Port Critique

[JohnskiRus]

Hello All,

 

Struggling a little to get my head around the ethos at Alamy - getting a few sales, but is my port heading in the right direction or is it too Microstock orientated?

 

I have a 200 London images and 100 or so in Russia that show people and locations - that I feel are better suite to the site.

 

I am prepared to take the harshest criticism with grace..

 

My goal is to hit 12 sales a year - and to upload and keyword effectively pure RM material..

 

Thanks for looking

 

John Williams

[MircoV]

Hello John,

 

I think you are extremely talented as a photographer. You have a very special view of the world. For sure the problem is not lying on your photos itself.

 

Do you have the same images on microstock? Perhaps thats why you are missing sales?

 

The only other reasons what i can think of is not right keywording? I am not sure since i am not such a master of it. Need to improve my English.

 

I hope Philippe from Arterra Agency or Keith Morris will see this thread so they can give you advice.... you deserve many sales.

 

Mirco

[JohnskiRus]

Thanks Micro for the feedback- yes I feel keywording is an issue for me, something I am weak on, and yet I realize it's the most important part of selling images...

 

I've gone through the Alamy Guide on this and will rework my ideas on the new batch I will be uploading over the next few days.

[Alexandre Fagundes]

John, I noticed you posted some images both in black and white and color.

My understanding is that buyers of stock usually would rather buy color, so I dont care about sending b&w, exception for some very special photos where the b&w I really worked on a more "special" version of it.

Are you being successfull with b&w sales?

Do those images sell both in color and b&w?

Thanks,

[JohnskiRus]

Hi Alexandre,

 

 

None of my sales have been in B&W - I think I will consider not uploading B&W version in future - thanks for your words, it makes sense to only upload a color version.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Guest]

Hello All,

 

Struggling a little to get my head around the ethos at Alamy - getting a few sales, but is my port heading in the right direction or is it too Microstock orientated?

 

I have a 200 London images and 100 or so in Russia that show people and locations - that I feel are better suite to the site.

 

I am prepared to take the harshest criticism with grace..

 

My goal is to hit 12 sales a year - and to upload and keyword effectively pure RM material..

 

Thanks for looking

 

John Williams

 

This will be harsh. Far too many microstock backgrounds and textures - they don't even sell as well on micro now as a few years ago IME. You have few stock subjects that would be in demand, the first four/five pages of your port are far too much like a camera club exhibition - this is stock, not 'art' photography.

 

If you are shooting for stock, ask yourself who would use this image I am about to make and how would they do so? If you can't answer easily, the chances are you won't easily sell the image. Striving for 12 sales from over 4000 images in one year in setting the bar very, very low. You should be looking for ten times that...at least

 

Far too many RF images placed as RM, the stock world is going RF for ease of use and especially so with images with little added value....

 

My advice is to go look at what is actually licensed from stock agencies like Alamy - any decent book store, large businesses on line etc. In the main, it's not what you are shooting. You have the choice of either looking to sell work or shooting what you like to shoot, the two are rarely the same.

[JohnskiRus]

Thanks Geoff and thank you for looking through my port - not harsh at all I welcome the honesty - I don't want anyone blowing smoke up my rear .. I will re-evaluate my subjects and get to grips with looking at the Alamy database of images for where I need to be as a photographer.

 

I had a feeling my artsy stuff was not going to do well here - and as for the backgrounds, they are weak I agree..

 

Your advice helps me realize that I need three channels:

 

1) Artsy images need to go to POD sites.

2) Stock textures and backgrounds should not be uploaded here - these should go Micro as RF (however textures have been done to death, so I really need to stop photographing these!).

3) Pure Alamy stock of events/people/locations/activities etc. something with a definite subject needs to come here

 

From Alexandre

4) BW images should also go to POD sites, providing they differ from the color versions at Alamy.

 

Looking around I feel part of the key is getting accurate location/time/action into the description - this I feel I have been failing to do. What I want to focus on is Subject strong images...

 

My thoughts on keywording is lean=mean. I want to focus on the essential and main - with 15 words max. I will disregard the comprehensive keyword box unless, I really have the right keywords.

 

I will see if changing to RF licences for my port (weak images) as it stands today is a good idea.

 

As for 120 sales a year - sure I will raise my goal But first I need to get into the Alamy mindset with my images..

 

Thanks again

 

John

[Ed Rooney]

+ 1 for Geoff's thoughts

 

John, you wrote 12 sales a year in your OP, not 120.

 

"Looking around I feel part of the key is getting accurate location/time/action into the description - this I feel I have been failing to do. What I want to focus on is Subject strong images..." -- you

 

That's often true, but not necessarily. The last sale I had, just a few days ago, was an image captured in Rome, Italy. I deliberately left both the city and the country out of the caption and keywords. The caption says: "A European classic continental breakfast: a croissant and a cappuccino." I hope my reason for doing this is self explanatory. 

 

http://www.alamy.com/image-details-popup.asp?Imageid={B291816F-EC4E-4D1B-8945-AD37C0E80213}

 

Good luck

[John Mitchell]

John. I really like your images -- clean compositions and a strong sense of design. I've been experimenting with adding some texture, background and design images to my collection during the past few months and can vouch for the fact that they don't do well on Alamy. The number of images like these in the Alamy database is now totally mind-blowing. In short, too much competition.

 

Just wondering, do you get any "personal use" sales?

[JohnskiRus]

HI Ed,

 

Yes my OP said 12 - Geoff then said this was setting the bar very low and it should be 10 times that so I increased my goal to 120.

 

Hi Ed,

 

Great shot there - I can see why you didn't add Rome, Italy as the location is not relevant to the image - the image could have been taken anywhere in Europe..

 

Hi John,

 

Thanks for the feedback - no personal use sales at the moment.

 

OK guys I am getting some great brain chow here thanks for the input, I really do appreciate it.

 

I've got a small project tomorrow (a local Russian farmers market) just down the road from me, so I am hoping to catch some decent images - ethnic/real people/activity - just hope the blighters smile a little (not so common for Russians)

[mickfly]

Compared to your port Johnski my images are very ordinary, BUT I do have sales, and usually it is the very ordinary things which are used to illustrate articles.
One change I have made since shooting stock is instead of waiting for people to leave the frame before I take a shot, I now wait until there is someone in the frame, as many editorial images seem to have the human/animal element.
My keywords are also somewhat embarrassing in places... overkill springs to mind, but I am attending to it, and will do better when the new system allows us to amend/append words in 2026.