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Heya from Arizona


Luckshot

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(I've been waiting for QC to pass my 4-pack before introducing myself.)

 

I'm based in Phoenix area, and found Alamy after being locked out of Demotix (the Corbis buyout thing). Sadly due to various computer problems what was uploaded there was my only archive. I didn't sell hardly anything, so I guess it's no big loss. I was chasing low value stories not realizing I was spinning my wheels. It's also why my uploading had mostly tapered off in the last year or so.

 

So, new year, new camera (and my first L lens), new eyes (lasik last week), new software, and a new stock site. It's been a busy few weeks. I guess if I'm going to start over, it might as well be all new.

 

I started with film back in the 80s, doing sports & news for my junior college and stringing for a few throw-away local papers. But I moved on to "normal" jobs after an Army stint and university. I only picked a (non-phone) camera up again a few years ago. Other than speed, I'm not sure digital has improved things that much! :)

 

Just a couple of quick questions, tho'

 

Is anyone using a non-Adobe workflow? I'm culling with Photo Mechanic then using either Capture One for stock, or Canon's DPP for live news.

 

Ugh. Keywords. I"m loading them into IPTC KW field then, putting the most relevant ones first then cut/paste in the Alamy interface to get them into the top two boxes. 

 

Does this sound about right?

 

Also, my KWs are comma separated in the upload, but they all wind up in a space separated mishmash. For example:

<rabbit, cottontail, desert cottontail> becomes <rabbit cottontail desert cottontail> 

 

So phrases don't seem to transfer. From reading some of posts here, it seems like more voodoo to get phrases to work. So far I'm just deleting the dupes, and thinking about giving up on phrases. 

 

Does anyone have any luck with uploading phrases via the IPTC keyword field?

 

Take care,

Jennifer

 

PS I just checked, my last three uploads (2 LN + the QC 4) haven't gone live yet. The weather pics were to get started with LN.

 

PPS Upon further reading, I did my QC exactly backwards! I submitted 4 handheld 200mm (non-IS even) wildlife shots. But shutter speed saved the day!

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it seems like more voodoo to get phrases to work.

 

 

Yep, that's about the right word. A long, long time ago, when the galaxies were still cooling in the aftermath of the Big Bang, Alamy promised that keyword phrases would be implemented and encouraged contributors to use quotes around phrases. We're still waiting.

 

As for the munged keyword order displayed with the image, I don't think anyone has yet worked out exactly how that list is compiled. I've decided it's safe to ignore it and just rely on the keywords that I enter (with quotes having no effect).

 

Recently some changes have apparently been made to the search engine to give greater emphasis to words placed together, which Alamy probably believes will reduce the need for quoted phrases. And in any case the Caption field is also included in searches so you would need to use quotes around any multi-word phrases appearing in the caption too (e.g. in place names), otherwise it would be pointless using them for the same phrases in the keywords.

 

Alan

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Jennifer, it's been much discussed the past couple of years about the effectiveness of using commas. I began doing that in the way you talk about. Yes, the commas are stripped during upload.

I just put them back in. If I want a phrase, it's like this. woman,walking,woman walking,city park,

If I have lots of keywords, I take out the spaces. If I have less, I simply add commas and leave the spaces in.

 

When I bring up one of my images in a search, it appears that my phrases are intact.

Betty

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Hi Jennifer, I am a newbie just as you, but have experience with another agency selling RF images.

I have 13000 images there, but willing to move to RM so to have a bit more bucks for a sale, lets see how it works for me.

I had too many experiences with loosing data and pictures in the past, so now I am a bit control freak on backing up.

Basically I download all my images to my hd c, than I copy them to drive d and just than move them to drive e and erase them from my camera cards.

Than I copy my raw files into Blu-rays, two copies, just than I erase them from drive d.

And once in a while I copy all my drive e to an external hd.

My drive e has all the processed files, so, yes, I am not backing up my processed files in blu-rays.

This might sound like a lot, but I havent lost anything since 2005 when I started that (at the time with CD´s, than DVD´s, now BLU-rays...)

 Anyway, cheers, I hope you have a wonderful time and lots of sales here in Alamy!

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Welcome to Alamy

One month on Alamy, but several years in RF experience. You will find Alamy pleasantly different: in final appearance of your online images, facility to interact with fellow photographers, share experiences and new technology. Forum surely builds up your confidence, with nice people around. I am very glad. 

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