I love your images by the way - I did know them before, but never had a chance to say - nice work:)

Thanks for the nice words Elena!

My request is still pending since 03-01-2010. I agree the waiting time is getting longer and longer every time.

They are on the track to build something I mentioned before in another topic as a 'negative collection'. Collection of images can be found anywhere except DT. If they piss them of the top contributors might stop uploading to DT at all. It is not such a hard decision since DT is not a top class earner anymore (in my case their share is significantly less then 10%). If that happens it can really hurt DT a lot. They still will have more then enough images in stock but they will not have the fresh content from the well known names. Customers will realize that after a while.

On the other hand, I do not think this new limitation is so dramatic... especially because DT is not a top earner. I don't think anyone will stop uploading but I am sure they will fall back ever further on some peoples uploading-to priority list.  

For me it seems DT is trying to find its own role in the new word order of the 3+1. They are trying to keep their '+1' spot. They are trying to be different, maybe trying to be more 'elite'? with a tighter but more selective collection? The question is  is it really the best way to cut-off from the top of the pile? In my mind it would make more sense to raise the limit in 'image quality' - hey, I am not talking about technical quality here. If they cut off some of the work of Yuri or Andresr it just doesn't sound right.

Interesting and well-thought decision. I know why they did it and even if I disagree this is a good solution to solve their most recent 'problem'. My upload ratio is over 95% and yes I could use that daily 50. Now it will be daily 20. My uploader will be happy... less work. I am not that happy... more retouched and keyworded images will stay on my HD. Fortunately DT is not such a big earner so it doesn't hurt too much. If FTL or SS would do the same I should have to click on that exclusivity button on IS next day. Let's hope others will not follow. Not that I wouldn't do more money with less work as IS ex ...all my friends are converting one after the other.

I personally think that the keyword reporting thing on Dreamstime works well, although I can't say I have had any problems with it to make me frustrated either.

I disagree and I disagree on the software design level. This feature is NOT well-designed. Just look at an example! I have an image: the EU flag is flying on the building of the Hungarian parliament. The keywords the reporter used where: "Hungary flag". He reported the image for bad keywording and from his point of view he is right, because it is the European flag not the Hungarian what he was looking for. But it is still a flag and it is still the Hungarian parliament. And I can imagine thousands of similar situations.
I'll not waste my time on counter reporting... if DT has the resources for look after all these reports than I do not mind. But I still think the computers are not here to produce us even more work but to make our life more easy.

Ah, and one more thing. No one ever raised the bar in microstock as high and as fast as he did. His images are great professional RF stock photos with a high-end camera. They can stand against the traditional RF images... for a fraction of their price. And everyone is trying to keep in line with him - yes, I agree his spot on the list of the most influential photographers is correct. You can see the result in the form of ThinkStock: traditional RF images are going to be offered together with microstock because they can't be sold on premium price anymore.

Do not misunderstand me, I am not blaming him. He is a great photographer and a good businessman. He is a real self made man. Everything he did helped him to be the no1. and no one else could do it. He is unique... but at the same time the tendencies he is describing in his comment were coded in.

Quote from: NitorPhoto on February 23, 2010, 10:58

I am shooting with the 1Dsmk3 since 2 years now and I used the 5dmk1 before but I never tried the 5dmk2. The 1Dsmk3 is a fine camera, images can be extremely sharp with it but at the same time the AF system is terribly inaccurate. And it costs 2 times more than the 5dmk2 - it simply doesn't worth it.

And one more thing, You buy an 1ds series body and a few month later Canon will release a better camera for less money. Not again! Because of that particular move of Canon I am affraid this current one will be my last canon body.

I could agree with the extra cost statement of the 1D series bodies but not the release dates complaint.  The 100 series bodies do get released pretty often, but if you are buying a 1D series body (or 5D even) new bodies only come out every 2-3 years on a pretty predictable time line.  If it is a few months before the next one is to be released - it isn't too hard to wait.
http://www.dialogen.no/foto/EOS_cameras.pdf

Leaf, it is not about the release dates. When I bought my 1ds I knew I am done for the next 2-3 years and this is still the case.
What I am complaining about is the feature set of the 5dmk2. If you are not a journalist (especially not a sport photographer) the 5dmk2 is overperforming the 1dsmk3. They cheated the pro world. They sold their professional line camera to everyone and then they released a better prosumer camera for a half price. In my case it was a year after I bought the 1ds.
When you pay for the high-end camera of a manufacturer you pay for two factors: for the features you really need and for the marked advantage you'll get with the top equipment. This is where I feel myself sacked. I know it is great for many people but this time I lost a lot of money on that so I'll not forget it for Canon next time when I buy a body. I'll not pay any extra for them for the second factor.

I am getting plenty of these. Like image of handsome businessman sitting in office reported for bad keywords of "handsome", "businessman", "office". I never thought and still hope DT is not so stupid to let this reports harm your files without any reviewing.

This site looks very interesting. I would be happy to use it with my own domain as a 'private' store. But I have two serious concerns:
1. I f upload like 10k photos and they fade away in a few months then I wasted a lot of time and effort.
2. 20$ for a year? I sounds a bit low for me. Will they exist longer than a few months?

Well, who talks about opening the gates wide and allowing anyone to submit to Getty (or to other big macro)?!
But there are microstock photographers - like Yuri who was already mentioned here - who's lifestyle images can compete with the best RF images of Getty. These images are not fresh ideas nor new approaches but very decent competitors of the macro RF collections. They might not add anything new to that 'highly creative' Getty RF collection. Yes, there may be a creativity gap between these images and their macro RF counterparts but the difference is not visible for 99% of the customers. And this 99% is happy to buy the 10$ version instead of the 400$ version. This 99% is what is missing from the macro market and this is the symptom ruining the older/more profitable business model.
And Yuri in not the only example. There might not be 1000s of them but 20-50. If Getty would have been open or wise enough to hunt down these 'talents' before they grow up the stock industry would be very different now. I am not talking about accepting their application, I am going further by talking about actively hunting them down and offering them a golden cage inside the macro boundaries. But now, it is too late. Offer them anything, they will reject if leaving the micro market is part of the deal. Simply because they earn more than most of the RF shooters. But a few years ago it could have been done.

Quote from: Artemis on February 07, 2010, 15:34

I live in Europe and was directed to the US site when signing up. Thus paid in dollars.
...

Exactly the same here. Live in EU, was directed to US without knowing at that moment about any difference and hence being paid in $.

Same here. And I am very angry if they really do this 'special' conversion.

Quote from: gostwyck on February 03, 2010, 07:43

It would appear that the most expensive currency in which to buy images from Fotolia is in Euros. The smallest credit package there is for 21 credits at �24 which works out at �1.143 per credit. Converted into $US each credit costs about $1.60 at today's exchange rate.

If a European customer, using the above package, downloads an image from a base level (White) contributor who is paid in $US then that contributor will earn just 25c per credit expended. Instead of earning 25% of the sale that contributor will actually receive just 15.7% of the sale price. Shocking.

It doesn't get much better as you go up the rankings either. If you aspire to get to Yuri's level of Rubis you'll be expecting to earn 43% commission __ wrong. If you are paid in $US then, under the circumstances above, you'll be earning less than 27%.

You really need to get this translated into German - that's the market with most of FT's buyers and a fair chunk of sellers.

Ok, I tell you what is more annoying than this...
I am from the European Union.  But I am a long time member of Fotolia. When I started my account fotolia.com were the site where I could register myself in english. Noone ever asked or warned me about the other locations. And fotolia is refusing to move my account to the location where I am really located. You can quess why. So now I am in EU, but I am getting payed in USD. I pay that very special fotolia conversion rate and then when I cash out I need to convert the USD back to EUR. So believe me that 16% is not that bad at all!  

I opted out of third party and promotional use, as well as the partner programs at IS, and yet I just found one of my images being sold on thinkstockphotos.com.

Off to email support.

edit: done. I went to the page where my image is on thinkstock. Tried to copy and paste the url so IS would know where to find it...it wouldn't work. I also noticed a note on the support ticket page:
* Please note * Due to an extremely high volume of tickets at this time, there may be up to a 5 day wait for ticket responses. If you require immediate assistance, please call us:

I would imagine they are going to be busy. Think I'll call them.

This is pretty strange. I opted in and I can not find my images at all. I checked the StockXpert originated selection (don't know its name) and they seem to have images form some contributors only... for example none from Yuri. Strange.