Photoshelter Users Group

[Panthera tigris]

On 03/07/2022 at 12:44, Marianne said:

 

 

With Backblaze if you take anything offline for more than 30 days it's erased from the system, I believe. 
 

 

 

 

Its one year for an additional small fee

[NYCat]

2 hours ago, Panthera tigris said:

 

Its one year for an additional small fee

 

Thanks. I'm considering them and am concerned about my intermittent use of my big laptop. I do this sort of thing on my AIR and photography work on my MacBook Pro.

 

Paulette

[Marianne]

9 hours ago, Panthera tigris said:

 

Its one year for an additional small fee

 

Good to know. Thanks.

[Marianne]

With the 100MB file size limit on Zenfolio, I guess you can't store layered PSD documents on Zenfolio either. Can you store tiffs? 

I store all my backups - from the original RAW files usually uploaded shortly after I shoot and cull, to PSD and tiff files as well as final jpegs. 

I have unlimited storage.

 

It seems to me that Zenfolio is more aimed at wedding, portrait, sports and other event photographers who can upload and provide galleries for couples and guests to purchase images from - though I could see how it would work for fine art too. For portrait/event shoots, you have a built-in client base whereas for fine art, you need to market yourself. For me, Fine Art America provides excellent quality prints and they take care of all the printing, tax collection, 30-day money-back guaranty - and I can set my profit margin - so it's worked for me. Meanwhile, Photoshelter lets me share images & downloads with clients, gets my work out in the world, and lets me organize 100s of thousands of photos from huge PSD to RAW, tiff and jpeg, only making public the ones I choose. 

 

Being able to locate files by keyword or by folder makes it easy to find what I want (since it doesn't mirror my hard drive) and downloading a batch at a time is pretty quick. 

 

I'm happy with them and am way too committed after 14 years of uploads to change. 

 

[geogphotos]

Has anybody used the online purchase system to buy a print of one of their own images, or know of somebody else who has bought a print and gone through the system to have that print delivered.

 

I did send an email to Support about how I couldn't get the print purchase system to work but had no reply.

 

Feel free to experiment by buying one of mine 😁

[Marianne]

On 06/07/2022 at 02:32, geogphotos said:

Has anybody used the online purchase system to buy a print of one of their own images, or know of somebody else who has bought a print and gone through the system to have that print delivered.

 

I did send an email to Support about how I couldn't get the print purchase system to work but had no reply.

 

Feel free to experiment by buying one of mine 😁

 

Sorry - nope but I have had clients unable to use the download system so I had to send them the file and invoice them directly - I even had sales that were reversed when someone paid for a download and wasn't able to download it and didn't contact me - it may all have had to do with my settings though so you might want to contact Photoshelter and ask them directly - they are really good about responding - you can't call them directly anymore (you're in the UK anyway) but you can email them for an answer or set up a time to Zoom with them - they respond usually same day - they're in NYC so eastern daylight time which you probably know. Good luck - let us know how it works out

[John Mitchell]

1 hour ago, Marianne said:

 

Sorry - nope but I have had clients unable to use the download system so I had to send them the file and invoice them directly - I even had sales that were reversed when someone paid for a download and wasn't able to download it and didn't contact me - it may all have had to do with my settings though so you might want to contact Photoshelter and ask them directly - they are really good about responding - you can't call them directly anymore (you're in the UK anyway) but you can email them for an answer or set up a time to Zoom with them - they respond usually same day - they're in NYC so eastern daylight time which you probably know. Good luck - let us know how it works out

 

Many moons ago, when I actually used to sell prints and license images through my PS site, I had all kinds of problems with customers trying to figure out the system and make payments. Hopefully things have improved. I agree, though, their support people are very helpful. That said, I no longer know why I have a PS website as I hardly ever look at it, and the only requests I get are for free images. Even the scammers in India seem to have given up on me. The monthly fee is a good income tax write-off. That's about it.

[John Mitchell]

Now that I'm officially on sabbatical, I've been tinkering with my long-neglected PS website looking for ways to breathe some new life into it. Anyone using the "Lattice" feature? I created a "board" today, and I don't know what to do with it. Is it really any different from a traditional lightbox? I gather that all you can really do with boards is share them on social media.

[Marianne]

9 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

Now that I'm officially on sabbatical, I've been tinkering with my long-neglected PS website looking for ways to breathe some new life into it. Anyone using the "Lattice" feature? I created a "board" today, and I don't know what to do with it. Is it really any different from a traditional lightbox? I gather that all you can really do with boards is share them on social media.

Usually the Lattice boards are themed so if you started one others can submit photos for you to accept or not. I’m not really sure that the concept took off but it seemed like an interesting idea. 
 

I have to do some reorganizing of my site but there are so many projects in the works it always takes a back seat. I changed the theme about a year ago & have been sharing private galleries with potential clients of late but I need to update my galleries. I don’t seem to sell anything from my site anymore so updating it seems to be last on my list. 
 

Share your site when you’ve done your re-design 

[John Mitchell]

1 hour ago, Marianne said:

Usually the Lattice boards are themed so if you started one others can submit photos for you to accept or not. I’m not really sure that the concept took off but it seemed like an interesting idea. 
 

I have to do some reorganizing of my site but there are so many projects in the works it always takes a back seat. I changed the theme about a year ago & have been sharing private galleries with potential clients of late but I need to update my galleries. I don’t seem to sell anything from my site anymore so updating it seems to be last on my list. 
 

Share your site when you’ve done your re-design 

 

I've been enjoying browsing through the various boards. There are some really interesting collections on PS. However, Lattice seems more like a space for sharing images with other photographers and gathering "likes" than a marketing tool. But I'm probably missing something. I'm not really redesigning my website, just adding some new galleries, fiddling with pricing, and trying to figure out how I might make the site at least pay for itself. I was hoping to see some action when Google licensing came along, but that hasn't happened even though some of my galleries do well in Google search results. Sales on PS dried up over five years ago for me.

[Marianne]

13 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

I've been enjoying browsing through the various boards. There are some really interesting collections on PS. However, Lattice seems more like a space for sharing images with other photographers and gathering "likes" than a marketing tool. But I'm probably missing something. I'm not really redesigning my website, just adding some new galleries, fiddling with pricing, and trying to figure out how I might make the site at least pay for itself. I was hoping to see some action when Google licensing came along, but that hasn't happened even though some of my galleries do well in Google search results. Sales on PS dried up over five years ago for me.

 

Same here. I want to set up my galleries to highlight my new business model - selling images designed for healthcare settings - but I've been so busy shooting and processing new work that is different from the editorial and stock shooting I've done in the past, that I haven't had the time to devote to it. I want to add some stand alone pages along with galleries which I'm not sure is possible - it might've been in the promised changes that never materialized. If my site helps me get one new rep to sell my work, then it will pay for itself. I find selling art to collectors directly is easier via FAA than from my site so I haven't done much with pricing in the years since licensing dried up - even then it was mostly magazines that had their usual rates ($200-300 for a quarter page) which I doubt they're paying anymore - though we do see some nice fees here from time to time - you, especially of late! 

 

Last couple of years I've made some sales via FAA due to friends serendipitously checking out my PS website and seeing multiple images they liked, so it actually paid for itself but 2022 has been slower. Fewer people cooped up at home looking to decorate their walls I guess. 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2022 by Marianne

[John Mitchell]

1 hour ago, Marianne said:

 

Same here. I want to set up my galleries to highlight my new business model - selling images designed for healthcare settings - but I've been so busy shooting and processing new work that is different from the editorial and stock shooting I've done in the past, that I haven't had the time to devote to it. I want to add some stand alone pages along with galleries which I'm not sure is possible - it might've been in the promised changes that never materialized. If my site helps me get one new rep to sell my work, then it will pay for itself. I find selling art to collectors directly is easier via FAA than from my site so I haven't done much with pricing in the years since licensing dried up - even then it was mostly magazines that had their usual rates ($200-300 for a quarter page) which I doubt they're paying anymore - though we do see some nice fees here from time to time - you, especially of late! 

 

Last couple of years I've made some sales via FAA due to friends serendipitously checking out my PS website and seeing multiple images they liked, so it actually paid for itself but 2022 has been slower. Fewer people cooped up at home looking to decorate their walls I guess. 

 

 

 

Between 2010 and 2016, my PS website turned a decent profit. I even had a client list. All that collapsed virtually overnight. Unfortunately, I'm no good at self-promotion, and I don't really enjoy social media. I do have a link to my Alamy portfolio on my PS website. Perhaps that has generated some sales that have helped pay the monthly subscription. Who knows...

 

P.S. I wonder if having Lattice boards helps with SEO. No mention of that on the PS website, though.

Edited September 9, 2022 by John Mitchell

[Marianne]

13 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Between 2010 and 2016, my PS website turned a decent profit. I even had a client list. All that collapsed virtually overnight. Unfortunately, I'm no good at self-promotion, and I don't really enjoy social media. I do have a link to my Alamy portfolio on my PS website. Perhaps that has generated some sales that have helped pay the monthly subscription. Who knows...

 

P.S. I wonder if having Lattice boards helps with SEO. No mention of that on the PS website, though.

 

Wish I knew. I used to submit to other people's boards back when I was getting some magazine traffic, but no real clue. There's lots of info on the PS website that I should read. 

[Panthera tigris]

I tried lattice for a while, nothing came of it and I don't think PS distribute lattice boards to potential buyers anymore. The original idea was as a PS marketing tool so they could market 'collections".

 

My own take on PS is that they are just breaking even or worse and ultimately the end is nigh. But I think this is ultimately the case for whole genre if sales are a notable part of their income model. I don't mind paying for my vanity site, what aggravates me is the total lack of engagement with their existing customers. How any company can let the comments section exist with such poor reviews and not do something about it is mind boggling (unless the end is nigh).

 

I don't know anybody who makes sales with them anymore, or has done for a long time.

 

 

[John Mitchell]

48 minutes ago, Panthera tigris said:

I tried lattice for a while, nothing came of it and I don't think PS distribute lattice boards to potential buyers anymore. The original idea was as a PS marketing tool so they could market 'collections".

 

My own take on PS is that they are just breaking even or worse and ultimately the end is nigh. But I think this is ultimately the case for whole genre if sales are a notable part of their income model. I don't mind paying for my vanity site, what aggravates me is the total lack of engagement with their existing customers. How any company can let the comments section exist with such poor reviews and not do something about it is mind boggling (unless the end is nigh).

 

I don't know anybody who makes sales with them anymore, or has done for a long time.

 

 

 

Lattice is a cool sharing idea, but it does seem like yet another WOT when it comes to generating sales. Actually, part of me hopes that the end of PS really is nigh. It would save me some money every month. I can't help wondering if anyone is making any sales through personal stock websites -- at PS or anywhere else -- these days. Sadly, methinks not... 😐

[geogphotos]

This sounds like a fantastic new feature:

 

"We just released a major enhancement to our RAW image processing that significantly improves the quality of your RAW file display. For all newly uploaded RAW images, we’ll now use the embedded JPG preview that cameras usually provide along with RAW files so your preview images in-camera look exactly the same when viewed in PhotoShelter."

[Harry Harrison]

"PhotoShelter Unveils Metadata-less AI Visual Search Capability to Streamline Workflows for Creative Professionals and Organizations"

 

https://stories.photoshelter.com/photoshelter-unveils-ai-visual-search/

 

Of course Alamy were presenting as part of that Photoshelter Summit back in February, I don't think they ever did post the video though.

 

https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/16465-alamy-talking-at-the-photoshelter-summit-today-at-4pm/#comment-334234