Interestingly, Gopro Hero4 nightlapse mode uses auto exposure but cause almost no flickering.

<a href="http://youtu.be/RgWfNAQGlAA" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://youtu.be/RgWfNAQGlAA</a>

Play dough. When traveling light I use a piece of play dough to stick my small Sony RX100 or Nikon J1 on a fence, wall etc. It works most of the time.

2 days ago I uploaded a video file by using their regular Ftp server, the video showed as unfinished in about 15 minutes.

people say their standards are higher than DT.

Actually in case of FT, it is not the standards I believe. There are some topics they want, like isolated on whites, illustrations etc. With a portfolio of birds, insects and flowers your acceptance rate will be much lower than the other agencies you mentioned, no matter how good your images are.

They ask for your credit card information to start downloading.

Probably the 100 iso-40 secs would be cleaner, but the contrast would be too low.

You can try to paint with light, by using mobile light sources and external flashes, this will help to reduce the exposure time.

My first page (after login) has become "account settings" page. But not congratulations.

Quote from: ACS on April 09, 2014, 05:37

One has to be very careful about the "image level system" at Dreamstime. A small but a diversified portfolio may easily outperform a bigger but less diversified one. If you have many similars, it is very diffucult to have enough Level 5 images which bring the most revenue.

They also say that your acceptance ratio effects your search placement.

I have been with DT since 2007 and making 3 times better than what I do at FT.

That is actually very good observation and makes me think if it makes sense to upload new images if they are not totally different from what I have. On the other hand how likely it is that you would discover uncovered subject these days?

I think it still makes sense to upload new images if your existing but similar files couldn't reach up to higher levels yet after a reasonable time period. But on a given subject, if you already have a couple of high level files, it seems better to avoid to upload new ones on the same subject. A good search placement is the most important thing.

As for the undiscovered subjects, I believe there is still room in the conceptual categories and the regional themes. By saying regional I mean developing markets preferably with high populations and increasing incomes, namely BRICS countries for example. This is why I invested in vectors since it gives you the opportunity to work on the different markets without travelling.

This happens to me quite often.

Two days ago I sold the same image on SS and IS on the same day. It was a photo of a very specific touristic location. I sell this photo only couple of times a year.

Maybe the licences are different and the buyer want to be on the safe side by making multiple purchases?

What does SOD stand for? I see it mentioned and thought it might be shoot on demand but it seems it is not. My apologies if this is obvious, I'm not on SS.

Single & Other Dowloads

It is the name of the licence. Probably the usage of the image is tailormade.

14 months, 200 videos (trying to add 10-20 each month, mostly editorial real videos, no animations) 20 sales. Each sale brings around 15 $ on average. Just to give you an idea..

WAMS - World Association of Microstock Submitters

Is it something doable? Can an association like that bring solutions to some of our problems, needs?

For example;

@ Can that kind of an instution might be a useful, workable ground or base to protect our rights against possible unfair practices of the middleman; the Agencies?

@ In case of a fraud, theft, inappropriate usage of our products, whenever we need legal advocacy, can such an entity assist us?

@ Can such an initiative make regular meetings with agencies, governmental bodies, even with equipment producers, software developers and talk to them about our common, valid issues about royalty shares, pay out limits, rejection reasons, tax issues, equipment and software needs etc?

@ Would it also be usable for such as training & educational activies for the submitters?

There may be cons and pros of course; Such an organisation lets say with 10K members from all over the World, can be a good thing for the sake of solidarity, but on the other hand, you may say, it can be a bad idea because it may help to bring new submitters in by somehow promoting the opportunities in the business? I don't know.

There are financial issues, legal issues and many other issues. It may be a good idea but not feasable financially or it may be feasable financially but ineffective as legally, so does not worth the effort?

I belive, if there is going to be such an initiative in the future, this beautiful and unique platform will be the base & root for it.

What do you think?

Sorry if this has already been discussed but I couldn't find a topic for this subject in my search.

I don't know the answer.

But in my case the number of dowloads per image ratio is like:
Vectors > Photos & Bitmap Illustrations > Videos.

So I wish I could produce more vectors but it is more time consuming than the others and boring for me.