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Topics - stockastic

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51
iStockPhoto.com / to recap and review...
« on: February 13, 2013, 13:54 »
The story is - Getty/IS sold several thousand images to Google, to be re-distributed in an apparently uncontrolled way, and the photographers received only a token one-time payment.   And that's the end of it.  Despite all the fog released on their forum, no detailed explanation of terms was ever provided, no real indication that the terms might be changed, or that the deal was in fact even complete (i.e. that even more images might be involved in the future)  or that similar deals would not be struck elsewhere.

Statements made by IS employees on their forum, promising a relevant statement or announcement, had apparently no basis.

It's take it or leave it. 

Is that a correct summing up of the situation?



52
Every few months I go off on a search for a simple, direct, IPTC/keyword editing tool.  I've probably tried 20 over the years. All were overcomplicated, requring me to drill down through various menus and dialogs to get to the keywords, then typically presenting them in some clunky way, maybe a single long line with quotes around each word, that made it a pain to edit them.  Some only showed the keywords, wouldn't modify them.  None were suitable for quickly titling/captioning/keywording a bunch photos.  Total overkill.

My search always fails and I fall back to Windows Explorer - right click the file, Properties, Details, click on Tags, edit, then move to next photo.

I never lose faith that somewhere, there's a streamlined, lightweight tool for this purpose.  But I can't find it.

53
Shutterstock.com / is SS back in focus?
« on: January 19, 2013, 20:50 »
Are people still getting crazy 'focus' rejections?    A few weeks ago, I got such a run of them that I quit submitting.  I'd like to resume, but not unless things have changed.

54
Shutterstock.com / "focus" craziness
« on: December 12, 2012, 14:41 »
I just had another bunch rejected for "focus".  This time most were rejected on resubmission as well.

I won't bore you with the details, but the focus was in fact perfect.  I've had hundreds of shots accepted that were done with exactly the same setup.  So please don't ask me to post the photos, etc., as there's no point, I have no way to improve the focus.  The only thing I could do is apply more sharpening, and maybe that's what they actually think they want.

Does anyone have a clue as to what's going on?


55
iStockPhoto.com / does your Photo+ quota ever increase?
« on: November 13, 2012, 15:21 »
I have a small number of photos on IS and my Photo+ quota was 10.  I used all those slots, and they're now the only photos that sell.  If I could, I'd make everything Photo+.  There certainly seems to be no point submitting more photos, if I can't also make some of them Photo+.

IS says that your quota is based on the "ratio of your approved files to overall downloads".  That means if I get more photos approved, my Photo+ quota actually goes down - unless they sell, which they apparently won't unless they're Photo+.

Is anyone seeing their Photo+ quota increase over time?

56
iStockPhoto.com / no portfolio boost?
« on: November 12, 2012, 11:57 »
On IS I'm  a tiny independent.  My sales collapsed months ago when independents were basically kneecapped, and I'd quit submitting even before that.  But a few weeks ago I decided to submit a new photo that was selling very well on SS,  and make it Photo+, just to see what happened.  To my surprise it is selling well on IS, but it's the only one that still sells, the rest of my portfolio remains cold dead ashes.

So sales of one photo don't seem to boost the rest of your portfolio on IS.  Is that how everyone else sees it?


57
Dreamstime.com / 'similars' vendetta continues
« on: November 08, 2012, 17:06 »
I spent a lot of time doing 2 creative (I though) photos of an object.  2 different approaches, 2 images saying very different things, useful in very different contexts.  You can guess the outcome.

Both of these images would have sold, and in fact are already selling on SS. 

The only word for this is dumb.  Just totally dumb.

Thanks for listening.

admin edit: changed title for political correctness (not that it was a big problem...)

58
Alamy.com / another typical week at Alamy
« on: November 07, 2012, 12:02 »
A sale on Monday.  Refunded on Tuesday.

59
Dreamstime.com / delete from 'pending' queue?
« on: October 14, 2012, 09:03 »
Has anyone tried, recently, to delete an image from the 'pending' queue?  I have one I now realize has problems and don't want to submit it.  Go to Managment Area, click Pending Files, see the file, click its 'Delete' button - nothing happens.  After a long time, you get an empty list as if they'd all been deleted; but go back to Management, click Pending again, they're all still there including the one you tried to delete.

60
Dreamstime.com / the new DT
« on: August 19, 2012, 10:38 »
Here's how it's been looking for me lately:


subscription   $0.35   maximum
subscription   $0.35   maximum
subscription   $0.35   maximum
subscription   $0.35   maximum
subscription   $0.35   maximum
subscription   $0.35   maximum
subscription   $0.35   maximum
subscription   $0.35   maximum

61
Dreamstime.com / "Technical Error"
« on: August 04, 2012, 22:16 »
Anyone else getting a message of "Technical Error" when trying to upload to DT?

62
Shutterstock.com / captcha becoming maddening
« on: July 27, 2012, 12:16 »
I'm getting an increasing number of totally incomprehensible, scrambled 'captchas'.  I just had to hit the 'new image' button 3 times before getting something I could read, and be able to log in.


I complained to SS. 

63
"Not Approved: Glitch--There was a technical problem with your upload. Please resubmit."

And yet they display  the correct thumbnail and keywords, so they obviously received the uploaded file...

64
iStockPhoto.com / better stats and history
« on: July 10, 2012, 14:01 »
I'd like to see my complete history of sales on IS - just as a list of all sales in chronological order.  The "My Uploads" page shows only the most recent sale for each photo.  I want to see all the sales in the order they happened.

You'd think I could figure this out on my own, but I hunted all around the IS site and found nothing.

Is there maybe some 3rd party tool that can do this?

65
Dreamstime.com / DT's official policy on 'similars'?
« on: July 06, 2012, 16:04 »
We all know DT has gone bananas on 'similars' and I've already felt the sting when good shots were rejected.  I now have 3 images I want to submit - same subject, but collections of objects of different color sets.  Obviously a designer wanting to illustrate this subject might prefer one set of colors over another.  But it would be pointless to submit 3 only to have 2 rejected.

I looked around their site but didn't find any actual statement of the new policy on 'similars'.  Does anyone know from experience what might happen, or want to make a prediction?

66
Envato / closing account at PD - the fine print
« on: July 03, 2012, 16:59 »
I decided to close my account at PD.  Very few sales, virtually all for 33 cents - to me, it doesn't make sense to support them at those prices.   Closing the account was easy.  But to get my measly 12 dollars balance, I've been told I have to wait a year.  That's right, a year, and yes it's there in the fine print:

"For earnings of less than $50, you can spend your cash on any of the Envato Marketplaces. If your balance is still below $50 after 12 months, you can withdraw the balance to a PayPal account."

Apparently it won't happen automatically, and I'll have to put a Post-It on the wall reminding me to withdraw it a year from today.   What isn't clear is how I'm supposed to withdraw the balance on a closed account, to which I can no longer log in.  

You can probably pretty much imagine my thoughts on this.

67
Alamy.com / alamy sale refunded - what the heck?
« on: June 27, 2012, 09:59 »
I guess I just experienced the dark side of Alamy - a sale for $100 from a few weeks ago was just 'refunded'.   Before that happened, I was above payout - now I'm below again.  Now I know what "cleared balannce" is really about - anything above that is pure vapor.

This sucks.  They can just cancel a sale at any time, even weeks later?

68
iStockPhoto.com / a new personal worst
« on: June 11, 2012, 10:35 »
I had a sale for 9 cents today.   

Seriously - has anyone had one for less?

69
Dreamstime.com / buyer wanting "raw" file
« on: June 04, 2012, 16:06 »
DT tells me a buyer wants the "raw" file for one of my images.   I've asked DT for clarification but I'd like to know if anyone here has handled such a request.

I don't really want to give out the original Nikon .NEF.   There was a lot of post-processing in PhotoShop and I'd rather offer a full-size TIFF.   Would a buyer really want the NEF and if so, why?

70
General Stock Discussion / theartofbusinesscards.com
« on: June 04, 2012, 16:01 »
Opinions/advice on this agency?

71
General Photography Discussion / tumblr
« on: March 21, 2012, 11:30 »
[delete]

72
Shutterstock.com / it's frustrating
« on: March 14, 2012, 17:37 »
I just need to vent my frustration.

I just submitted a handful of images and had 3 rejections, all for different reasons, none of which made sense.  

One had to do with a public domain item included in the photo, which I clearly explained in a note to the reviewer, which I have to assume wasn't even read.

One was for "focus", the image is an isolated object at f/27 and is sharp as a tack from corner to corner.  

One was for "lighting/shadows" and I am absolutely clueless on this one, I thought the shot was perfect.

I've had very few problems with rejections at SS in the past.  But it seems like things are changing. Maybe they're outsourcing inspection like other agencies have admitted to doing.  

It's totally frustrating   There is no point doing these carefully set up object shots if the reviewers just don't get it.

Thanks for listening.  You can all just nod and move on.

73
General Stock Discussion / maps
« on: March 09, 2012, 13:28 »
I recently did a photo that include a piece of a USGS topographic map.  I chose an area without much text, and before submitting, I cloned out every bit of what text there was, leaving nothing but lines and color.  Shutterstock rejected it for copyright. However, USGS topographics ARE in the public domain:
   http://nationalmap.gov/ustopo/faq.html

Is this rejection typical, and is it the same at other agencies?

Might the image be accepted if I credited USGS in the description - like we do with NASA photos?

74
I've been getting prints from White House Custom Color and they're usually fine. Recently though I did some photos of subjects with a lot of strong primary colors and color gradients, and found out that WHCC's process has limitations of color gamut, particularly in the yellows, that were too obvious for these images, even causing posterizing in some areas. I can't easily work around this with post-processing; the colors are what they are.

 I have a friend with an Epson 3880 and I compared soft proofs with his ICC profiles to proofs using WHCC's profiles. And I saw that the 3880 would do a much better job on this print. I also tried profiles for the Epson 7900/9900. Same thing - much better gamut, for my purposes.

 I think I want to find an online service that does high-end inkjet prints.

 Any suggestions?

75
General Photography Discussion / HDR software
« on: February 11, 2012, 18:18 »
I want to make HDR images from some shots I did outdoors in extreme contrast (these won't be for microstock).  Not having done this before, I tried the PhotoMerge/Exposure tool in Elements.  The results were terrible - like PhotoMerge/Panorama, this 'feature' turns out to be little more than a toy.  I'm sure there is far better software out there - but I'm looking for something free, since I won't be doing this often.  Suggestions?

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