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A move in the right direction, but perhaps a little more discrimination could have been used in weeding out those who were, apparently, uploading masses of irrelevant photos as compared to those of us who might upload a small number of relevant news shots very occasionally.

 

I can envisage that the new reportage route will be prone to abuse from some who will just use it as a means to circumvent QC. I trust that there will be some moderation?

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4 hours ago, Jools Devon said:

 

 

Hi Alamy

 

Should this be available now - I don't seem to have access to Reportage, or received an email -  yet I do have Live News sold as stock - N00Y31

 

(There is a local event I plan to attend this weekend that I would be able to submit via Alamy if Reportage is available and more suitable than Live News)

 

Regards

 

 

Hi Jools Devon,

 

We noticed this is a Stockimo image. Contributors with news images uploaded via Stockimo and later sold as stock will get access to the Archival/reportage upload route too, but we have not yet got that far in the process. You will receive an email once the upload route is activated in your account.

 

All the best

Alamy

 

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5 hours ago, Mr Standfast said:

Looks like the soft/topical news access proposed somewhere earlier in this very long thread. It has the benefit of being quicker than going through qc saving a day or so and getting images to the top of the "new" search. IMHO cost's nothing may get more images sold.

Seems a good opportunity for some secondary marketing. Immediately the image is available on the Alamy servers hit Twitter/Instagram/etc. with a link & let Alamy handle the contractual side for any buyers.

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2 hours ago, Bryan said:

A move in the right direction, but perhaps a little more discrimination could have been used in weeding out those who were, apparently, uploading masses of irrelevant photos as compared to those of us who might upload a small number of relevant news shots very occasionally.

 

I can envisage that the new reportage route will be prone to abuse from some who will just use it as a means to circumvent QC. I trust that there will be some moderation?

It was very clear that people were uploading without captions, as multiple singles flooding the page or just images which were clearly not news or unusual weather just to bypass QC.


Did this happen when they allowed anyone to upload to live news, instead of having people apply to upload?


I would have thought they could have just allowed the people who had originally requested, and been allowed access to continue but closed down the others.


I have been allowed the archive/reportage route, but I never used the live news route to bypass QC and had both live news sales (albeit mainly weather pics) and secondary sales so I have re-applied, but it peeves me to see the same stuff on the news feed even today... ie rape fields in Germany for instance, and wonder why?

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So, the advantage is that the caption is longer, which in various circumstances could be useful (but could also result in a lot of erroneous search 'hits').

The disadvantage is that like Live News, the image will forever have a note attached to it that it might not be up to QC standards, even if it is.

Hmmm.

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Bit late to the party but...

I've been waiting 1 month since my application.  Does anyone have experience of a recent acceptance?  Or do you guys and gals think this is just a way of dumping snappers gently, perhaps so they don't pull out of Alamy altogether??

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I can't really see any advantage for weather/crowds on the beach on Mayday bank holiday type shots, if they are just going to be buried in the main collection, unless buyers are made aware that there may be alternative locations available for a Mayday sunrise/sunset shot, not just those in the news feed.

 

I know I was guilty of not uploading within the hour for news (more like 2 or 3 hours) but that was because I always returned to my computer to check quality.  I aim to investigate quicker methods but the incentive isn't there at the moment.

 

Surely opening up a reportage/archival route without QC will be seen by some as a way around QC?  But I'll give it a try when I have something worth uploading...........

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Poor business practice on Alamy's behalf, they should have communicated this message from the start and given a timescale to expect a response. I agree with there decisions, I just wish they relayed this message earlier.

 

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Had my application rejected, partly my own fault for ticking "No" in error with the IPTC question which attracts an instant refusal.

 Following a couple of email back n forth they have shown me one of my images which was slightly blurred, given that's one out of a good number with a fair number published in National papers  I am a little surprised they have still declined access.  

As for the historical access, can't see how it actually differs from Stock images and won't encourage me to make the trips I was doing to catch the News stuff for Alamy. 

Ke sera.

 

Al

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Cryptoprocta said:

So, the advantage is that the caption is longer, which in various circumstances could be useful (but could also result in a lot of erroneous search 'hits').

The disadvantage is that like Live News, the image will forever have a note attached to it that it might not be up to QC standards, even if it is.

Hmmm.

But if it's up to QC standards then just submit it as stock.

 

I took some images at a comedy event on Sunday and uploaded an initial dozen straight away to Live News. Most of them were shot at ISO 25600.

 

It's now 2 days later, well outside the Live News window.  I have an update to the event, a report of it has appeared in the local news, and I have spent some time balancing noise reduction and sharpness in other images. I think they're pretty good and some might sneak through QC, but I'd rather not risk it. Submitting as reportage instead is a much better option, so that's what I've done.

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50 minutes ago, aphperspective said:

Just had an email from Alamy informing me my Live News Re Application was successful so not all bad news. 

Congrats!

Guess I'll hold on little longer.

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As someone who submits only the occasional "soft news" images from well outside the UK, I can see how this new arrangement might be useful. I also wonder if archival/reportage might not be a good route for submitting photo essays with not-so-newsy -- i.e. not especially time-sensitive -- themes. For example, a series of images highlighting a certain aspect -- architecture, food, wildlife, etc. -- of the area in which you live . Any thoughts on this?

 

 

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27 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

 I also wonder if archival/reportage might not be a good route for submitting photo essays with not-so-newsy -- i.e. not especially time-sensitive -- themes. For example, a series of images highlighting a certain aspect -- architecture, food, wildlife, etc. -- of the area in which you live . Any thoughts on this?

 

 

 

John.. Alamy answered this earlier... :

 

9 hours ago, Alamy said:

Reportage/Archival

We have an additional upload route for collections of reportage or archival images which might not meet our technical standards for regular stock imagery.

  • What do we mean by reportage images?
    Photojournalistic images illustrating a story but captured under difficult circumstances and might not pass our standard QC checks. Examples include photo essays or features.
  • What do we mean by archival images?
    Images that are historically or culturally significant, examples include film stills, press archives and specialist collections.

Alamy

 

🙂

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4 minutes ago, Matt Ashmore said:

 

John.. Alamy answered this earlier... :

 

 

🙂

 

Thanks. I should have worn my specs. Photo essays might be something new to try. Could be a lot of work for no gain, but that's the nature of the beast.

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Just now, John Mitchell said:

 

Thanks. I should have worn my specs. Photo essays might be something new to try. Could be a lot of work for no gain, but that's the nature of the beast.

 

My follow-up question.. how does pushing "photo essays" via the reportage upload route give you any advantage over uploading them as normal stock (unless of course, they are not technically good enough to pass QC)?

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3 minutes ago, Matt Ashmore said:

 

My follow-up question.. how does pushing "photo essays" via the reportage upload route give you any advantage over uploading them as normal stock (unless of course, they are not technically good enough to pass QC)?

 

Good question. Probably no advantage unless Alamy pushes them as well. You might remember the monthly photo-essay posting thread started and maintained by a forum member who has left the fold. It was fun, but I'm not sure if it resulted in any sales.

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2 hours ago, Gee said:

Bit late to the party but...

I've been waiting 1 month since my application.  Does anyone have experience of a recent acceptance?  Or do you guys and gals think this is just a way of dumping snappers gently, perhaps so they don't pull out of Alamy altogether??

 

Welcome to the party, did you bring beer?

 

I think Alamy clarified their reasons earlier today, they clicked their fingers because of a  "dramatic increase of imagery that isn’t suitable, either due to the content itself or from  incorrectly formatted captions ".  To me a simple explanation such as this, sits easier, than anything Machiavellian,

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29 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Good question. Probably no advantage unless Alamy pushes them as well. You might remember the monthly photo-essay posting thread started and maintained by a forum member who has left the fold. It was fun, but I'm not sure if it resulted in any sales.

 

Yes, I remember those threads and they were fun. I remember there was some anecdotal evidence to suggest that they might have helped once but could have been coincidence.

 

19 minutes ago, Chester_Brown said:

If you upload via the archival/reportage  route and notify Alamy via email can they, or even want to pull the images into the live news feed?

 

I suspect that's probably the best option available.. and spam twitter & Instagram copying in Alamy News and a choice selection of the papers. And maybe add them to a gallery in your portfolio and include that link to that in tweets if you have access to a computer.

 

For me, the reportage route only gives two real benefits:

  1. Allows you to get images on sale immediately so that you can effectively do your own advertising.
  2. Allows you to upload reportage worthy images which wouldn't pass QC .. (perhaps due to having to use very high ISO which is beyond what can be fixed in post-processing) 
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23 minutes ago, Mr Standfast said:

 

Welcome to the party, did you bring beer?

 

I think Alamy clarified their reasons earlier today, they clicked their fingers because of a  "dramatic increase of imagery that isn’t suitable, either due to the content itself or from  incorrectly formatted captions ".  To me a simple explanation such as this, sits easier, than anything Machiavellian,

Thanks.

Sounds straight enough.  Think I'll save the beer until I know how I'm affected - either way!

Cheers!

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2 minutes ago, Paul J said:

I suspect picture desks at the nationals have complained about the junk filling their picture feeds as Alamy Live would go straight into it. It has become a free for all with any crappy photo being uploaded as 'News'. I syndicate all my own images for 100% of the money to the nationals and also sell other peoples images, but I do filter what goes out.  

 

Even looking now, there are photos there that have Zero chance of being published. Alamy need to improve their QC on the live images and remove the junk. 

 

By all accounts the picture desks don't look at the News Feed.. I'm lead to understand that the Alamy News team do the filtering and send to the picture desks what they feel might sell. Which means the Alamy News feed that you can access via your browser is then more of an interesting place to check out the competition 🙂

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2
21 minutes ago, Matt Ashmore said:

 

By all accounts the picture desks don't look at the News Feed.. I'm lead to understand that the Alamy News team do the filtering and send to the picture desks what they feel might sell. Which means the Alamy News feed that you can access via your browser is then more of an interesting place to check out the competition 🙂

Is there a team, or is it just one person?

They were advertising a while back for someone to monitor the news feed at the weekend, I assume it was for one person doing it remotely.

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36 minutes ago, Matt Ashmore said:

 

Yes, I remember those threads and they were fun. I remember there was some anecdotal evidence to suggest that they might have helped once but could have been coincidence.

 

 

I might have supplied some of that anecdotal "evidence" -- memory fails.

 

I'd rather have the capability to assemble my existing images on Alamy into photo essays as we did in that ancient thread than have to go out and take new ones (unless necessary. of course).

Edited by John Mitchell
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