Any utility to upload microstock images here?

[IKuzmin]

Hi all.

I joined Alamy in 2010 when the image size requirement was 50 Mb. Very few my digital images taken since 2001 at 6, 8, 10 MP could be enlarged successfully to these requirements, and therefore went to microstocks. Since then, the size requirements have been decreased. I wonder if it would be reasonable to go with option(s) below considering that some of those lesser-MP images on microstocks have been sold tens or hundreds times, and are available for the RF “circulation”. What your opinions are? Thanks.

1. Upload on Alamy and delete on microstocks.

2. Upload on Alamy and keep on microstocks.

3. Leave on microstocks and do not upload on Alamy.

 

[Mr Standfast]

 

1 and 3 - no opinion

2 is silly, Why would someone buy from ALAMY sometthing they can get for less on Micro?

 

 

[Rebecca Ore]

4 hours ago, IKuzmin said:

Hi all.

I joined Alamy in 2010 when the image size requirement was 50 Mb. Very few my digital images taken since 2001 at 6, 8, 10 MP could be enlarged successfully to these requirements, and therefore went to microstocks. Since then, the size requirements have been decreased. I wonder if it would be reasonable to go with option(s) below considering that some of those lesser-MP images on microstocks have been sold tens or hundreds times, and are available for the RF “circulation”. What your opinions are? Thanks.

1. Upload on Alamy and delete on microstocks.

2. Upload on Alamy and keep on microstocks.

3. Leave on microstocks and do not upload on Alamy.

 

 4.  Take some off microstocks and put them on Alamy.   See what you have that licenses decently for Alamy photographers.

 

If your photos are selling on microstock multiple times, and they're subjects that Alamy has well covered or rarely licenses, mheh. 

 

I have had no problems with 6.1 to 12.3 MP (Nikon D50 and Nikon D300).  The lower MP can't be cropped, but do pass QC  if taken with a sharp lens.  

 

Alamy for most of us is exotic animals in exotic locations, travel shots including historical architecture, and food.  Special access can be a plus.  Really knowing your plants and animals is a plus (common and scientific names, variety names or type). 

 

The captioning and keywording may be different from what microstock companies generate automatically.  You might want to pick 100, upload to Alamy, take them off microstock, and see if they're at least zoomed.  If that gets results, upload another larger batch.  What's your success rate with Alamy?   What sort of photos are licensing or getting zooms here? 

[IKuzmin]

1 hour ago, Mr Standfast said:

2 is silly, Why would someone buy from ALAMY sometthing they can get for less on Micro?

It is not considering some of the present Alamy schemes. 

The major thing is that my overall RPI at micro is ~$0.35 and on Alamy it is ~$0.56 (of note, previously it was ~3x in favor of Alamy, now less than 2x).

But the overall RPI is probably not directly applicable to this question unless I want to transfer all micro port (which I definitely do not).

 

For those few images that I have here and there, the RPI is just very similar (e.g. ~100 sales for a total of ~$50 net at a micro is is very much similar to what I get from 1-2-3 sales of the same image on Alamy).

So, probably, I just leave it as is.

Edited July 24, 2023 by IKuzmin

[IKuzmin]

59 minutes ago, Rebecca Ore said:

I have had no problems with 6.1 to 12.3 MP (Nikon D50 and Nikon D300).  The lower MP can't be cropped, but do pass QC  if taken with a sharp lens.  

Well... Talking of 50 Mb it is about 17 Mp.

Talking of animals it is often about high ISO, motion etc which reduces opportunities to upscale. And that was the only case in my Alamy history when I lost the QC.

 

Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions.

Edited July 24, 2023 by IKuzmin

[Mr Standfast]

20 minutes ago, IKuzmin said:

Well... Talking of 50 Mb it is about 17 Mp.

Talking of animals it is often about high ISO, motion etc which reduces opportunities to upscale. And that was the only case in my Alamy history when I lost the QC.

 

Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions.

How are you calculating rpi?

[IKuzmin]

Just now, Mr Standfast said:

How are you calculating rpi

very simple, net $ divided by the number of images in the port (e.g. $1500/3000 images).

[Mr Standfast]

25 minutes ago, IKuzmin said:

very simple, net $ divided by the number of images in the port (e.g. $1500/3000 images).

 

OK Thanks.

 

I think you are answering your own question...

 

 

"~$0.35 and on Alamy it is ~$0.56 (of note, previously it was ~3x in favor of Alamy, now less than 2x)."   Still 2X

 

"100 sales for a total of ~$50 net at a micro is is very much similar to what I get from 1-2-3 sales of the same image on Alamy). "

 

100 sales to get $50 vs a handfull for the same money?

 

Have you considered a broader portfolio rather than switching distribution?

[Rebecca Ore]

1 hour ago, IKuzmin said:

Talking of animals it is often about high ISO, motion etc

 

New AI noise reduction has been very useful in getting photos into the acceptable range.  I use Lightroom Classic, but there are other similar features in other image processing programs.  Motion tends to be up for interpretation -- QC accepted a Saberwing Hummingbird with motion blur but with the feeder in good focus.  

[Martin L]

I dont know if 'chasing infringements' is your thing but trying to keep track of 100s of sales is virtually impossible hence I prefer 'a handful for the same money'. A lot easier to keep tabs on them.

I still have a few images on MS because a couple have licensed hundreds of times but to be honest they are pretty much public domain now.

Not got a clue if I spot a use if it has been licensed particularly as all are RF.

[IKuzmin]

56 minutes ago, Mr Standfast said:

Have you considered a broader portfolio rather than switching distribution

No. I am far from retirement and my job is not any close to what I photograph. Hence, only on weekends and vacations, other priorities considered. And for sure I'm not going to chase "what sells" to get some little money from Alamy or micros.

 

Furthermore, it was not my question above!

Edited July 24, 2023 by IKuzmin

[IKuzmin]

48 minutes ago, Mr Standfast said:

100 sales to get $50 vs a handfull for the same money?

It is still the same $50.

Edited July 24, 2023 by IKuzmin

[IKuzmin]

1 hour ago, Martin L said:

I dont know if 'chasing infringements' is your thing

No. A few that I found last year were invoiced by Alamy but in a couple of months half of them were refunded, with the response that customer had software problems which Alamy was aware of, and the initial invoicing was a mistake. Otherwise I do not see any infringement profits at all. I could track less than 10% of my reported Alamy sales, let alone any possible infringements.

Edited July 24, 2023 by IKuzmin

[Rebecca Ore]

1 hour ago, IKuzmin said:

It is still the same $50.

 

If I licensed 100 photos on Alamy, it would be a lot more than $50.  I had one photo license for $98 US gross, one for $17, and three for micro prices.  Five photos, a bit over $50 paid to me.   Some of these were still life photos under lights, one where I'd seen a search in the past with no results -- and that image licensed twice.  If you have limited time, look through All of Alamy and the What Should I Shoot lists, and see if you can satisfy some of the searches with no results at Alamy.   Shoot smarter if you don't have time to shoot lots.

[IKuzmin]

50 minutes ago, Rebecca Ore said:

If I licensed 100 photos on Alamy, it would be a lot more than $50.  I had one photo license for $98 US gross, one for $17, and three for micro prices.  Five photos, a bit over $50 paid to me.   Some of these were still life photos under lights, one where I'd seen a search in the past with no results -- and that image licensed twice.  If you have limited time, look through All of Alamy and the What Should I Shoot lists, and see if you can satisfy some of the searches with no results at Alamy.   Shoot smarter if you don't have time to shoot lots

Rebecca, I appreciate your responses but with each you deviate further and further from my question. Sorry if it was not clear. Thanks, particularly for the suggestion to "shoot smarter". Sounds like we are in different IQ camps, as such, I do not want to bother you anymore.

Edited July 24, 2023 by IKuzmin

[Mr Standfast]

9 hours ago, IKuzmin said:

Rebecca, I appreciate your responses but with each you deviate further and further from my question. Sorry if it was not clear. Thanks, particularly for the suggestion to "shoot smarter". Sounds like we are in different IQ camps, as such, I do not want to bother you anymore.

Bit rude!

Edited July 25, 2023 by Mr Standfast

[Cryptoprocta]

21 hours ago, IKuzmin said:

Hi all.

I joined Alamy in 2010 when the image size requirement was 50 Mb. Very few my digital images taken since 2001 at 6, 8, 10 MP could be enlarged successfully to these requirements, and therefore went to microstocks. Since then, the size requirements have been decreased. I wonder if it would be reasonable to go with option(s) below considering that some of those lesser-MP images on microstocks have been sold tens or hundreds times, and are available for the RF “circulation”. What your opinions are? Thanks.

1. Upload on Alamy and delete on microstocks.

2. Upload on Alamy and keep on microstocks.

3. Leave on microstocks and do not upload on Alamy.

 

I don't think these questions can be answered for you.

E.g. I do much better on my one micro than I do here. They are not the same images. but in the same broad genres (editorial and wildlife).

You will have vastly different images from mine, therefore your experience could be totally different.

You'll need to experiment to see what works best for you, assuming your aim is to maximise  your income.

Sorry, I know you wanted a more definitive answer, but I don't think it's possible, unless it's a philosphical rather than a monetary question, in which case that's a subjective debate.

One clue might be to look for the volume and quality of rivals each of your subjects has here and there. Also on Alamy, you can use Alamy Measures to see how often a subject has been searched for. The last  time I did that, a while back, I discovered that I had sold a photo on my micro, where there are many rival images, more times than there had even been searches for the particular subjects on Alamy. Again, YMMV.

Edited July 25, 2023 by Cryptoprocta

[Cryptoprocta]

16 hours ago, Mr Standfast said:

2 is silly, Why would someone buy from ALAMY sometthing they can get for less on Micro?

They can and do, for various reasons, and the price may not be more on Alamy, depending on their bulk-buying deal. My annual highest-value individual sales over the past years have always been via my other place.

Buyers will generally buy from the agency/agencies they have deals with, some seem to use several, some only one or two.

The question then becomes, are your photos so niche that they can't be bought elsewhere, so that the buyers have to come where you're selling, or if they look on the sites where they already have deals can they satisfice with what they find there. But if they are that niche, is there a market for them? (check Alamy measures)

Like other places, on Alamy the price doesn't depend on the quality or rarity of our image, but only on what deal the buyer has with the agency.

[Mr Standfast]

1 hour ago, Cryptoprocta said:

They can and do, for various reasons, and the price may not be more on Alamy, depending on their bulk-buying deal. My annual highest-value individual sales over the past years have always been via my other place.

Buyers will generally buy from the agency/agencies they have deals with, some seem to use several, some only one or two.

The question then becomes, are your photos so niche that they can't be bought elsewhere, so that the buyers have to come where you're selling, or if they look on the sites where they already have deals can they satisfice with what they find there. But if they are that niche, is there a market for them? (check Alamy measures)

Like other places, on Alamy the price doesn't depend on the quality or rarity of our image, but only on what deal the buyer has with the agency.

Well put.

[IKuzmin]

1 hour ago, Cryptoprocta said:

E.g. I do much better on my one micro than I do here. They are not the same images. but in the same broad genres (editorial and wildlife).

You will have vastly different images from mine, therefore your experience could be totally different.

You'll need to experiment to see what works best for you, assuming your aim is to maximise  your income.

Sorry, I know you wanted a more definitive answer, but I don't think it's possible, unless it's a philosphical rather than a monetary question, in which case that's a subjective debate.

One clue might be to look for the volume and quality of rivals each of your subjects has here and there. Also on Alamy, you can use Alamy Measures to see how often a subject has been searched for. The last  time I did that, a while back, I discovered that I had sold a photo on my micro, where there are many rival images, more times than there had even been searches for the particular subjects on Alamy. Again, YMMV.

Thanks, right.

This is what I actually expected to hear, I guess, because it is what I think about this myself 🙂

 

[Brasilnut]

I'm one that has the same images on both micros and Alamy. I've had sales on micros for $200 net and on Alamy for $1, so perhaps Alamy is the micro agency (at times) - although this is an extreme example.

 

From my experience and something that I have researched in quite detail, most buyers don't search around for the same images. It's much more complex than pricing points. 

 

I published an article on the subject (now a little dated but still relevant)

 

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2018/02/06/do-alamy-buyers-search-elsewhere-answers-from-alamy/

 

ps. I do keep some images exclusive to alamy as RM because they have no place in micros. 

 

 

[geogphotos]

You don't think that this is giving publicity to Alamy competitors?

 

I mention this because I was given Alamy penalty points warning for once asking if since the commission change anybody had tried......oh I had better stop there for fear of getting into trouble. 

Edited August 11, 2023 by geogphotos

[Brian Yarvin]

Alex, thanks for the link. (and a thank you to James A. too) These are issues that are tough to understand. I'm always working on it.