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9 minutes ago, Joseph Clemson said:

 

I've had a response from Pond5 support which indicates that the clips imported by Alamy are governed by selection criteria set by Alamy themselves. Part of the selection criteria being those clips with a Pond5 price point similar to Alamy's pricing. If Alamy have deliberately or inadvertently excluded animations, or if the Pond5 price is unusually high (or low?) then you might have slipped through the net. I can now see that none of my animations have made the transition either.

 

Interesting, I don't think my pricing is particularly high or low, I price at $99 for 4K, $49 for HD and $20 for web use, but also allow Pond5 to set the price.

In the current market I think those prices are realistic.

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36 minutes ago, Joseph Clemson said:

 

I'm assuming the IT department will resolve the import issue which mistreats keyword phrases and re-import the 6 million video clips correctly.

I'm assuming that, as well...

Tried to find one of mine videos searching for "rainbow at dusk time lapse". Mine was not there, but there was a video from Tokyo, shot vertically

and presented flipped horizontally ....And it's uploaded 7 times !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Similar video, this time horizontal uploaded 7 times as well! Same contributor. 

Take a look, guys! There are only 68 results and IT"S WORTH checking it !

Not to mention there were no rainbows at all......🙄

Edited by Ognyan Yosifov
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23 minutes ago, Ognyan Yosifov said:

I'm assuming that, as well...

Tried to find one of mine videos searching for "rainbow at dusk time lapse". Mine was not there, but there was a video from Tokyo, shot vertically

and presented flipped horizontally ....And it's uploaded 7 times !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Similar video, this time horizontal uploaded 7 times as well! Same contributor. 

Take a look, guys! There are only 68 results and IT"S WORTH checking it !

Not to mention there were no rainbows at all......🙄

The drive for quality continues....:wacko:

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32 minutes ago, Ognyan Yosifov said:

I'm assuming that, as well...

Tried to find one of mine videos searching for "rainbow at dusk time lapse". Mine was not there, but there was a video from Tokyo, shot vertically

and presented flipped horizontally ....And it's uploaded 7 times !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Similar video, this time horizontal uploaded 7 times as well! Same contributor. 

Take a look, guys! There are only 68 results and IT"S WORTH checking it !

Not to mention there were no rainbows at all......🙄

In fact there are so many duplicates that the true result is less than half 🤨🤔

Phil

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Just now, Phil Crean said:

In fact there are so many duplicates that the true result is less than half 🤨🤔

Phil

Yes, I've just noticed a few more duplicates from the same shoot. 

And no rainbows even in a single video on the page.😕

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9 hours ago, Joseph Clemson said:

 

I'm assuming the IT department will resolve the import issue which mistreats keyword phrases and re-import the 6 million video clips correctly.

 

That sounds like the sensible thing to do.

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10 hours ago, BobD said:

 

Interesting, I don't think my pricing is particularly high or low, I price at $99 for 4K, $49 for HD and $20 for web use, but also allow Pond5 to set the price.

In the current market I think those prices are realistic.

 

I'm now thinking that only those that were priced higher than here were imported.

 

Or at least a minimum price was specified and yours fell under it.

 

UPDATE: A little research suggests that the magic number might be around $60 min for HD.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by John Mitchell
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10 hours ago, Joseph Clemson said:

It would be really helpful if Alamy would be upfront about the criteria for selection of clips from the Pond5 library. Also, whether the portfolio of selected clips is going to be updated on a regular basis so that new contributors to Pond5 can expect to see their work appear through Alamy. Alamy contributors could then make an informed choice about whether to venture into the field of video via the Pond5 route.

 

If you don't mind my asking, were you're transferred clips set at higher prices than the ones here?

 

I agree. Alamy needs to give us some guidelines (after all, it's in their interest), if not on the forum, at least with an e-mail.

 

 

Edited by John Mitchell
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1 hour ago, John Mitchell said:

 

If you don't mind my asking, were you're transferred clips set at higher prices than the ones here?

 

I agree. Alamy needs to give us some guidelines (after all, it's in their interest), if not on the forum, at least with an e-mail.

 

 

 

My prices are all over the place as I've sometimes experimented with different price points. (FWIW I've concluded that if the buyer likes your clip, they are not too worried about the price as long as it not outrageous). Doing a quick survey of my portfolio on Alamy, the majority now found here (all HD) have been priced at $60 - $75 on Pond5. One or two at $55 have transfered over, but none that I've found yet at over $75. Contrary to what I was thinking this morning, the Alamy import has included quite a lot of animations, but none of mine as the price looks to be too low ($20-$30) . The animationd I've found here look to be $50 plus.

 

 

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18 minutes ago, Joseph Clemson said:

 

My prices are all over the place as I've sometimes experimented with different price points. (FWIW I've concluded that if the buyer likes your clip, they are not too worried about the price as long as it not outrageous). Doing a quick survey of my portfolio on Alamy, the majority now found here (all HD) have been priced at $60 - $75 on Pond5. One or two at $55 have transfered over, but none that I've found yet at over $75. Contrary to what I was thinking this morning, the Alamy import has included quite a lot of animations, but none of mine as the price looks to be too low ($20-$30) . The animationd I've found here look to be $50 plus.

 

 

 

Thanks for the reply, perhaps the transfer "net" was around $55-$79 for HD. Anything below or above may have been left behind. My imports were all priced in that range.

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53 minutes ago, Travelshots said:

A  number of the videos that I have looked at here are poorly shot and not very saleable , but there are some good exceptions.

 

I would tend to agree. Some of the drone shots in particular look like they have not seen any post-processing at all. There was some speculation earlier in this thread that maybe many of the clips are non-sellers on Pond5 itself. It's not possible to verify that but I did wonder about it.

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5 hours ago, Joseph Clemson said:

 

I would tend to agree. Some of the drone shots in particular look like they have not seen any post-processing at all. There was some speculation earlier in this thread that maybe many of the clips are non-sellers on Pond5 itself. It's not possible to verify that but I did wonder about it.

 

... or the whole transfer process could be a lot more willy-nilly than we think. I'm glad that Alamy didn't price the videos any lower than they have. The current prices seem fair enough. Mind you, I don't really understand this type of distribution. The hope must be that established Alamy clients would rather shop here than at the Mother Ship. My difficulty with shooting video clips, which I quite enjoy, is that I have trouble coming up with worthwhile ideas that fit my limited skills. Also, I'm not sure the market needs more clips of rustling leaves, cloud time-lapses, shimmering water, etc., and I'm not about to hire "models" -- wouldn't know what to do with them if I did.

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8 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

 

... or the whole transfer process could be a lot more willy-nilly than we think. I'm glad that Alamy didn't price the videos any lower than they have. The current prices seem fair enough. Mind you, I don't really understand this type of distribution. The hope must be that established Alamy clients would rather shop here than at the Mother Ship. My difficulty with shooting video clips, which I quite enjoy, is that I have trouble coming up with worthwhile ideas that fit my limited skills. Also, I'm not sure the market needs more clips of rustling leaves, cloud time-lapses, shimmering water, etc., and I'm not about to hire "models" -- wouldn't know what to do with them if I did.

 

I don't think there's a problem with the transfer process affecting the colour rendering between Pond5 and Alamy, if that;s what you mean by willy-nilly. Clips of mine on both agencies look pretty identical.

 

I don't know if you really need a whole different set of ideas for shooting video I always reckon on shooting similar stuff for video as I shoot for stills on Alamy. Granted, it's useful if there's a natural source of movement in the frame but the subjects I choose for both stills and video are not that different overall. The one thing I would say is that I find I can't successfully shoot both video and stills at the same time. I feel there's a different mindset when one is shooting video and I find it hard to switch between still framing and video framing, but maybe that's just me.

 

My disappointment when Alamy didn't enter the video fray fully some years ago was mostly because I thought there would be a market for a video agency that looked like Alamy photos, differing from the other video agencies in the way Alamy still looks different to microstock phtography today.

 

The only model I've ever hired was my daughter (once) and myself. I couldn't direct her and I can barely direct myself. I'll leave it at that as far as it goes with models.

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2 hours ago, Joseph Clemson said:

 

I don't think there's a problem with the transfer process affecting the colour rendering between Pond5 and Alamy, if that;s what you mean by willy-nilly. Clips of mine on both agencies look pretty identical.

 

I don't know if you really need a whole different set of ideas for shooting video I always reckon on shooting similar stuff for video as I shoot for stills on Alamy. Granted, it's useful if there's a natural source of movement in the frame but the subjects I choose for both stills and video are not that different overall. The one thing I would say is that I find I can't successfully shoot both video and stills at the same time. I feel there's a different mindset when one is shooting video and I find it hard to switch between still framing and video framing, but maybe that's just me.

 

My disappointment when Alamy didn't enter the video fray fully some years ago was mostly because I thought there would be a market for a video agency that looked like Alamy photos, differing from the other video agencies in the way Alamy still looks different to microstock phtography today.

 

The only model I've ever hired was my daughter (once) and myself. I couldn't direct her and I can barely direct myself. I'll leave it at that as far as it goes with models.

 

Colour-rendering issues hadn't really crossed my mind. I was thinking more in terms of the selection of videos for transfer. It seems to have been random, but again who knows. I too find the two mindsets -- still and motion -- to be somewhat at odds. However, my choices of video subjects (such as they are) have also not been much different from what I photograph for Alamy. Interesting point you make about Alamy missing the boat. Certainly, no one has could have had a bigger selection of UK-specific clips to offer. Perhaps the new owners could still capitalize on that if they wanted to. FWIW, my few repeat-selling clips have been editorial, with the exception of one wildlife clip (which surprised me given the massive selection out there).

Edited by John Mitchell
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Has anyone noticed any new footage being added since the transfer? I've been submitting new clips, but they haven't shown up here. I wonder if this will be an ongoing process or just a one-time event.

 

BTW, a question for you experts -- is it worth shooting 4K video clips? Do they sell any better? My camera only produces HD.

 

 

Edited by John Mitchell
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34 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

Has anyone noticed any new footage being added since the transfer? I've been submitting new clips, but they haven't shown up here. I wonder if this will be an ongoing process or just a one-time event.

 

BTW, a question for you experts -- is it worth shooting 4K video clips? Do they sell any better? My camera only produces HD.

 

 

 

I raised the question about new clips being added to the Alamy collection with Pond5 support, along with questions about changing prices and keywords. They gave a 'catch-all' answer which was that changes would be reflected on the Alamy site 'within about 60 days, depending on the kind of change.'  I took that to mean that new material may transfer over within a couple of months, if it falls within the selection criteria specified by Alamy. I'm also expecting that existing material may transfer over if the price is within their preferred range (discussed earlier in this thread). I will be running some test uploads and price experiments to see what happens, but clearly it is going to take a couple of months at least to see any results. We can be sure though that there is no foolprof way of specifying which of our clips gets selected.

 

They also said that we will be able to see such sales in our Pond5 accounts, appearing as GPP (Global Partnership Programme) sales, but they will not be identified specifically as coming through Alamy. So we have no way of knowing for sure how well or poorly Alamy is doing for us.

 

I also asked about the commission. They would't reveal what Alamy's cut is, but they confirmed that the Pond5 contributor will get 60% (exclusive), 40% (non-exclusive) of the Net Licence Revenue (ie, whatever is left).

 

4K video? I've not dived into that myself and given the level of investment it would require, I would need greater reassurance about improvement in the overall level of footage sales than I've seen in recent years (not specifically at Pond5), Is 4K taking over? Pond5 themselves suggest $56 as a guide price for HD and $99 for 4K. This suggests that HD is still selling well and 4K does not command a massive price premium, especially given the investment needed in camera, computer disk storage and monitor in order to process 4K. I can't remember where I saw this, so take it with a pinch of salt, but I did see a statistic showing 90% of clip sales are still HD.

 

Finally, I raised  the issue of the concatenated keywords with Alamy. They tell me that the problem is with the Pond5 metadata and that their people are working on a fix.

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14 minutes ago, Joseph Clemson said:

 

I raised the question about new clips being added to the Alamy collection with Pond5 support, along with questions about changing prices and keywords. They gave a 'catch-all' answer which was that changes would be reflected on the Alamy site 'within about 60 days, depending on the kind of change.'  I took that to mean that new material may transfer over within a couple of months, if it falls within the selection criteria specified by Alamy. I'm also expecting that existing material may transfer over if the price is within their preferred range (discussed earlier in this thread). I will be running some test uploads and price experiments to see what happens, but clearly it is going to take a couple of months at least to see any results. We can be sure though that there is no foolprof way of specifying which of our clips gets selected.

 

They also said that we will be able to see such sales in our Pond5 accounts, appearing as GPP (Global Partnership Programme) sales, but they will not be identified specifically as coming through Alamy. So we have no way of knowing for sure how well or poorly Alamy is doing for us.

 

I also asked about the commission. They would't reveal what Alamy's cut is, but they confirmed that the Pond5 contributor will get 60% (exclusive), 40% (non-exclusive) of the Net Licence Revenue (ie, whatever is left).

 

4K video? I've not dived into that myself and given the level of investment it would require, I would need greater reassurance about improvement in the overall level of footage sales than I've seen in recent years (not specifically at Pond5), Is 4K taking over? Pond5 themselves suggest $56 as a guide price for HD and $99 for 4K. This suggests that HD is still selling well and 4K does not command a massive price premium, especially given the investment needed in camera, computer disk storage and monitor in order to process 4K. I can't remember where I saw this, so take it with a pinch of salt, but I did see a statistic showing 90% of clip sales are still HD.

 

Finally, I raised  the issue of the concatenated keywords with Alamy. They tell me that the problem is with the Pond5 metadata and that their people are working on a fix.

 

Thanks for the detailed (and useful) response, Joseph. I wonder if any video sales made through Alamy will show up in our sales reports here as well as on P5. I'm just getting back to shooting clips after a bit of a hiatus. It's fun doing something different, especially after the recent contract kerfuffle, etc., which has put a damper on my enthusiasm. Being able to shoot 4K video would require a substantial outlay of cash for a new camera. Like you, I can't see that it would be worthwhile at the moment. My guess is that most clips like the ones I make are used on the Web, so HD is probably adequate.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 06/07/2021 at 02:27, Joseph Clemson said:

Your insight also prompted my to click on the photographer name and, lo and behold, it brings up the rest of the photographer's portfolio. I can now see that just over half of my non-exclusive portfolio has transferred across and around 25% of my exclusive portfolio (which tend to be newer clips). At least I can now see more easily what is here and what is not.

To use your way to find out, how many of our videos got transferred. we need to find ONE transferred video from us and work from that video as mentioned above, right?

I couldn´t find any of my videos - well, beginner videos! But for a while I set the prices as low as possible to get a start for sales. Now I am curious to select some similar videos, take the best of them or only one and set the price as found out here to see, if they will get transferred or not.

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45 minutes ago, Hanif said:

To use your way to find out, how many of our videos got transferred. we need to find ONE transferred video from us and work from that video as mentioned above, right?

I couldn´t find any of my videos - well, beginner videos! But for a while I set the prices as low as possible to get a start for sales. Now I am curious to select some similar videos, take the best of them or only one and set the price as found out here to see, if they will get transferred or not.

 

Hello Hanif,

If you have not yet seen any of your Pond5 videos transfer over to Alamy, try setting them in the price range $55-79, which is what others have reported as seeming to be the price selection criteria. Setting video prices really low helps no one anyway, to be honest, as it is the subject matter and quality of production which matters to most buyers. 

 

Your post prompted me to revisit the Pond5/Alamy partnership programme thread. As I've been away I haven't yet conducted any experiments to see what price changes will do to cause clips to transfer to Alamy. However, I do notice that the overall number of Pond5 clips on Alamy has gone up to 6,257,870 (was originally 5,979718). The new ones include a few of mine.

 

My P5 video sales as a whole are stagnent so I have no idea yet whether Alamy video will bear any fruit. I'm guessing it will take many months to get any kind of idea of how successful this is going to be.

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