The percentage of visits to istockphoto.com that came from a search engine:








In my effort to see what has happened at other sites I compared the big 4 at ALEXA and something is horribly wrong with DT. Their traffic stats are nosediving since July of this year and their search engine referal seems to be the culprit.

Anybody knows what is going on?

Please select your top 2 choices.
Perhaps we can start a grass root movement for changing this misnomer.
When RF was born it was competing with rights managed (RM) content which required the payment of royalties. ("Royalty" by its definition is a payment for use). So technically a single fee can never be a "Royalty" if perpetual use is allowed. So the problem was keeping Royalty in the name "Royalty free".

Just my 0.02 pesos.

Anybody have an idea when the enabled IS pictures become searchable on photos.com? And on a related note. What is the difference between "Photos.com" and "Photos.com Plus" besides that the Plus has more pictures/

Thanks

To anybody who has actually put the 5D II through their paces I have the following question. Who has observed a freezing of the "live view" while trying to cycle through the "INFO" setting button? I have started to exclusively use the back LCD for framing, focus and exposure estimation (life Histogram). If I leave life view unattended for a short while (no exact figure??) the life picture freezes and no button can wake up the camera. Even switching the power switch OFF leaves the frozen life picture on the LCD. Only when I remove the battery does the camera shut down and start up fine when I switch it back on. i love the camera but I am afraid I need to return it for a new one. Bummer.

In order to trim my IS folio I decided to move 10 pictures that were older than 1 year with 0 DL to the dollar bin. Apparently they will be deactivated 4 weeks after the last DL (Tick Tock Tick Tock ....). Just in case they do garner some interest, can they be returned to my regular portfolio?

Relax ... actually only IS is down for the moment

What is/should be your/our strategy for the IS lightboxes if you have more than 5 pictures to choose?

A) Add your bestsellers to give them additional exposure and making it a valuable lightbox by improving overall quality - do not worry about other contributors "dogs"*.

B) Add only your lagging pictures - in the hope they might benefit from being in the same lightbox with other bestsellers.

C) Add 2-3 bestsellers and a couple of pictures that you think should be bestsellers but need additional exposure.


D) I wish I had enough pictures to choose from;)
 

My personal strategy is to add the best I have to make it a good lightbox benefiting everybody (A). The idea is that MSG lightboxes develop a reputation for being good resources for buyers. Perhaps (C) is not bad either. (D) go challenge yourself to add some awesome new pics.

* I've got plenty of "dogs" too, so take it easy will ya.

I inactivated or removed if inactivation was not possible all RF content from various sites and applied for exclusivity with IS. Anybody has any idea about the timeframe for "FINAL ANSWER".

Thanks

Does anybody out here have an indication on how important the acceptance rate is for the application to IS exclusivity. Their FAQ quotes a minimum of 50% for inclusion into their exclusive domain? Mine is significantly lower at 32% using a Rebel XT as my workhorse. Now that I have a used 5D I am hoping for a better rate. However I am taking a number of extreme pictures under very unfavourable lighting conditions (low light, mixed light, high contrast etc.), which of course will give any camera fits and introduce artifacts even when carefully working in PS. Anybody with an acceptance rate below 50% that became exclusive with IS?

I hope this is not a sign for things to come on IS. Somebody just pointed out that Designers are beeing screwed right now on IS and I do not hope this is their reaction - only DL the smallest size they need

Just bought a new computer system with new 24in monitor for 1980x1200 pixel real estate.
When I looked at somebodies folio on IS it seemd that most of the pictures are rather bright on my new monitor. Mind you I did the color correction and are able to distinguish
5,5,5 (2% over Black) from 0,0,0 (0% true black) and at the same time 252,252,252 (99% white) from true white (255,255,255).
Could somebody look at the same pictures here:
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&userID=836613
and tell me if they think the pictures appear with good gamma on their monitor or are they washed out. Thanks guys this would be greatly appreciated, because I am wondering if I prepared most of my pictures with the WRONG color correction.

If you could include OS (windows/Mac/Linus) that would greatly help. I just read that for best web display gamma of 2.2-2.5 is appropriate??? Any thoughts.

Thanks alot

PS. It does not matter if I like my pictures: you and the reviewers have to like them.

First: I am a proponent of giving photo buyers choices. Portrait vs. landscape orientation, close up, detail vs. the whole thing ....
Second: I do not know what the buyer wants or needs ...

Question: How do you get alternative version of the same scene accepted at IS?
Frequently a whole batch of pictures are beeing rejected because their appear to be duplicates of previously submitted pictures to the reviewer, which of course they are not.

How can I specialize in something if often times when I submit creative variations I get rejected..

Sharply: How do you get all these airline shots accepted if they are variations on "airplane in front of sky" theme. Not trying to knock anybody, just curious.


On an unrelated note:
Anybody having a slow start for the month too?

Thanks