No Sales. What can be the issue?

[KODAKovic]

Forgot to ask...Arterra do you know some flowers app which could help me to retrieve their latin names?

Thanks in advance

[Matt Limb]

Well that was both brutal and informative!

 

For what it is worth, I have regular sales that were not zoomed - so a lack zooms is not the end of the world.

 

Today not using RAW and processing images yourself is a road to disaster - why in your right mind would you let a camera based computer process your images?  Plus external drive storage is now dirt cheap.

 

Also presets - No, No and No again why would you hand over the processing again to another party - yes it is quick, and I suspect that is why you have grown a fast collection on here - find a better workflow that is suitable to generating well key worded images 

[Betty LaRue]

You said it before I could, Philippe, and couldn't make it easier to grasp.

Views only mean your image came up in a search. Spamming means your unrelated image came up in a search and wasn't what the customer was looking for. A sure fire way to sink to the bottom of the heap when a rerank happens and you no longer are in the middle of the pack where newbies start. Then your views will deminished.

 

The bottom line is sales. You have none. That means, with 3500 images, that you are doing things wrong. I'd made $10,000 worth of sales long before attaining 3500 images. Granted, over years, though. Still, you should be getting 3-4 sales a month. Sometimes less, sometimes more. The fact you aren't means something, it's time you figured it out.

[AlessandraRC]

I don't understand resistance to processing raw images. I was hooked from my first raw file on. 

[AlessandraRC]

 

 

Spot on. Subjective terms should mostly be avoided. About 110 years ago there was a detective on TV who used to say, "Just the facts, Mam."

Whenever I see a photo captioned "a beautiful woman" I pause for a moment and wonder is this woman truly beautiful? For some, she may be. For others, not so much.

 

For what it's worth, "Beautiful Woman" returned over 2 million results. "Ugly woman" only returned about 2500.

Just plain "Woman" returned nearly 7 million results.

There you go.

I will focus on ugly people pictures and be rich!

 

 

 

 

I could not, in the life of me, do this to a model, I mean, call him/her "ugly" in my keywords, even if I though so. I don' care how much money this would bring me. 

[KODAKovic]

 

 

Thanks all for the kind advices

I don't have a calibrated monitor, this is one thing i have to do quickly. My images are JPGs OOC processed with VSCO LR presets which enhanced dark areas and contrast.

I love the final effect but i didn't consider most whites are gone so they're not suitable for stock actually.

For keywording / quantity i agree with your advices, i focused on quantity without considering all the right things you said, all correct.

I don't know really how it's possible to manage 100k+ pics with PP , keywording, uploading , move all keywords from LR fields to Alamy fields. Your workflow is wonderful for my skills.

My plan is to re-caption and re-keyword my 3500 pics online and use less PP in future or use a better preset, i know it would be better to shoot in RAW but i don't want to manage Tbs of data.

 

 

RAW doesn't use up that much and if you don't want them, shoot in RAW, do your PP in RAW then convert to a JPG.  You could simply delete the RAW image if you so wanted to but would end up with a much better JPG than out of camera.

 

I don't use presets as every image is different, so outside of the standard ""Remove CA" and lens adjustments, each image is done individually.

 

If you can't invest the time to upload quality images, then you will probably have a difficult time competing in the almost 80 million image sea that is Alamy.

 

Jill

I echo what Jill said. The road you are taking is that you have thousands of poorly shot and developed images on sale that won't sell, that is if they ever could be found because of the bad keywording.

Instead of the generally accepted one sale a month per 1000 images, you will do well to have one sale a month for 5000 images.

 

You seem to be determined to add images at an unreasonable speed, refuse to shoot raw, refuse to give any individual attention to each image, and refuse to believe that 100 carefully shot, developed and keyworded images is worth 1000 of what you are presently uploading.

The people here giving you advice are doing their level best to guide you in the correct way of doing stock, in spite of your being a competitor. Continuing on the way you are doing it, you could have 10,000 images and be fortunate to make a handful of sales a year.

Take a look at Philippe's portfolio. He has thousands of images, but he's added those over years. They are beautiful images that have had careful attention. If you had 3500 of his images in your portfolio, you'd already be seeing enough sales to make you happy.

Betty

 

Refuse?

Where on hell am i ever use the word "refuse"?

"For keywording / quantity i agree with your advices, i focused on quantity without considering all the right things you said, all correct."

"Your workflow is wonderful for my skills."

"My plan is to re-caption and re-keyword my 3500 pics online and use less PP in future or use a better preset,"

 

Where exactly can you find a word or "intention" of refuse something?It'll be great to know

[KODAKovic]

 

Thanks all for the kind advices

I don't have a calibrated monitor, this is one thing i have to do quickly. My images are JPGs OOC processed with VSCO LR presets which enhanced dark areas and contrast.

I love the final effect but i didn't consider most whites are gone so they're not suitable for stock actually.

For keywording / quantity i agree with your advices, i focused on quantity without considering all the right things you said, all correct.

I don't know really how it's possible to manage 100k+ pics with PP , keywording, uploading , move all keywords from LR fields to Alamy fields. Your workflow is wonderful for my skills.

My plan is to re-caption and re-keyword my 3500 pics online and use less PP in future or use a better preset, i know it would be better to shoot in RAW but i don't want to manage Tbs of data.

Sorry Kodakovic, but this is a professional business for the best photographers so you need to do your best (you are competing against millions of images).

That means a good camera, RAW files and a good processing software.

Yes, you will need to invest time and have tons of HD space not to mention SD/CF cards in your camera to fit the extra memory.

And besides that lots of time studying and perfecting your processing skills.

 

 

Alexandre

i AM a professional photographer and i KNOW what a business it (not only photography).

I HAVE a "good" camera , raw files vs jpgs is something forums debate from the beginning of the digital age and i OWN Lightroom.

ah..ok.... it's 25 years that i "study my processing skills". how old are you (just to know) ?

Is an innocent question like mine to start selling here in Alamy something people need to use to teach others how to live?

If that's the Alamy spirit, i'll be better go elsewhere

[KODAKovic]

I don't understand resistance to processing raw images. I was hooked from my first raw file on. 

Which camera brand do you have?

Never tried Fuji? 've you ever seen its ooc jpgs?

Never made a research in Google like "RAW vs JPGs" just trying to understand why many people shoot jpgs?

[KODAKovic]

 

Hi all,

i became an Alamy contributor since Feb 2016, now i've 3500 pics, 10700 views , 17 zooms but no... sales!

While i'm trying uploading different topics in quantity , what do you suggest me to focus on? Better keywording, Better quality, Wait 1 year to start seeing sales?

 

What else?

Thanks in advance

Hi I have 3290 views and 18 zooms, getting close to 4000 images.

If you have 10000 views and 17 zooms (3 times more views than I have, but the same amount of zooms)

It might mean that you have some misleading keywords or uninteresting images so people view your images, but dont zoom (or buy).

I didnt look at your portfolio yet, sorry, but for the comments of the others seems like you should take a look at your keywords first.

 

 

G5598K , G55984 , G644R2 

just took 5-minutes 3 samples of your recent uploaded images. Is that what you mean by shooting and processing with a professional workflow?

i'm gonna take mine boy

[spacecadet]

 

I don't understand resistance to processing raw images. I was hooked from my first raw file on. 

Which camera brand do you have?

Never tried Fuji? 've you ever seen its ooc jpgs?

Never made a research in Google like "RAW vs JPGs" just trying to understand why many people shoot jpgs?

 

I used jpeg for about 6 years before running into a lot of QC problems. It was suggested that I switch which would cure a few problems. I did and it did.

After about a year I'm confident that appropriately processed RAW files are sharper, have better dynamic range and detail, and are easier to handle than jpegs. The only downside is a bit of extra processing time and four times as much storage, but that's not too expensive nowadays. I will only go back, if I do, for live news images or where speed of throughput is paramount.

BTW i've just read your last post. We don't like snipers here.

[Jill Morgan]

"My plan is to re-caption and re-keyword my 3500 pics online and use less PP in future or use a better preset,"

 

 

I use ACR as opposed to LR, but the sliders are the same.  It's not so much less PP than the correct PP.  Some images may need none, others may need a little colour boost, shadows brought out or maybe the contrast needs a bit of a boost.

 

I do my images in groups.  I will select all, then remove CA, make lens adjustment and then click on the Auto button.

 

From there I do them one at a time.  The Auto button will give you a fairly decent improvement in the areas that need it.  I rarely actually use the settings from the auto selection, but it gives me a good baseline to work from.  From there I will do some colour adjustment if required.  Maybe boost the blues in the sky if it's looking a little flat.  Once I have worked with each slider individually, then I go to the adjustment brush to work on individual areas of the image that might need some individual help. If there is one area of the image that is overexposed, I will adjust only the exposure setting for that area of the image.  I have some images where I have used 4 or 5 different exposure settings.  Maybe there is only one area of the image where I want to brighten the shadows instead of the whole image.

 

Then of course there are the images where power lines need to be removed, or garbage on the grass needs to go, etc.  But those images must be declared as "digitally altered" when preparing them in Manage Images.  I use the description box to state the changes I made to the image.

 

Good luck redoing all your captions.  Just work at it slowly and you will get it all done.  

 

Jill

[Betty LaRue]

" i know it would be better to shoot in RAW but i don't want to manage Tbs of data."

Looks like refusal to me.

 

And I shoot Fuji. X-T1. Fuji cameras are great. But there are many confusing ways to set the cameras up, best choices in the menu, or you can get in trouble. For instance the settings that handle contrast. DR? Set wrong, you'll have too much contrast. Shadows too dark, etc.

I've been shooting this camera for two years, now. I still haven't gotten my mind wrapped completely around the menu choices. I must have accidentally changed a setting recently and couldn't figure out why I was struggling with proper exposure. It's fixed now. But I had to go to the Fuji X forum for answers.

 

I always, always, shoot raw. Even when I'm not shooting for stock. If, or I should say WHEN I mess up a shot, I can fix it in PP because Raw allows that without degradation. Recovering highlights or shadows on a JPEG can never be done as well as on a Raw image.

 

I don't quite understand why you are getting your feathers ruffled. You asked for input when you launched this thread. Did you expect us to say, "Wow, what beautiful images, the buyers must have rocks in their heads!?"

 

I realize some of the advice here and there you might consider brutal, but soft-soaping advice to someone who seems very resistant seldom works.

Bottom line is that you have gotten amazing advice from seasoned Alamy stock photographers. I'd give a lot to have had the advice you've gotten when I first joined Alamy.

Do you realize how hard we are trying to help a competitor? You specifically?

 

If I were you, I'd get a piece of paper and make a list of all the advice from this thread. If finances are tight, I'd start with monitor calibration. Then with buying desktop hard drives, two identical ones so you can shoot Raw. Save your finished images on both, mirrored, because if you only have one and it fails, you have a backup.

If you can't afford them, ask for money for your birthday and Christmas when you're asked what you want. You can't believe how many times I've done that. Give up spending on incidental things and add to your savings. For instance, all the women in my family gets their nails done, their hair cut at a salon. I cut my own hair, color it myself, do my own nails, and save a bundle.

It's doable. There are things you can give up.

Go through all the suggestions and begin using them.

[Guest]

Hi all,

i became an Alamy contributor since Feb 2016, now i've 3500 pics, 10700 views , 17 zooms but no... sales!

While i'm trying uploading different topics in quantity , what do you suggest me to focus on? Better keywording, Better quality, Wait 1 year to start seeing sales?

 

What else?

Thanks in advance

I would say two things, lots of content that won't sell well on a stock site and as mentioned by others, some poor keywording. I think you are trying to get volume without thinking about clients, that is stock clients. First few pages are fundamentaly very local news from Italy. You are highly unlikely to sell via Alamy who have a main news market in the UK and maybe US, mostly I would guess the former. So local, Italian 'soft editorial' content would be most likely to sell via an Italian distributor and that may be taking quite some time and, from my experience, of limited financial value.

 

If I were you, I would concentrate on local travel work, general views of Italy for starters done in the best light possible....there's a lot of competition out there but local means saving money on production so use that to your advantage. Shoot work that would be used to illustrate articles on Italy/travel and leave the street photography for another day.

 

You need to be producing work that can be used, clients have specific needs and I'm afraid you are producing far to many images that I just cannot see any real use for (by a stock client). You also are producing these in vast numbers which will be hurting your rank.... one or two of any subject will suffice.

 

Also if you throttle back on production, you really need to look at using raw. Quality does count in this business, don't let anyone tell you it's only about volume. Number one it's about placements (agency and rank) then quality of image* and then volume of images.... if volume was the main factor, this would be the biggest agency, by revenue, in the world!!!

 

* That is stock quality. Starts with content but technical quality also adds to how easy it is for a client to use. The one below is an example where you have a nice wide shot but cropped the top so it's difficult to use especially if copyspace is required across the top of the tower and you've chopped the tip off the tower. There really needs to be copyspace i.e. sky all along the top.... clients can read smaller images within a larger frame and will be attracted to work that offers multiple possibilities in cropping.

 

[KODAKovic]

Geoff, thnks for your kind comments

[KODAKovic]

 

Hi all,

i became an Alamy contributor since Feb 2016, now i've 3500 pics, 10700 views , 17 zooms but no... sales!

While i'm trying uploading different topics in quantity , what do you suggest me to focus on? Better keywording, Better quality, Wait 1 year to start seeing sales?

 

What else?

Thanks in advance

I would say two things, lots of content that won't sell well on a stock site and as mentioned by others, some poor keywording. I think you are trying to get volume without thinking about clients, that is stock clients. First few pages are fundamentaly very local news from Italy. You are highly unlikely to sell via Alamy who have a main news market in the UK and maybe US, mostly I would guess the former. So local, Italian 'soft editorial' content would be most likely to sell via an Italian distributor and that may be taking quite some time and, from my experience, of limited financial value.

 

If I were you, I would concentrate on local travel work, general views of Italy for starters done in the best light possible....there's a lot of competition out there but local means saving money on production so use that to your advantage. Shoot work that would be used to illustrate articles on Italy/travel and leave the street photography for another day.

 

You need to be producing work that can be used, clients have specific needs and I'm afraid you are producing far to many images that I just cannot see any real use for (by a stock client). You also are producing these in vast numbers which will be hurting your rank.... one or two of any subject will suffice.

 

Also if you throttle back on production, you really need to look at using raw. Quality does count in this business, don't let anyone tell you it's only about volume. Number one it's about placements (agency and rank) then quality of image* and then volume of images.... if volume was the main factor, this would be the biggest agency, by revenue, in the world!!!

 

* That is stock quality. Starts with content but technical quality also adds to how easy it is for a client to use. The one below is an example where you have a nice wide shot but cropped the top so it's difficult to use especially if copyspace is required across the top of the tower and you've chopped the tip off the tower. There really needs to be copyspace i.e. sky all along the top.... clients can read smaller images within a larger frame and will be attracted to work that offers multiple possibilities in cropping.

 

 

 

Actually the first news pages are not local events, but international exhibitions and i found often some of these keywords on AoA.

Thanks for the advice about copyspace and cropping, appreciated

[KODAKovic]

" i know it would be better to shoot in RAW but i don't want to manage Tbs of data."

Looks like refusal to me.

 

And I shoot Fuji. X-T1. Fuji cameras are great. But there are many confusing ways to set the cameras up, best choices in the menu, or you can get in trouble. For instance the settings that handle contrast. DR? Set wrong, you'll have too much contrast. Shadows too dark, etc.

I've been shooting this camera for two years, now. I still haven't gotten my mind wrapped completely around the menu choices. I must have accidentally changed a setting recently and couldn't figure out why I was struggling with proper exposure. It's fixed now. But I had to go to the Fuji X forum for answers.

 

I always, always, shoot raw. Even when I'm not shooting for stock. If, or I should say WHEN I mess up a shot, I can fix it in PP because Raw allows that without degradation. Recovering highlights or shadows on a JPEG can never be done as well as on a Raw image.

 

I don't quite understand why you are getting your feathers ruffled. You asked for input when you launched this thread. Did you expect us to say, "Wow, what beautiful images, the buyers must have rocks in their heads!?"

 

I realize some of the advice here and there you might consider brutal, but soft-soaping advice to someone who seems very resistant seldom works.

Bottom line is that you have gotten amazing advice from seasoned Alamy stock photographers. I'd give a lot to have had the advice you've gotten when I first joined Alamy.

Do you realize how hard we are trying to help a competitor? You specifically?

 

If I were you, I'd get a piece of paper and make a list of all the advice from this thread. If finances are tight, I'd start with monitor calibration. Then with buying desktop hard drives, two identical ones so you can shoot Raw. Save your finished images on both, mirrored, because if you only have one and it fails, you have a backup.

If you can't afford them, ask for money for your birthday and Christmas when you're asked what you want. You can't believe how many times I've done that. Give up spending on incidental things and add to your savings. For instance, all the women in my family gets their nails done, their hair cut at a salon. I cut my own hair, color it myself, do my own nails, and save a bundle.

It's doable. There are things you can give up.

Go through all the suggestions and begin using them.

 

Betty, glad to know another Fuji user

Thank you so much for advices

[Guest]

 

 

Hi all,

i became an Alamy contributor since Feb 2016, now i've 3500 pics, 10700 views , 17 zooms but no... sales!

While i'm trying uploading different topics in quantity , what do you suggest me to focus on? Better keywording, Better quality, Wait 1 year to start seeing sales?

 

What else?

Thanks in advance

I would say two things, lots of content that won't sell well on a stock site and as mentioned by others, some poor keywording. I think you are trying to get volume without thinking about clients, that is stock clients. First few pages are fundamentaly very local news from Italy. You are highly unlikely to sell via Alamy who have a main news market in the UK and maybe US, mostly I would guess the former. So local, Italian 'soft editorial' content would be most likely to sell via an Italian distributor and that may be taking quite some time and, from my experience, of limited financial value.

 

If I were you, I would concentrate on local travel work, general views of Italy for starters done in the best light possible....there's a lot of competition out there but local means saving money on production so use that to your advantage. Shoot work that would be used to illustrate articles on Italy/travel and leave the street photography for another day.

 

You need to be producing work that can be used, clients have specific needs and I'm afraid you are producing far to many images that I just cannot see any real use for (by a stock client). You also are producing these in vast numbers which will be hurting your rank.... one or two of any subject will suffice.

 

Also if you throttle back on production, you really need to look at using raw. Quality does count in this business, don't let anyone tell you it's only about volume. Number one it's about placements (agency and rank) then quality of image* and then volume of images.... if volume was the main factor, this would be the biggest agency, by revenue, in the world!!!

 

* That is stock quality. Starts with content but technical quality also adds to how easy it is for a client to use. The one below is an example where you have a nice wide shot but cropped the top so it's difficult to use especially if copyspace is required across the top of the tower and you've chopped the tip off the tower. There really needs to be copyspace i.e. sky all along the top.... clients can read smaller images within a larger frame and will be attracted to work that offers multiple possibilities in cropping.

 

 

 

Actually the first news pages are not local events, but international exhibitions and i found often some of these keywords on AoA.

Thanks for the advice about copyspace and cropping, appreciated

 

 

Sorry but an international artist with an exhibition in Rome is firstly a Roman, maybe Italian news event. Will I see it in newspapers in the UK, I very, very much doubt it other than a picture of the day or in arts article (pictures often provided by the exhibit). The same exhibition in London would be more suitable for Alamy but it's not really hard news which does transcend borders much more. 

 

It's about placement of effort.

[AlessandraRC]

 

I don't understand resistance to processing raw images. I was hooked from my first raw file on. 

Which camera brand do you have?

Never tried Fuji? 've you ever seen its ooc jpgs?

Never made a research in Google like "RAW vs JPGs" just trying to understand why many people shoot jpgs?

 

 

 

This was a general comment, it was not addressed to you. Answers: 1) NOB (none of your business); 2) NO; 3) NO

 

You can get prickly as you wish, that won't give you any sales. Many of these threads about "why I have no sales?" end up with disagreements. I guess that's why I haven't started one myself. 

 

Have fun in your Alamy endeavor and don't mind the red flags. I've survived my share of those. 

[Alexandre Fagundes]

 

 

Thanks all for the kind advices

I don't have a calibrated monitor, this is one thing i have to do quickly. My images are JPGs OOC processed with VSCO LR presets which enhanced dark areas and contrast.

I love the final effect but i didn't consider most whites are gone so they're not suitable for stock actually.

For keywording / quantity i agree with your advices, i focused on quantity without considering all the right things you said, all correct.

I don't know really how it's possible to manage 100k+ pics with PP , keywording, uploading , move all keywords from LR fields to Alamy fields. Your workflow is wonderful for my skills.

My plan is to re-caption and re-keyword my 3500 pics online and use less PP in future or use a better preset, i know it would be better to shoot in RAW but i don't want to manage Tbs of data.

Sorry Kodakovic, but this is a professional business for the best photographers so you need to do your best (you are competing against millions of images).

That means a good camera, RAW files and a good processing software.

Yes, you will need to invest time and have tons of HD space not to mention SD/CF cards in your camera to fit the extra memory.

And besides that lots of time studying and perfecting your processing skills.

 

 

Alexandre

i AM a professional photographer and i KNOW what a business it (not only photography).

I HAVE a "good" camera , raw files vs jpgs is something forums debate from the beginning of the digital age and i OWN Lightroom.

ah..ok.... it's 25 years that i "study my processing skills". how old are you (just to know) ?

Is an innocent question like mine to start selling here in Alamy something people need to use to teach others how to live?

If that's the Alamy spirit, i'll be better go elsewhere

 

 

 

Hi Kodakovic,

Sorry if I upset you, I was really just trying to help.

I am 49 BTW, 

[Alexandre Fagundes]

 

 

Hi all,

i became an Alamy contributor since Feb 2016, now i've 3500 pics, 10700 views , 17 zooms but no... sales!

While i'm trying uploading different topics in quantity , what do you suggest me to focus on? Better keywording, Better quality, Wait 1 year to start seeing sales?

 

What else?

Thanks in advance

Hi I have 3290 views and 18 zooms, getting close to 4000 images.

If you have 10000 views and 17 zooms (3 times more views than I have, but the same amount of zooms)

It might mean that you have some misleading keywords or uninteresting images so people view your images, but dont zoom (or buy).

I didnt look at your portfolio yet, sorry, but for the comments of the others seems like you should take a look at your keywords first.

 

 

G5598K , G55984 , G644R2 

just took 5-minutes 3 samples of your recent uploaded images. Is that what you mean by shooting and processing with a professional workflow?

i'm gonna take mine boy

 

 

Kodakovic, I was talking about views, zooms and keywords.

[Alexandre Fagundes]

Just one last comment and I am gone from this thread

For this image, G42E5T you dont need RAW,

The exposure is perfect and the light doesnt create much shadows and lights so the normal "latitude" of the sensor is ok.

 

For this one G4P2WE  , though, you have a dark foreground where you lost details, but, on the other hand, the sky is too bright.

It is that impossible situation to have a perfect exposure, either you loose detail in the sky or you have the foreground too dark (or a mix of both, which is what you did).

It is a nice vivid image that could have much better impact if you would process it in RAW, because you would be able to bring back more detail from the sky and  the foreground than you can do processing a jpg file.

 

But its all your call.

Cheers, man.

[Ace]

In answer to "No sales, what could be the issue"

 

You only have around 600-800 subjects with approx 4/5 pictures of each subject.

 

If you had 3,500 different subjects you would probably have more sales.

 

You asked for views, please don't shoot this messenger ☺

 

Good luck. Adrian

[KODAKovic]

 

 

 

Hi all,

i became an Alamy contributor since Feb 2016, now i've 3500 pics, 10700 views , 17 zooms but no... sales!

While i'm trying uploading different topics in quantity , what do you suggest me to focus on? Better keywording, Better quality, Wait 1 year to start seeing sales?

 

What else?

Thanks in advance

I would say two things, lots of content that won't sell well on a stock site and as mentioned by others, some poor keywording. I think you are trying to get volume without thinking about clients, that is stock clients. First few pages are fundamentaly very local news from Italy. You are highly unlikely to sell via Alamy who have a main news market in the UK and maybe US, mostly I would guess the former. So local, Italian 'soft editorial' content would be most likely to sell via an Italian distributor and that may be taking quite some time and, from my experience, of limited financial value.

 

If I were you, I would concentrate on local travel work, general views of Italy for starters done in the best light possible....there's a lot of competition out there but local means saving money on production so use that to your advantage. Shoot work that would be used to illustrate articles on Italy/travel and leave the street photography for another day.

 

You need to be producing work that can be used, clients have specific needs and I'm afraid you are producing far to many images that I just cannot see any real use for (by a stock client). You also are producing these in vast numbers which will be hurting your rank.... one or two of any subject will suffice.

 

Also if you throttle back on production, you really need to look at using raw. Quality does count in this business, don't let anyone tell you it's only about volume. Number one it's about placements (agency and rank) then quality of image* and then volume of images.... if volume was the main factor, this would be the biggest agency, by revenue, in the world!!!

 

* That is stock quality. Starts with content but technical quality also adds to how easy it is for a client to use. The one below is an example where you have a nice wide shot but cropped the top so it's difficult to use especially if copyspace is required across the top of the tower and you've chopped the tip off the tower. There really needs to be copyspace i.e. sky all along the top.... clients can read smaller images within a larger frame and will be attracted to work that offers multiple possibilities in cropping.

 

 

 

Actually the first news pages are not local events, but international exhibitions and i found often some of these keywords on AoA.

Thanks for the advice about copyspace and cropping, appreciated

 

 

Sorry but an international artist with an exhibition in Rome is firstly a Roman, maybe Italian news event. Will I see it in newspapers in the UK, I very, very much doubt it other than a picture of the day or in arts article (pictures often provided by the exhibit). The same exhibition in London would be more suitable for Alamy but it's not really hard news which does transcend borders much more. 

 

It's about placement of effort.

 

 

Geoff it seems we're speaking of two different events.

I guess you were speaking of the two events in Florence i shooted last and this month, Rome i never shooted anything since 2004 

[KODAKovic]

 

 

 

Thanks all for the kind advices

I don't have a calibrated monitor, this is one thing i have to do quickly. My images are JPGs OOC processed with VSCO LR presets which enhanced dark areas and contrast.

I love the final effect but i didn't consider most whites are gone so they're not suitable for stock actually.

For keywording / quantity i agree with your advices, i focused on quantity without considering all the right things you said, all correct.

I don't know really how it's possible to manage 100k+ pics with PP , keywording, uploading , move all keywords from LR fields to Alamy fields. Your workflow is wonderful for my skills.

My plan is to re-caption and re-keyword my 3500 pics online and use less PP in future or use a better preset, i know it would be better to shoot in RAW but i don't want to manage Tbs of data.

Sorry Kodakovic, but this is a professional business for the best photographers so you need to do your best (you are competing against millions of images).

That means a good camera, RAW files and a good processing software.

Yes, you will need to invest time and have tons of HD space not to mention SD/CF cards in your camera to fit the extra memory.

And besides that lots of time studying and perfecting your processing skills.

 

 

Alexandre

i AM a professional photographer and i KNOW what a business it (not only photography).

I HAVE a "good" camera , raw files vs jpgs is something forums debate from the beginning of the digital age and i OWN Lightroom.

ah..ok.... it's 25 years that i "study my processing skills". how old are you (just to know) ?

Is an innocent question like mine to start selling here in Alamy something people need to use to teach others how to live?

If that's the Alamy spirit, i'll be better go elsewhere

 

 

 

Hi Kodakovic,

Sorry if I upset you, I was really just trying to help.

I am 49 BTW, 

 

 

I'll give RAW another chance for the next months or years of course.

I own a Fuji X-E1 which has a spectacular sensor (without the Bayer filter) giving a very wide dynamic range and over the top sharpness.

Betty, X-T1 is better of course, they improved it.

therefore, in the past, this sensor is the main reason while i switched to JPGs only.

I probably made a "non-professional" move doing that, so now i can recover my mistake re-trying with RAW files.

I know how to manage multiple hard drive since i have 20 years of experience as an IT guy. I'm backing up my data either locally or internet just to avoid a local backup data failure.

I agree with all the advices about keywording and captioning... one thing that's unbelievable is that searching "Your Images" of the last month or from the beginning i'm here 80% of the searches were really of keywords actually in the scene and fully describing the image itself.

That doesn't mean anything and you're right pointing at batch editing which is not great idea.

[Guest]

 

 

 

 

Hi all,

i became an Alamy contributor since Feb 2016, now i've 3500 pics, 10700 views , 17 zooms but no... sales!

While i'm trying uploading different topics in quantity , what do you suggest me to focus on? Better keywording, Better quality, Wait 1 year to start seeing sales?

 

What else?

Thanks in advance

I would say two things, lots of content that won't sell well on a stock site and as mentioned by others, some poor keywording. I think you are trying to get volume without thinking about clients, that is stock clients. First few pages are fundamentaly very local news from Italy. You are highly unlikely to sell via Alamy who have a main news market in the UK and maybe US, mostly I would guess the former. So local, Italian 'soft editorial' content would be most likely to sell via an Italian distributor and that may be taking quite some time and, from my experience, of limited financial value.

 

If I were you, I would concentrate on local travel work, general views of Italy for starters done in the best light possible....there's a lot of competition out there but local means saving money on production so use that to your advantage. Shoot work that would be used to illustrate articles on Italy/travel and leave the street photography for another day.

 

You need to be producing work that can be used, clients have specific needs and I'm afraid you are producing far to many images that I just cannot see any real use for (by a stock client). You also are producing these in vast numbers which will be hurting your rank.... one or two of any subject will suffice.

 

Also if you throttle back on production, you really need to look at using raw. Quality does count in this business, don't let anyone tell you it's only about volume. Number one it's about placements (agency and rank) then quality of image* and then volume of images.... if volume was the main factor, this would be the biggest agency, by revenue, in the world!!!

 

* That is stock quality. Starts with content but technical quality also adds to how easy it is for a client to use. The one below is an example where you have a nice wide shot but cropped the top so it's difficult to use especially if copyspace is required across the top of the tower and you've chopped the tip off the tower. There really needs to be copyspace i.e. sky all along the top.... clients can read smaller images within a larger frame and will be attracted to work that offers multiple possibilities in cropping.

 

 

 

Actually the first news pages are not local events, but international exhibitions and i found often some of these keywords on AoA.

Thanks for the advice about copyspace and cropping, appreciated

 

 

Sorry but an international artist with an exhibition in Rome is firstly a Roman, maybe Italian news event. Will I see it in newspapers in the UK, I very, very much doubt it other than a picture of the day or in arts article (pictures often provided by the exhibit). The same exhibition in London would be more suitable for Alamy but it's not really hard news which does transcend borders much more. 

 

It's about placement of effort.

 

 

Geoff it seems we're speaking of two different events.

I guess you were speaking of the two events in Florence i shooted last and this month, Rome i never shooted anything since 2004 

 

 

My mistake, for some reason I had it in my mind the exhibitgon was in Rome, so replace Roman with Florentine. Doesn't change that you are putting a lot of 'soft news' effort in to work that is not madly trans-national.

 

I've very few pictures from my Italian travels these days, I gave up doing travel work a long time ago but from a trip a few years ago and maybe 30 pictures shot, I've had sales of The Colosseum (various views), tour guides/parties in Rome, Spanish Steps, views of the ruins plus a few from Florence such as Michaelangelo's tomb and St Croce. One use was a rather nice travel cover.

 

What didn't sell were details or oddments of statues etc tbh, taken as holiday snaps

 

If I were based in Italy I would be doing lifestyle - you have a great diverse population and a great outdoor backdrop for many images.