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Messages - jatrax
51
« on: September 13, 2014, 15:17 »
I think he was just coping jatrax. I doubt he is the type of person that is used to tap dancing. Hardly irreverent, seemed respectful to me.
Coping? Sorry but I found quite a few of Jack's comments to be unprofessional. I mean no disrespect to Jack, I have been guilty quite often of making flippant responses to serious comments. But coming on to a public forum and standing up as the 'face' of Stocktal requires a professional demeanor. This is not amateur hour at the local pub, we are discussing people's livelihoods. I give jack much credit for spending a little time here and answering questions, I give him even more credit if he actually listens and considers the suggestions here. But I take points away for comments like these: Absolute nonsense. We are inventing the world. Imagine all the shackles that you desire. Yaaaay - Anarchy at work.
Whoopee!
An Australian company does not collect revenue for England. Scotland can vouch for that. I assume those were meant as jokes. When you are hanging out with pals at the pub you can make jokes. When you are the face of a multimillion dollar stock agency you should not be making jokes on an international public forum. Not everyone's sense of humor will match and English is not everyone's native language. And Jack, if you read this I mean it only as serious advice from someone who has had to transition from worker bee to company face. It takes the fun out of things somewhat, but having a serious professional company face is just as important as encouraging a comradely, energetic and creative work environment. There is a reason company spokespeople are trained to say things like "good thought, we will look into that", "not 100% sure on that, let me get back to you". All you have to do to sell us is show you take us and our work and ideas seriously. We are entrusting you with our intellectual property, the thing we make our money with, pay the mortgage with.
52
« on: September 12, 2014, 21:43 »
Sounds like everything is on the table. I just got an email about categories. They will be removed entirely next few days. Interesting. Despite Jack's reply about how important they thought categories are they are gone. Hopefully this is true. I was composing in my head all day a long post about why categories are not particularly useful and a waste of time. Kinda disappointed not to have to use it.  Glad they are listening, despite Jack's somewhat irreverent and flippant replies it seems he does listen. Let's see if some of the other suggestions, comments are addressed.
53
« on: September 10, 2014, 21:24 »
"When you take purchase of a Stocktal image, you own it (the single instance of the image NOT the copyright)" I took that to mean that the person writing that portion of the website was not familiar with stock photography and how it works. A layperson would say "I own that image I bought", someone in the business would say "I licensed that image". Verbiage used is unfortunate on a professional stock licensing agency's site. 
54
« on: September 09, 2014, 23:07 »
I think I could get 90 - 95% acceptance (leaving out the random entire batch rejections) if I wanted to. But I find sometimes the ones that are hardest to get accepted are the better sellers. I think it is because the reviewer has a vision of what they are supposed to accept, which means images start to look all the same. So if a buyer is looking for something different the ones that are not the same are the ones that stand out. So out of a batch of 20 I have 15 I am comfortable will get accepted and 5 that are more 'edgy'. Sometimes those go through, mainly they don't, but I still like pushing the envelope a bit.
55
« on: September 09, 2014, 23:02 »
Jack,
Another small issue. I started an upload and got called away. When I came back to finish the upload I have been logged out. Log back in and the upload is gone. Where? Canceled? Held someplace? I cannot find it.
Also, I am seeing folks reporting they are getting requests to upload only 30 a day or so. Please do not do this! If you must restrict uploads do it by week. 30/day = 210/week. I can upload once and stop by again next week. Honest, we are not all sitting at our computers every night waiting for the clock to strike 12 so we can upload 30 more to Stocktal.
You came to this site and asked us to upload. You are talking to some of the best MS producers in the industry (not me but the good ones are here too), with huge portfolios. If you get these folks actually interested you need to expect a lot of uploads. Are you prepared for that?
56
« on: September 09, 2014, 11:04 »
Jack,
One thing I think you should address quickly is your category system. It is already out of hand and allowing contributors to add their own categories is a recipe for a confusing mess from the buyer side. Of course I do not know how you use categories in the search but without some strict, ordered rules to your system I think you will quickly have a situation where the categories mean nothing.
Personally I think categories a waste of time but if you must have them they should be restricted to major divisions (food, animals,plants,people,objects,landscape,abstract) Anything lower on the chain than that should be found using the keywords. Categories always seem to make sense to new agencies, why I am not sure. But after you have 10 million images what is the point? No one is going to select a category and scroll through 100,000 images.
Another issue is the lack of a batch or bulk editing system. If I have 10 images that need the same category why do I have to select them all then individually change the category? I already selected them, indicating that I was grouping them together, so all changes should be done to all images selected. Or add a batch change function if you want to leave the current one alone.
Many of the people on MSG have been doing this for years, seen it all, seen agencies come and go. If you want to attract 'talent' and their images you need to make things as simple as possible to contribute. Take a look at GL Images. FTP upload, done. Compare that to the somewhat tedious process on your site, the amount of time I have available to spend uploading is finite. Time spent uploading is time not shooting.
57
« on: September 07, 2014, 20:48 »
Hello Everyone
Thank you for your submissions to UltimatStock.
We are a new site and appreciate all the feedback from our contributors. We are experiencing technical difficulties with users using WinSCP and advise users to try FileZilla for FTP uploads.
Based on the user experience we will be implementing the following in the coming weeks and will keep you posted on the progress.
1. Ability to change pricing in bulk for your content.
2. Fixing default fields to limit the time consumed by editing. (country, editorial, tags, special characters, larger tag fields)
3. Change interface for editing to enhance user experience
4. Instructions for CSV.
5. Instructional videos using UltimatStock for both sellers and buyers.
6. FTP access for Videographers.
7. Ability to change display name in My account.
8. Ability for users to write about themselves and have the option to display to the public.
Thank for your support as we continue to work with our developers to ensure your experience is an enjoyable one.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Kind Regards,
UltimatStock team.
Thank You! While you might get beat up occasionally on this site, please never doubt that your participation and keeping us current with progress is greatly appreciated.
58
« on: September 07, 2014, 20:43 »
I thought the RM option interesting but as far as I can tell RM work must be exclusive. Which rules that out for me.
Rights Managed just means that you are licensing specific uses, often for a specific period. Exclusivity is one of the options, but doesn't have to be there. So I might license RM an image to use in Europe for 12 months for $yy and if I want to extend that to the whole world it would be 2 x $yy. If you want it for another year in Europe, that's another $yy. For a royalty free license, for the rights granted, you have no time or geography limits. Typically exclusivity for a certain period (or even exclusive to one industry segment - so you're the only computer software company with that image) costs a lot more.
The key thing is that you have to know who has had the image and have a history of uses to be able to address future buyer requests for specific licenses. Royalty free doesn't track usages at all (which is why it's so convenient for buyers)
Yes, but on Stocktal all RM must be exclusive to them unlike Alamy. At least that is how I read the site. I've sent an email asking for more info. I had briefly considered uploading my RM portfolio to Stocktal but I cannot if it must be exclusive.
59
« on: September 07, 2014, 17:34 »
+1 in agreement with Jo Ann Snover ( supporting a selection of new ones that appear to be (a) serious efforts and (b) reasonably funded is in our best interests).
Jo Ann, (to answer your last statement... i found the site has both RF ; RM; Editorials; options. )
lastly, yes me too, wonder about the 10% tax. as usual, Ms. Snover hits every detail , bravo !!!
I thought the RM option interesting but as far as I can tell RM work must be exclusive. Which rules that out for me.
60
« on: September 05, 2014, 22:58 »
Decided to give you a try and uploaded 15 files as a test. Here are some thoughts and comments:
1)You dearly need a batch editing system, far too tedious to edit each file one at a time. No volume contributors will waste that much time.
2) I shoot with Pentax k-5 and k-3, which shows up in the IPTC, but you generate an error "no special characters" because of the dash. Not my fault, that's the name of the camera but now I have to edit each time. And this defeats the purpose I suppose since the camera name is now wrong.
3) The tag field on edit is too small, it only shows a small portion of the tags. Field should be sizable like the description field.
4) You should count tags and indicate how many are present so contributor knows how many more to add.
5) Should be able to set defaults for some fields, like editorial, source, country etc. Give option to change but 90% of time the defaults will work.
6) Country? What on earth is the point of this? Is it the country I am in? The country the image was taken in? To have to select this for every image is silly. At the least default to what the photographer set in account.
7) Editorial should be "editorial only"?? I think. Again this should have a default. I never shoot editorial yet I have to select it each time?
Would like to support you and I have about 5,000 images currently available on microstock as RF. But the time involved in uploading them at present is too high. In the time I uploaded and worked through 15 images on your site I uploaded and submitted 20 images to 5 sites.
In short, your workflow needs improvement if you want to attract serious stock photographers.
61
« on: August 22, 2014, 01:44 »
All of this speculation hinges on the assumption that `popular` and `undiscovered` are determined soley by sales and not by sales and views. No way to know since SS does not report views to us. Or tell us how the sort works.
But why ask here? Just email SS. Certainly no one here can give you an answer.
62
« on: August 12, 2014, 19:46 »
I thought that was essentially one of the main features of an EL: allow the usage of images on products for resale.
Where's the issue?
I think most EL's prohibit POD or using the image on things that will be sold. FT's EL does allow POD. They used to let you opt out from EL's but recently changed that policy and suddenly dumped everyone's images into EL = Yes.
64
« on: August 11, 2014, 21:35 »
Hmmm...Just did a little checking with regards to the image. Seems it ended up on a book cover, and was made into a movie. Nope, never got a property release...or an extended license. The image, of course, was deactivated last April.
Might depend on the agency, but book cover and still in a movie normally wouldn't need an EL, certainly not if bought from iS (book under 500k copies).
But if the owner of the B&B saw the book cover and wondered why they did not get a cut? Might be why there is an inquiry.
65
« on: August 10, 2014, 18:56 »
-1) What is important to remember is that Alamy is NOT microstock. It takes a different mind set to be successful there. Normal everyday MS images do sell occasionally but their core is textbook, reportage, newspapers and so on. No one is going to buy an isolated tomato on Alamy when they can get it on MS for nothing.
-2) Different styles, different sites. For example I have applied to Stocksy twice and been rejected twice.
so, is the money u make at Alamy good? or as good as u hoped to get from Stocksy?
do u consider Alamy in the same category as Stocksy?
Alamy is my #2 earner behind SS. But it is more erratic, some months very good money, some months nothing at all. SS gives me a paycheck every month Alamy does not, but at the end of the year I feel I made money there. it is really no bother to upload the RF stuff to Alamy, all the keywording and so on has already been done and since I only upload material that has been accepted widely elsewhere I do not worry about QC much. The RM stuff is harder and I spend more time on it, but it is also fun to shoot things and not worry about how to frame every shot so there are no logos or people in them. I think it is very hard to compare Alamy and Stocksy. I really like the artists cooperative idea behind Stocksy and really wanted to belong. I have a background in member owned cooperative management and thought it would be a good fit. I had no expectations of what I would make. Alamy is very old school and many contributors there started with film and slides so the attitude is different. I like the agency, I think they try to treat contributors fairly and are very responsive to questions and issues. The upload / keyword system is dated, even archaic but likely too hard to change now. There is a plugin for Lightroom that makes things a lot easier though. Sales are erratic and if you are used to logging in to SS several times a day to see your sales you will be sorely disappointed. Stocksy, is (to me) mostly a concept or idea. Since I was not accepted I have no idea how they operate or if I would like being there. I like the idea, I think it would be great to belong and help but as an outsider I cannot really give you any opinion on how they compare to Alamy.
66
« on: August 10, 2014, 18:41 »
"Just click on the "failed batch" in red on the track submissions page and the rejection reason and rejected image is clearly marked."
Clicked it, however all images in said batch just say "Failed QC" and the rejection reasons are all blank. Overall though, your points make perfect sense, thanks for the insight. Different strokes for different folks.
Did you have more than one batch open at that time? If so the failed image might be in another batch as all open batches get failed. Other than that I've no idea, I have always gotten a reason even if I did not agree with it.
67
« on: August 10, 2014, 12:56 »
"Upload good work and you will not have any issues. I have not had a single image rejected in over a year."
Not by any means claiming my images are perfect, but they were certainly "good" enough to be accepted and makes sales in multiple other places. While I do understand that they have a different kind of standard, and I admit I'm not quite clear on what that is exactly, I can't for the life of me figure out which image they deemed unworthy from a given group, or why. "Throwing out the baby with the bath water", as they say.
It can't be good for the collection as a whole and the search results to have a system that might allow what could be hundreds of poor quality images to "sneak" through in a batch because the reviewer just looked at one and found it "good enough". Quality control isn't just for children.
Just click on the "failed batch" in red on the track submissions page and the rejection reason and rejected image is clearly marked. And I certainly did not mean to imply your images were not good, only that what Alamy thinks is 'good' is NOT the same as what MS sites think is 'good'. And they are not throwing anything away, you are free to resubmit all of the images in that batch except the rejected one without penalty or notice. Unlike most MS sites. You might have a point about the collection as a whole, but I think most people with poor quality images get weeded out or just frustrated and leave. And those images quickly go to the bottom of the search and get lost anyway. As I said it is not for everyone, no matter how good their work is, because it takes a different mind set and standards. It is hard to be good at both Alamy and MS because of that. My MS collection is there but most sales come from the RM stuff that is not on MS. You really do have to learn what they want, how it needs to be titled and keyworded and what quality standards they care about. That is a lot of work and might not be worth the effort if you are used to shooting MS style stuff. Different styles, different sites. For example I have applied to Stocksy twice and been rejected twice. Not because my work does not sell elsewhere but because my style is not what they want. (Apparently, anyway or maybe I'm just not good enough:) )
68
« on: August 10, 2014, 11:39 »
Stopped submitting because of their lazy review process where they check one image in a batch and refuse or deny the whole lot.
I actually like their review process, it treats photographers as professionals not children. Upload good work and you will not have any issues. I have not had a single image rejected in over a year. Try that on SS, DT or any other micro worth being on. (Probably just jinxed myself ) Anyone with any success there had to be in years ago it seems. I definitely missed that boat. Disagree with that, I started in 2012 and Alamy is my #2 earner. What is important to remember is that Alamy is NOT microstock. It takes a different mind set to be successful there. Normal everyday MS images do sell occasionally but their core is textbook, reportage, newspapers and so on. No one is going to buy an isolated tomato on Alamy when they can get it on MS for nothing. And their reviewers look at things much differently than most MS sites. One tiny dust spot and you are rejected on Alamy, probably never be noticed on an MS site. But they will not reject you for borderline poor lighting, poor composition, or LCV. They are looking for technically correct photographs, and relying on you, the photographer, to decide if the content is worth uploading. They are not for everyone, I find I have to put my "Alamy hat" on when shooting for them as it is things I would not think of sending to MS. I do send them as RF the best of my MS collection as well but use a different pseudo to keep that separate from my RM collection.
69
« on: August 08, 2014, 01:09 »
Alamy is not micro. Think differently, use images that are edgier than micro. Their core is news, books and editorial not commercial advertising. People doing things, illustrate an event, show something happening.
They do sell but think 5 sales per month instead of per hour like SS. Still they are my #2 agency. I have all micro images in a separate pseudo and a different pseudo for all RM images. Both sell.
Be careful with keywords, use only what really fits.
70
« on: July 23, 2014, 09:41 »
No IPTC as far as I can tell so you have to re-keyword. Makes it a slow process. I will add some more when I get time but it is not a priority, unless I start to see sales.
Agree. I do not think they are set up to handle images like a stock site. Based on what I see most contributors have far fewer items for sale than a microstock site would have. It seems to be a digital market rather than a stock site.
That kind of thing makes it a non-starter for me. I don't have time to mess around with sites that can't add the simplest function like that.
71
« on: July 23, 2014, 00:18 »
I put a few images up there to test it out. I do like the site and percentage paid. I have had a few likes but no sales.
No IPTC as far as I can tell so you have to re-keyword. Makes it a slow process. I will add some more when I get time but it is not a priority, unless I start to see sales.
72
« on: June 30, 2014, 09:07 »
Contact member services and ask. They are usually quick to respond. No way to do it yourself that I know of.
73
« on: May 28, 2014, 19:03 »
Not sure it will matter sales wise, to me anyway. I just checked about half of the images they selected from my portfolio and only two had ever sold. I didn't bother checking the rest. I wonder what the selection criteria was? Random numbers?
74
« on: May 28, 2014, 11:06 »
OK, since this got out, here are a few details.
1. This is confidential because we're under an agreement. The email says that. We've always been transparent. We did our best to share more, our partners didn't agree.
2. This is NOT free. Once the partnership ends, we evaluate results and negotiate best royalties given the volume. The real deal will begin then. We plan to do our best to pay royalties retroactively.
3. We don't get paid for the test either, there is no scam. Just like you, we've adding our infrastructure and we've been working on this for quite a while.
4. We did tests like these in the past and we paid the royalties ourselves. This is a large size project and we can't support them, even if the scale of the initial test is small. 0.01% of something huge could still be significant. We need our contributors support and we sent them an email asking for that. You can opt out, nobody is forcing you to accept.
Again, I'm sorry for not being able to share more. I'm actually very enthusiastic about it since this could be the biggest partnership a stock agency can hope for. It could turn out into a great deal, unlike other negative examples that sadly, you've been exposed to.
Thank you for your support.
Thanks for dropping by and explaining what you can. Did you really think it was not going to "get out"? I appreciate that this is a test/trial and development costs are involved. I appreciate your offer to pay retroactively if that is possible. I'm going to stay in and see what happens, unlike other 'schemes' we have been exposed to you gave fair notice, allowed an opt out and only selected a few images instead of the whole portfolio. A much more reasonable and up front plan than some others. I might have suggested that the email be an "opt in" rather than "opt out" to allow only those that want to participate to do so, but OK at least you warned us. And I must say I am proud to be one of the "top Dreamstime contributors". Considering my sales volume I feel really bad for those who are not "top Dreamstime contributors", they must be starving. 
75
« on: May 22, 2014, 13:40 »
Ok so the new higher and better subscription commission is just on some subscriptions not all subscriptions? I read the email and I guess I've a little slow because that is not what I thought it read as.
So far the new higher and better subscription commission has gained me a grand total of .28 usd. It seems all of the subscription sales (except 2) have been at the old subscription commission.
I am surprised that with all of the furor caused by DPC no one has mentioned this. Well there marketing people should get a gold star they took me in.......
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