Skyscraperfan Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 1 hour ago, Martin Carlsson said: By keeping stats on your numbers over time using sales data and Alamy Measures. I do it by month by month - views, zooms, number of sales, total net sales values, portfolio size changes (how many I upload) etc. I do this pretty much everywhere where I license images and video - tells a lot, statistics is a powerful thing and works great as guide to ensure you spend your time right/wisely. Actually I track quite a lot in my life. For example anything I have eaten since 2011. I did not care a lot about the stats at Alamy though, as long as I received my fair share of the sale price. I check quite often for new sales though, as I have many ideas what do to with that money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokie Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 50 minutes ago, Skyscraperfan said: Actually I track quite a lot in my life. For example anything I have eaten since 2011. I did not care a lot about the stats at Alamy though, as long as I received my fair share of the sale price. I check quite often for new sales though, as I have many ideas what do to with that money. Why?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobD Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 I just wish they would get a move on and make an announcement so we can get on with uploading/finding elsewhere/getting our life back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Just a warning for anyone considering ending their contract with Alamy. If any of your images have been downloaded they can be licenced for up to two years after deletion and that any image that has been licenced can be re-licenced indefinitely. (if it's in the context of the original licence). So much for terminating the contract then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starsphinx Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 1 hour ago, BobD said: I just wish they would get a move on and make an announcement so we can get on with uploading/finding elsewhere/getting our life back. +1 I have now finished transferring a significant amount of my Alamy port to other outlets - so, in theory, I should be planning a couple of shooting sessions. Now not only do I have its cold, its wet, the light is horrible (I am not set up for inside shooting yet), everyone is going nuts about Christmas, my son has nicked the quick release plate for my tripod, and housework needs doing as impediments to going out and actually doing something but also what the hell am I going to do with the images? I have suspended uploading here - I do not particularly want to give priority to other places - at least not yet - and saving up huge numbers to be uploaded at once does not appeal because of all the keywording etc at once that means. Ah well - Saturday I have football (possibly before then as well but nobody has told me lol) and Boxing day there is the hunt in the morning followed by football in the afternoon - best of all only 5 days until the days start lengthening again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Kelly Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 I don't like the idea of 50/50 exclusive, 40/60 non-exclusive because I have some of my Alamy images also placed with other non-exclusive agencies, and trying to sort through 9,000+ photos to see which is which is going to take so many hours it wouldn't even be worth doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_rabe Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Seems like you guys are investing a lot of time into thinking about how Alamy could do things better. Do you really think your suggestions will have any impact? I'm not trying to be negative, just honestly trying to gauge whether it's really worth any effort. Sure, voice your unhappiness and all, but surely your time could be better spent looking at your alternatives? Thankfully I have a small port here, and my intention originally was to just list everything on Alamy, cause, if I'm honest, I was being lazy. I have since applied to two mid-stock agencies, and made the decision that I won't be avoiding microstock altogether. I will continue to list images on Alamy, but I have no intention of going exclusive here any more. There are, however, images I would like removed now due to this shift in contract, rather than have a 6 month wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Carlsson Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 26 minutes ago, Starsphinx said: +1 I have now finished transferring a significant amount of my Alamy port to other outlets - so, in theory, I should be planning a couple of shooting sessions. Now not only do I have its cold, its wet, the light is horrible (I am not set up for inside shooting yet), everyone is going nuts about Christmas, my son has nicked the quick release plate for my tripod, and housework needs doing as impediments to going out and actually doing something but also what the hell am I going to do with the images? I have suspended uploading here - I do not particularly want to give priority to other places - at least not yet - and saving up huge numbers to be uploaded at once does not appeal because of all the keywording etc at once that means. Ah well - Saturday I have football (possibly before then as well but nobody has told me lol) and Boxing day there is the hunt in the morning followed by football in the afternoon - best of all only 5 days until the days start lengthening again Where are you re-homing them images? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Kelly Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 3 minutes ago, chris_rabe said: Seems like you guys are investing a lot of time into thinking about how Alamy could do things better. Do you really think your suggestions will have any impact? I'm not trying to be negative, just honestly trying to gauge whether it's really worth any effort. Sure, voice your unhappiness and all, but surely your time could be better spent looking at your alternatives? Thankfully I have a small port here, and my intention originally was to just list everything on Alamy, cause, if I'm honest, I was being lazy. I have since applied to two mid-stock agencies, and made the decision that I won't be avoiding microstock altogether. I will continue to list images on Alamy, but I have no intention of going exclusive here any more. There are, however, images I would like removed now due to this shift in contract, rather than have a 6 month wait. For those of us who have thousands of images placed with Alamy it is a pretty big deal. I don't know if our suggestions will have impact but I also don't want to sit by silently, because I have a lot invested here. Removing or placing the photos elsewhere when you are dealing with so many will require a huge investment of time. So, whether it makes an impact or not, I feel it's important for our voices to be heard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brooks Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 1 hour ago, JeffGreenberg said: Another problem with exclu-50/50 nonexclu-40/60: say one has 33% of their Alamy images at other sites, & one wants ALL of those images to remain 50/50 on Alamy, so they reprocess those 33% images in an attempt to make them different enough to be exclu-50/50 on Alamy... does adding +20 Saturation work? subtracting -50 Saturation? some other process? (certainly converting color to b&w, but latter = reduced salability, IMO) where's the line between still identical & non-identical? similar & non-similar? someone sell me an app that converts 47K images into still-salable no-longer-the-same images !!!!! What you are suggesting would not work. A different agency than Alamy once defined it to me as any images that looked like they were shot in the same shooting session, were considered identical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starsphinx Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 7 minutes ago, Martin Carlsson said: Where are you re-homing them images? Uh DT SS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_rabe Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 26 minutes ago, Dayve said: Just a warning for anyone considering ending their contract with Alamy. If any of your images have been downloaded they can be licenced for up to two years after deletion and that any image that has been licenced can be re-licenced indefinitely. (if it's in the context of the original licence). So much for terminating the contract then. That's good to know. Thankfully, none of my very limited port have been bought yet. I can see it'll probably be easier for me to cancel, and start again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_rabe Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 5 minutes ago, Gina Kelly said: For those of us who have thousands of images placed with Alamy it is a pretty big deal. I don't know if our suggestions will have impact but I also don't want to sit by silently, because I have a lot invested here. Removing or placing the photos elsewhere when you are dealing with so many will require a huge investment of time. So, whether it makes an impact or not, I feel it's important for our voices to be heard. Part of the reason it is taking me so long to get things listed, is because I am making sure the majority of my cataloging happens offline, and not on a specific platform. That way, most of my keywording, arranging, etc, happens before I even consider listing. All I need to do now is set up a different publish option in lightroom, for those photos I have already worked on. Have people been using the Alamy console/manager to do everything for thousands upon thousands of images? If they have, I can see how they'd be facing a mammoth task. Could the Alamy/lightroom bridge not help in this regard I wonder? And if the response is "I don't use lightroom", maybe make an exception to save yourself many, many hours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 2 hours ago, BobD said: I just wish they would get a move on and make an announcement so we can get on with uploading/finding elsewhere/getting our life back. I'll drink to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Just now, JeffGreenberg said: This just in: don't drink the same drink again & save 20%... Cheers, I'll keep that in mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 6 minutes ago, chris_rabe said: Could the Alamy/lightroom bridge not help in this regard I wonder? And if the response is "I don't use lightroom", maybe make an exception to save yourself many, many hours? Lightroom may not be as big a time saver as imagined if submitting to stock outlets other than or in addition to Alamy. At least for keywording. Dunno about later versions but LR6 and earlier force the saving of keywords in alphabetical order. Many stock libraries want keywords in order of relevance - not alphabetic. Sorry for the commission-cut-off-topic reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyscraperfan Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 1 hour ago, chris_rabe said: Have people been using the Alamy console/manager to do everything for thousands upon thousands of images? If they have, I can see how they'd be facing a mammoth task. I do not even have backups of many of the processed images. For a new agency I would have to start with the unprocessed RAW images again. That would not stop me from changing the agency though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photocatseyes Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 What is wrong with this picture? Alamy makes a sale of 5.45 dollar for one of my images. Which is in itself a joke already. From that 5.45 dollar 1.63 (30%) goes to the Alamy DistriBUTION Commission, 40 % goes to DistriBUTOR Commission, the photographer gets : $1.64. Do we really need to keep working like that? On top of it all, I do not get paid in January because I have only $49.83 cleared, one needs 50 dollars to get paid. That means I do not get paid before I sell another photograph or get cleared when whoever bought my photograph for five dollars pays. Alamy has the money, the buyer who got my picture for five dollars is good. The photographer's payment is moved forward to another month ... or two... What a bloomin disgrace... And then the ceo announces another cut in photographers pay... Nice Alamy, very nice... I thought the going rate was 60-40, to become 70-30. While if you look at the included account oversight it is NOW already 70-30. That means after February I might get nothing anymore for my photographs... I am sure I will get a reply to my email to Alamy with more poppycock... If it were not so sad we would be laughing tears.https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216174176100182&set=a.1083581742827&type=3&theater Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photocatseyes Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Sorry Jeff, I forgot to put the post public. I think you should be able to see the link now with the image... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyscraperfan Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 18 minutes ago, photocatseyes said: What is wrong with this picture? Alamy makes a sale of 5.45 dollar for one of my images. Which is in itself a joke already. From that 5.45 dollar 1.63 (30%) goes to the Alamy DistriBUTION Commission, 40 % goes to DistriBUTOR Commission, the photographer gets : $1.64. Do we really need to keep working like that? On top of it all, I do not get paid in January because I have only $49.83 cleared, one needs 50 dollars to get paid. That means I do not get paid before I sell another photograph or get cleared when whoever bought my photograph for five dollars pays. Alamy has the money, the buyer who got my picture for five dollars is good. The photographer's payment is moved forward to another month ... or two... That's why I opted out of the distribution scheme when the commission for photographers in that scheme slipped below 50%. I think when I joined Alamy we needed $100 or even $150 before we got our money. I think that has to do with PayPal transaction costs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photocatseyes Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Skyscraperfan: When I joined in 2008 the payout line was 300 dollars. As a beginner stock photographer it took months and months to reach that 300 dollar. I will definitely look now to opt out of the distribution scheme... I am sure though that there is a caveat to that too..., for the contributor. Sigh. Jeff Greenberg: I can't even get through the small print, way too complicated for my simple photographers brain. I am sure that Alamy is covered all the way, while all the nasty stuff comes down to photographers. Companies buying lots of photographs from Alamy get a discount, but the discount is taken out of contributor's pay. Or so it seems. That is what my single braincell seems to notice. I am loosing courage real fast now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinS Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 17 minutes ago, photocatseyes said: Skyscraperfan: When I joined in 2008 the payout line was 300 dollars. As a beginner stock photographer it took months and months to reach that 300 dollar. I will definitely look now to opt out of the distribution scheme... I am sure though that there is a caveat to that too..., for the contributor. Sigh. Jeff Greenberg: I can't even get through the small print, way too complicated for my simple photographers brain. I am sure that Alamy is covered all the way, while all the nasty stuff comes down to photographers. Companies buying lots of photographs from Alamy get a discount, but the discount is taken out of contributor's pay. Or so it seems. That is what my single braincell seems to notice. I am loosing courage real fast now... Yes, a caveat. You can only opt-out during the month of April. When Jeff referred to dangerous wording in the contract, I think he means the contract changes that will be posted in January. Alamy may reveal the changes sooner, but plan to email contributors in January with the new contract terms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photocatseyes Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Thank you Kevin and the others. I did get an email already, but you are probably right that we will get a small print email in January. With a language that I so struggle with, and not having the means to ask a layer to look into it. Which we probably all should do. I will remember to look in April of 2019 to opt out. Truly sad that the main reason that agencies make money - the photographers - seem to be the lowest point of attention... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vincent Lowe Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 1 hour ago, Skyscraperfan said: I do not even have backups of many of the processed images. For a new agency I would have to start with the unprocessed RAW images again. That would not stop me from changing the agency though. 1 er..be careful... Section 17.2 of the contributor's contract... Contributors shall be responsible for maintaining original and digital back-up copies of all Images submitted to Alamy and will provide replacement digital copies to Alamy on request at any time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photocatseyes Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Converting images from other-agency-non-exclusive to Alamy-exclusive-50/50? Do you know every historic license of those images? Nope Can you report them to Alamy? Nope Will that prevent a buyer who licenses under Alamy-exclusive & later learns of a previous, competing or non-competing usage, from suing YOU??? (because contract puts 100% legal onus on YOU) Most likely: Nope Can I add Shite? Why do I feel suddenly very dumb and stupid? We photographers work so hard, only trying to make a bit of money, we invested heavily in gear and getting to grips with knowledge, yet it feels like we are often pulling the short end of the straw... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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