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Topics - sharply_done

Pages: 1 [2]
26
Crestock.com / More laudits for you-know-who
« on: September 21, 2007, 13:29 »
Check out Today's Best Image at Crestock.

Congrats, freezingpics, you're on quite a roll these days!

27
Shutterstock.com / SS programming egg?
« on: September 14, 2007, 18:29 »
I recently began overhauling my SS portfolio, and one of the things I'm doing is appending stuff to the 'Description:' field. One of the words I'm adding is "Shutterstock', and their dictionary doesn't recognize it as a valid word, so it offers up this suggestion:

The word Shutterstock in the 'Description' field may be misspelled. Suggested alternate spellings are Shutterstock, Shutter-stock, Shittiest, Shortest, Headstock, Shortstop, Feedstock, Rootstock, Chattiest, Shadiest. If the spelling is correct, make no changes and click the Save button again.

Try it yourself, I'm not making this up!

28
Bigstock.com / "Hot New Shots" gallery on BigStock
« on: September 13, 2007, 22:05 »
I didn't know BigStock had a gallery like this until I read their email newsletter today. I was happy to see that hatman12 has an image in there (congrats, hatman!), and even happier to see that I have 4!


hatman12


sharply_done

Kinda strange that they picked two similar images of mine to put in there, huh?

Go here to check out the gallery. I didn't see any other familiar names from this forum - my apologies if I inadvertently left anyone out.

29
iStockPhoto.com / IS Title and Description
« on: September 09, 2007, 13:44 »
Does the IS search engine look at Title and Description, or just at the Keword and Category fields?

30
Adobe Stock / Silver!
« on: September 03, 2007, 12:23 »
Yee haw ... I just made silver level at FT! And just in time for fall sales, too.

It took longer than I thought it would, but I finally made it. I get a raise of 2 cents/credit, and my EL price more than doubles to $37.

31
Adobe Stock / Fotolia Pricing Bug
« on: August 03, 2007, 16:26 »
I've recently resumed uploading to FT and have noticed a bug whereby the pricing isn't always correct.

It's correct for the first image (S=1 credit, M=2, L=3, XL=4, XXL=5, X=50), but then resets to S=1, M=2, L=2, XL=2, XXL=2, X=50 for the next one. Changing the answer for "Do you want to offer an Extended rf license with this image?" to "No" then back to "Yes" resets the prices to their correct values.

32
Shutterstock.com / SS Review Slowdown
« on: July 04, 2007, 14:35 »
I've been experiencing a dramatic slowdown in review time at SS lately. My Friday submission wasn't approved until Sunday, and Sunday's submission is still in the queue. Very unusual.

Anyone else experiencing delays?

33
Shutterstock.com / Sales for the taking
« on: May 30, 2007, 10:01 »
Seen this thread yet?

Seems like a fairly easy way to get a few sales. I'll bet there are plenty of people going after those hard-to-fill words.

34
iStockPhoto.com / June Sales Slump?
« on: May 30, 2007, 08:52 »
My iStockRoyalties spreadsheet is forecasting a 12% sales drop for next month. Am I the only one?

35
Photoshop Discussion / Composing and cropping in Photoshop
« on: May 18, 2007, 17:14 »
Just thought I'd share a quick tip: When cropping/composing an image in photoshop, zoom in and out between thumbnail and preview sizes (that the microstock sites show) so that you can optimize the 'curb appeal' of your images.

36
Shutterstock.com / SS Sales Profile
« on: May 11, 2007, 23:10 »
SS is my leading source of income, and I've always been curious to determine the optimal days to upload (if there are any) so that my income may be maximized. I've read a few threads on this subject, but haven't seen anything other than anecdotes or common sense/straighforward reasoning behind any statements. So I decided to investigate how my SS sales varied by day of the week:


I uploaded as regularly as I could to minimize bias (i.e. I tried to upload equally on all days), and I ignored EL sales. My sample size is fairly small (only 122 days), but after fiddling with various data treatments I didn't see any dramatic changes, which leads me to believe that I may have something statistically significant (i.e. it's reliable and I can make predictions from it). I wish I was enough of a stats wiz to determine if this is an accurate statement.

Looking at the chart, it appears that sales on Mon, Tue, and Wed are equal (about 17% of the weekly total). Sales on Thu jump to over 19%, then rebound to just under 16% on Fri. Total weekend sales are almost equal to Fri sales. Thu is the most volatile day, while Fri and Sun are the most consistent.

So what does this mean? It depends on how often you upload. If you do it once a week, then you should probably pick Sat so that your images are approved and catalogued for Monday. Tue is also a good candidate to hit the high Thu peak. Avoid posting on Thu and Fri, and possibly Wed as well.

As for me, I'll now post to SS only four days per week: Sat to Tue. It'll be interesting to model the effect this has in another 122 days ...

37
StockXpert.com / 50/50
« on: May 11, 2007, 20:59 »
Hurray - 50 submitted and 50 accepted: my first 100% acceptance at StockXpert!

And still yet to see a zero DL day there, too ... thanks, StockXpert!

38
Shutterstock.com / hatman12 featured on SS
« on: April 30, 2007, 03:06 »
Congratulations, hatman12 - I just saw this shot of yours featured in the SS New Artists lightbox.

39
iStockPhoto.com / New reviewer/standards at iStock?
« on: April 17, 2007, 09:53 »
I was very surprised to have 3 images refused at IS today - one for using brand names in my keywords (the brand names were part of the CV), one for being oversharpened, and one for having too much noise reduction. The keywords were a direct copy of those used on one of my approved images, and all three images were composites made using components used numerous times at IS without a hitch. I don't normally appeal the reviewer's decision, but will for these three.

Putting the three together, I suspect that IS has either a new reviewer, or new standards. Anyone else experiencing strange rejections at IS?

40
General Stock Discussion / Spring Cleaning
« on: April 15, 2007, 12:41 »
I'm approaching my 100th day shooting stock, and was thinking about cleaning up my portfolios by removing images that haven't sold.

How many of you do this, and how often do you do it?
Are there any advantages/disadvantages to doing it?

41
Dreamstime.com / Freezingpictures gets blogged
« on: April 12, 2007, 11:54 »
The renowned penguinman has the leadoff image in the latest DT blog. Check it out:
http://www.dreamstime.com/global-warming_blog_art28

Congratulations, Freezingpics!

42
Photoshop Discussion / A quick way to add "pop"
« on: April 10, 2007, 13:22 »
Here's a technique I use to quickly goose the appeal of a shot:

  • Flatten the image, then duplicate the Background layer 3 times.
  • Select "Screen" as the blending mode for the top layer.
  • Select "Multiply" as the blending mode for the next layer.
  • Turn off the Background layer, then merge the 3 new layers together.
  • Turn on the Background layer, then adjust the top layer's opacity so that highlights are slightly blown or not blown at all - whichever looks best to you.
  • Flatten the image.

The overall effect is that the image becomes brighter and more saturated. I sometimes vary the technique by using "Multiply" on top of "Screen" to darken the image, and/or by setting the blending mode of the merged layer to "Overlay".

Give it a try!

43
iStockPhoto.com / iStock Royalties Spreadsheet
« on: March 04, 2007, 04:14 »
Does anyone use the iStock spreadsheet? Despite the fact that it's been about dead-on since I started using it (only a few months ago), I'm a bit suspicious of its accuracy.

It took me 3 months to get to 500 sales, and the spreadsheet has me passing the 2500 mark in another 3. It's forecasting my upcoming months to go extremely well (10,000+ sales in my first year), which makes me think it's a bit too optimistic.

What is your experience with it?


[Edit]: It can be downloaded here. The iStock forum thread is here.

44
General Stock Discussion / Full Time or Part Time?
« on: March 03, 2007, 00:39 »
I'm wondering what the breakdown is with people who use this site in terms of using microstock for F/T or P/T income.

I'm very new to this industry (started 50 days ago) and it appears that one can have a comfortable and stress-free lifestyle by doing this, so I jumped right in.

I rely on microstock for 100% of my income. Although it's quite meager right now, it is by far the most enjoyable and easiest money I've earned in quite a while.

How about you?

45
Dreamstime.com / DT Performance
« on: February 23, 2007, 00:04 »
It's taken me 50 days, 15 of which I abandoned DT and didn't bother posting there, but I'm nearing the point of earning $100 monthly from it on a 400 image portfolio.

I'm not too pleased with these numbers, and I'm curious as to how they compare with the norm for DT - worse, about average, or better than expected.

What are your numbers?

46
Off Topic / Flickr
« on: February 22, 2007, 17:19 »
So ... who here uses Flickr?

47
Off Topic / The new guy
« on: February 15, 2007, 16:40 »
Hi, everyone,

... just a short note to introduce myself - I've been lurking for a few weeks now and thought it was time that I joined up.

A bit about myself: I'm a commercial photographer based in Vancouver, Canada. I began shooting stock just over a month ago, am really enjoying it, and am learning plenty to boot. Can't ask for much more than that!


~Stephen

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