Picture Needs/What to shoot List- how much attention to give this?

[Tawna Brown]

When I have images that match something in the Picture Needs list, is there any special tagging I should be doing to the images if I upload them to indicate that these images are for these specific picture needs? 

 

How does a subject get on the “picture needs” list?  i.e. is it just when someone searches this particular term and few or no search results appear (and then it winds up on the list)? I wonder if just because something is on the list, it may not actually be a need that you could fulfill because the client looking for it has no way of knowing that you have relevant content. Also, it may not be a well-searched subject, so might not be worth the trouble to upload images after seeing it on the list.  How much attention, time, effort should I place on submitting based on “what should I shoot” rather than uploading my own content (of which I have plenty!)??

 

For example, taken from the list: “2 identical bowls of salsa, one with tabasco 2 identical bowls full of salsa, but showing a bottle of tabasco being”  - how long does this stay on the list, and how would a client know when new content is uploaded for this need?

 

Basically I want to know how much attention I should give to the Picture Needs list....and how effective it is if I DO submit images that are relevant to this list, how does the client know that new images have been submitted?  (PS- More questions to come, as I am in the early stages of preparing myself to return to stock photography!)   Much thanks in advance!

[NYCat]

Alamy asks that you use the description they give in your captions and tags. I have no idea how important it is to spend time on this section. I don't pay a lot of attention to it.

 

Paulette

[meanderingemu]

13 hours ago, Tawna Brown said:

 

 

How does a subject get on the “picture needs” list?  i.e. is it just when someone searches this particular term and few or no search results appear (and then it winds up on the list)? I wonder if just because something is on the list, it may not actually be a need that you could fulfill because the client looking for it has no way of knowing that you have relevant content. Also, it may not be a well-searched subject, so might not be worth the trouble to upload images after seeing it on the list.  How much attention, time, effort should I place on submitting based on “what should I shoot” rather than uploading my own content (of which I have plenty!)??

 

For example, taken from the list: “2 identical bowls of salsa, one with tabasco 2 identical bowls full of salsa, but showing a bottle of tabasco being”  - how long does this stay on the list, and how would a client know when new content is uploaded for this need?

 

Basically I want to know how much attention I should give to the Picture Needs list....and how effective it is if I DO submit images that are relevant to this list, how does the client know that new images have been submitted?  (PS- More questions to come, as I am in the early stages of preparing myself to return to stock photography!)   Much thanks in advance!

 

 

most of these are still a mystery,  Some are clients specific request from a certain time, some are Alamy curator identifying a gap...  and Alamy has not commented on possibility to check which is which, even though request was made a few times by a certain individual 🤔

 

So my view has been, if i have access to one of these at no cost, i'll go ahead, but not going to spend anything else then time to do it,

 

Note the list adds to the top, the higher in list the more recently added...

 

 

 

so if there is anything in there from Yellowknife i would go for a walk (if allowed), but i wouldn't fly to Arviat to take picture of "Happy Inuit children"

Edited January 12, 2021 by meanderingemu

[Steve F]

18 hours ago, Tawna Brown said:

When I have images that match something in the Picture Needs list, is there any special tagging I should be doing to the images if I upload them to indicate that these images are for these specific picture needs? 

 

How does a subject get on the “picture needs” list?  i.e. is it just when someone searches this particular term and few or no search results appear (and then it winds up on the list)? I wonder if just because something is on the list, it may not actually be a need that you could fulfill because the client looking for it has no way of knowing that you have relevant content. Also, it may not be a well-searched subject, so might not be worth the trouble to upload images after seeing it on the list.  How much attention, time, effort should I place on submitting based on “what should I shoot” rather than uploading my own content (of which I have plenty!)??

 

Basically I want to know how much attention I should give to the Picture Needs list....and how effective it is if I DO submit images that are relevant to this list, how does the client know that new images have been submitted?  (PS- More questions to come, as I am in the early stages of preparing myself to return to stock photography!)   Much thanks in advance!

 

 

Hi Tawna,

You're definitely going the right way about this, asking lots of questions and researching before you upload thousands of images. I believe Alamy has confirmed that the picture needs list is a combination of clients looking for something on Alamy and not finding it, and also Alamy itself identifying gaps in its collection. I should perhaps spend more time looking at the list for inspiration, but a lot of it's (normally) travel related and I can't visit anywhere and also after you do stock for a while, you get an idea for what sells. I've got a long list of things I need to photograph and pictures I have on my smartphone for inspiration for Alamy.

 

Slightly unrelated to your questions, but I did check 'Alamy Measures' one time and saw that one of my photos had appeared in a search by a client for a subject that wasn't covered at all on Alamy. I did some new versions of my photo to cover the exact subject and emailed Alamy. I got the following response:

 

"The Alamy Measures data doesn’t record who the customer is searching so unfortunately there is no way for us to pass on this information.

Great to see that you’ve uploaded the images though as if they search again they should find them."

 

One of the photos sold a year later....

 

Back to your questions, there's a tick box on the right hand side of the picture needs list to let Alamy know you've covered it. I personally almost never look at the picture needs list because I've got so many things on my own list already, but I'm sure you'd find it useful to look at when you're starting out again.

 

Steve

[Tawna Brown]

4 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

most of these are still a mystery,  Some are clients specific request from a certain time, some are Alamy curator identifying a gap...  and Alamy has not commented on possibility to check which is which, even though request was made a few times by a certain individual 🤔

 

So my view has been, if i have access to one of these at no cost, i'll go ahead, but not going to spend anything else then time to do it,

 

Note the list adds to the top, the higher in list the more recently added...

 

 

 

so if there is anything in there from Yellowknife i would go for a walk (if allowed), but i wouldn't fly to Arviat to take picture of "Happy Inuit children"

Thanks @meanderingemu. I'm looking at working with the content i have (which is 1000s and 1000s of images)- i've been here my entire life and have been photographing for 9 years, so I'm confident that some of my work will be useful (I license images directly myself to clients throughout the year- much much better profits that way! And it's mainly northern clients that need the northern pics.... I hope to keep my local clientele, and add new ones from outside the north through Alamy.)  And fortunately I have images from across the Northwest Territories (the sub-arctic), people, landscapes, industry, seasons, etc.... I keep my own on-going collection of NWT stock photography in a dropbox folder for clients to peruse at any time (over 1000 images, and that's just a sample!).... which I will eventually upload to a proofing gallery on my website. But for now, I'd like to build my presence with Alamy, and I've got my work cut out for me!  (I just don't know how much time I should spend on my northern images for Alamy, when these images are likely not searched very often - and I already have a local clientele base to strengthen and grow- so I have to figure out where to put my attention and efforts).  

 

I've traveled around the world, and none of my non-northern images are being used in any way. I sell my northern work as fine art prints and image licenses, but the other 95% of my work is unseen and unused... which is why I want to get it out to a stock agency and hope that it works for me:) It's such a pity to gather and create amazing images from around the world and then do nothing with the images! 

[Tawna Brown]

11 minutes ago, Steve F said:

 

Hi Tawna,

You're definitely going the right way about this, asking lots of questions and researching before you upload thousands of images. I believe Alamy has confirmed that the picture needs list is a combination of clients looking for something on Alamy and not finding it, and also Alamy itself identifying gaps in its collection. I should perhaps spend more time looking at the list for inspiration, but a lot of it's (normally) travel related and I can't visit anywhere and also after you do stock for a while, you get an idea for what sells. I've got a long list of things I need to photograph and pictures I have on my smartphone for inspiration for Alamy.

 

Slightly unrelated to your questions, but I did check 'Alamy Measures' one time and saw that one of my photos had appeared in a search by a client for a subject that wasn't covered at all on Alamy. I did some new versions of my photo to cover the exact subject and emailed Alamy. I got the following response:

 

"The Alamy Measures data doesn’t record who the customer is searching so unfortunately there is no way for us to pass on this information.

Great to see that you’ve uploaded the images though as if they search again they should find them."

 

One of the photos sold a year later....

 

Back to your questions, there's a tick box on the right hand side of the picture needs list to let Alamy know you've covered it. I personally almost never look at the picture needs list because I've got so many things on my own list already, but I'm sure you'd find it useful to look at when you're starting out again.

 

Steve

Thank you @Steve F. When I want to reply to someone's comment, do I always need to press the "+ quote" button? I'm thinking not, but this is what I've been doing thus far, as I don't know how to simply reply..... maybe I just add a new comment and tag the person I'm responding to?   Thanks for the response... helpful for sure!  So when I check things off on the picture needs list, this turns into a signal for Alamy? I thought it was just for my own purposes, and i've checked things off for images that I have in my inventory (but they are not yet uploaded to Alamy); I was using it as an organizational tool to keep track of things i could upload in the future if I ever get around to it.

 

But besides the picture needs list, I have sooooo much content (and unique content) to work with, and no need to go out shooting new stuff. So I will order my new computer and monitor and get myself set up to begin working in a couple of weeks hopefully! Now i'm getting prepared:)  And I will post an introduction to everyone in the intros group soon:)   Thanks again!

[Tawna Brown]

5 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

so if there is anything in there from Yellowknife i would go for a walk (if allowed), but i wouldn't fly to Arviat to take picture of "Happy Inuit children"

PS @meanderingemu, luckily we are able to travel around the entire Northwest Territories (albeit it is very expensive! Some of the trips are the same as flying to the other side of the world, CAD $1400 for a return ticket for a few hours away!) Our social distancing here isn't as restrictive as other places as we've had very low COVID cases, maybe 10 in total, and those were all mainly people who were coming into the NWT.  (And the NWT is the size of 2-3 European countries combined, and we have only 30,000 people spread throughout 33 communities!)  To fly to Arviat would likely cost me $2000 😵..... But fortunately I have a ton of content to work with from my countless trips up north over my lifetime here, so I'm well set with content already!

[Steve F]

1 minute ago, Tawna Brown said:

Thank you @Steve F. When I want to reply to someone's comment, do I always need to press the "+ quote" button? I'm thinking not, but this is what I've been doing thus far, as I don't know how to simply reply..... maybe I just add a new comment and tag the person I'm responding to?   Thanks for the response... helpful for sure!  So when I check things off on the picture needs list, this turns into a signal for Alamy? I thought it was just for my own purposes, and i've checked things off for images that I have in my inventory (but they are not yet uploaded to Alamy); I was using it as an organizational tool to keep track of things i could upload in the future if I ever get around to it.

 

But besides the picture needs list, I have sooooo much content (and unique content) to work with, and no need to go out shooting new stuff. So I will order my new computer and monitor and get myself set up to begin working in a couple of weeks hopefully! Now i'm getting prepared:)  And I will post an introduction to everyone in the intros group soon:)   Thanks again!

 

You don't need to. I sometimes quote selectively if I'm replying to a particular thing. If you quote though, I think the person quoted gets a notification, otherwise they don't get one.

 

We often just reply on the Forum, but then you're relying on the person you're replying too checking back on the thread. This is a given with some people though 😄 Some of us are on here very little and some of us live on here. No names... 😆

Steve

[Steve F]

11 minutes ago, Tawna Brown said:

 So when I check things off on the picture needs list, this turns into a signal for Alamy? I thought it was just for my own purposes, and i've checked things off for images that I have in my inventory (but they are not yet uploaded to Alamy);  

 

Hmmm, now I'm not sure. Can anyone else answer this, does ticking a requirement on picture needs notify Alamy?

[gvallee]

40 minutes ago, Steve F said:

 

Hmmm, now I'm not sure. Can anyone else answer this, does ticking a requirement on picture needs notify Alamy?

 

I believe it does. I got lucky twice. I sold 2 images (different subject) I had shot specifically after reading the Picture needs list.

[Steve F]

3 minutes ago, gvallee said:

 

I believe it does. I got lucky twice. I sold 2 images (different subject) I had shot specifically after reading the Picture needs list.

Merci!

[meanderingemu]

1 hour ago, Tawna Brown said:

PS @meanderingemu, luckily we are able to travel around the entire Northwest Territories (albeit it is very expensive! Some of the trips are the same as flying to the other side of the world, CAD $1400 for a return ticket for a few hours away!) Our social distancing here isn't as restrictive as other places as we've had very low COVID cases, maybe 10 in total, and those were all mainly people who were coming into the NWT.  (And the NWT is the size of 2-3 European countries combined, and we have only 30,000 people spread throughout 33 communities!)  To fly to Arviat would likely cost me $2000 😵..... But fortunately I have a ton of content to work with from my countless trips up north over my lifetime here, so I'm well set with content already!

 

 

i have an idea of cost, i have priced some of it before, one of the reasons i have not travelled the are (yet). 

 

Arviat was used mainly because it's the specific text in the "what should i shoot", which by the way would also lead me to believe that this would be specific request, but we have no way of knowing if the client still is looking.... 

 

 

looking forward to looking at your images as they get uploaded.  Love the Tuktoyaktuk P.O. sign...  As someone who was raised with the name being this mythical nowhere place, the Canadian equivalent to Timbuktu, (or the closer Quebec one of Chibougamau. )  oh the Aurora spin is just amazing.... 

[meanderingemu]

1 hour ago, Steve F said:

 

You don't need to. I sometimes quote selectively if I'm replying to a particular thing. If you quote though, I think the person quoted gets a notification, otherwise they don't get one.

 

We often just reply on the Forum, but then you're relying on the person you're replying too checking back on the thread. This is a given with some people though 😄 Some of us are on here very little and some of us live on here. No names... 😆

Steve

 

 

we also get a notice if our forum id @Steve F gets used if someone doesn't feel like quoting....

[Tawna Brown]

40 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

looking forward to looking at your images as they get uploaded.  Love the Tuktoyaktuk P.O. sign...  As someone who was raised with the name being this mythical nowhere place, the Canadian equivalent to Timbuktu, (or the closer Quebec one of Chibougamau. )  oh the Aurora spin is just amazing.... 

Thank you @meanderingemu... I have so much more where these came from! I was just hesitant to upload certain ones that I have on my website, etc.... So i have wade through all that still:)  The aurora here is amazing, so much so that I barely go out to shoot it because so many others do and no matter what, it is constantly changing!  Plus, I'm not a night owl and I despise being out in the dark cold (and look at where i live!).... So my aurora shooting is primarily done in the early months of the season, August-October, before freeze up!

 

[Tawna Brown]

ps @meanderingemu.... in case you're interested, here are a couple of really captivating northern stories I wrote that showcase a bit of the Northwest Territories (where i'm from)! (i will include this in my intro post soon).... @Steve F @Ed Rooney @wiskerke @Normspics you may be interested as well!  I'm very proud of where i'm from:) 

 

https://www.tawnabrown.com/category/northwest-territories/  

 

Edited January 12, 2021 by Tawna Brown
Including others I've been corresponding with re my home region

[Tawna Brown]

2 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

I believe it does. I got lucky twice. I sold 2 images (different subject) I had shot specifically after reading the Picture needs list.

@gvallee so are you thinking that because you checked off the boxes, this helped those particular images to get sold?  I've checked off a number of the boxes and don't even have any images uploaded yet for those that I checked off.... as i thought it was to keep track of content that I have and can upload at a later time.... I've downloaded it in spreadsheet form, and then you can keep organized that way. But I've never been aware that it signals Alamy in some way that a contributor has filled the need..... @Steve F included a quote in one of his responses, which he received from Alamy once upon a time, and it said something to the effect that they have no way of finding out who the clients were that were searching for the images found in the Picture Needs list, and no way of notifying them when a relevant image is submitted.... so I can't imagine that there is a utility in checking off the boxes, other than for your own organizational purposes.... But again, I'm the newbie here:)

[Steve F]

Just now, Tawna Brown said:

@Steve F included a quote in one of his responses, which he received from Alamy once upon a time, and it said something to the effect that they have no way of finding out who the clients were that were searching for the images found in the Picture Needs list, and no way of notifying them when a relevant image is submitted.... so I can't imagine that there is a utility in checking off the boxes, other than for your own organizational purposes.... But again, I'm the newbie here:)

 

Hi Tawna,

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. On your Dashboard there is something called Alamy Measures. If you click on Your Images, you can see details of searches that your photos appeared in for particular clients of Alamy, if your picture was zoomed, and what search term the client was using.

 

The picture needs list is something else - I've never actually ticked a completed need on it.

 

...comedians... well you've got to laugh now or else cry maybe!

 

Btw, great website and photos. I'm looking for my Wayne's World GIF again!

Steve

[gvallee]

28 minutes ago, Tawna Brown said:

@gvallee But I've never been aware that it signals Alamy in some way that a contributor has filled the need.....

 

Extract from Alamy blog below:

Covering a picture need

Once you’ve uploaded content that matches a specific need, please let us know by ticking the box “I’ve covered this pic need”. 

 

https://www.alamy.com/blog/what-should-i-shoot-let-us-introduce-you-to-a-new-tool

[DCSmith]

I look at it, but have rarely seen anything of value. They seem to be a mix of very specific images that really should be shot as an assignment, very expensive to produce, very unlikely to find, or terribly non specific.

There was a request for a new building under construction in Manhattan for instance. A dozen images were already uploaded, pretty much covering the views available, and there was no description of what the client was looking for.

The same with a request, since taken down, for Inglewood California.  There are 29,761 images of Inglewood uploaded.

 

[sb photos]

4 hours ago, DCSmith said:

I look at it, but have rarely seen anything of value. They seem to be a mix of very specific images that really should be shot as an assignment, very expensive to produce, very unlikely to find, or terribly non specific.

There was a request for a new building under construction in Manhattan for instance. A dozen images were already uploaded, pretty much covering the views available, and there was no description of what the client was looking for.

The same with a request, since taken down, for Inglewood California.  There are 29,761 images of Inglewood uploaded.
 

 

I only sometimes glance at picture needs, but put no effort into it for obvious reasons. Much the same as you mentioned re the new construction in Manhattan, I previously saw the picture needs for a fairly local school I could easily have shot. There were already sufficient images, though not a lot, giving good coverage on Alamy. So likely if their was a potential client what were they looking for, it wasn't stated. Poor client requirements do not help. 

[meanderingemu]

5 hours ago, sb photos said:

giving good coverage on Alamy. So likely if their was a potential client what were they looking for, it wasn't stated. Poor client requirements do not help. 

 

 

which is something Alamy should probably try to work on, based on Fact they again in year-end Video push the feature, without addressing some of the biggest problem.

 

What is the needs? Who is it for? When was it identified?

 

 

Here is an example?

List entry: Environmentally Sustainable Building Canada

Would love to fill, but not sure what they want in image?  Just a building, one with a sign?  A specific one?

 

 

 

At other end your have really descriptive ones

list entry: Woman, full length, photographed from above swimming face down in pool

Though i am not sure how this fits in "Lifestyle"🤔

 

 

[DCSmith]

Without specificity the picture needs feature is practically useless.

Even if the image is described well, without an idea of what the usage is, it's useless as well.

Who wants to invest any time or, worse, money if the client is looking for a $20 usage?

[Tawna Brown]

23 hours ago, Steve F said:

On your Dashboard there is something called Alamy Measures. If you click on Your Images, you can see details of searches that your photos appeared in for particular clients of Alamy, if your picture was zoomed, and what search term the client was using.

Thanks for the clarification @Steve F and for your kind comments about my website and images:)  I've never looked at Alamy Measures yet, so I'll have to get familiar with this and see what I can learn from it! I'd like to see what people are searching when they do end up coming to my images, and which images have been looked at!

 

 

[Tawna Brown]

ps, @Steve F, I had a look at Alamy measures, and since it is the new year, I have pretty much no activity in there, but even since 2020, very, very little.  And zooms, almost non existent!  As I've mentioned, i have a lot of high quality content to upload, some of which is fairly unique and hard to get... however, how do I get more views and zooms?  While it has been a year or 2 since i'VE uploaded, I have spent a lot of time with the keywording and captioning.... and even if that was the best it could be, and if my images were really good.... if clients aren't coming to Alamy to look for the subject matter/location that I have, then perhaps I should look at other subject matters that I have in my inventory (which is a lot- just not my "niche" areas, and therefore much more competition out there)??

 

(But my niche is my region, and there isn't much out there... so, this makes me think that this is a subject matter I would for sure upload to other agencies as well, particularly if my subjects aren't being searched for very much on Alamy)... Someone is going to want/need this content, but maybe Alamy isn't the right fit....   Also, is there a way to look up the stats for certain terms, to see if people are looking for images with those terms? I can't recall if I've seen this.

[John Mitchell]

24 minutes ago, Tawna Brown said:

ps, @Steve F, I had a look at Alamy measures, and since it is the new year, I have pretty much no activity in there, but even since 2020, very, very little.  And zooms, almost non existent!  As I've mentioned, i have a lot of high quality content to upload, some of which is fairly unique and hard to get... however, how do I get more views and zooms?  While it has been a year or 2 since i'VE uploaded, I have spent a lot of time with the keywording and captioning.... and even if that was the best it could be, and if my images were really good.... if clients aren't coming to Alamy to look for the subject matter/location that I have, then perhaps I should look at other subject matters that I have in my inventory (which is a lot- just not my "niche" areas, and therefore much more competition out there)??

 

(But my niche is my region, and there isn't much out there... so, this makes me think that this is a subject matter I would for sure upload to other agencies as well, particularly if my subjects aren't being searched for very much on Alamy)... Someone is going to want/need this content, but maybe Alamy isn't the right fit....   Also, is there a way to look up the stats for certain terms, to see if people are looking for images with those terms? I can't recall if I've seen this.

 

Tawna, the NWT may be something of a niche market. However, I think that you need to upload a lot more images before you can judge how well your work is going to do on Alamy. I'd aim at getting at least 1000 varied images in your portfolio before you make any decisions. Best of luck.

Edited January 13, 2021 by John Mitchell

[Steve F]

39 minutes ago, Tawna Brown said:

ps, @Steve F, I had a look at Alamy measures, and since it is the new year, I have pretty much no activity in there, but even since 2020, very, very little.  And zooms, almost non existent!  As I've mentioned, i have a lot of high quality content to upload, some of which is fairly unique and hard to get... however, how do I get more views and zooms?  While it has been a year or 2 since i'VE uploaded, I have spent a lot of time with the keywording and captioning.... and even if that was the best it could be, and if my images were really good.... if clients aren't coming to Alamy to look for the subject matter/location that I have, then perhaps I should look at other subject matters that I have in my inventory (which is a lot- just not my "niche" areas, and therefore much more competition out there)??

 

(But my niche is my region, and there isn't much out there... so, this makes me think that this is a subject matter I would for sure upload to other agencies as well, particularly if my subjects aren't being searched for very much on Alamy)... Someone is going to want/need this content, but maybe Alamy isn't the right fit....   Also, is there a way to look up the stats for certain terms, to see if people are looking for images with those terms? I can't recall if I've seen this.

 

Hiya,

But whilst quality is very important, it's also a numbers game. The Forum members used to say the old average on Alamy was about 1 sale per 1000 images per month for an average portfolio. It might well be less than that these days as the Alamy catalogue has grown so much. I was about 6 sales a month last year for just under 3000 images. Your 90 images is really small fry. If you had over 1,000 or even better, over 10,000 of your collection, I'm sure you'd be getting a lot of activity.

 

Have a look at this link. It should help with understanding your ranking:

https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/13841-hello/?do=findComment&comment=270636

 

Yes, there is a lot of competition out there for non-niche subjects. You can put in searches on Alamy and see how many images appear for keywords of particular subjects. But I do sell subjects that are well covered sometimes. I won't comment on other agencies other than to say that there are the more traditional agencies and then microstock (MS). Microstock is a different kind of business model, with a stack 'em high sell 'em cheap approach. You would make more sales on MS, but the starting commission at the most popular MS agency is 10 cents per sale. My last sale this month was for $30 on Alamy with a $15 commission. There are various arguments on the Forum here on both sides about the wisdom of spreading yourself over several agencies to make more sales, versus the viewpoint of selling the same picture on several agencies at wildly different prices and wondering why it only sells for the lowest price normally (some customers may shop around on the internet....?!) Alamy is also more of an editorial agency.

 

Search terms searched for generally? Go on Alamy Measures and then 'All of Alamy'.

Steve