flavio massari Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 Hello fellow photographers, I am in the photo stock industry from a very long time, when my archive was distributed by Franca Speranza Agency in Milan, Italy. Then time are changed and with digital age even excellent slides don't sell more, my agency close the doors, and for some year I was orphanized by a distribution, putting my 10 thousands slides in a box. Back in 2009 I has a big client (Carrefour group) and shoot photos food for leaflet and press marketing, so, with my studio plenty of foods and kitchen tools, I start again a new age of stock photos. That was the microstock beginning, and some asset sell well, thousand of downloads. But definitely I don't like the RF microstock criteria, with a lot of efforts to prepare the pictures and a big number of photos that don't sell for excess of competitors. When I landed on Alamy I found a better tailored suite for my workflow, and have few sales, some for good or mid $$$, but not enough to justify all the efforts. In the mean time I almost stopped uploading on microstock, except 2 or 3 agency that follow selling something, basically not selling anymore the other. I am new in the forum and have readed a lot of tips and suggestions, but also opinions that I found very interesting. I would like to have your appreciate review and suggestion on my portfolio, as per subject, quality, metadata, and whatever you think is good ideas for improving. Thank you for your precious time https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/flaviomassari P.S.: this thread was started in the wrong forum section, (thank you Ed Rooney ) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 Ciao, Flavio A couple of quick points: You have this post in the wrong section. You need a better English translator. You're a very good pro photographer. Your images look fine. You are uploading too many similars. You need to consider your subject matter. I shoot a lot of food and I've found that simpler recipes sell best. Less is more with stock food. I don't have a studio. I just shoot meals at restaurants when the light works. Also, the prices paid for most food images are now very low. Buana fortuna a te Edo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 (edited) You are making an effort with your English, which is good. I speak some Italian. I lived in Rome multi anni fa. But I could not write anything here in understandable Italian. Write simple sentences. That's why ciao works better than buongiorno, signore. Come ti senti? https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=it&tl=en&text=english Edited October 28, 2019 by Ed Rooney 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve F Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 Hi Flavio, +1 to what Edo said. Very good photos. Too many similars. Just some comments on your keywords: There are various threads on not having irrelevant keywords for images on the forum which you can look up. The consensus generally is that it's not a good idea to put too many keywords for images if they are not all relevant as it will hurt your CTR ranking. Putting 'Italy' in your captions wouldn't hurt either. wooden poles sustains for Sfusato lemon's cultivation in the Ferriere Valley, above Amalfi coast - Image ID: 2A1F435 'Sustains' is the wrong word here - you need supports or supporting. Amalfi view: terracing for cultivation in the Amalfi Valley - Image ID: 2A1F4BM I can't actually see any terracing in this photo, just a lot of trees (but maybe I'm not looking closely enough!) I might have put the following as a caption - "An aerial view on the picturesque coastal town of Amalfi, a popular tourist destination on the Amalfi coast, Italy" 'health' 'healthy' 'juicy' 'path' 'plant' seem like irrelevant keywords. I would have added 'forest', 'woodland', 'sea', 'landscape'. You also only have the American spelling of colour. Positano crowdy beach with lot of boats - Image ID: 2A1F3XY Crowded - crowdy is not a word in English. 'community', 'crowd', 'bow', 'location', 'row', 'top' seem like irrelevant keywords. I would have added 'tourists', Good luck, Steve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flavio massari Posted October 28, 2019 Author Share Posted October 28, 2019 Thank you Steve; yes, you are right, my Metadata must be better, as in huge photo library as Alamy, photo quality is not enough to be succesful. My English skill came from a lot of keywording and learning songs lyrics to play with guitar; in my school time I was a bit lazy student..... Surely need to improve.. thank you 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve F Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 Ciao Flavio, Not to worry, it is a cliche that the English are terrible at foreign languages, (I also hated French at school). You're doing well enough anyway, not too much wrong; maybe find a native speaker to help you keyword some images from scratch one time, or ask for advice on the forum from time to time. I know how hard it is to find the correct meaning when you go on a website and a word has at least 10 possible meanings, but only one is right for your situation. Currently experiencing the joy of this with German... Steve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flavio massari Posted October 28, 2019 Author Share Posted October 28, 2019 Steve (and Ed).. I am conscius about my limited english knowledge, but maybe sometime I inherited other mistakes. Usually I use the tool https://microstockgroup.com/tools/keyword.php (did you know?) to help my keywording job, and sometime I noticed wrong keywords set. So maybe my mistakes suffer the dominoes effect of other mistakes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve F Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 (edited) 33 minutes ago, flavio massari said: Steve (and Ed).. I am conscius about my limited english knowledge, but maybe sometime I inherited other mistakes. Usually I use the tool https://microstockgroup.com/tools/keyword.php (did you know?) to help my keywording job, and sometime I noticed wrong keywords set. So maybe my mistakes suffer the dominoes effect of other mistakes Hi Flavio, I would like to reassure you that you are not too far off with your keywording. There will inevitably be some mistakes if you are keywording in a second or third language. I've not come across the microstockgroup.com site, but then, I'm a native English speaker so I don't need it. It doesn't look too bad a concept. You note quite correctly that others do also not always have the best keywords, so if you use their examples, it might not be the best. I'm not sure I can offer advice that is of much help, except to say, keep learning, and it is something you will get a feel for. Google translate, for example, is good for very simple translations, but awful for anything more complicated. I also use Linguee.com and let me tell you, there are a lot of bad translations out there - even large companies often get it wrong. Perhaps you can use several different sources for your keywording, but unfortunately this will be time-consuming. I would emphasise again, try to make sure that your keywords are relevant so that you can keep your CTR rank higher. Maybe some others in the forum will also offer their advice on keywording who are also better and more experienced than me... Steve Edited October 28, 2019 by Steve F 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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