Results
Sponsors
|
Show Posts
