MicrostockGroup Sponsors


Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Brightontl

Pages: 1 ... 28 29 30 31 32 [33] 34 35 36 37 38
801
General - Stock Video / Re: How much do you earn per clip a month?
« on: February 19, 2017, 07:11 »
I was constantly around $0.9 until the end of last year. January was really horrible though.
I have been in this game less than two years and I am sure that established artist have a much better ratio than me.
I have noticed that a very big percentage of sales come from a very small number of files that have already sold a lot. For obvious reason I have only very few files of this kind so far.
As an example from time to time SS (normally my number one agency) has a big slump for me and in that situations I only sell one single file over and over. It has been the case since the beginning of the year: every single sale in SS for me has come from just one file!!!

802
It takes around 20 minutes to export it as a 4k mov, so only 3 minutes longer than the preview  ???

Strange.
As far as I know the graphic card doesn't play a big role.
The main thing is how much RAM you have assigned to AE. I have 26GB just for AE and Media encoder

803
I've just tried that workflow, but noticed that scrubbing through the timeline and other adjustment take waaaay longer compared to a tiff or jpg export. So I'm not really sure if it's faster. Just previewing a 5 second clip takes more than 5 minutes to render all the frames (at "quarter" quality).
Obviously rendering RAW files is much more demanding than TIFF, so it depends on your PC capabilities, especially the amount of RAM (and the amount dedicated to AE).
I have a powerful PC with 32 GB of RAM and previewing a timelapse of 15 seconds in RAW takes less than30 seconds.
I really would like to extend to 64 GB

804
Personally I like the Stoksy look.
What I really cannot stand is the lifestyle high key look of microstock images with young people always smiling and looking extremely happy playing with electronic gadgets

805
I export TIFF from Lightroom and batch rename in Bridge because I always thought That AE does not accept RAW or DNG, I even tried doing it at first and it did not work.
If I could read RAW as a sequence it would save me tons of time. Maybe the trick is to Save Metadata to File?

Yes, just choose Import > File and choose the first RAW image.

You don't need to edit in Lightroom first and save the XMP files, you can just edit the first image in AE and the rest will use the same settings.
Wow, it does work!!! It must be a new function in recent months.
Thanks a lot.
This will save me tons of time and also I will get better quality by avoiding going through the file conversion to TIFF

806
Oh yes. On some hyperlapses I can spend two full days. It's extremely time consuming (especially if you were a bit lazy when taking the pictures)...

But here's a tip: Skip the tiff images step and work with RAW in After Effects. Saves time and space.
Can I "develop" them in AE like in LR by using camera raw or something similar? I edit most of them heavily, so I'm wondering if I can get those adjustments in AE as well.

Yes, Camera Raw runs in AE.

I edit in Lightroom, save the metadata (Save Metadata to file) and then open the RAW images as an image sequence in AE. They will develop with the Lightroom settings as long as the XMP files are in the same folder as the RAW images.

I usually choose flat settings in Lightroom though and export a ProRes HQ 10-bit mov from that which is much faster to work with when stabilizing etc. Unless I need to do something extreme, I grade in AE on the movie file instead of in Lightroom. Of course you lose some information but it saves many hours if I want to revisit a timelapse/hyperlapse a year later and grade it differently. Then I just pull up the flat movie file. 10-bit HQ is usually enough.
Interesting...
I export TIFF from Lightroom and batch rename in Bridge because I always thought That AE does not accept RAW or DNG, I even tried doing it at first and it did not work.
If I could read RAW as a sequence it would save me tons of time. Maybe the trick is to Save Metadata to File?

807
I think the ideal situation is for people who have another source of income that leaves them a lot of spare times (teachers for example).
Especially if shooting photo/video is your hobby and you enjoy it in your spare time, even better if you have already a few thousands of images sitting in your computer.
Microstock can give you a complementary income while having fun

Please cut the dig at teachers. ;) I don't know where you are, but here it is a mega job with all the admin, meetings and trendy new ideas. Thanks.
There is a cue to my location in my name.
Sorry I didn't mean anything bad about teachers, maybe I did not use the right word, but I know a lot of people that teach music, or photography, or painting, or image post processing for a few hours a week and also submit photo, video, graphics or video to stock agencies.
Similar situation for myself: I do tutorials on the Internet and stock video, the two things complement very well.
Probably instead of teachers I should have said people who do a bit of teaching

808
General - Stock Video / Re: Much interest in interlaced footage?
« on: February 15, 2017, 10:55 »
Several video agencies refuse interlaced footage.
I think you will be much better off with progressive encoding

809
Pricing should have very little to do with resolution and very much to do with the content of the clip. It's ridiculous to price a 4k tripod clip of a rose in your backyard at $199 just because it's 4k...

On the other hand, a 720p clip of flowing lava splashing on top of an eagle in super slow motion could be priced at $999.
Even more if the eagle is wearing sunglasses

810
General Stock Discussion / Re: Shutterstock sales are bad.
« on: February 14, 2017, 15:37 »
I agree with Chicicoff.
SS went into a deep coma since the beginning of the year.
I do only video and SS was always the number one until last year.
I hope is only due to all the useless changes they did

811
The fact that 4k at the moment is much more expensive than HD is due to demand, nothing to do with production costs.
4k is a new format and all new products demand higher prices.
The few people who buy them are professional buyers who don't care at all paying $400 for a clip.
Price will gradually go down to attract other segments of buyers (like bloggers), but it is still way too soon now

812
SS has always been my work horse: lots of sales and steady increase.
Since the beginning of the year it went into a deep coma: in January I got less than one third of what I usually get, same thing in February.
Very funny thing is that only one single file sells, over and over. The other minor slump I had was in October, and again I was only selling the same one file.
FT is doing decently and has beaten SS in January and is 3:1 compare to SS in February so far

813
General Stock Discussion / Re: Sales stopped at Videoblocks?
« on: February 14, 2017, 08:17 »
I always found Videoblock very, very strange.
I had my best ever the first month, when I had about 100 clips: I got about 6 clips sold, sort of welcome aboard.
After that I always got 2 to 3 sales a month, with 1,700 clips now. Increasing portfolio size does not seem to matter.
I have never sold a file more than once, in other words all sales come from different files.
The sales I get are generally from my worst clips, the one that never get a view anywhere else and the ones I am ashamed of

814
On the other hand France is the most strict on the planet.
You must have a licence after three weeks (!) of intense training. communicate to the authorities your purchase of the drone, start a company, scarify 12 virgins before you can even put the thing in the air.
Afterwards you need to ask permission with a detailed map of where you want to fly every single time!
And most places are forbidden anyway

815
Video Equipment / Sofware / Technique / Re: Video Tripod
« on: February 13, 2017, 10:04 »
For video everybody suggests to use a video fluid head.
They actually give very smooth pan and tilt rotation.
On the other hand they are a huge pain when the ground is not level, as you cannot adjust the horizon line and you have to adjust the tripod legs.
For this reason I stopped using them and went back to traditional three point head

816
Yes, it would be interesting to hear updates about it from different parts of the world.
Here in the UK the situation seems particularly relaxed at the moment. Never had any problems, even in urban areas, but I am very strict about respecting the few rules

817
I think the ideal situation is for people who have another source of income that leaves them a lot of spare times (teachers for example).
Especially if shooting photo/video is your hobby and you enjoy it in your spare time, even better if you have already a few thousands of images sitting in your computer.
Microstock can give you a complementary income while having fun

818
On a side note, but still kind of related... would be nice if they could add VideoBlocks to the Microstock Poll result... see where it's at in the list. Although it might not be in the top tier, I'd be surprised if it wasn't somewhere in the middle tier, so I think it deserves a place in the poll. Although... maybe it's being left out as it's video only?
Yes, I believe that video only agencies don't get much attention here.
99% of people here are in still images, not a lot of footage people

819
First time I hear of Artbeat Express.
Is anyone else uploading there?

820
Video only.
For me SS was always number one and kept constantly increasing until the end of the year. Since jan 1 it suddenly died: really horrible 6 weeks, I don't understand why (certainly a major change in algorithm and website).
Pond 5 died exactly when their membership thingy started and hasn't been a factor for me since last May.
Fotolia has increased a lot. If only SS would come back from the coma things would be nice

821
Unless he's making at least $39,000 dollars a month it wouldn't be worth quitting your job at McDonald's.
I'd heard the minimum wage has gone up, but I had no idea.  :o  I'm going to submit an application at my local McD's ASAP!
Me too.
I'll go from filming burgers to flipping burgers

822
Pond5 / Re: From 20-30 sales a month to zero
« on: February 05, 2017, 02:32 »
Since the membership program started in May, I have had in 8 months a combined number of downloads lower than what I was doing in a month! and my portfolio is three times bigger now. My last sale was middle of November.
The artists participating to the membership have been pushed up in the search and everybody else has been squeezed out. In other words, if you are not in the MS, forget about P5 and move to something else.
Also 85-90% of customers have moved to the membership where they can choose amongst 200,000 good quality files for peanuts. I have the feeling that this incredible dumping is starting to affect the other agencies as well and I believe soon they will start lowering their prices to respond to this start of the race to the bottom

823
Newbie Discussion / Re: Resolution, to begin with
« on: February 04, 2017, 11:43 »
There are two main reason to shoot in 4k, even though sales in this format are still very few and far apart:
- your footage will probably became obsolete in 2-3 years, so shooting in 4k you are future proof
- even if you deliver in HD, by shooting in 4k you have plenty of room for zooming, panning, cropping and stabilizing

824
The number of images is a red herring what matters is money in vs money out. I'm also not sure if it matters if someone else is making money other than interest and you will never know anyway!
In the case of this guy you do know exactly how much he makes, as he posts constantly on P5 forum, several times a day. Also in P5 you can see how much people are selling in the Artist resource area.
Anyway, the $5,000 a month stated somewhere in this thread is an over estimation. He keeps saying constantly that he cannot afford a 4k camera...

825
Perfectly agree, I never use presets, each clip has to be analyse individually and it does not take much time.
The workflow depends a lot on the power of your computer.
I agree, Warp stabiliser takes a lot of time, but it is not needed in every single clip

Pages: 1 ... 28 29 30 31 32 [33] 34 35 36 37 38

Sponsors

Mega Bundle of 5,900+ Professional Lightroom Presets

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors