spacecadet Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 (edited) 11 hours ago, Cal said: You're being downvoted but on this occasion I actually agree with you. I submitted 8 LN photos yesterday in a heck of a rush from an uncalibrated laptop screen. One of them was really underexposed - I must have just misjudged it on screen - and got through to LN sitting there for 24 hours. I'm embarrassed I let that slip through but also a bit miffed live news QC (if such a thing exists) didn't pick up on it, either pulling that photo or failing the whole submission. In regards to selections, I had a quick look at the live news feed today and had to do virtually no scrolling to find a picture of a cat being petted and birds going about their business. That isn't news and is an obvious abuse of the platform, possibly to shoehorn in bad quality photos. There doesn't appear to be a great lot of moderation going on at the LN platform. There isn't QC on live news, that's the point- there isn't time, the posting is automatic. If you have privileges you're trusted not to submit substandard material. You say it was there for 24 hours so presumably it was eventually caught- news images are live for at least 48. Obvious non-news subs are sometimes weeded out after submission - indeed, as I can't see any cats on the feed now, this may have happened to the images you complain of. The Canada geese are on a foggy lake- the fog is the news- and waxwings only appear in very cold weather- ditto. A little weak, I agree, but plenty of weather images make the papers. Edited December 8, 2020 by spacecadet 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meanderingemu Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, spacecadet said: There isn't QC on live news, that's the point- there isn't time, the posting is automatic. If you have privileges you're trusted not to submit substandard material. You say it was there for 24 hours so presumably it was eventually caught- news images are live for at least 48. Obvious non-news subs are sometimes weeded out after submission - indeed, as I can't see any cats on the feed now, this may have happened to the images you complain of. The Canada geese are on a foggy lake- the fog is the news- and waxwings only appear in very cold weather- ditto. A little weak, I agree, but plenty of weather images make the papers. it amaze me the number of requests asking Alamy to add more controls on their side to remove responsibility from the contributors, These all have a cost, and since i am not convinced the benefits in the end will be higher revenue- is there more sales because the one bad submission was removed?- the place to pay for it is higher commission taken away, and second on the stock side, the Initial approval, Algorithm and QC was supposed to handle this more cost efficiently. If something is broken, this to me is where the solutions need to come from. and as for the animals, beyond the weather there still is an important segment of the imagery on News that draws from the "image of the world" and "animals" segment. Looking at Alamy News' on twitter feed, it is actually currently heavily loaded with such image which certain contributor want to ban. I'll take Alamy's word about their worthiness Edited December 8, 2020 by meanderingemu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 14 hours ago, Normspics said: Video is a really complicated issue, there is only really one site doing it well, the investment required by Alamy to do video based on their dominance of editorial stock photography is probably not worth it to them and us to diversify. It is of course for Alamy to judge. The rise of the internet has seen use of the moving image blossom and print decline in recent years, so I would have thought it might repesent a good move. They already have the basis of a video stock system, though I agree that to ramp up their systems to do with video what they already do with still imagery is a very big ask. The old owners of Alamy declined to go further down the video route and invested their capital in other ways. Now that the piper calling the tune is the PA, maybe things will be different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, spacecadet said: There isn't QC on live news, that's the point- there isn't time, the posting is automatic. If you have privileges you're trusted not to submit substandard material. You say it was there for 24 hours so presumably it was eventually caught- news images are live for at least 48. Obvious non-news subs are sometimes weeded out after submission - indeed, as I can't see any cats on the feed now, this may have happened to the images you complain of. The Canada geese are on a foggy lake- the fog is the news- and waxwings only appear in very cold weather- ditto. A little weak, I agree, but plenty of weather images make the papers. I've mixed up the stipulation that news must be within 24 hrs (if exceptional, otherwise 1 hr) with the fact they remain for 48 hours - indeed my 8 are still there. They are fine except for one portrait which I obviously edited in a rush and didn't check the histo properly... something I fully accept and won't be going on sale once it hits stock. I assumed there was QC on news submissions as when submitted through AIM you get a similar message to a normal stock submission along wording of "your submission will be ready soon". Edited December 8, 2020 by Cal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 1 hour ago, meanderingemu said: and as for the animals, beyond the weather there still is an important segment of the imagery on News that draws from the "image of the world" and "animals" segment. Looking at Alamy News' on twitter feed, it is actually currently heavily loaded with such image which certain contributor want to ban. I'll take Alamy's word about their worthiness It's not so much that I want to ban it (assuming you are referring at least in part to me here) it's that I've read the live news guidelines and some of what I see on the feed doesn't to me fit in with the brief alamy gives on the guidelines. I can understand the weather related animals but I wasn't referring to that. Indeed, I have the alamy live news policies PDF in front of me and there are several key points which I ask myself whenever posting images. Your pictures must be newsworthy or be a picture of the day that is striking enough to cause a reaction. Your pictures must be of the moment. There should be something in your image which means it could only be taken at that time. e.g. a political billboard that could be taken any time (morning, afternoon, yesterday, tomorrow) is not a news image. It is a stock image to go with a news story. A political billboard being installed, or people protesting or reacting to the billboard, is a news picture. I have even been careful with the protest images I submit many of which goes as stock if I feel they don't fit into the live news brief. Perhaps I'm taking the rules too literally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Normspics Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 11 minutes ago, Joseph Clemson said: It is of course for Alamy to judge. The rise of the internet has seen use of the moving image blossom and print decline in recent years, so I would have thought it might repesent a good move. They already have the basis of a video stock system, though I agree that to ramp up their systems to do with video what they already do with still imagery is a very big ask. The old owners of Alamy declined to go further down the video route and invested their capital in other ways. Now that the piper calling the tune is the PA, maybe things will be different? I have 1100 videos on Alamy and would welcome another push from Alamy into the video market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 I agree with some of the comments regarding refunds. But first, YES on low resolution 6mp files for both PU and Presentation unless size tiers for more money. Then considering those more or less private uses, there should be no refunds. These are images that we cannot check for unreported usages. So it should have a small notice on the sale page: PU and Presentation, non-refundable. After all, many things we buy on sale in stores say all sales final. I have bought things personally that I’ve had to eat because they didn’t work out. These aren’t buyers using the images for months-ahead mock-ups, like calendars, books and magazines. Betty 6 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travelshots Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 I would like to see a select number of Video contributors who have a good pro knowledge of video and a good (say 500 videos) able to upload them to the current video site after editorial approval. PA have the software for their own video . Just re jig it to Alamy. I was one of the first people to upload video to Alamy but took 150 files down after it was established that only RF and not RM was going to be sold . I now have some RF video which I would like to be onair with Alamy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 Question to ranking/display algorithm: - why does Alamy alway return nearly the same search results for a given phrase ? If I looked 2 month ago or now, results look pretty much the same. Means a buyer alway just sees the same pages. Other agencies reshuffel the results to give better chances to new contibutors/new pics, and more variety for the customer. - Whats the impact of Brexit for contributors in the European community ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panthera tigris Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 Maybe it too late but here my list of things I would like to see included: 1) Catalogue performance in 2020, including returns per image rates (am interested if a correlation between ever increasing catalogue size and sales is as a projection) 2) Was there a one off impact of covid on sales 3) Future direction and new initiatives - what is long term vision. 4) What did well and what did not (from a contributors perspective). 5) What editorial markets (countries) did best and worst (I say this in respect that the majority of the catalogue is UK centric but I assume the majority of its contributors are not) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
george Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 I know the subject of duplicated images came up recently with regard to PA, but I would like to know about all the other agencies that are duplicating images. I often come across images that have been duplicated, more often than not by big agencies, not good if a search is done and maybe only two pages of images come up but 25% of them are duplicated. Also just a week or so ago I came across a contributor that had posted over 1500 images on two different pseudonyms. Does Alamy want these pointed out to them like the PA ones were? Or are they to be ignored? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avpics Posted December 17, 2020 Share Posted December 17, 2020 Quoting myself from another thread: Quote Nearly five months after the usage in a mainstream media, and probably a couple more months before payment, Alamy have asked me to re-send the link to the usages. I hope people can try to understand the frustration of contributors that have to take on the job of finding and keeping records of image uses that would otherwise go unrecorded and therefore stolen, and then having to hand over 50% or more. This HAS to be addressed. 1 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Crean Posted December 17, 2020 Share Posted December 17, 2020 On 16/12/2020 at 16:23, george said: I know the subject of duplicated images came up recently with regard to PA, but I would like to know about all the other agencies that are duplicating images. I often come across images that have been duplicated, more often than not by big agencies, not good if a search is done and maybe only two pages of images come up but 25% of them are duplicated. Also just a week or so ago I came across a contributor that had posted over 1500 images on two different pseudonyms. Does Alamy want these pointed out to them like the PA ones were? Or are they to be ignored? There is something seriously amiss when so much is being lost to unreported sales...And for someone who lives in a location where it is extremely difficult to search for usages I am sure that I've lost potential earnings that I'll never know about 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travelshots Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 (edited) What is the point of having the choice of Creative and Relevant boxes on the SEARCH Page.? How many people actually know what the difference in the search results will be ? Surely a much better box is "Popular" which helps searches for what are most likely the most saleable images Edited December 18, 2020 by Travelshots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Crean Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Just now, PAL Media said: In AIM I would like to see some filters which are actually any use to me, ie Images with zooms filter Images that have sold filter Number of times sold/zoomed Great idea! Phil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 2 hours ago, PAL Media said: Why is the database update every 24 hours? I would like to see a 6 hourly, hourly? updates, other agencies seem to do this, why doesn't Alamy. Possibly antiquated technology making it almost impossible for contributors to upload images en masse while system is updating.🤪 Allan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avpics Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 3 hours ago, PAL Media said: Why is the database update every 24 hours? I would like to see a 6 hourly, hourly? updates, other agencies seem to do this, why doesn't Alamy. I'd be happy with reliably updated every 24 hours as an initial target. Any more frequently would be a bonus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ognyan Yosifov Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Avpics said: I'd be happy with reliably updated every 24 hours as an initial target. Any more frequently would be a bonus RELIABLY is the magic word !!! During the last 4-5 weeks all of us, the contributors, experienced some major major issues of any kind here. In the end, I'd prefer to be somehow more encouraged ... Edited December 18, 2020 by Ognyan Yosifov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alamy Posted December 18, 2020 Author Share Posted December 18, 2020 Hi all, thanks for you comments and suggestions. We’ve posted a link to the recording here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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