efk11 Posted November 14, 2017 Share Posted November 14, 2017 1 hour ago, Marb said: I am positive that I have had no sales for months. I am positive that the more work I upload, the more sales diminish. I am positive that I am finding it a waste of time submitting here. Sorry but that's how I feel Can I correct that and say you have MOSTLY exceptional photos!! Am really interested to hear what the experts think here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marb Posted November 14, 2017 Share Posted November 14, 2017 3 hours ago, efk11 said: Can I correct that and say you have MOSTLY exceptional photos!! Am really interested to hear what the experts think here. Thanks, it's kind of you to say. It's very easy to get despondent when you put a lot of effort into processing your RAW files, tagging etc for no reward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellonearth Posted November 14, 2017 Share Posted November 14, 2017 8 hours ago, Marb said: I am positive that I have had no sales for months. I am positive that the more work I upload, the more sales diminish. I am positive that I am finding it a waste of time submitting here. Sorry but that's how I feel I know how you feel Marb. I have been slogging away for months now and am on the cusp of reaching 4000 images online. I have had some sales this year but all for small amounts and some have been derisory, No sales at all this month so far Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted November 14, 2017 Share Posted November 14, 2017 30 minutes ago, Hellonearth said: I know how you feel Marb. I have been slogging away for months now and am on the cusp of reaching 4000 images online. I have had some sales this year but all for small amounts and some have been derisory, No sales at all this month so far Kevin You have a nice variety of images, but most of them I would consider a nice variety of travel. If I were you, I’d throw in some food, even if it means you eat out and take a picture of your dinner. If someone in your family bakes, ask for a head’s up for imagery. Get some pictures of ordinary things you might find in your house or yard. Animals of all kinds, including pets. Know and name the breeds Flowers and plants, isolated with out of focus backgrounds. Go to conservatories or public gardens where plants are labeled and take a picture of the plant/flower, and one of the label. You must have the common and scientific name. When flowering shrubs and trees are in bloom, drive around and shoot them. Find out what they are even if it means knocking on a door and asking the owner. family...cooking, playing a game, having a picnic ethnic people in family situations or children playing. If you are lucky, several of different ethnicity interacting or even conversing. Stretch your imagination and think out of the box. Those of us who have a broad variety might do better than those who don’t. Some here who specialize, for instance animals/birds, or plants, are very good at what they do in order to sell well. But that doesn’t mean you are shut out. I’ve sold a flowering vine multiple times because most of the ones I’m competing with have taken closeups of the flowers. I’ve done that too, but the one that keeps selling is of the whole plant. A lot of your shots fill the frame. Try a closeup, then one zoomed out with space around it. A horizontal and a vertical. Space is good...room for text, or a horizontal a buyer can crop to a vertical without losing part of the subject. Sky above when possible, perfect for text. You’re a good photographer, but maybe there is room for improvement in your composition. Hope this helps. Betty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marb Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 10 hours ago, Betty LaRue said: You have a nice variety of images, but most of them I would consider a nice variety of travel. If I were you, I’d throw in some food, even if it means you eat out and take a picture of your dinner. If someone in your family bakes, ask for a head’s up for imagery. Get some pictures of ordinary things you might find in your house or yard. Animals of all kinds, including pets. Know and name the breeds Flowers and plants, isolated with out of focus backgrounds. Go to conservatories or public gardens where plants are labeled and take a picture of the plant/flower, and one of the label. You must have the common and scientific name. When flowering shrubs and trees are in bloom, drive around and shoot them. Find out what they are even if it means knocking on a door and asking the owner. family...cooking, playing a game, having a picnic ethnic people in family situations or children playing. If you are lucky, several of different ethnicity interacting or even conversing. Stretch your imagination and think out of the box. Those of us who have a broad variety might do better than those who don’t. Some here who specialize, for instance animals/birds, or plants, are very good at what they do in order to sell well. But that doesn’t mean you are shut out. I’ve sold a flowering vine multiple times because most of the ones I’m competing with have taken closeups of the flowers. I’ve done that too, but the one that keeps selling is of the whole plant. A lot of your shots fill the frame. Try a closeup, then one zoomed out with space around it. A horizontal and a vertical. Space is good...room for text, or a horizontal a buyer can crop to a vertical without losing part of the subject. Sky above when possible, perfect for text. You’re a good photographer, but maybe there is room for improvement in your composition. Hope this helps. Betty Hi Betty, Thanks for your time in giving advice. It so happens that I grow my own produce (with moderate success), started to cook and if you look in my port will see a lot of plants, fruit, veg and some food already here. I will certainly work on more though as it does seem to be a passion of mine. Earthy, rustic rural etc. I am based in Cheshire so it's all around me. I also like to shoot the extraordinary if I stumble on it as niche images must sell from time to time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellonearth Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 10 hours ago, Betty LaRue said: You have a nice variety of images, but most of them I would consider a nice variety of travel. If I were you, I’d throw in some food, even if it means you eat out and take a picture of your dinner. If someone in your family bakes, ask for a head’s up for imagery. Get some pictures of ordinary things you might find in your house or yard. Animals of all kinds, including pets. Know and name the breeds Flowers and plants, isolated with out of focus backgrounds. Go to conservatories or public gardens where plants are labeled and take a picture of the plant/flower, and one of the label. You must have the common and scientific name. When flowering shrubs and trees are in bloom, drive around and shoot them. Find out what they are even if it means knocking on a door and asking the owner. family...cooking, playing a game, having a picnic ethnic people in family situations or children playing. If you are lucky, several of different ethnicity interacting or even conversing. Stretch your imagination and think out of the box. Those of us who have a broad variety might do better than those who don’t. Some here who specialize, for instance animals/birds, or plants, are very good at what they do in order to sell well. But that doesn’t mean you are shut out. I’ve sold a flowering vine multiple times because most of the ones I’m competing with have taken closeups of the flowers. I’ve done that too, but the one that keeps selling is of the whole plant. A lot of your shots fill the frame. Try a closeup, then one zoomed out with space around it. A horizontal and a vertical. Space is good...room for text, or a horizontal a buyer can crop to a vertical without losing part of the subject. Sky above when possible, perfect for text. You’re a good photographer, but maybe there is room for improvement in your composition. Hope this helps. Betty Thank you Betty for your constructive criticism. Sometimes it is good to have a reality check on what one is doing. I have looked through several pages of your images and can see that you do indeed practice what you preach. I think you are right that I do have " a vice variety of travel" and it is an area of interest for me. However, perhaps I should put my commercial hat on a little bit more and shoot other things, I will certainly give your suggestions a go over the coming weeks, I will try and make the next 1,000 images a bit more variable. Who knows perhaps I will get the hang of it! Thanks again for taking the time to view my images and offer advice. It is much appreciated. Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marb Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 I will also add does it make any difference to visibility in the optional section if you select primary and secondary categories ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokie Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 14 minutes ago, Marb said: I will also add does it make any difference to visibility in the optional section if you select primary and secondary categories ? I have probably got a hand full of images where I've entered primary and secondary categories. Alamy have stated that this feature isn't implemented yet. "At the moment, the categories are not searchable and do not link to the categories on the Alamy website. This may change in the future and they may be used to link customers to specific collections so we would recommend adding them." John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylineboy Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 19 hours ago, efk11 said: oh no don't lose the faith. You have some fabulous photos. Perhaps a few are dark, as someone advised me recently about mine and I see now what looks too bright or overexposed to me seems to be more acceptable! (Does anyone have a rule of thumb?) anyone got an input on this, re: bright bordering on overexposed being more desirable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
efk11 Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 12 hours ago, Betty LaRue said: You have a nice variety of images, but most of them I would consider a nice variety of travel. If I were you, I’d throw in some food, even if it means you eat out and take a picture of your dinner. If someone in your family bakes, ask for a head’s up for imagery. Get some pictures of ordinary things you might find in your house or yard. Animals of all kinds, including pets. Know and name the breeds Flowers and plants, isolated with out of focus backgrounds. Go to conservatories or public gardens where plants are labeled and take a picture of the plant/flower, and one of the label. You must have the common and scientific name. When flowering shrubs and trees are in bloom, drive around and shoot them. Find out what they are even if it means knocking on a door and asking the owner. family...cooking, playing a game, having a picnic ethnic people in family situations or children playing. If you are lucky, several of different ethnicity interacting or even conversing. Stretch your imagination and think out of the box. Those of us who have a broad variety might do better than those who don’t. Some here who specialize, for instance animals/birds, or plants, are very good at what they do in order to sell well. But that doesn’t mean you are shut out. I’ve sold a flowering vine multiple times because most of the ones I’m competing with have taken closeups of the flowers. I’ve done that too, but the one that keeps selling is of the whole plant. A lot of your shots fill the frame. Try a closeup, then one zoomed out with space around it. A horizontal and a vertical. Space is good...room for text, or a horizontal a buyer can crop to a vertical without losing part of the subject. Sky above when possible, perfect for text. You’re a good photographer, but maybe there is room for improvement in your composition. Hope this helps. Betty Betty can I ask you directly, I see you have a sprinkling of RM and RF throughout your port, do you a specific criteria for assigning one over the other, as I am still unsure despite reading plenty?! thanks Elaine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylineboy Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 2 hours ago, efk11 said: Betty can I ask you directly, I see you have a sprinkling of RM and RF throughout your port, do you a specific criteria for assigning one over the other, as I am still unsure despite reading plenty?! thanks Elaine good question! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 Almost all of my images prior to the new AIM were RM. Only a hundred or so were RF. After the change, Alamy stated that customers were wanting more and more RF. Those that haven’t sold in the past were eligible for change, as long as there were no unreleased people or property in them. I’ve since made some of my birds, butterflies and flowers RF. Not all. Maybe 50%. I’ve also gone through my released people and made half or more of those RF. The reason? I have a few images of my daughter and son-in-law that I chose RF at the outset and these have sold multiple times. All the rest have been malingering as RM and haven’t sold, except for one pose, which has sold multiple times as RM. I’d need to check, but I’m thinking thr RF brought better prices than the RM. Geoff Kidd, who used to post here, has a very good grasp of RF. He creates high end, complicated commercial images that he lists RF. Did then, probably still does. He was helpful on the forums, but like a few others, was chased away by a few argumentative and rude people. I don’t remember for sure, but I’m sure some of the rude people were die hard RMers. Our loss, particularly mine, because he went out of his way through PMs to guide me through some technical stuff. Basically, it’s an experiment. If I have a particularly stunning image, (yeah, right) I keep it RM. If the image is good, but more pedestrian or easily duplicated, I try RF. I admit the whole thing is somewhat confusing to me, too. I’m putting my trust in what Alamy says the clients want. We’re still talking about images without released people or property, and ones that haven’t previously sold as RM. I’m confused on that issue, so I’m playing it safe. Betty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Richmond Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 A first for me. Image shot on Monday this week, processed and uploaded that evening. Passed QC Tuesday afternoon, keywords super tagged and Optional details added that evening. On sale Wednesday morning and zoomed the same day. First time that's ever happened and very encouraging. The image? Alnus incana 'Aurea' male catkins. Only 6 images of the plant on Alamy, 2 of them mine, so I wasn't too surprised that it was the only zoom. Niches still exist. Let's hope it now sells. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 My second sale in two days and it's something different to Pippa bloody Middleton! Very pleased. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
efk11 Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 15 hours ago, Betty LaRue said: Almost all of my images prior to the new AIM were RM. Only a hundred or so were RF. After the change, Alamy stated that customers were wanting more and more RF. Those that haven’t sold in the past were eligible for change, as long as there were no unreleased people or property in them. I’ve since made some of my birds, butterflies and flowers RF. Not all. Maybe 50%. I’ve also gone through my released people and made half or more of those RF. The reason? I have a few images of my daughter and son-in-law that I chose RF at the outset and these have sold multiple times. All the rest have been malingering as RM and haven’t sold, except for one pose, which has sold multiple times as RM. I’d need to check, but I’m thinking thr RF brought better prices than the RM. Geoff Kidd, who used to post here, has a very good grasp of RF. He creates high end, complicated commercial images that he lists RF. Did then, probably still does. He was helpful on the forums, but like a few others, was chased away by a few argumentative and rude people. I don’t remember for sure, but I’m sure some of the rude people were die hard RMers. Our loss, particularly mine, because he went out of his way through PMs to guide me through some technical stuff. Basically, it’s an experiment. If I have a particularly stunning image, (yeah, right) I keep it RM. If the image is good, but more pedestrian or easily duplicated, I try RF. I admit the whole thing is somewhat confusing to me, too. I’m putting my trust in what Alamy says the clients want. We’re still talking about images without released people or property, and ones that haven’t previously sold as RM. I’m confused on that issue, so I’m playing it safe. Betty Thanks for that Betty, thats really useful feedback to consider. Elaine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultanpepa Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 8 hours ago, John Richmond said: A first for me. Image shot on Monday this week, processed and uploaded that evening. Passed QC Tuesday afternoon, keywords super tagged and Optional details added that evening. On sale Wednesday morning and zoomed the same day. First time that's ever happened and very encouraging. The image? Alnus incana 'Aurea' male catkins. Only 6 images of the plant on Alamy, 2 of them mine, so I wasn't too surprised that it was the only zoom. Niches still exist. Let's hope it now sells. Betya there's 106 by the weekend now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Richmond Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 27 minutes ago, Sultanpepa said: Betya there's 106 by the weekend now. Ah, but first you've got to know the tree exists. Then you've got to find one. Then get access to photograph it. I think it will take at least a fortnight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njene Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 Just had a $150 licence drop in altough i cant access the details of the license yet, i am quite pleased! Thx Alamy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marianne Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 October ended well for me with a second high-value license , $175, putting me just slightly ahead of last year in terms of revenue, with two months to go. October was not my BME but it was close. Seems to have been a good month for several here. I've seen my average sale price go up significantly over the past few months and that's very encouraging, hope the trend continues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbimages Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 Probably not too exciting for many, but I've just gone over the $40,000 gross sales figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gvallee Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 Most number of licenses in a month ever (since 2003). And we're only the 18th. It is quite extraordinary actually, I have never seen anything like it. I've had between 2 to 5 licenses reported every day over the past week. Quite normal for some contributors I guess, but I'm chuffed nonetheless. And zooms are through the roof!! Happy!! Gen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultanpepa Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 1 hour ago, cbimages said: Probably not too exciting for many, but I've just gone over the $40,000 gross sales figure. Congrats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 49 minutes ago, gvallee said: Most number of licenses in a month ever (since 2003). And we're only the 18th. It is quite extraordinary actually, I have never seen anything like it. I've had between 2 to 5 licenses reported every day over the past week. Quite normal for some contributors I guess, but I'm chuffed nonetheless. And zooms are through the roof!! Happy!! Gen That's amazing figures - well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avpics Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 57 minutes ago, gvallee said: Most number of licenses in a month ever (since 2003). And we're only the 18th. It is quite extraordinary actually, I have never seen anything like it. I've had between 2 to 5 licenses reported every day over the past week. Quite normal for some contributors I guess, but I'm chuffed nonetheless. And zooms are through the roof!! Happy!! Gen Well done, that's some going. My October ramped up to a sale per day at the end of the month so I had high hopes of a continuation but November has bombed. Plenty of zooms and I'm aware of some usages out there waiting to be reported, but still a little frustrating after all the work put in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultanpepa Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 6 hours ago, gvallee said: Most number of licenses in a month ever (since 2003). And we're only the 18th. It is quite extraordinary actually, I have never seen anything like it. I've had between 2 to 5 licenses reported every day over the past week. Quite normal for some contributors I guess, but I'm chuffed nonetheless. And zooms are through the roof!! Happy!! Gen Fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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