I crashed down to QC ranking star ONE! How long it will take to get to ranking star two again?

[Hanif]

My history in short:

Very first upload: Samsung S4 images got rejected with the reason of not suitable camera. Beside that all Canon EOS 70d passed.

Then a very long times all passed because I only uploaded images from the Canon.

Then I bought a new smartphone Samsung A50s. I love it, because the results from the images are great! Especially if I use the wide lens. I uploaded a mix of Canon and A50s images and they got passed.

Then I stopped uploading a few month because I was thinking about uploading strategies of better and not so good images and to which agencies first. I only know, Alamy will be one of the first yet. But it needed time to research for the other agencies and so on. Beside that i also researched much about keywording and changed then the keywords from my approved images.

Then my better images, which already long time waiting for upload including much better keywording, I upload nearly 150 images in small batches of around 20 images each - theme batches.

Next day I thought: Hey, you forgot ONE image, which I like most. So I uploaded it in a own batch before all got into QC. A second after I uploaded that last image, I remembered why I did not uploaded it a day before: the quality might not good enough because of blur motion, which might not be accepted from Alamy in this case. BUT, we know: once uploaded, no way back or way to delete that image. And that time it was exactly the time when Covid makes much problems for Alamy. And of course the reviewer just clicked the last image and all 150 images got rejected. - Follow up: No upload allowed for a while AND after I was allowed to upload, I had to wait 3 to 4 weeks. My God! 

 

That was the time, Alamy seems to be more selective of my uploads and 2 from 3 uploads got rejected. Then: AH! Luckily they clicked on an image from my smartphone AND told me the reason: Even my new smartphone is not suitable. Good to know. Would have been better they told me earlier. I was not expecting it, because mixed uploads with Canon AND smartphone passed before.

 

Okay, it was indeed my fault, because I should have checked the cameras, which are okay for Alamy.

Then a long time I only upload via wirestock, where nearly 100 % of all images (Canon AND smartphone) got accepted.

 

Then I wrote Alamy to ask how long time it could take to get ranking star 2 again and I also told them that I was thinking about creating a new account/portfolio instead, with which I automatically increase to ranking star 2 directly. Surprisingly Alamy told me that I indeed can do it - creating a new account. But is that really the best idea for me?

 

My questions:

Does anybody here has experiences like me? How long time it needed to get back to QC ranking 2 again?

And what counts?: How many TIMES my uploads got approved - no matter how many images I send?

Or also how MANY images I got approved?

With other words: Would it be faster if I upload 150 images and they got approved or should I take the long way and upload only around 20 each time and then might be in a year I will be back on ranking 2???

 

Any advices?

do not forget my alternative: creating a new account. 

[MDM]

5 minutes ago, Matt Ashmore said:

 

If you want to put off casual photographers who are using their phones, then you don't develop an iPhone app which is aimed at casual photographers using their phones! 🙂

 

Just about every other agency that I submit to accepts smartphone images. They either have an app themselves (branded with the actual agency's name rather than for some reason rebranding their app) or they have a smartphone friendly contributor site. And I agree with you.. I suspect that sooner or later, Alamy might well change the policy because particularly new smartphones produce images that are so good that it's really difficult to tell that they weren't taken on a dedicated camera.

 

I meant from the main Alamy collection not the unmentionable which was clearly aimed at a certain type of smartphone photography (filters and so on). I agree with you in most of what you say. It is about the end result and I am sure Alamy realise that. But it comes back then to how Alamy do QC - their model is different and they expect contributors to mainly do their own QC. 

[MDM]

Just now, Jill Morgan said:

 

I don't see Alamy allowing smartphone images except through **** as they take a larger cut on the Stockimo images (unless you were grandfathered in as a current user when ***** started).

Why give up that extra 30-40%?

 

Jill

 

30-40% of what though? I would guess that the straight stock photography market is worth an awful lot more than the funky unmentionable stuff. 0.1% of an awful lot is a lot better than 40% of not very much. 

[Jill Morgan]

3 minutes ago, MDM said:

 

30-40% of what though? I would guess that the straight stock photography market is worth an awful lot more than the funky unmentionable stuff. 0.1% of an awful lot is a lot better than 40% of not very much. 

 

Not all the images on S******* are funky.  Many are typical images you would see in the regular Alamy catalogue.  Almost half of the Alamy catalogue is S****** images.

 

Jill

[Matt Ashmore]

40 minutes ago, Jill Morgan said:

 

I don't see Alamy allowing smartphone images except through Stockimo as they take a larger cut on the Stockimo images (unless you were grandfathered in as a current user when Stockimo started).

Why give up that extra 30-40%?

 

Jill

 

That, actually, is probably why they differentiate... it's probably not about the image quality anymore so much as how much of the sale price Alamy can keep for themselves. I guess they might also distribute Stockimo images through different channels. And maybe there is some sort of tax ramification if you run Stockimo as a separate company.

[MDM]

8 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

 

Not all the images on S******* are funky.  Many are typical images you would see in the regular Alamy catalogue.  Almost half of the Alamy catalogue is S****** images.

 

Jill

 

OK. I stand corrected. I am surprised that is the case though. I assumed it was just a sideshow.  

 

EDIT: 0.4% actually - see below.

Edited March 23, 2021 by MDM

[Allan Bell]

22 hours ago, MDM said:

 

Don't worry Allan. I am only doing grammar police work in people in glasshouses emergency situations at the moment - I am too busy for petty grammar crime.  Having said that, you should probably have used a question mark after your first sentence as it is a rhetorical question. Also I think you probably meant them rather than then in the second sentence. You could have used a hyphen between above and mentioned for clarity in the last sentence and it should be acknowledge rather than acknowledged. 😀😎😇

 

 

 

 

 

 

AARRGGGG! 😠

 

Got me AGAIN!🤪

 

Allan

 

AARRGGGGH!

 

Just maintaining grammatical standards. Whatever they are.😳

 

ITMA

 

Edited March 24, 2021 by Allan Bell
spelling

[John Morrison]

1 hour ago, Allan Bell said:

AARRGGGG! 😠

 

And there should be an 'H', I think, on the end of AARRGGGG. Sorry, Allan, but we have to maintain some grammatical standards, even during a global pandemic. 😎

[MDM]

44 minutes ago, John Morrison said:

 

And there should be an 'H', I think, on the end of AARRGGGG. Sorry, Allan, but we have to maintain some grammatical standards, even during a global pandemic. 😎

 

But is it a H or an H?

[MDM]

6 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

 

Not all the images on S******* are funky.  Many are typical images you would see in the regular Alamy catalogue.  Almost half of the Alamy catalogue is S****** images.

 

Jill

Without mentioning any names, where did you get that figure of half the catalogue? Thinking about it, it seems extraordinarily large. 

[meanderingemu]

21 minutes ago, MDM said:

Without mentioning any names, where did you get that figure of half the catalogue? Thinking about it, it seems extraordinarily large. 

yeah especially with the amount images Not from "the source that shall not be labelled" coming from LiveNews, PA deals, other Agency, Archives....  This would mean on pure stock side a significant majority of images coming from that venture.

[Jill Morgan]

1 hour ago, MDM said:

Without mentioning any names, where did you get that figure of half the catalogue? Thinking about it, it seems extraordinarily large. 

If you go to the Alamy home page and click on the "S******" category, you will see there are over 1,000,000 images.  So about 40% of the catalogue.

 

Jill

[MDM]

4 minutes ago, Jill Morgan said:

If you go to the Alamy home page and click on the "S******" category, you will see there are over 1,000,000 images.  So about 40% of the catalogue.

 

Jill

 

Jill there are 250 million images in total in the catalogue so 1 million is around 0.4% not 40%. Do you stand corrected? 😀

Edited March 23, 2021 by MDM

[Jill Morgan]

10 minutes ago, MDM said:

 

Jill there are 250 million images in total in the catalogue so 1 million is around 0.4% not 40%. Do you stand corrected? 😀

I stand corrected.  Boy, getting old sucks.  Can't tell the difference between 200,000,000 and 2,000,000.  😁

 

Although the one million is the curated selection of images, so not sure exactly how many there are in total.

 

Jill

Edited March 23, 2021 by Jill Morgan

[MDM]

1 minute ago, Jill Morgan said:

I stand corrected.  Boy, getting old sucks.  Can't tell the difference between 200,000,000 and 2,000,000.  😁

 

Well if you are ever selling your farm, let me know. 😀

[K J Bennett]

2 hours ago, MDM said:

 

But is it a H or an H?

 

Spelled AITCH in the dictionary, so 'AN H' is correct. I managed that without  typo.

[MDM]

24 minutes ago, K J Bennett said:

 

Spelled AITCH in the dictionary, so 'AN H' is correct. I managed that without  typo.

 

Not so fast. Check this out for example 😀

[K J Bennett]

1 hour ago, MDM said:

 

Not so fast. Check this out for example 😀

 

 

You remind me of my Irish-origin wife - not physically, of course    🙄

[MDM]

 

1 hour ago, K J Bennett said:

 

 

You remind me of my Irish-origin wife - not physically, of course    🙄

Well that’s a relief (for your wife as well I’m sure). 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Hanif]

Well, after the focus in this thread went to many other themes, mainly smartphone images, I think I can ask here about something else, which is a little bit closer to the original thread theme:

I just uploaded 8 images, which I think have themselves - without edit anything - already good quality to pass the QC. but I also uploaded a edit version from them. I increase only little bit contrast, saturation and scrolled down the highlight. All only little bit. In my opinion, the images looking better now. Any advice about editing images? What is okay, what I should not do. All of course only just little bit.

[MizBrown]

38 minutes ago, Hanif said:

Well, after the focus in this thread went to many other themes, mainly smartphone images, I think I can ask here about something else, which is a little bit closer to the original thread theme:

I just uploaded 8 images, which I think have themselves - without edit anything - already good quality to pass the QC. but I also uploaded a edit version from them. I increase only little bit contrast, saturation and scrolled down the highlight. All only little bit. In my opinion, the images looking better now. Any advice about editing images? What is okay, what I should not do. All of course only just little bit.

 

If they're not on sale yet, you can delete the ones you'd prefer not to keep and they'll go away immediately.   Any in the database and on sale, deletion takes six months.  If the images look better after editing, those are the ones to keep.

[MDM]

55 minutes ago, Hanif said:

Well, after the focus in this thread went to many other themes, mainly smartphone images, I think I can ask here about something else, which is a little bit closer to the original thread theme:

I just uploaded 8 images, which I think have themselves - without edit anything - already good quality to pass the QC. but I also uploaded a edit version from them. I increase only little bit contrast, saturation and scrolled down the highlight. All only little bit. In my opinion, the images looking better now. Any advice about editing images? What is okay, what I should not do. All of course only just little bit.

 

Apologies for my part in diverting your thread. It happens a lot here. 
 

in relation to editing your images, there are no rules. You can do whatever you want. The only exception is if you are uploading live news images. These should not be edited in any way that would affect the content of the image. 

[Allan Bell]

1 hour ago, MDM said:

Apologies for my part in diverting your thread. It happens a lot here. 

 

And my apologies too but diversification in the threads make them more interesting in IMO.

 

Allan