Alamy Blog - We want your suggestions

[MDM]

There is so much already out there in the way of articles about photography and related subjects, as well as barely related subjects (e.g. lifestyle advice - yawn), that it is going to take something special, reasonably short and without too much information, visual or written, to attract and maintain attention for long enough to actually read and enjoy yet another article. The problem is complete overload. 

 

One of the few photography article series I read these days is The Guardian's "My Best Shot" series, which focuses on one picture by one photographer and tells the story behind that one picture. I think that something along the same lines by Alamy contributors, not necessarily the famous or successful ones, could be very interesting. The articles are written in an interview style by a journalist, not the photographer, and they are almost always well worth the read. 

 

 

[spacecadet]

On 24/04/2021 at 20:26, Colblimp said:

I completely disagree with the idea of Alamy helping contributors with the basics of photography.  It's a kick in the teeth to photographers who have spent years learning the craft on film, later on digital and who were patient before starting to monetise photography.

Like it or not the barriers to entry are so much lower than when we came in and many of those craft skills are obsolescent at our end of the business. A blog post can now replace a week at college- theory, out on a project, darkroom, print crit, that's gone. Do I miss the darkroom? A bit. Do I want to spend £50 on a box of paper and half a day getting a decent print? No.

At least a blog post can't teach you to see.

Edited April 26, 2021 by spacecadet

[MizBrown]

On 22/04/2021 at 08:09, Alamy said:

P.s Here are some of our recent posts in case you fancy a read:

 

• Captions and Tags: How and Why?
• Top locations you should visit and photograph post-Covid
• How to photograph: Food
• 25 of the most awesome golden hour images you’ll ever see
• An ethereal look at double exposure
• 11 graphic designers and illustrators you should know about
• Behind the lens with Stefan Rousseau
• 3 affordable alternatives to Photoshop

 

Captions and Tags: How and Why?  -- Good and useful.

 

Top locations you should visit and photograph post-Covid -- a reminder that we're with an English agency with an Anglo tourism focus.   Latin America?   Nada.  Spain is obviously the British Mexico. 

 

How to photograph: Food -- Not all of us have access to food stylists.  A number of YouTube videos have given more direct advice, like having a Hero item, showing how to set up scenes, and the same props and tools show up in those, too.   I'd like to learn how to do it better, so figure I'll be searching for more YouTube videos and trying different lighting.  Some of the best food photos seem to come from people working with natural light or with relatively simple set-ups, no food stylists mentioned. 

 

3 affordable alternatives to Photoshop -- last time I looked at Gimp, it still didn't go beyond 8 bit color, though that was on the roadmap, and it may be okay now.  I used this a lot with Linux, but went to Photoshop and Lightroom when I went to Macs.  The alternatives I have spent more time with aren't listed: DxO's Photo Lab and Capture One for Sony (currently have Express on the Mac).

 

Golden hour in the tropics lasts about ten minutes.  Where I live, there's 30 minutes between the shortest and longest days (13 degrees north).

 

Double exposure: are those selling?  Making a composite isn't trivial -- if they're selling, it's worth learning more.  If not, not. 

 

11 graphic designers and illustrators you should know about -- geared toward customers.

 

Found one other one on effective storytelling which was talking about videos most of the time.   Alamy doesn't license videos.   People who write for free are not really writing for free but to promote themselves and their own businesses. 

 

 

 

 

[John Mitchell]

How about a blog post on the top least represented on Alamy and most in demand locations to visit post-COVID.

 

There are 895K images of Barcelona on Alamy. Chances are it won't make the list.

 

Just sayin'...

Edited April 27, 2021 by John Mitchell

[Mr Standfast]

Some tongue in cheek blog posts that alas we may not see…

 

The low angle shot and how to get up again.

Hit by a slamming door? 6 first aid tips.

Portfolio critique, different ways to say the competition is exceptionally good.

Ten camera bags and counting.

Camera holding technique for holding your nose and photographing politicians.

And finally.

Is the android phone camera the new Betamax?

[Colblimp]

15 minutes ago, Mr Standfast said:

Some tongue in cheek blog posts that alas we may not see…

 

The low angle shot and how to get up again.

Hit by a slamming door? 6 first aid tips.

Portfolio critique, different ways to say the competition is exceptionally good.

Ten camera bags and counting.

Camera holding technique for holding your nose and photographing politicians.

And finally.

Is the android phone camera the new Betamax?

You missed: How to get out of bed to shoot a sunrise...

[Mr Standfast]

7 minutes ago, Colblimp said:

You missed: How to get out of bed to shoot a sunrise...

 

After your recent comments on rain I nearly said, "The futility of the West Cork weather forecast..."

 

Stay safe

[Phil Crean]

How about a plain English explanation of the new contract...

 

[NYCat]

It certainly looks like it will be helpful to have a blog on the differences between "editorial" and "commercial" sales and how we can best avoid legal problems with permissions. At this point I am wondering if I should remove everything except wildlife in wild places. It certainly does not look appealing to start shooting New York City and uploading shots with people and property if I might suffer legal expenses by doing so.

 

Paulette

[meanderingemu]

 

Actually the above are great ideas.   Also maybe a blog post on what would be considered  indecent, obscene, defamatory, insulting, racist, offensive, indecent, vulgar ANYWHERE in the world. 

 

i'm confident i understand my own market, the UK and the US, but can't be sure about some of the markets Alamy is obviously concerned about, wouldn't want to unduly expose either of us to issues  

Edited May 23, 2021 by meanderingemu

[Jools Elliott]

You want a suggestion?

 

Stop screwing over the very people who pay your wages!

[furundul]

I think we can find more effective solutions for “sustainable growth”.

One of these could be the reduction of "visual pollution". Or let's say gently "crowd" instead of "pollution".

I typed, girl, painted hands, dirty, fun, into the search box.

More than half of the photos on the first page are variations of each other. With these tags, there are 625 photos, but actually, there are only 20-30 photos. Others are just variations of each other.

 

If I was a graphic editor (customer), I wouldn't look at such pages. Very boring.

Instead, a tick box called variations can be added under the main photo. So instead of looking at countless similar photos, the editor looks at the photo's variations that interest him and have an idea about all works in 1 or 2 pages.

I joined Alamy in March, I'm very new.

I think a more effective page layout can be created with the thoughts and solutions of photographer friends.

Please, forgive my mistakes, as I am not a native English speaker.

[NYCat]

13 hours ago, furundul said:

I think we can find more effective solutions for “sustainable growth”.

One of these could be the reduction of "visual pollution". Or let's say gently "crowd" instead of "pollution".

I typed, girl, painted hands, dirty, fun, into the search box.

More than half of the photos on the first page are variations of each other. With these tags, there are 625 photos, but actually, there are only 20-30 photos. Others are just variations of each other.

 

If I was a graphic editor (customer), I wouldn't look at such pages. Very boring.

Instead, a tick box called variations can be added under the main photo. So instead of looking at countless similar photos, the editor looks at the photo's variations that interest him and have an idea about all works in 1 or 2 pages.

I joined Alamy in March, I'm very new.

I think a more effective page layout can be created with the thoughts and solutions of photographer friends.

Please, forgive my mistakes, as I am not a native English speaker.

 

I really like this idea. Unfortunately, we had a bad experience years ago with "stacking". All images of one of our subjects stacked. But we had no control over which image was on top. It wasn't good for the customer or the photographer. It not only wasn't always the best image shown but it could be just a bear nose instead of an entire bear. If we could control it that would be different. One of our problems here is that, since everything is allowed that we upload, we are not always being "curated" in a good way. Some people just don't care and some people are pretty incompetent. Of course, I have always liked Alamy for letting ME decide which of my images to upload and it makes for a varied collection. People find images here that they can't find elsewhere.

 

Paulette

 

Paulette

[Jansos]

To me it seems a little perverse to be engaging with and asking for suggestions from the contributor audience whilst at the same time unilaterally imposing a new and hugely unfair contract on the very same audience with little engagement or room for suggestions. Perhaps the whole thing could have been handled very much better with a clearer rationale? Change is always difficult but honest dialogue always makes it easier, even if the end result is the same.

[Alamy]

Thanks everyone for comments and suggestions so far.

 

We started this thread back in April as we often got sent suggestions for new topics and in the past have recieved feedback from this forum about asking the contributor base for what they want to see us cover. 

 

The idea was to make things more interactive and offer you input on future topics. We'll leave this thread be now and unpin from the top of the page.

 

Just a reminder that for any questions regarding the updated contract, please direct them to us via email or through the official thread. 

 

We'll continue to monitor this thread from time to time to read any suggestions you wish to make for the blog in the future.

 

Best wishes

 

Alamy

[Phil Crean]

32 minutes ago, Alamy said:

 

 

Just a reminder that for any questions regarding the updated contract, please direct them to us via email or through the official thread. 

 

We'll continue to monitor this thread from time to time to read any suggestions you wish to make for the blog in the future.

 

Best wishes

 

Alamy

We're still waiting for the promised update!🤔

Phil

 

[meanderingemu]

1 hour ago, Alamy said:

Thanks everyone for comments and suggestions so far.

 

We started this thread back in April as we often got sent suggestions for new topics and in the past have recieved feedback from this forum about asking the contributor base for what they want to see us cover. 

 

The idea was to make things more interactive and offer you input on future topics. We'll leave this thread be now and unpin from the top of the page.

 

Just a reminder that for any questions regarding the updated contract, please direct them to us via email or through the official thread. 

 

We'll continue to monitor this thread from time to time to read any suggestions you wish to make for the blog in the future.

 

Best wishes

 

Alamy

 

 

to improve our customer focus in answering your need, can you let us know which ideas were retained so far, and what blog post is now in the work?

 

[Marianne]

Personally, I enjoy the blog and I think a mix of info to help new contributors, suggestions on what to shoot, behind the scenes at the news desk, all are good ideas...

 

...but from a marketing and pure enjoyment standpoint, I'd love to see more like the golden hour blog - loved those images and they can easily be found by those who would wish to license them. 

 

I think a wide-ranging blog on a variety of subjects makes sense. How-tos, what to shoot, trends, spotlight on contributors, behind the scenes, and more like the golden hour blog with a spotlight on places or types of images ... macros, lighthouses, the Lake District, Tuscany, the Grand Canyon... endless possibilities. Different things will appeal to different people, customers, newbies and old-time contributors alike. Just like a newspaper, some read the sports page first, others never give it a look but dive into news on page one, or the Sunday magazine features

 

Just my two cents/pence

 

Some of us are writers as well as photographers, so if you are looking for blog content, you might want to hire contributors and get the community more involved. 

 

[SRJUK]

don't let me input the same keyword multiple times but using Caps/small  i.e.  "St Ives" "st ives" and "St ives" - I believe your search engine makes everything small anyway.

 

[spacecadet]

48 minutes ago, SRJUK said:

don't let me input the same keyword multiple times but using Caps/small  i.e.  "St Ives" "st ives" and "St ives" - I believe your search engine makes everything small anyway.

 

You don't need to do that- those are all treated the same.

Edited June 9, 2021 by spacecadet

[meanderingemu]

1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

You don't need to do that- those are all treated the same.

i think OP is saying the system should be built to prevent it at entry, which I'm not sure why this would be something to spend money developing,  since in the end WE pay for this.  

[SRJUK]

1 hour ago, meanderingemu said:

i think OP is saying the system should be built to prevent it at entry, which I'm not sure why this would be something to spend money developing,  since in the end WE pay for this.  

Thats right, I'd like the system to prevent it if possible.  Also, I'd like it to prevent inputting a duplicate keyword when its already there as a supertag.  Just annoyances really.