Falling sales values

[Sultanpepa]

4 minutes ago, GS-Images said:

As an apprentice I spent some time in a dark room developing military grade film, where you couldn't even have a dull red light. There could be no light at all, not the tiniest bit. I don't know the width of the film but it was huge, maybe around 1/4 metre (10 inches) or so, and was used in these large cameras that were mounted on the underside of aircraft. I had to set everything up before putting the lights off then do it all by hand. Luckily, all I really had to do was feed it into a machine that did all the work! Feeding it in straight though was tough, and if you put it in crooked and the film was scrunched up, there would be trouble. It was all top secret stuff too and I wasn't even allowed to see the results. Those were the days.

 

Off topic I guess! What were we talking about? Oh yea, it was cows. So, who's forgotten to milk their cows today? Come on, own up you lot.

 

Geoff.

 

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody sees it, did it actually happen.  

[Phil Robinson]

2 minutes ago, GS-Images said:

 

 

4 minutes ago, Sultanpepa said:

 

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody sees it, did it actually happen.  

Everyone always ignores the squirrels. What if a squirrel saw it fall? You people have a very human-centric view of the world.

[Bill Allsopp]

Plot, plot? Has anybody seen one only I think one is lost 

[Sultanpepa]

2 hours ago, Phil Robinson said:

 

Everyone always ignores the squirrels. What if a squirrel saw it fall? You people have a very human-centric view of the world.

 

Interesting point you make there. I shall have to ask the next squirrel I see. 

[spacecadet]

13 hours ago, GS-Images said:

As an apprentice I spent some time in a dark room developing military grade film, where you couldn't even have a dull red light. There could be no light at all, not the tiniest bit. I don't know the width of the film but it was huge, maybe around 1/4 metre (10 inches) or so, and was used in these large cameras that were mounted on the underside of aircraft. I had to set everything up before putting the lights off then do it all by hand. Luckily, all I really had to do was feed it into a machine that did all the work! Feeding it in straight though was tough, and if you put it in crooked and the film was scrunched up, there would be trouble. It was all top secret stuff too and I wasn't even allowed to see the results. Those were the days.

 

Off topic I guess! What were we talking about? Oh yea, it was cows. So, who's forgotten to milk their cows today? Come on, own up you lot.

 

Geoff.

F-52? Probably 9" film.

https://www.airrecce.co.uk/cameras/raf_ww2_cameras.html

[spacecadet]

Sorry Geoff, I thought you were older got the timeline wrong.

The film format is probably right though. Some of those formats were used until digital took over and Agfa (remember them?) still make b/w air film.

[Marb]

On 8/24/2017 at 17:31, Bill Allsopp said:

 I have been advised that mono images don't sell well as a rule so may be worth deleting those and not uploading more.

But surely it's better to leave them then delete ? They have zero change if they are not here.

[Bill Allsopp]

16 minutes ago, Marb said:

But surely it's better to leave them then delete ? They have zero change if they are not here.

They will drive down the the percentage of overall views and therefor probably reduce the posters ranking and his overall visibility in future searches. If they are very unusual I would leave them but also upload the colour version if one were available. The rest I would not maintain. Interesting to see what others think.

[Betty LaRue]

Thing is, a buyer can make a b&w out of a color image to his/her perimeters. In effect, when you upload a color, you are also giving the option for b&w, so why upload b&w? 

Unless you think you can do a better job of the conversion...or if your b&w is so stunning it catches someone's eye that wasn't really looking for it. Odds aren't for it, but who knows.

A 50 something woman just won a millions and millions dollar lottery this week over here.

Betty

[Bryan]

I've seen a small rise in prices this year, coupled with a drop in sales, overall income similar.

 

Fall in sales possibly due to DM deal ending.

[Phil Robinson]

10 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Thing is, a buyer can make a b&w out of a color image to his/her perimeters. In effect, when you upload a color, you are also giving the option for b&w, so why upload b&w? 

Unless you think you can do a better job of the conversion...or if your b&w is so stunning it catches someone's eye that wasn't really looking for it. Odds aren't for it, but who knows.

A 50 something woman just won a millions and millions dollar lottery this week over here.

Betty

I sold a B&W image last week. It is on Alamy as both BW and colour and they chose the monochrome one.

If it hadn't been there they might well have bought the colour and done it themselves - or they might have chosen someone else's image to work with. 

I think it may be only the second B&W I've sold here, but I don't have many and a little extra work (very little) probably got me an extra sale.

[Bill Allsopp]

26 minutes ago, Phil Robinson said:

I sold a B&W image last week. It is on Alamy as both BW and colour and they chose the monochrome one.

If it hadn't been there they might well have bought the colour and done it themselves - or they might have chosen someone else's image to work with. 

I think it may be only the second B&W I've sold here, but I don't have many and a little extra work (very little) probably got me an extra sale.

That's interesting - if you don't mind me asking what sort of sale? Reason I ask is that the only monochrome sale I have made in ages was a personal use. As I said B4 i no longer upload mono.

[Phil Robinson]

4 hours ago, Bill Allsopp said:

That's interesting - if you don't mind me asking what sort of sale? Reason I ask is that the only monochrome sale I have made in ages was a personal use. As I said B4 i no longer upload mono.

 

Andy Burnham - ETP45W. 

"Media, design & publishing" 

[Colblimp]

5 hours ago, Phil Robinson said:

I sold a B&W image last week. It is on Alamy as both BW and colour and they chose the monochrome one.

If it hadn't been there they might well have bought the colour and done it themselves - or they might have chosen someone else's image to work with. 

I think it may be only the second B&W I've sold here, but I don't have many and a little extra work (very little) probably got me an extra sale.

 

Very interesting.  I have only 5 or 6 b&w images on Alamy and none of them have sold yet, but I felt they were better mono than colour, so they stay.  If they sell, they sell, if not I don't care. 

[Bill Allsopp]

8 minutes ago, Phil Robinson said:

 

Andy Burnham - ETP45W. 

"Media, design & publishing" 

Thanks for that. Interesting.

[Marb]

On 25/08/2017 at 23:56, Betty LaRue said:

Thing is, a buyer can make a b&w out of a color image to his/her perimeters. In effect, when you upload a color, you are also giving the option for b&w, so why upload b&w? 

Unless you think you can do a better job of the conversion...or if your b&w is so stunning it catches someone's eye that wasn't really looking for it. Odds aren't for it, but who knows.

A 50 something woman just won a millions and millions dollar lottery this week over here.

Betty

A lot of work went into my industrial black and white. I doubt a buyers will have the time and experience to get those results unless they are darkroom and Lightroom experienced. You can get great black and white images with practice in Lightrom. 

 

As for sales, all points taken above BUT i was getting more regular sales at the start of this years which stopped in June. The files that sold were duplicates on microstock sites which dispels the theory of not putting those files here because they won't sell. In general, and others are also reporting, sales are defiantly down here. 

[Marb]

46 minutes ago, arterra said:

 

Newbies start with a medium ranking thus medium visibility. When you don't get enough sales and/or you get lots of views but hardly any zooms due to irrelevant tags or quality that is not on par with the competition ...... then your ranking/visibility sinks to the bottom >>>> images not seen, no sales.

 

Edit to add: you've been given lots of advice already, but it falls on deaf ears, doesn't it? Once more. What do you expect if you keep uploading typical microstock stuff to an editorial agency? 

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

And I have also pointed out that you also have a lot of typical microstock images, ie generic backgrounds. Again, it's not just myself here reportig poor sales. Just read above. 

[gvallee]

1 hour ago, Marb said:

A lot of work went into my industrial black and white. I doubt a buyers will have the time and experience to get those results unless they are darkroom and Lightroom experienced. You can get great black and white images with practice in Lightrom. 

 

As for sales, all points taken above BUT i was getting more regular sales at the start of this years which stopped in June. The files that sold were duplicates on microstock sites which dispels the theory of not putting those files here because they won't sell. In general, and others are also reporting, sales are defiantly down here. 

 

Several contributors have also reported having already licensed more images than the whole past year, including myself in the next few days hopefully. You only read what you want to hear.

 

So much moaning for so long, not listening to anyone, knowing better, I'm failing to see why someone wants to put himself through this. As I said before, the writing is on the wall.

 

Gen

[spacecadet]

Sure, averages are down this year, but volumes up. A good ranking gets your images seen in the first few pages. It took me a few years to get to that position but now it's worth my while submitting very popular subjects because I can be fairly sure they will be seen.

 

[Marb]

I don't mind taking advice, but not when delivered in a condescending, borderline rude nature as pointed out by someone else on another thread.

 

And on a totaly different issue, why is there no facility to keep signed in here ? Everytime I reload my browser I have to sign in. Most sites allow to keep signed in.

[spacecadet]

35 minutes ago, Marb said:

I don't mind taking advice, but not when delivered in a condescending, borderline rude nature as pointed out by someone else on another thread.

 

And on a totaly different issue, why is there no facility to keep signed in here ? Everytime I reload my browser I have to sign in. Most sites allow to keep signed in.

If I'm wrong about this he'll let me know, but I don't think Philippe is being rude, he's being direct in a second language. But I don't doubt that were he being rude you'd know it, no borderline about it.

He gets more direct when advice appears to go unheeded.

[Betty LaRue]

Marb, you must've been unhappy where you were. Is that why you came here? If you are unhappy, why don't you restrict yourself to only one place to be unhappy?

Gosh....I'd hate to double up on unhappy.

Betty