Tips on subject matter to upload and filename conventions

[Tawna Brown]

I am finally preparing to get back into working with stock photography and uploading my existing content to Alamy (it's not doing anything at all sitting in my external HDs!)..... Any tips on where I should start with what kind of subject matter I could start uploading? Is it based on needs, seasons, or if I happen to have a unique collection of a given subject matter, perhaps that's a place to start?  I've posted a separate question re. picture needs/what should I shoot - asking about how much attention should be given to this list....  If you've read that question also, feel free to speak to that question here as well.

 

Filename conventions: is there anything recommended for this? Or can I just leave the image file named the way it is (ex. TCB_1929-Dec)?

 

Thank you!!!  

[Allan Bell]

Anything and everything licences through Alamy. Remember it is a mainly editorial content library but they do licence to books, magazines, TV, businesses for advertising etc.. If you have niche photos then put them on too but do not let other contributors know what they are if you can help it. 

 

Filename conventions can be left as they are or use a filename for your own cataloguing so you can be easily find them if necessary,

 

Others will chip in with more thoughts/advice.

 

Allan

 

[wiskerke]

14 hours ago, Tawna Brown said:

I am finally preparing to get back into working with stock photography and uploading my existing content to Alamy (it's not doing anything at all sitting in my external HDs!)..... Any tips on where I should start with what kind of subject matter I could start uploading? Is it based on needs, seasons, or if I happen to have a unique collection of a given subject matter, perhaps that's a place to start?  I've posted a separate question re. picture needs/what should I shoot - asking about how much attention should be given to this list....  If you've read that question also, feel free to speak to that question here as well.

 

I would start with only 1 image per subject. Just choose your best. And do look at All of Alamy (or AoA) if clients are actually searching for such subjects at all on Alamy.

(You have to be logged in to look at AoA.)

It's not too difficult. There's nothing that can go wrong, so just play with it a bit.

Here are some previous bits of advice to get you started:

link 1

link 2

link 3

link 4

(Sorry, these are all mine, because for me they're easy to find.)

More about AoA: Search for "All of Alamy" AoA in this forum. (The search box is in the upper left hand corner.) Do include the "" and don't forget to check the box Include all of my search term words.

 

wim

[Ed Rooney]

File name, Tawna? How about Brrrrrr and a number? 

[Normspics]

During these times when a lot of us are staying home I would say “own” your own city of Yellowknife 460 results for Yellowknife city, 22 results for Buffalo Airways which only 3 photos of their historic green planes DC3 etc. Think what Yellowknife is for a local and illustrate that, show the transport, buses, airport etc. Then photo things at home on subjects you find searching the Alamy Measures on All of Alamy, table top studio stuff. The skies the limit when it comes to submitting to Alamy and even though there might not be search results from buyers recorded on Alamy measures, doesn’t mean to say in the future there won’t be. Best of luck and have fun!

[Tawna Brown]

3 hours ago, wiskerke said:

 

I would start with only 1 image per subject. Just choose your best. And do look at All of Alamy (or AoA) if clients are actually searching for such subjects at all on Alamy.

(You have to be logged in to look at AoA.)

It's not too difficult. There's nothing that can go wrong, so just play with it a bit.

Here are some previous bits of advice to get you started:

link 1

link 2

link 3

link 4

(Sorry, these are all mine, because for me they're easy to find.)

More about AoA: Search for "All of Alamy" AoA in this forum. (The search box is in the upper left hand corner.) Do include the "" and don't forget to check the box Include all of my search term words.

 

wim

Thank you again @wiskerke. Oh boy, all this stuff about zooms, and researching what people are searching for, and how many times things are looked at, etc..... this is overwhelming. I do want to just get started rather than frozen and scared off by all of this.  No need to apologize about sending me links to your previous responses!! Thank you so much:) I'm glad there is a community forum with people willing to help!  

 

[Tawna Brown]

2 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

File name, Tawna? How about Brrrrrr and a number? 

@Ed Rooneyfunny guy! We had a cold spell here for over a week last month of minus 40s degrees (celsius)... frigid to say the least! But 2 nights ago, it was a very please -20 and I had friends over in my backyard enjoying the fire pit inside a snow fort:) And we were roasting frozen marshmallows!  So fun!

[Tawna Brown]

1 hour ago, Normspics said:

During these times when a lot of us are staying home I would say “own” your own city of Yellowknife 460 results for Yellowknife city, 22 results for Buffalo Airways which only 3 photos of their historic green planes DC3 etc. Think what Yellowknife is for a local and illustrate that, show the transport, buses, airport etc. Then photo things at home on subjects you find searching the Alamy Measures on All of Alamy, table top studio stuff. The skies the limit when it comes to submitting to Alamy and even though there might not be search results from buyers recorded on Alamy measures, doesn’t mean to say in the future there won’t be. Best of luck and have fun!

@Normspicsabsolutely I'll be uploading from my region... This is mainly what I license as it is (but directly to clients, since this is my territory and my speciality).... But it's only a drop in the bucket of what I have- images from all over the world!  And, I don't have images from only my city, but across the Northwest Territories (sub-arctic) - which is a very special and fairly remote part of Canada- i've had the opportunity to visit most of the 33 communities, and there is a lot of cultural and unique content from up there!  Fortunately I have another 10 months off from work, so I can spend a lot of time with uploading and preparing images!  I am always looking at what agencies have on subject matters that I know i have a ton of content for..... so yes, this is an area to focus on (but the thing is... I have to learn about what people are actually searching for, using that AoA- haven't yet)......  Lots to work on, exciting (and overwhelming).

[Steve F]

Hi Tawna,

+1 to what the other have said. I wouldn't necessarily stick to one view of a subject, particularly for studio shots at home. I might shoot up to 5 views of something - portrait, landscape, copy space (I almost never leave room at the top for copy space, but I'm trying to do so more now), vertical view looking down, oblique view, closeup with a macro lens....

 

Main thing is to photograph what you like because this will keep your enthusiasm up. But you also need to be more commercial about it too. If you like photographing cats, well, you might have problems selling - no one's buying cat pictures and there's a LOT of them online. See if you can find niche subjects that aren't well covered - they do still exist. In particular, have a look in magazines and books and newspapers and online articles on your computer and smartphone for stock photos. They are everywhere. See what style of pictures sell and what subjects. You don't necessarily need to copy everyone else's style, but there are some definite no-nos - don't have a model or family member holding up some object of interest and staring directly at the camera with a big grin on their face. These are a cliche for bad stock shots!

 

File names - it doesn't matter so long as they are unique. Just name them so you can easily find them yourself again in the future.

 

Good luck,

Steve

 

 

 

[Tawna Brown]

11 minutes ago, Steve F said:

Hi Tawna,

+1 to what the other have said. I wouldn't necessarily stick to one view of a subject, particularly for studio shots at home. I might shoot up to 5 views of something - portrait, landscape, copy space (I almost never leave room at the top for copy space, but I'm trying to do so more now), vertical view looking down, oblique view, closeup with a macro lens....

 

Main thing is to photograph what you like because this will keep your enthusiasm up. But you also need to be more commercial about it too. If you like photographing cats, well, you might have problems selling - no one's buying cat pictures and there's a LOT of them online. See if you can find niche subjects that aren't well covered - they do still exist. In particular, have a look in magazines and books and newspapers and online articles on your computer and smartphone for stock photos. They are everywhere. See what style of pictures sell and what subjects. You don't necessarily need to copy everyone else's style, but there are some definite no-nos - don't have a model or family member holding up some object of interest and staring directly at the camera with a big grin on their face. These are a cliche for bad stock shots!

 

File names - it doesn't matter so long as they are unique. Just name them so you can easily find them yourself again in the future.

 

Good luck,

Steve

 

 

 

Thanks once again @Steve F!  Fortunately I'm not needing to go out and create new content to work with, as I have over 100,000 images, and about 50% of those have been taken during my professional photography life.... I don't do any studio shooting or at home shooting (Although i'd like to do more at home stuff, as I have always loved photographing my food, and gardening, etc). My greatest interest now is to put to use the images I have on my external drives- I've invested in so much to take those images, to travel to those places, to go on certain excursions, etc.... and I never intended to just leave them on the ext drives. Once upon a time I was focusing on travel writing, when i had a year off from work and I traveled around the world twice- so I looked at everything as a self-assigned assignment, and gathered soooo much content! I did some articles for publications, but then I decided to just keep gathering, and enjoy my travels, and one day I'd do something with the images.... And now that i'm on my 2nd year off, I must do something with these images and let them breathe and be enjoyed by others:)    

 

And.... I do have a niche subject that I was very fortunate to cover over 4 years, and I may have the largest collection of this subject!  (I just am not sure that searches for this subject would come through Alamy very much, but they might come through several of the agencies combined.... so I might be better off to submit those niche images to multiple agencies, vs. just one, as that will increase the chances of worldwide clients finding these images- as they may not end up using Alamy.  But for now, I'm focusing on Alamy... one step at at time! (I'm not going exclusive).

 

PS-I am always thinking about messages when I'm shooting- even when i'm walking about, I am constantly receiving messages from things around me and I like to capture those messages and "translate" them into my own messages when I process my images:) A receiver and sender of msgs... that's what I like to think of myself as a photographer:)  

[Steve F]

3 minutes ago, Tawna Brown said:

Thanks once again @Steve F!  Fortunately I'm not needing to go out and create new content to work with, as I have over 100,000 images

 

Oh wow!!

 

 

Cool. That is an amazing number. Maybe you should keep photographing a bit from time to time, otherwise you'll be stuck behind your computer screen for a few years!! The hard thing now is picking out the keepers and what not to bother uploading....

Edited January 12, 2021 by Steve F

[Tawna Brown]

3 minutes ago, Steve F said:

 

Oh wow!!

 

Cool. That is an amazing number. Maybe you should keep photographing a bit from time to time, otherwise you'll be stuck behind your computer screen for a few years!! The hard thing now is picking out the keepers and what not to bother uploading....

@Steve Flol! And that number would be much higher if I kept everything! For the past 5-6 years, after each shoot of anything (Even images on my phone), I upload them onto an ext drive, and go through  review and reject process! I can't stand having junk pics taking up space and being mixed up with all the good ones:) I am a bit of an image hoarder i've discovered. I have so many, and so many subject matters, that I get frozen with what to do with them, what picture to upload to facebook/instagram, my blog posts, etc.... I have to work on this!  I do go shooting, I'm photographing something pretty much every day (not professional quality), and from time to time I bring out the big guns. I am constantly inspired.... but i must do something with what I have, and that will make me feel soooo much better! It is one of my big goals for my year off- for the months that I cannot travel at least! 

[Steve F]

8 minutes ago, Tawna Brown said:

@Steve Flol! And that number would be much higher if I kept everything! For the past 5-6 years, after each shoot of anything (Even images on my phone), I upload them onto an ext drive, and go through  review and reject process!

 

Now you're just showing off 🤣😉

 

Sounds like you'll be teaching us soon....

Edited January 12, 2021 by Steve F

[Tawna Brown]

2 hours ago, Steve F said:

 

Now you're just showing off 🤣😉

 

Sounds like you'll be teaching us soon....

I see there are a few comedians in this group:) While I haven't been an active contributor, and am fairly new to stock, I have taken training quite some time ago, and have been involved with workshops and even presented at a conference in the US (photography conference):)  I belong to a large international network of photographers that share their experiences, present at workshops, etc, and we learn from each other- I'm just not very active because I haven't had the time.... But now I do with my year off!   I'm not a "newbie" to the industry or the business/selling side of things... but I am relatively new to the science of stock photography, in terms of how the agency works and best practices  (I know the importance of keyboarding and captions, but still have a lot to learn about other kinds of keywords and phrases that can be used).  For example, should we use common multiple word phrases as a "keyword"? Would that be ok? (I can't think of one right now).  Stay tuned for more questions!