Quote from: SNP on January 14, 2013, 16:49

you're not only affecting yourselves by 'notifying' the design community, you're affecting all of us. sure, go out into the world and libel a company in a rant.

an organized community-driven, well-led business plan is one thing.....the way some of you are approaching this is absurd. that you will simply run out into the street and shout out your anger so haphazardly is as much a red flag to me as Getty's greed and lack of concern for contributors.

If it is so absurd as you think why iStock forum thread entiltled "Google Stealing Images or Another Deal" followed by another thread entitled "Google Drive + update" totalling 54 pages of angry members, have not been deleted and still going strong without any intervention from iStock to stop it?

I didn't say the concern is absurd. and I'm certainly not going to get into a forum p*ssing contest over here. it is those types of comments, and writing letters, posting here and there and everywhere--carpet bombing tactics that I think are absurd at this point.

please don't speak for "all of us" because you're not speaking for all of us. I'll speak for myself thanks.

This free image fiasco not only hurts contributors, but it is also damaging to the whole stock image industry. If the Google deal continues, then there will be no reason for people to buy images...anywhere.

hope you've got a very large welcoming mat Kelly, and lots of technical hires and new servers waiting in the wings ;-)

I think buyers were/are shocked seeing prices in plain language. I've supported fair pricing and increases, but clearly we're well past the boundary. I think buyers simply know they can get what they need for less elsewhere. Prices are just too high now. With more and more usage online rather than for print materials, the quality differential isn't as important anymore, assuming there is still a differential. I think the quality gap has closed significantly thanks to the influx of poor quality Getty content and improved standards on other sites like SS. you can still find an awful lot of garbage on SS but same goes for iStock today too.
as an iStock exclusive, we're up the creek if things continue as is. but, it's too early to tell after the holidays. 2013 certainly hasn't begun in any favourable manner for exclusives, quite the opposite.

Lisa - I haven't posted much here lately, but I read all the time and your last two posts are wicked funny. like the new acerbic tone.

I'm still in my first year contributing to Alamy. I think their rate of 50% is still good, but that they're reducing royalties like other agencies is disappointing. I did appreciate the candor of the email sent. no reading between the lines. plain and simple, they acknowledged that contributors wouldn't be happy. I don't believe any royalty decrease at any agency is designed to increase contributor income, but they get points for good communication.

Sales have been down since August. September was awful. October was slightly better than September, but still down by a lot.

Wow, that's pretty blatant.
I like IStock's "abusive inspiration" policy.
"It may not be illegal but we don't like to see other artists work being cannibalized" is a good attitude in a stock agency, as long as it is fairly applied.

agreed

His hands feel like rich, brown swede.

His hands feel like what? lol......suede and a Swede are two very different things

OK, I do not shoot in raw.
UNLESS it is unimportant pictures for the news, like burning houses at night. Then is nice to have a raw file that you can step up or down.

Else not.
For micro exposure HAS to be correct.

So I shoot jpg for microstock
I use photoshop elements to trim the photos. (CS5 is better)
I use Dusegard to keyword.

http://dusegard.se/PhotoKeywording.aspx

the whole point in microstock is to shoot keywords, not attach keywords to your photo.

I wouldn't follow this advice personally. I think it is imperative to shoot in RAW. why wouldn't you if you can? only in specific live feed situations do I shoot jpegs for editorial stuff. RAW files allow you to correct and modify without compression and to have a baseline from which to start again if you screw up while processing.

Since the weekend its all gone down again, im having an awful week so far.

I just wish they would stop f'in around with the best match, just leave it alone for  sake.

would we really want that? given that any best match shake seems to equally affect contributors, either up or down. the best match has had my sales on an absolute roller coaster the last month. but I wouldn't have it become a static thing...at least with the variables things can look up from one day to the next

Quote from: SNP on February 29, 2012, 14:26

I keep a table of expenses for each shoot and I tally sales against the expenditures.

I know for a fact that some of my more successful series are paying the bills for the less successful ones, regardless of cost. 

that is an important point. I keep the table just to be conscious of overspending on shoots. but at the same time, I have a number of successful files that weren't expensive to create.

I think the hotshots are really good this month. In fact I rated many of them. I didn't realize "Doctor" was in your long list of self-proclaimed accomplishments Christian ;-)

Quote from: Mantis on February 11, 2012, 20:55

If it weren't for the dinosaurs we wouldn't have museums now, would we.

The real significance of dinosaurs is that without them we wouldn't have had Raquel Welch cavorting in a furry bikini.

lol

sales are more 'normal' late last week and this morning so far, even though I'm always hesitant to report on just a few days.