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Messages - icefront
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226
« on: October 09, 2008, 19:09 »
If I should be looking to get a better lens than in the kit, what specific ones are recommended? The reason I ask is I don't have much money as of yet, only enough for the kit and getting started. Possibly in the future if photography works out, I will invest in additional lenses to build up my hardware.
For sure I recommend the Canon 50mm f1,8 prime. It's cheap but it's very good. Just look at the contrast and sharpness it has and you will have a very good comparison base for other lenses.
227
« on: October 07, 2008, 15:42 »
It's easy. Where the buyer provides images for the graphic agency (in the case on a magazine for eg.) this agency needs tiff so the buyer must provide tiff.
TIFF is needed because of the lossless compression (no artifacts), this is a strict policy in the world of graphics. No jpg's. Here jpg's are considered as amateur format. The problem is that nobody cares what is the actual source of a tiff. So? Let's provide for everybody what he needs!
228
« on: October 06, 2008, 15:37 »
I love this camera so much, I would sleep with it, but I am afraid it can drop off the bed at night and break 
Not so fast! The camera in the bed and you on the floor...  Congrats getting the new camera, I can feel the vibration...
229
« on: September 28, 2008, 16:29 »
Congrats, Peter!
I want to pre-order an 5d mark II too... These new models have so low noise and good picture quality that for stock photography we need to buy the best of the best lenses...
230
« on: September 20, 2008, 15:00 »
I was a fan of the 24-105 until I saw many tests and compared with 24-70, including the tests @ the-digital-picture.
Now I clearly see, for the best results I need the 24-70. Who cares about stopping down the lens? I need an f2.8 lens because I want to use at f2.8. For stock. With the today's 15-20mpx cameras I'm happy if the zoom lens draws me a true 15mpx image. The 24-105 is far away from this at the widest aperture, except the center.
231
« on: September 16, 2008, 18:39 »
Generally it doesn't matters what they accept/reject it matters what sells. You need to develop your style and you will have your best sellers, you will need to go in that way.
232
« on: September 14, 2008, 10:52 »
Hi!
Let's assume what I earn at DT, IS, StockXpert and SS is 100%. 123RF is only 10%, BigStock is 30%. Meantime I earn the same amount at Crestock, ScandinavianStockPhoto, etc. like at 123RF.
My wife is doing this business and a lot of my friends, they have the similar income percent.
The question is: is there something special to do at 123RF or I simply upload and wait for downloads? I think here about lightboxes, forum activity, faved members, blogs, etc., etc.
233
« on: September 07, 2008, 05:14 »
...
We already accepted the sub plans on almost every agency, so I can't find any reasons not to upload to VS if the earning are averaging those of BigStock and CS and far better than FP, MP and the likes.
...
It's true, the subscription plan brings the same amount except when I have normal downloads, at StockXpert I erarn $2,5...$5, at DT around $5...$6, etc. I have often normal downloads so I need to sell 20 vectors at VS to earn the same amount like at StockXpert. It's a waste for the agency to sell vectors for $1. It's very cheap. It sounds bad, we all know, cheap clothes, food, etc. doesn't give good impression.
234
« on: September 05, 2008, 17:56 »
This agency is ridiculous with their needs versus payout rates. They say they need the highest quality but they pay 25% for the artist. I'm asking, what is the reason, holding back 75%. Because they sell an artwork mostly for $1, the lowest lowest that can be in the industry.
If somebody has made vectors, he knows the workflow, in many situations, a good vector needs more time than a good photo (regardless if the photo it's more easy but it's more expensive to produce)
235
« on: September 05, 2008, 17:33 »
Hi all,
I use CorelDraw 12 to create vectors. Because vector sites require EPS format, I converted CDR file to EPS. But I am devastated with the results: the gradients appear as bands and the lines look jagged and blurry. The file size is about 10 MB.
Has anyone faced these problems? Please help.
Josh
All of my vectors are created in Corel 12. The trick is an additional step: save your vectors as Adobe Illustrator 7. After this you need an Adobe Illustrator to open the .ai and save as .eps. It's your problem how do you solve this, but an eps it's fine only when it's saved from Illustrator. Also focus on transparencies, some of gradient fill types, they are not compatible with the eps/ai 8. Eps files tend to be bigger when some effects cannot be represented in native v8 format so these effects are simply rasterized, total preserve of the appearance but total usefulness of vector format.
236
« on: September 05, 2008, 17:19 »
You can't delete directly. You can deactivate the file.
Look at the upload list and click the thumbnail of the photo, at the bottom of the page you will have the option to deactivate. Optionally you can specify a reason, I think it's good to write something as 'reason'...
But. I can't see the reason of portfolio cleaning by deleting/deactivating some images. Rarely will buy somebody your images simply because your portfolio is nice.
237
« on: September 04, 2008, 17:51 »
Since I visit many times during daytime (gmt +2) DT, I can say, yes it's often down.
But... Everything on this world needs maintenance, even your body and your thinking.
What do you think?
238
« on: August 30, 2008, 05:17 »
I don't like the submissions page it's complicated and the most important thing can't figure out CLEARLY how is working, it needs extra attention. The structural bulid has a problem too, it's not left-to-right reading style, because the thumbnails (from where I start) they are on the right and their data (should be on right) is on the left.
A lot of agencies developed extra simple and extra quick methods to submit:
Every image is on a row. From left to right:
1. thumbnail
2. title/description, categories
3. Categories, model releases
In the firs step I enter/modify the data then hit submit. The page doesn't actually submit the images until something is missing/empty/incomplete.
In the second step I may check everything then submit.
About categories: at least two categories needed!!! Examples:
- 3d render of a clock. 1st: 3d-renders 2nd: objects -> clocks
- metaphores show objects or people but the meaning of the image is different 1st: people 2nd: abstract -> wealth
It's very important to be able to edit the submitted images! I may upload the image and then I see that one or more keywords are missing or typed wrong (since spell check cannot check the latin names, eg.)
239
« on: August 29, 2008, 18:23 »
I f you have good skills to isolate things than don't waste it by simply omitting isolations. What our friends posted before doesn't exclude isolations.
At my day job I'm a graphic designer, I often need stock photos as illustrations and guess what I use? Yes, isolated images because the paper is white, I don't need copy space and I don't have square frame. I know, many designers use isolated photos like this. Just open some magazines and see the small isolated photo illustrations near the articles.
A important thing: don't isolate completely the subjects! leave a slight shadow so the objects don't "float" in the nowhere, the shadow gives a "surface".
I suggest to you to focus on isolations but on blurry backgrounds too.
240
« on: August 29, 2008, 17:55 »
I believe, Crestock is open for this kind of subjects.
In the past I opened a topic at the Crestock forum about the payout of 20% after a per-photo sale and they raised the comission to 30% after somebody sells 100 photos. Thank you, again, Crestock!
Meantime I agree, the 0.25 cent revenue after a subscription sale is very low. Apparently it can be good to have low prices for the buyers but as I see, at the more expensive micros there are more many buyers as 0.30$ sales grow to a considerable amount.
I suggest to be on the level of the other agencies, regarding the prices.
However, me and my wife, we stopped uploading to Crestock, several months ago. This can sound stupid, because without more uploads we can't have more revenues but there is another thing in our mind: if the agency doesn't support us with decent commissions and with a good number of downloads per month, then we cannot support the agency with fresh images IN FAVOR OF other agencies where we upload regularly and we earn regularly.
Also there is an open question in my mind: do agencies bring new buyers or they share the given amount of buyers between them?
241
« on: August 29, 2008, 11:15 »
I had unusual delayed payments this month. I think, it was because of the slight raise of the dollar.
242
« on: August 29, 2008, 09:48 »
...
I'm not sure what's going on here, but I'm considering terminating my account with Fotolia rather than continuing to waste my time uploading rejections. Any opinions on the matter? Should I stick with them and keep submitting content or just put my efforts elsewhere.
...
I suggest to not close your account. Simply forget FL for several months and wait what will happen there. FL it's a high earner for me, but around 3 months ago they started to reject my work as similar, type of photograph, etc. (stupid reasons), while the other sites accepted them and the images sell well. I suggest you to wait to see what will change, at least to hear some official guidelines about exactly what they need, what they can accept. Good luck with the other agencies!
243
« on: August 26, 2008, 11:53 »
Thank you for your inputs! At least, stock photography is a better job because of colleagues...
244
« on: August 25, 2008, 15:48 »
Hi all,
here is a thing and I want to hear your opinions about.
I want to give up my day job and I want to live from microstock. Currently I'm earning the same money from the stock as from my day job. I like my day job but I like stock photography too... I'm a graphic designer/engineer at an advertising material company, I have a good position but stress is my biggest problem.
I started to make stock from 2006, I feel what the stock needs, but somehow I feel I don't have much time to provide this. I want to change and do this full-time.
Any thoughts...
Thanks!
245
« on: August 25, 2008, 15:18 »
I know, buyers are present simultaneously at more agencies. I just buy some magazines to see what stock is printed there and I see constantly 2-3 agencies on the edge of the page. But the common thing I see is the names, shutterstock and istock almost everywhere.
We know, the customer's articles, blogs, magazines, etc. will be illustrated ANYWAY, but for an agency it's not just the same, where the customers buy the images.
The difference maker? It's the agency. The customer anyway will buy an image, so let's make them to buy from us!
Can we say that the customer base can be seen in the mirror of the agency? Let's think about how an agency treats us, photographers, so this way treats customers too, because they can't be different with the customers. We say what are our problems, but I'm not sure the customers will say too... They want to change something, or they just want to illustrate their articles?
246
« on: August 17, 2008, 16:55 »
I don't have PS( I know, I know), too expensive. I tried GIMP, and got lost within a few seconds. I don't even know what you mean by "converting/post-processing RAW"(Sorry).
Dear friend, please understand, if you want to be successful you can't avoid Photoshop (or similar). Simply because it's the easiest way to achieve quality and quantity over time. I don't know much about your age, profession, but the digital photography has it's own know-how's about bits, color spaces, levels, color-noise, etc., etc., theory is essential. takestock's link is very good, also you may need to study the following articles: http://www.llvj.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml - understand how the digital camera sensor sees the world, and http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm - about raw The vision - it's you: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htmGood luck!
247
« on: August 17, 2008, 15:06 »
I have 3 tips for you:
1. Content. Shoot good concepts, think about your photo, don't simply walk and find themes.
2. Quality. I know, for the start, noise and lighting standards can be subjective but experience your eyes by downloading free stock photos. Focus on the real good ones. Learning to use photoshop and converting/post-processing RAW it's a must. Meantime 2. is the most expensive point since you need to have good equipment.
3. Quantity. A few photos bring a few cents. More photos more cents. Quantity also refers to the variation of the themes found in your portfolio. Wider theme coverage means more buyers.
Good luck!
248
« on: August 17, 2008, 14:43 »
If someone were to start a new site, I'd offer these ideas:
...
Images that don't get downloaded in a year get removed. If it's not popular enough for at least one person to download it, then get rid of it.
It's funny, right now 80% of my images can be removed from Canstock, Stockphotomedia, etc. Because a) the images are so poor b) they don't have traffic (?) Seriously I agree with this rule but this must be a more complicated formula, based on site traffic.
249
« on: August 17, 2008, 14:17 »
I think somehow they follow the rule "don't repair if isn't broken", in the meaning if everything goes fine, everything is at it's well known place, then there is no reason to change. Also I think the loss during the downtime and fixing the bugs after the change is too high.
Of course there are a lot of things to improve, but the question is: who will benefit from the improvement and what are the costs? I guess, buyer-related improvements are on the first place.
During the time I wrote many suggestions on forums or PM's to the admins but I realized, these suggestions are good only for us, uploaders, there is a mass-need of a feature to be implemented.
250
« on: August 17, 2008, 14:01 »
I stopped uploading to FL 2 months ago, they reject my stuff as similar or overabundant. Too sad, the so called - accepted - similar images sell very well on FL... I'm really sad, I simply loose money because of somebody's weird decision.
I tried to contact support: I didn't uploaded any similar photograph to #xxxxx, support response was a copy/paste, completely irrelevant to the subject. I contacted support 3 times, the responses were 3 copy/paste's. I feel I'm talking alone or I'm talking to walls.
I have to wait until something changes at FL, I don't want to waste my images.
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