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Topics - bobkeenan

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51
Yaymicro / What kind of images sell on Yay?
« on: November 04, 2010, 11:25 »
I have about 750 images on Yay.  I started uploading them about a year ago.  I have had one sale since then.

Meanwhile on SS.... the same images, over the same period of time.... 800 sales.

Does this site just have incredibly low sales OR are they looking for a specific kind of image?

52
General Stock Discussion / All Rights Reserved in IPTC??
« on: October 26, 2010, 18:46 »
I was looking at an Aperture 3 workflow instructional video.  In it they suggest putting your copyright name (Bobkeenan Photography) in the IPTC but also to put the statement "all rights reserved" with the copyright name.

If I put the rights statement on stock that I submit to microstock sites....will they reject it, not like it, not care about it, other?

And what does that statement do for me anyhow?

53
iStockPhoto.com / Submitting to Istock is a pain
« on: October 21, 2010, 11:28 »
I am just whining here.  80% of my income comes from SS which is easy to submit keywords and categorize.

IS does have my highest RPI,  primarily because they are so selective on the images they accept.  I also appreciate them as my best critic to learn from.

But I hate their keyword system.... I hate it.....You have to go through each keyword and either accept what you submitted, use one of their alternates, or remove the keyword.  When I prepare my images, in Aperture 3,  I use Yuri Acurs site and try to get about 50 keywords.  And that is what gets submitted.

I submit all of my good shots to the other sites, then select the best of the good for IS.  I am lucky to get 20-50% accepted... but I have to go through each image and each keyword to submit.  That's thinking 50 times... some with keystroke actions, for every image that MIGHT get accepted.

Anybody have any tricks.

For example...Could I just use about 5 keywords.....submit it.... and then if they get accepted try to add the other keywords?

 

54
iStockPhoto.com / Is iStock getting pickier
« on: October 01, 2010, 00:13 »
iStock has always been the toughest for me to get my images accepted.  So I usually wait for my photos to get accepted by Shutterstock or others first.  If they pass that test then I submit only those.  Of that I get about 30% accepted at iStock.

With the last 30 or so..... None got accepted at iStock.... ugh.   Several of those are already selling on SS and others.

So I am wondering if there has been a shift in policy or I just got unlucky with the reviewer(s) that are checking my pics.

55
Shutterstock.com / Review times
« on: September 22, 2010, 09:36 »
What review times are you seeing?

It seems like the year or so I have seen 1-2 day turnaround on review times... I like that....BUT the last couple of weeks it seems like its taking 4-5 days. 

I love this site... about 40% of my sales comes from SS.  But I miss the shorter review times.

56
General Stock Discussion / My first $1000
« on: September 18, 2010, 10:45 »
Well..... it took me about 1 1/2 years to do it but I finally got to a total sales of about $1000.... Yea!  So do you think I can call myself a semi-professional photographer now??

I am on all of the top and middle tier sites with about 200-900 images on each.   Shutterstock represents about 45% of the sales, istock and dreamstime each about 15% and the others split the difference.

I figured out when I spread my earnings out over all of the hours that I have put into this.....I am making about $1/hr and my ROI from my camera and lens investment is in the very high negative numbers.

BUT.... I am having fun and learning a lot.... and probably becoming a better  photographer.

Next milestone.... have total sales that equal the value of my photography equipment.... I think I can get there before I die   ;D

57
Veer / Review time
« on: July 25, 2010, 09:53 »
I got accepted to Veer and after the first 10 I uploaded a couple hundred images.  That was 3 weeks ago.   They are sitting there un-reviewed.  Is that typical?

58
Every now and then I search for my images to see if I can find out where my "sold" images end up.   Then I noticed one of my images up on Fotosearch?  There is no indication that I can find that the picture has my copyright ownership AND they are selling it as a high resolution enhanced image for $99.

I have images at most of the top and mid sized sites.  Is that where they got it.  If it sells.... does part of that $99 come back to me?

59
iStockPhoto.com / Can't sumbit?
« on: June 24, 2010, 11:41 »
Just making sure its not just me.  I have had some images uploaded to Istock for a couple days that i want to finish editing categories, keywords, etc.  And they say that this is not available now?  And that's be a few days now.

Do others get that too?

60
Shutterstock.com / ISO too High?
« on: June 10, 2010, 11:08 »
Ouch.... Just had 12 of 12 photos rejected.   Mostly noise and focus.

Shutterstock is my best site.  I usually have 60-100% acceptance.  It is really rare to get 100% rejection.  I have been a contributor for about 18 months now.

One thing that was different about this batch is that most were new hand held Macros from a new 100mm f2.8 macro lens that I had just gotten.  I am new to  macro shooting.  One thing that I found is that there is almost NEVER enough light.  I don't use flash (maybe I should).  So.... while I normally shoot at ISO 100 in a non-Macro lens.... I pushed it to 250-400 for these shots on my Canon 7D.  In well lit areas there was no noticeable noise. But the shadows had noise and at 400 it was bad noise.   Noise reduction took care of most of it and for the bad areas I added some light blurring.

Also my DOF was more narrow than normal due to the lack of light and distance to the subject.  I thought that added to the "feel" of the image.  But it was different than my normal stuff.

I thought the images looked good. Maybe the bokeh was a little unnatural?

So I am wondering..... did I get a reviewer who had a bad day or just did not like these kind of shots  OR  did they see the larger ISO and that increased my chances of rejection?

61
Shutterstock.com / Key word order
« on: June 03, 2010, 16:04 »
I read that some microstock sites weight the first few keywords more importantly in buyer searches. Is this true for Shutterstock?

I never paid attention to this and use Aperture 3 for my metadata. I was not paying attention until I read this but Aperture rank orders the keywords by alphabetization. Even though I placed the most relevant key words first, this program shoved many of them to the end of this list.

If Shutterstock does this weighting is it possible to reorder some of my existing photos?

62
Adobe Stock / Annoyed
« on: May 16, 2010, 09:33 »
I have been doing this long enough now that I have seen this a few times,   but it always bugs me.

I did a recent shoot and had about 50 images that I thought I would upload.  I picked the 10 best and uploaded them to the big 4 and some others.

Shutterstock took all of them within a couple days and I had a few sales of of them withing a few days.

Same set at Fotolia took about 8 days to review.  ALL were rejected?@#$%$#@  Most due to poor quality?

At Shutterstock I sell 1-6 images a day.  Fotolia about 1 every couple of weeks.

Hmmmmm may be time to give up on this site.  I will probably stick with them till I get my first payment and then pull out.

63
123RF / how can you tell which image sold
« on: March 15, 2010, 21:06 »
Call me dense.... but I cannot figure it out.  I can see when and how many images sell.  But... I cannot see which ones sold.  How do I do that?

64
General Stock Discussion / US Taxes and deductions ?????
« on: February 16, 2010, 19:39 »
I have another Day job where I make a good income and pay lots of taxes.

Last year I went from a hobby of P&S cameras to DSLR's for the primary purpose of having fun and selling my stuff on microstock sites.  I only got about $200 microstock income (but it's growing!!!), but I spent $$$ on a DSLR, Lens, Filters, Tripods, Flash etc. 

I bet about 95% of my images are microstock related.

So I fill out my taxes for this year, using turbotax.  I report the $200 income on top of my normal income and the software guides me to the Form C.  This is where I put income, expenses, costs of goods sold.  I start filling that out and I notice that my total return back to me increases by a few thousand dollars.

I have generally found that good information like this means that I am doing something wrong.  Can I deduct my camera stuff in 2009?

You guys are probably not tax experts but I am sure that all most of you started out like this.

Any thoughts

65
StockXpert.com / Confused
« on: February 03, 2010, 16:59 »
I have photos at both Stockexpert and Istockphoto.  I have a small balance at Stockexpert.  Should I ask and get my one time payment.  I only a few sales a week on Stockexpert.

Is there any reason to leave it there after 11 Feb?

If my stockexpert files get moved to Istock or thinkstock and they sell won't I still get the money from the sale from Istock?  Or do stockexpert sales through thinkstock go back to stockexpert.  And if I have closed the account..... I won't get the money?

66
Shutterstock.com / Sales stopped after good sale- Coincidence?
« on: December 08, 2009, 09:17 »
Shutter stock is my best site.  I am still starting up in this stuff but I always seem to have 1-6 sales a day on this site.... even if they are only 25 cents each.  Sometimes I get no sales on a day but its becoming rarer.

On friday I had my first BIG (for me) enhanced sale of $28 for a file.  Whoopee!!

But now on Sat, Sun, Mon and this AM my sales have been 0????

Is that a coincidence or is there any connection to my big sale??

67
StockXpert.com / Ouch ! Long review and then near total rejection
« on: November 27, 2009, 01:20 »
 :-[

I have had about 5 uploads of a total of about 60 images that have been sitting there and not been reviewed since 1 Nov.  Then all of a sudden they review ALL of them.  Only one gets accepted and all the rest get rejected!!  Each with the same rejection that they are not looking for that kind of image???

Same photos accepted and selling at other sites??

I have never had a problem like this with this site.  Its weird.  I wonder what is going on.

68
Adobe Stock / Is it Fotolia or Me??
« on: November 20, 2009, 13:55 »
I have only be at this microstock stuff for about 10 months.  I have anywhere from 100-500 photos at the different sites.  I am not the best photographer but people are buying some of my stuff.  I would guess that my annual sales would be around $1000.  My goal is to get to $5-10K so I can get a Full frame camera and new lenses some day... and then keep my habit fed.

But here is the deal......

Fotolia is rejecting a most (98%) of my stuff.  They did not do that in the past?  The stuff that is being reject is being accepted at the other sites (Istock, shutterstock, Stockexpert, dreamstime) and some are selling well (by my standards) AND almost right away.  But my sales at Fotolia are crawling to a standstill.

I had the impression that Fotolia was a site that was comparible to Istock and Shutterstock.

Are looking for something that the other sites are not looking for?

BTW Shutterstock is the best.... high approval rating for me.... fast reviews.... quick sales.

69
Bigstock.com / Funny Rejections
« on: October 14, 2009, 18:22 »
I just had a bunch of photos rejected at Bigstock.  Funny thing though..... the same photos got accepted at shutterstock and are already generating sales ????

And didn't Shutterstock just buy bigstock???

I wonder if they are cross referencing photos and not accepting at one if another has it???

70
I have only been doing this microstock stuff for about 7 months.  I am on all the big 6.  I have anywhere from 90 to 400 images on each.  Of course the 90 is iStockphoto.

My images are just ok but I hope I am getting better.  I have sold about $300 worth of images in total  but have met only one minimum payout on Shutterstock... just got $75  Wooooo Hooooo!!!

I get much better acceptance and sales by a factor of 4 more at shutterstock.  But I am looking at istockphoto as a challenge and the chance to earn more money per image as I get better.

But figuring out what is acceptable is tough.  On one recent batch of uploads I had nearly every image accepted here.  While on shutterstock and others I had mostly rejects.

The most recent batch was totally rejected (rejection blues) by istock.  But most of those photos were accepted at shutterstock and already selling pretty well by my standards.

It used to really bug me but as long as my photos are accepted somewhere and sell then I get over it.

But it would be nice to figure out so I could increase my acceptance rate.

71
Shutterstock.com / A Money earning photo?
« on: September 17, 2009, 19:22 »
I have been doing microstock for about 6 months.  So I am just a beginning photographer.  I have anywhere from 50 - 300 photos on the big 6 sites.  But I probably only make about $1 a day.  I think my top photo has about 30 downloads between all of the sites but over about 4 months.

But today an interesting thing happened.  I took a photo of some red and green peppers at the farmers market. It got approved 3 days ago.  And today there were 4 downloads.  That never happened before.  So is that just a coincidence or could this one be a good money earner?

http://bobbyk.smugmug.com/Other/stock-1/9668450_TDKKz/1/652720010_5iqFj

72
Adobe Stock / 100% Photo rejection - ouch
« on: July 06, 2009, 15:13 »
I have been at this for about 5 months now and have 100-400 photos on each major site.  Fotolia's acceptance rate for me overall is about 25% but except for the last month or two was improving to closer to 50%.
I had not uploaded anything in the last few weeks and then uploaded 25 new photos.  NONE were accepted.  The common reason was "did not reach our desired level of aesthetic quality."

A 100 % rejection has not happened on any of my submittals for any sites.

So something has changed and I am pretty sure that my skills have not gone down the tube.

73
General - Top Sites / Exclusive Images: tips & tricks??
« on: June 16, 2009, 09:16 »
Maybe this should go into the newbie section but it is in reference to the big 6 as well.  I have only been at this for about 4 months and am all of the big 6 sites.  All my images are posted as non-exclusive.  Except I put a few into Fotolia just to see what would happen yesterday.  But I have some questions.

1.  Is there a best site for exclusive listings?
2. Any decision criteria where you would say.... this one needs to be exclusive.... and this one not.
3.  Wouldn't it be easy to take a few shots of a good image but at a different angle, crop, lighting and then put an exclusive shot in that family of shots into each site that offers exclusivity.

Any other thoughts on exclusive photos?

74
From most of these posts,  I can tell I have a LONG way to go.  after about 4 months I have anywhere from 60 to 300 images on each of the big six and my TOTAL sales is just now approaching  $100.  But if I extrapolate my growth in sales caused by added images and getting better (I think...hope),  I believe that I can go from my current level of $1-2/day to aobut $10/day.  But it may take another 12 months to get there.  But at that level it should take care of some of my photo gear habit.

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