domromer Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 Hello, I just joined as an Alamy member last week. I need a little advise from people with more experience in the stock industry. I find my progress maddeningly slow. I was approved and I've begun the submission process. My submissions remain small as I'm still worried about failing and having them all rejected. So every other day or so I get a batch approved then upload another batch. In the meantime of joined 3 other agencies and am uploading while I wait for Alamy's next approval. All the other agencies move with the same sloweness and keeping track or which agencies got which photos and have they been key worded and uploaded is really confusing. I'm wondering if I should stick to one agency at a time, upload the bulk of my images, once I'm caught up, then move onto the next agency, load the library and get caught up. For those of you that belong to multiple agencies, how did you do it? Did you upload your collections all at the same time? or one at a time? When did you start uploading larger batches to Alamy? How long did it take you to feel comfortable doing that? Sorry if this is kind of a broad question. Just a bit frustrated with it right now and looking to see how others manage their workflow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 It's a long process. First, if you are going to sell with more than one agency, do your keywording in advance in Bridge, Lightroom or PhotoShop. That way you don't have do redo the keywords every time you submit to a different agency. I find that on average, with keywording and post-processing, I spend about 20-30 minutes per image before they are uploaded. If you are inspecting your images at 100% for sharp focal point, no CA, dust bunnies, etc, and then fixing the issues or simply binning those that are too soft, you should be fine. Stubborn CA is a problem for me and I have to be diligent about hunting it down. It takes a lot to time to build a portfolio and make reasonable amount of sales. Patience is a big key in this business, especially since there are so many images out there. Jill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnnie5 Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 Its only taken me about 7 years to get comfortable uploading larger batches. I have gotten more ruthless about judging my own photos especially for softness or lacking definition (SOLD). Every once in a while I will try to sneak one through knowing it will probably fail. They usually catch me. I triple check my photos before I submit them though. As far as Chromatic Aberration (CA) goes I have presets in Lightroom that automatically remove it so it isn't much of a worry. Having good lenses also makes a huge difference not only in image quality but in getting the shot. I have stuck with Alamy knowing that if my photos were good enough QC wise for them, then they would be good enough for any other agency. It is definitely a marathon and not a sprint so I wouldn't get too impatient. Unless you have a large existing library of images to start out with its going to be like depositing small amounts of money in a savings account every month. Its also good to follow whatever trends or news is out there in the world and try to shoot new and relevant stuff. I am however not a good judge of what will sell, though occasionally I will shoot something and know that it will sell and other times photos I think are nothing sell multiple times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCat Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 Your images have Stockimo-Instagram look, IMO. Maybe this allows you to submit via Alamy's Stockimo scheme, which, AFAIK, has no QC, as in, everything gets accepted...? Check on this, I'm not a Stockimoister... No, Jeff. All images are checked and there are rejections. It all happens pretty quickly though so no agonizing over whether an image has passed. Paulette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domromer Posted August 6, 2015 Author Share Posted August 6, 2015 Hi, Thanks for the info on the stockimo. Sadly it's just for iphone users. I will look into that. I take a lot of cell phone pics and it would be great to have an outllet for them. One more quick question. I see some photo on alamy for sale. They have clearly identifiable people in them and there are no model releases uploaded with the photo. How does this work? Can these photos be sold without a release? Is it assumed that the photographer has the release but has not uploaded it? Here is an example. I hope you don't mind JeffGreenberg. http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-spain-europe-eurozone-spanish-mad-adolfo-suarez-madridbarajas-airport-85817807.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=3E9BA786-B304-41AC-A7C4-BD9F8A1E797B&p=236143&n=0&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=12&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3dbar%26st%3d12%26pn%3d1%26ps%3d90%26sortby%3d2%26resultview%3dsortbyPopular%26npgs%3d6%26qt%3ddomromer%26qt_raw%3ddomromer%26lic%3d3%26mr%3d0%26pr%3d0%26ot%3d0%26creative%3d%26ag%3d0%26hc%3d0%26pc%3d%26blackwhite%3d%26cutout%3d%26tbar%3d0%26et%3d0x000000000000000000000%26vp%3d0%26loc%3d0%26imgt%3d0%26dtfr%3d%26dtto%3d%26size%3d0xFF%26archive%3d1%26groupid%3d%26pseudoid%3d%26a%3d%26cdid%3d%26cdsrt%3d%26name%3djeffgreenberg%26qn%3d%26apalib%3d0%26apalic%3d%26lightbox%3d%26gname%3d%26gtype%3d%26xstx%3d0%26simid%3d%26saveQry%3d%26editorial%3d1%26nu%3d%26t%3d%26edoptin%3d%26customgeoip%3dUS%26cap%3d1%26cid%3dKF65GDH4P82GX4D2ZBDVGDQLMWMR56BM454GFW9BVSNYRS73BEB76EN4XYBETXPT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 Hi, Thanks for the info on the stockimo. Sadly it's just for iphone users. I will look into that. I take a lot of cell phone pics and it would be great to have an outllet for them. One more quick question. I see some photo on alamy for sale. They have clearly identifiable people in them and there are no model releases uploaded with the photo. How does this work? Can these photos be sold without a release? Is it assumed that the photographer has the release but has not uploaded it? Here is an example. I hope you don't mind JeffGreenberg. Model releases are not usually needed for editorial use, just commercial usage. Images with non-released people in them should be offered as RM (Rights Managed). Alamy will automatically make your images RM (as opposed to RF) if you indicate that you don't have releases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domromer Posted August 6, 2015 Author Share Posted August 6, 2015 And thanks everyone for the feeback on the workflow. I appreciate you chiming in. This is all new stuff to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MircoV Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 On this moment i submit to 4 agencies. I think te best is to first complete the agency that gives you the best income. In many cases it is Alamy. Also (for the case you opted in) Alamy has many distributors that also can be a reason to submit there first. When I am done I go to the next ones. About keywording: I first submit anyway to Alamy directly without pre keywording. This because I am not always home and like this I can keyword also on other places since I can do it online. The reason that I do this also is because keywording on Alamy is very different then my other agencies. The fields and order are important there. If I would import it all keywords would be put together on wrong order. I am faster with re-keywording then searching the words to cut and paste. When Alamy is done and I have extra time for the other 3 agencies I keyword in Adobe Bridge and upload. The procedure of the three are similar. Mirco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vpics Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 I tend to keyword in Adobe Bridge as well. But I also do this for Alamy. I just add the essential keywords when the images are ready. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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