*ITALIANO*

Con la tecnologia attuale, internet per l’appunto, abbiamo a disposizione svariati mezzi per fare del nostro Hobby anche un modo per raccimolare qualche decina,centinaia, migliaia di € al mese. Se fosse semplice tutti ci riuscirebbero e saremmo tutti molto ricchi. Alla domanda come diventare un venditore di video non esiste una risposta sola, ma un’insieme di risposte e presupposti di cui tener presente per chi è nuovo di questo mondo.

Hai realizzato una serie di fotografie molto belle, le parole chiave sono perfette eppure vendi solo una foto ogni tanto e alcune foto, forse le piú belle, non hanno la visibilitá che meritano. La soluzione puó essere una Lightbox.

Cos’é una lightbox?

É una collezione di fotografie. Il fotografo ha la possibilitá di realizzare delle collezioni di foto suddivise per argomenti in modo da mettere assieme tutte le fotografie simili e facilitare le ricerche al cliente.

Privata o pubblica

Le lightbox possono essere private, cioé relizzate solo con le fotografie di un fotografo oppure pubbliche, cioé con foto provenienti da artisti differenti. Le lightbox possono anche essere miste: foto, video, illustrazioni, ecc. Se volete promuovere i vostri lavori dovrete orientarvi sulle lightbox private.

Come si aggiungono le foto alla lightbox?

Hai due modi per inserire i file in una lightbox. Nella pagina delle miniature delle fotografie, al fianco di ogni foto cé una piccola icona di una lampadina con un “piú”. Cliccala e crea una nuova lightbox o aggiungi le foto alle lightbox esistenti. Oppure… clicca su un’immagine e dove vedi la foto ingrandita clicca su “Aggiungi alla Lightbox” sotto all’immagine.

Come mi promuovo?

Devi fare in modo che la tua lightbox sia visibile. Per farlo, il posto giusto sono le tue immagini. Sotto ad ogni tua fotografia che fa parte di una collezione devi inserire un link alla lightbox. In questo modo un cliente che guarderá una tua fotografia avrá la possibilitá di vedere con un solo clic tutte le fotografie simili o dello stesso argomento e le probabilitá che una delle tua foto sia gradita e acquistata sono maggiori. Personalmente sono molti i casi in cui le foto di una stessa serie sono acquistate in gruppo, questo perché il cliente ha la possibilitá di scegliere ció che preferisce da una serie senza perdersi nelle ricerche tra 5 milioni di immagini.

Come si inserisce il link?

Ci sono due modi per effettuare un collegamento: testuale o grafico.

Il link testuale é piú facile. Devi copiare l’indirizzo internet della lightbox e scriverlo al di sotto della fotografia, nella descrizione dell’immagine e aggiungi un testo descrittivo del tipo “Vuoi vedere foto simili? Dai un’occhiata a questa lightbox!”

Il link grafico necessita di un codice UBB e hai bisogno di un server su internet dove mettere le tue foto di “copertina”. Il codice per realizzare la lightbox é il seguente:

[url=http://www.istockphoto.com/my_lightbox_contents.php?lightboxID=XXXXXXX]
[img]http://www.miosito.com/copertina.jpg[/img][/url]

XXXXXXX é il codice della vostra lightbox visibile nella barra degli indirizzi del vostro browser.  Il codice UBB va scritto nella descrizione dell’immagine.

Inoltre mmac72 (grazie Marco!) ha contribuito con questa precisazione molto interessante:

Aggiungerei che, se dopo il numero del lightbox XXXXXXX, si aggiunge il termine
“refnum=username” si possono guadagnare anche i 10$ del referral.
Faccio copia e incolla da un mio link ad un lighbox per dare un esempio.

[url=/file_search.php?action=file&lightboxID=3832973&refnum=mmac72][img]/file_thumbview_approve.php?size=1&id=5660592[/img][/url]
Bene non ti resta che organizzare il tuo portfolio… buon lavoro!

foto copyright bravobravo/iStockphoto.com

START HERE:

Dear Stock Photography Professionals, Amateur Photographers, Illustrators and Graphic Designers

“Success” is relative …

It was just over two years ago I started to research how to sell my photography when I caught “The Bug” to start selling my images online. In September of 2007 I decided to dedicate two years to explore the possibilities of the incredible world of stock photography. I felt that two years would be enough time to give me a chance to sink my teeth into training myself from any and all sources and to get up to speed, starting basically from scratch, on this rapidly expanding and growing industry. At the time I had never even picked up a photography book or taken a photoshop tutorial. It is now two years later, and while I feel I have come very far and achieved many successes, I find that there is always more to learn. I absolutely love this work !

In July of 2007 I relocated to Washington State after accepting a transfer to work at The Boeing Company’s Commercial Airplane Headquarters in Renton, Washington just outside of Seattle, Washington. Analyzing Market Research was my specialty. Driving out to Washington from Colorado during the course of my relocation I captured a few thousands pictures on a Canon SD750 camera. At that time I was interested in seeing if I could market my images by selling prints of them at festivals, art shows and galleries. It was during this period of research that I discovered the world of commercial stock photography.

My first site that I was approved as a contributor at was BigStockPhoto in September of 2007. For that reason alone I will always have a special place in my heart for them. I found that their entry criteria was not as strict as some of the larger sites. The same applies for 123rf so these are both excellent places to get your first exposure to in selling your photography online. That being said you will want to get into Shutterstock and iStockPhoto as soon as possible. This took me many months to achieve as I was starting from nearly complete scratch with the exception of strong information technology background.  FYI: Recently BigStockPhoto was acquired by the subscription based microstock giant Shutterstock .

Stock Photography Sites are often referred to by short abbreviations. It was more than a little confusing to myself when I first started researching microstock on the various forums so I will list a few abbreviations that you may find useful to know your first time encountering them:

• SS = Shutterstock
• IS = iStockPhoto
• DT = Dreamstime
• FT = Fotolia
• BSP = BigStockPhoto
• MP = MostPhotos
• BME = Best Month Ever
• WME = Worst Month Ever
• BDE = Best Day Ever
• MSG = Microstock Group
• EL = Extended License
• RF = Royalty Free
• Glass = Camera Lens for a DSLR Camera ex. Canon 55-250 IS
• IS = Image Stabilization

My first sale came from the second site that I was approved at as a contributor which was Dreamstime. I initially sought out DT during a time when BigStockPhoto was halting uploading over the weekends. This is just one small example of the kind of roadblocks one faces when it comes to trying to build up an approved portfolio at a microstock agency.

At its most basic level, getting started in microstock photography takes just a few basic steps …

• Check-out the various stock photography links on this blog
• Browse the microstock sites and become familiar and get a feel for the photography on them
• Prepare 3-10 of your best images in accordance to the respective standards of the site you wish to join
• Submit your applications to become a contributor (a.k.a photographer) and get approved to contribute
• Shoot Pictures. Post Process Images in Photoshop. Upload Photos to all sites for review. Repeat.
• Collect the revenue from sales made each month across all sites over the years for the life of the image. Large subscription based sites such as Shutterstock will ultimately produce daily sales for you after your portfolio of approved images grows to a modest size of a few hundred images however credit based sale sites such as iStockPhoto will yield higher commissions at a much slower rate. There is constant debate over which is best. Most stock photographers submit all of their work to each of the most profitable microstock sites.
• Receive your payout after reaching a threshold for each respective site. (ex. $50, $75, $100)

I believe a quick recap of where my interest in photography as a child came from will prove insightful to some readers …

Photography had been an interest of mine since I first began taking snapshot photos with “hand me down” cameras from my parents I was about 9 or 10 years old. It was probably around 1979-1981 ish when I first started using 110 film cameras that I usually borrowed from my mother. The first camera that I actually owned was a Polaroid One Step instant camera. I remember having to pay for my own film. Early on I mowed lawns and later on I worked for the family gas station starting at the age of 10 working for $2.00 / hour. At the very least I know I was responsible for paying for the cartridges of film which were very expensive for around ten photos if I remember correctly. This limited my ability to take pictures as I was saving up to pay my way for a $750.00 30-Day bus tour trip across the country with the Boy Scouts to the National Jamboree in Virginia in 1981. Since the film for my instant camera was so expensive my mother allowed me to borrow her Sony Disc Camera. I took both cameras on my 30-day bus tour “Reunion with History” to the Jamboree. The Statue of Liberty was getting a makeover during our tour but it was still amazing and one of my favorite subjects. However, when I went to the top of the “Twin Towers” World Trade Center, that was my favorite scene. The bridges and skyscrapers of New York City fostered my love for architecture and structures which I later studied at length. I plan to dig up a couple of those first photos of mine from that trip, scan them, and post them here as a point-of-reference …

TIMELINE FOR KEY EVENTS THAT HAD AN IMPACT ON MY STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY:

1981 “Reunion With History” 30-Day Bus Tour of various historical sites of United States with Boy Scouts. Kodak Disc Camera borrowed from parents when I was 12 years old.

1985 Exposure to Mac Paint Graphic Programs on first Macintosh which parents bought 1986 Drafting  1,2,3 Architecture & Architecture Classes 1987-1991 Travel the world while serving in the United States Navy taking photos every step of the way. 1991 Leave the Navy to study Architecture at the University of Arizona. Learn AUTOCAD. 1999 First Photoshop and Image Ready exposure working with web design. 2000 Graduate University of Phoenix Bachelor of Science in Business  Major: Information Systems

2005 May Bought Digital Camera: Canon SD750

2007 July: Relocate to Washington State road trip from Colorado. Research Selling Prints / Selling digital files online.  Research Selling digital negative files

2007 September: Accepted into BSP

2007 October: Accepted into DT / Forum participation

2007 November: Thanksgiving Day 2007 was my 1st Microstock Sale at DT Accepted into Fotolia . BME across all sites. Joined Microstock Group Forum (MSG). 1st SS Application Rejected. Read Photography & Photoshop Books. Study free tutorials from The MIZ and many others.

2007 December: Join Featurepics. Make plans to buy my first DSLR camera by April or May 2008. New BME across all sites. Bus Travel  from Seattle Washington to Denver capturing many photos on this journey. Caught severe flu and ear infections after many winter weather related travel delays.  That took me out of action for most of January and the first part of February …

Illness contracted from December / January travel …

2008 January: New BME across all sites. Stock sales happen even when your down and out sick …

2008 February: Joined MostPhotos . Joined Zymmetrical.  BME’s at DT, BSP, SXP, Met stock photographer suwanneeredhead (Stacey Lynn Brown) through interactions as two of the first few Americans on MP . New BME across all sites.

2008 March: set-up first home studio. Continue to improve work for next SS and IS applications as these are the two largest revenue producing sites for a microstock photographer.  BMEs at DT, FT, 123RF, MP . New BME across all sites. 5th BME in a row.

Got my first DSLR …

2008 April: Buy first DSLR:  a used Canon Rebel XTI a.k.a 400D continue to shoot and begin working with fractals for part of my SS applications.  Not a BME … streak broken …

2008 May: Accepted into Shutterstock the last week of the month after to many applications to count.

2008 May: BME at DT.

2008 June: BME’s at SS, BSP, 123RF, MP. First Full month of Revenue from SS. New BME across all sites.

2008 July: BME’s at DT, BSP, FP, FT       WME at 123RF

2008 Sep:  September 25th propose marriage to suwanneereadhead (Stacey Lynn Brown)

2008 Oct:  Mark Payne (mwp1969) & Stacey Lynn Brown (suwanneeredhead) married in Seattle, Washington. First Extended License Sale on SS …  it must have been a belated wedding gift

2008 Dec:  Canon 55-250 IS lens received as Christmas gift from my beloved wife

2009 April: Accepted into iStockPhoto

2009 May: Upgrade to DSLR Canon Rebel XSI a.k.a Canon 450D

2009 June: Began doubling and tripling my upload efforts to all of the sites that I was behind on …

2009 October: BME for number of sales at DT. Close to BME at SS & IS

2009 Nov: Achieve next level raise at SS . BMEs at both SS & IS. Roll-out initial microstock related blog.

I am always happy to help a newbie try to break into stock photography by submitting their work for sale online.  This is a painstaking task if you try to do it all on your own. I offer my own  trials and tribulations to you so that you might be able to avoid some of  them yourself along your way. Thank you in advance for checking out my image and design portfolios.

If your interested in submitting your own images and want to try and get started right away  you can do so through the links I have provided below.  These links will help you get started with some of the most favorable and profitable microstock photography sites. The commissions from the sale of your own images will pay you again and again for the rest of the life of the image so delaying your decision to start by a day only delays you getting paid by a day down the road.

Best of Luck !

My Referral Links to Top Producing Microstock Photography Websites:

http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery.mhtml?id=144463

http://www.dreamstime.com/Mwp1969_info

http://www.istockphoto.com/mwp1969

http://www.123rf.com/profile_markpayne

http://us.fotolia.com/partner/200479231

http://www.bigstockphoto.com/?refid=HW16kzhvJX

Midstock Photography Sites:

http://www.mostphotos.com/mwp1969

Our Website:

www.PayneImages.com

]]> http://crowdaround.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/istockphoto-and-the-rise-of-crowdsourcing/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:34:55 +0000 haydensaunders http://crowdaround.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/istockphoto-and-the-rise-of-crowdsourcing/

Jeff Howe, a crowdsourcing commentator, first wrote about the topic for Wired. His examples neatly describe the impact of crowdsourcing in several industries. I’ll paraphrase one story here to give you an idea of how the web is enabling crowdsourcing solutions to better solve real world problems.

He describes the story of Claudia Menashe, a project director at the National Health Museum in Washington, DC. She was creating an exhibition devoted to pandemics like swine flu and wanted some photographs to accompany the displays. The museum was on a tight budget, so rather than commission a photographer to capture new, exclusive images, she wanted to use existing stock – images that photographers have already taken and are available for multiple clients to use.

She eventually found a freelance photographer specialising in the health industry. Leveraging the non-profit status of the museum, Claudia managed to negotiate down the price to $100 to $150 per photograph. About half of what a corporate client would pay.

After several weeks Claudia emailed the photographer to say that, regretfully, she had to pull out of the deal. “I discovered a stock photo web site called iStockPhoto,” she wrote, “which has images at very affordable prices.” Claudia makes a pretty modest understatement here, as she found over 50 suitable images for about $1 each.

iStockPhoto, which started as an image sharing service for photographers, undercut an independent photographer by at least 99%. How? By building a community of amateur photographers around a marketplace for their photos. With the price of digital cameras and SLRs tumbling, the ability to take great photos has become widespread. Combined with power of the web to instantly share and distribute digital content around the world, the photography industry was ripe for crowdsourcing led reform. Professional photographers have since lost a lot of business to iStockPhoto and a host of similar online stock photography collections.

Alongside iStockPhoto there are several successful and interesting creative industry examples – Sellaband and Threadless are worth visiting. Wikipedia is the classic and arguably most successful implementation – read my post on Wikipedia here. Apple’s App Store and Facebook’s similar app development platform are other recently well published examples.

What next then? At Careerworms we’re among the first to apply crowdsourcing to recruitment – the next industry to be transformed by the benefits of crowdsourcing?

Un po’ meglio questa settimana l’incasso ma solo grazie a un colpaccio su CanStock e una giornata eccellente su Fotolia … il resto nebbia fitta in Val Padana.

Dreamstime sembra fermo, il sito ha pure il singhiozzo, i tempi di revisione si fanno biblici (siamo oltre le 150 ore) e le vendite languono almeno da me, poche e soprattutto subscription. Sta perdendo posti nella mia classifica è stato superato da iStock!

Unica vendita oltre i 2 crediti: (7 per la precisione)

© Photographer: Milacroft | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Rispetto il mese di ottobre sono sotto del 50%

Referral code Dreamstime

Buona la settimana su Fotolia, soprattutto la giornata di Martedí. Stanno vendendo bene le apine natalizie, vendute appena messe online!

Referral code Fotolia

Shutterstock continua a volare basso, ho pure poche immagini natalizie quest’anno

Il database ha raggiunto i 9 milioni di immagini .. altro che sgomitare per vendere!! Solo 2 On Demand questa settimana, so che stanno facendo cambiamenti sui vari pacchetti ma ancora non ho avuto tempo per studiare la cosa anche perchè pare stiano facendo prove solo in alcuni paesi mentre in altri i pacchetti restano gli stessi .. bho …

Paella On Demand:

Referral code Shutterstock

iStock registra un’altra settimana discreta, un poco alla volta le vendite aumentano e visti anche gli scarsi risultati di altri siti si piazza al terzo posto! Su iStock vendo bene le foto agricole, sará che mi hanno mandato a zappare?

Referral code iStockPhoto

123RF dorme come Dreamstime, poche vendite e poche viste .. bho ho provato a rimettere molte immagini in download gratuito per qualche giorno vedremo se serve. Il sito è lento e ogni tanto zoppica, e ció non aiuta le vendite.

Anche qui qualche vendita “agricola”

Referral code 123RF

StockXpert è stato lasciato in modo definitivo da Photos.com, resta ancora Jupiter ma non so per quanto. Le vendite sono inferiori al mese scorso e non promettono bene, tra l’altro continuano a bocciarmi foto che su iStock accettano e vendono.

Immagine acquistata 2 volte con Pay-per-Download

Su CanStock colpaccio con una vendita su Fotosearch da 19.80$, unica vendita della settimana ma ce ne fossero …

Referral code CanStockPhoto

Su Veer 2 vendite da 60 centesimi, uniche vendite del mese: due cartoline di Natale prese dai files inviati l’anno scorso su Snapvillage

Su Panthermedia ancora niente anche se nella mia bacheca vedo 4 vendite per sottoscrizione con data di ottobre, ma che dicono verranno “contabilizzate” alla fine di questo mese .. oh io sti tedeschi mica li capisco eh .. vendono le foto per corrispondenza tipo catalogo PostalMarket??

Referral code Panthermedia

Crestock si è perso nello StockSpazio …

Referral code Crestock

Statistiche Globali > >

i raccomandati

Frad su Dreamstime

Thestalker su Dreamstime

Saledan su Dreamstime

Famon su Dreamstime

Riccardo su 123RF

Cristina su 123RF

Slowdog su 123RF

Acies su 123RF

Cristina su Shutterstock

Nikoniano su Crestock

Lolloj su Crestock

Jordache su Crestock

Nikon D200, Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 lens, 1/250 sec @ f/11, ISO 100

This weekend I’ve been pushing to edit a bunch of images I have sitting on my computer, most of them back-logged from earlier in the year and I’m finally taking the time to finish them and get caught up with my work. I still have quite a ways to go (more than 300 images still to edit and upload) but hope to have them all done in the next few months. My goal is to have over 5,000 images in my iStockphoto portfolio by the end of December.

This is one set of three images I thought was so cute … I really miss this little girl and her brother! They are the children of my good friend who I knew while I was in the Navy, and they just loved being photographed. (I have a whole collection of their images here in my iStock portfolio.)

Wow, it’s been a busy week, but I thought I’d sneak in at least one blog post before the weekend.

I was notified by iStockphoto about an image of mine in use (the designer submitted it to the “Design Community” section on iStock). They used several photos but it was cool to see that they used one of mine at the very top of the website.

Click here to view the original design, and here to see the design on iStockphoto.com.

© Pdtnc | istockphoto.com

Description:
Stock Photo: New life from Fern leaf, slowly unfirls with selective focus from sweetspot lens.

Keywords:
lensbaby,sweetspot,Focus,Differential Focus,Nobody,Defocussed,Softness,Fern,Leaf,New Life,Life,Freshness,Nature,Flora,Bracken,Green,Horizontal

Also available at one or more of the following excellent stock sites:
www.istockphoto.com/pdtnc
www.shutterstock.com/?rid=59135
www.dreamstime.com/resp131585
www.fotolia.co.uk/p/47653/partner/47653
www.stockxpert.com/?ref=pdtnc
www.bigstockphoto.com/?refid=jqNKkUDsgl
www.canstockphoto.com/?r=16050
www.123rf.com/src_pdtnc
www.yaymicro.com/register.action?referredBy=pdtnc

© Photographer: Pdtnc | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Description:
Stock Photo: Bright eyed white dog looking attentive on grass background.

Keywords:
animal, attentive, black, bright, canine, collar, dog, eyes, grass, green, mouth, nobody, nose, obedient, outdoors, pet, playing, red, tag, toy, white

Also available at one or more of the following excellent stock sites:
www.istockphoto.com/pdtnc
www.shutterstock.com/?rid=59135
www.dreamstime.com/resp131585
www.fotolia.co.uk/p/47653/partner/47653
www.stockxpert.com/?ref=pdtnc
www.bigstockphoto.com/?refid=jqNKkUDsgl
www.canstockphoto.com/?r=16050
www.123rf.com/src_pdtnc
www.yaymicro.com/register.action?referredBy=pdtnc

Well, the last of this years Christmas themed stock imagery at iStockphoto.com is working its way through the queue.  I think the below two series really came out well and can be used for a variety of different holiday related advertising.

The first was created specifically for the iStockphoto Vetta collection, and the editors agreed with that goal on most of the images (so that means there’s some bargain pricing on the rest ).  I spent hours cutting holes and poking Christmas lights through a red velvet background.  I hired local artist Tamara Tungate to do hair and makeup for this series and she did a great job.  I think it turned out really well, with lots of copyspace for designers.

The next Santa Elf series is more “fun” and these images can be used to accompany, say, newspaper ads with a white background.  Or as borders above a website.   We’ve got themes like, “running out of time”, “stacks of gifts” and “money”.  This 20 something year old model does great expressions and really adds energy to this kind of imagery.

So, that will probably do it for new Christmas imagery this year.  I am shooting a big Christmas set up this weekend, but I’m going to be tucking that away for next August .  You can find the above images in the search linked below.  Thanks!

Auf Wunsch von Herrn Frohmann (iStockphoto Europe) wurde der Abschnitt in diesem Beitrag, in welchem ich auf seine Aussagen (abgedruckt in der aktuellen Visuell-Ausgabe 6/2009) eingegangen bin, gelöscht. Er wird dazu in einem Interview auf diesem Blog Stellung nehmen.

(gelöscht)

„Wenn die Menschheit keine Phrasen hätte, brauchte sie keine Waffen. Man muss damit anfangen, sich sprechen zu hören, darüber nachdenken, und alles Verlorene wird sich finden. (…) Jede Gedankenlosigkeit, die man spricht, war einmal ein Gedanke.“

Bekanntlich ist die Uploadprozedur bei Istockphoto sehr umständlich und langwierig im Vergleich zu anderen Agenturen. Ein bisschen Linderung schafft hier Deep Meta, ein Upload- und Verwaltungstool speziell für Istockphoto. Seit ich dieses Programm verwende, konnte ich die Zeit für das Einstellen eines Bildes nahezu halbieren. Inbesondere die wizardbasierte Verschlagwortung und Kategorienzuweisung ist wesentlich besser gelöst als bei der normalen Prozedur auf der Istock Website.

Das Programm ist kostenlos und kann hier heruntergeladen werden

Abgesehen davon warte ich immer noch auf ein ultimatives Tool, das mir einen komfortablen Upload und eine umfassende Verwaltung für die wichtigsten Agenturen bietet. Es gibt zwar den Prostockmaster, aber der hat mich noch nicht so richtig überzeugt… So lange muss es eben mit Excel Tabellen und Deep Meta für Istock gehen

pdtnc © Photographer | Agency: istockphoto.com

Description:
Stock Photo: Close-up of Lichen on rocks shot with sweetspot lens, Lensbaby.
Keywords:
lensbaby,sweetspot,Focus,Differential Focus,Nobody,Defocussed,Softness,Lichen,Litchen,Moss,Fungus,Macro,Close-Up,Grey,Flora,Nature,Rock,Stone

Also available at one or more of the following excellent stock sites:
www.istockphoto.com/pdtnc
www.shutterstock.com/?rid=59135
www.dreamstime.com/resp131585
www.fotolia.co.uk/p/47653/partner/47653
www.stockxpert.com/?ref=pdtnc
www.bigstockphoto.com/?refid=jqNKkUDsgl
www.canstockphoto.com/?r=16050
www.123rf.com/src_pdtnc
www.yaymicro.com/register.action?referredBy=pdtnc

If you are at the grocery store and see a copy of Woman’s World at the check-out, pick it up, turn to page 12 and you might see a familiar face. In August when I was at the iStockphoto “HQ’lypse” event in Calgary I was asked if I would do an interview for the magazine, and of course I said yes. The article was nice (maybe just a little bit corny, lol) and it is definitely strange to see my face in a magazine instead of just one of my photographs.

Olen viimeisen viikon aikana ilokseni huomannut, että parilla kuvalla saa ihmeitä aikaa. Erään toisen yrityksen, jonka palveluja koitan osaltani valmistaa, markkinoinnissa teimme hyviä luonnoksia ajatuksesta, kuinka kertoa palvelusta suhteellisen nopeasti. Pari viikkoa sitten en saanut unta ja suunnittelin raakaversion sarjakuvasta. Tämän idean heitin yhtiökumppaneilleni ja he taas kääntyivät ammattimaisen ihmisen pariin, joka teki meille kolmen kuvastripin jutun, kertoen mistä on kyse. Idea toimi ja jossain vaiheessa ensi vuoden alkua tulemme tämän palvelun kautta julkisuuteen. Siihen mennessä meillä on paljon haasteita edessä, mutta uusi palvelu tulee helpottamaan yritysten, varsinkin tälläisten pienten yritysten, toimintaa. Valitettavasti en ihan vielä voi kertoa, mistä on kyse, mutta ei siihen enää pitkä aika ole kun kerron lisää.

Mutta palataan kuvalliseen viestintään. Maailma on muuttunut reilusti. Ennen kuvien tekeminen oli vain ammattilaisten käsissä, mutta nykyään todella nopeasti visuaalisesti edes keskinkertainen ihminen voi luoda ainakin ihan tyydyttävän ratkaisun omilla työkaluilla. Photoshop on työkalu, jolla perusteet hallitseva ihminen voi luoda näyttäviä kuvia. Samoin maailmassa on paljon paikkoja, josta saa valmiiksi laadukkaita kuvia pientä korvausta vastaan. Nämä kuvat ovat ns. royalty free-kuvia. Kun laitat omalle sivulle tälläisen kuvan, niin kukaan ei voi jälkikäteen tulla vaatimaan sinulta maksua. Itse käytän palvelua nimeltä Istockphoto, joka antaa joka viikko yhden kuvan ilmaiseksi sekä paljon muuta. Sieltä saa myös hienoja kuvia eri tilanteisiin. Eli, jos sinun firmasi miettii ulkoasua esitteeseen tai nettisivulle, niin älä ensimmäiseksi ota sitä toimitusjohtajan pojan näppäämää kuvaa, joka kyllä on ihan laadukas, mutta ei välttämättä sittenkään paras mahdollinen.

Ohessa pari kuvaa  esimerkiksi mitä tarkoitan. Niistä yksi on minun ottama ja toivon sinun huomaavan mikä on ero ammattilaisella ja harrastelijalla. Jos huomaat, niin laita kommentti tänne. Oikeiden arvanneiden kesken arvon yhden mukin omasta verkkokaupastani. Kommentointiaikaa maanantaihin (16.11) kello 14.00 (Suomi) asti.

Haave

Kiitos

Syksy

Linna

My good friend Jake Hellbach wrote an excellent article on the Shutterstock forum about some of the keys to his success in the stock footage business, which you should definitely read.  Besides being extremely talented, Jake is a pretty modest guy.  He really doesn’t like to use the word “successful”, although I think he has been.

The folks at Shutterstock edited his original article a little bit to center on the stock footage industry, but the basic premise that Jake discusses can be used in stock photography or pretty much any “hobby” that you want to monetize.

One thing that I wanted to point out is that while it does make it “easier” to spend the thousands of dollars Jake has on equipment, it doesn’t always make it better.  It’s a short article, so he briefly discusses how important lighting is, but in my experience lighting is pretty much the whole game.  Especially if you don’t have a $3000 camera that makes almost anything look good.  If you are using a camcorder instead of a “Video DSLR”, you are going to run into low-light noise issues.  That’s where having lots of light and proper lighting really helps.

I did a recent shoot in my home studio and I’m spending a lot of time fixing noise issues with dark clothing.  Anything in the image that is light (skin, light colored clothes) looks beautiful, but I didn’t have enough light on the subject to deal with dark clothing.  Lesson learned.  I talked my local library into getting the book “Lighting for Digital Video & Television” by John Jackman.  I highly recommend it, and the library is going to be lucky to get it back from me.

I can tell you from the many, many, many discussions I’ve had with Jake on his techniques and trying to pry details of his shoots out of him (he’s actually very forthcoming), I have learned that Jake plans every shoot as well as he can before any filming actually takes place.  That’s another lesson I learned the hard way this last shoot I did.  I made a shot list beforehand, but I had the talent for 2 hours and I only had about an hour’s worth of ideas on my list.  I lost 15 to 20 minutes during the shoot because I had to stop and think up more stuff for her to do.  In the future, I’ll have a MUCH MUCH longer list that is prioritized on what I really want to accomplish and if everything goes right, we’ll run out of time before we hit the end of the list.

What is not in Jake’s article, but if you were to talk to him he would tell you is that patience is THE most important skill you can have to be truly successful in the Stock Footage game.  If you are just starting out, or you’ve been doing it for a short time, success comes slowly.  Not every clip you produce is going to sell (even if it’s your personal favorite).  In fact, only a small percentage of your portfolio will ever sell even once.  And a tiny percentage will sell on a regular basis.  This business is a numbers game.  The more clips you have online, the better your chance of being seen.

But that doesn’t mean that you can shoot everything you see and uploads hundreds of clips at once to build a large portfolio.  Those days are gone.  Most stock sites are starting to reject clips that are too similar to those already online. Sunsets, time-lapse clouds, time-lapse moonscapes, etc…  Everybody has done it and unless your shot REALLY stands out as unique, it’s gonna get rejected.  It’s a very tired cliche, but “you need to think outside the box” and you need to come up with something new and unique.  Tough to do when everyone has a video camera these days.  But I think Jake’s article touched on something important…

Buyers are looking for a “Cinema Look” on clips.  If you spend time on each clip to color correct it, maybe even do some color grading to make it softer, harder, darker, or some unique artistic look then you’ll have a better chance of standing out in the crowd.  Some sites, like Pond5, will even let you submit the same clip multiple times, but with different artistic looks.  The important thing, however, is uniqueness.  If a buyer searches for “sunset” and your clip is in the middle of thousands of others, it won’t get noticed unless there is something unique and special about it.  So don’t just upload your footage without any kind of artistic touch any more.  Because I already did, Jake already did and so did the hundreds of others who started a long time ago in this business with us.

One last thing for those of you just getting started or who have only been doing this a relatively short time…  Look at the clip count on the home page of each site..  Over 250,000 on Pond5 (congrats, btw), almost 150,000 on Shutterstock, etc…  Your 50 clips, or 100 clips simply aren’t going to stand out in that large of a crowd.  Especially if none of it is unique.  Jake has over 1,700 clips on Pond5 and over 1,000 on the other sites.  So it’s much easier to find his stuff.  That’s where patience comes in…  Until you start getting around the 500 clip mark, don’t get frustrated or depressed because you’re not making $1,000 a month in sales (or even $100 a month).

To paraphrase one of my favorite fish… “Just keep producing, just keep producing, producing, producing”…  As long as you keep producing new stuff your value on each site will grow and you’ll get in front of more buyers and you’ll sell more.

Prendo spunto da un messaggio pubblicato piú di un anno fa sul forum di iStock e inizio a parlare delle parole chiave, lo strumento fondamentale per rendere le proprie foto visibili e quindi acquistabili dai clienti. Ricordiamoci che se la foto é fantastica, ma le parole chiave non sono all’altezza la foto non esprimerá mai tutto il suo potenziale e difficilmente sará venduta molte volte.

Come detto nell’articolo precedente le parole chiave, secondo me, vanno specificate in inglese… quindi oggi prendiamo in considerazione queste tre, che in molti casi possono essere usate tutte assieme, specialmente nel caso di immagini utilizzabili come sfondo:

• background
• copy space
• full frame

Background

La parola background va usata per tutte quelle immagini che sono utilizzabili come sfondo e che quindi non presentano un soggetto principale nella fotografia oppure se lo presentano comunque permettono di essere posizionate dietro a del testo senza disturbarne la composizione. Qualche esempio classico: un muro vuoto, le nuvole nel cielo, delle assi di legno, ecc. Il numero di fotografie ed illustrazioni su iStock con la parola background attualmente sono 613.844. Si tratta sicuramente di una parola molto usata e ricercata. Da sola non ha un grande potenziale, ma se usata in combinazione con gli elementi giusti é un elemento descrittivo fondamentale del vostro portfolio.

Copy space

Tradotto letteralmente “spazio di copia” non ha nessun significato. In realtá va ad indicare tutte quelle fotografie (o illustrazioni) in cui rimane dello spazio libero per inserire del testo o un logo. Ideali in campo pubblicitario. Puó essere un cartello bianco senza nessuna scritta, ma puó essere anche una porzione di cielo al fianco di una modella o lo sfondo nero al di sopra di un oggetto. Le immagini con la parola copy space sono 350.833. La considero una parola chiave fondamentale. Ovviamente tutte le immagini con la parola “background” dovrebbero avere anche la parola “copy space“. Qualche esempio di copy space:

http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-5262364-yoga-style.php

http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-5869121-lcd-tvs.php

Full frame

“Full frame” non sta ad indicare il tipo di sensore della vostra reflex, ma indica il fatto che l’immagine occupa tutto lo spazio della composizione, senza spazi ai lati o negli angoli. É il classico caso di una macro di una foglia o di un gruppo di banconote sparse su un tavolo. Le immagini con la parola “Full Frame” sono solo 32.928. Puó essere un buon strumento per farsi notare.

Qualche esempio di foto “full frame”:

http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-8115093-baked-beans.php http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-11082001-war-headlines.php http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-8584642-water-droplets-on-leaf.php http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-308885-basketball-close.php

Ricordo a tutti che é molto importante un utilizzo corretto delle parole chiave, che non ha nessun senso assegnare alle immagini delle parole chiave non congrue al soggetto perché le immagini saranno rifiutate (fotografi non esclusivi).

foto copyright ThomasVogel/iStockphoto.com

The shores of the Saint-Lawrence at dawn with gazebo

I hit 900 sales today at Istock with the above photograph, and it’s a new record for me since I scored 100 sales at that agency in less than a month. Even more impressive is that I only made 36 sales last year during the same period, so I’ve almost tripled my sales in only one year.

This shot was done in my Charlevoix series last September, it’s a long exposure (25 seconds) as I wanted to smooth out the water. Shot in low light conditions mere minutes after dawn at La Malbaie.  It has almost no retouching except perhaps some cloning over the odd sensor spots in the clouds and a little contrast boost.

iStockalypse giorno 1: la giornata e’ iniziata con un meeting   mattutino con Andreas Gebhard direttore della sezione editoriale del Global Picture Desk di Getty Images a New York City. Siamo 30 fotografi iStock, selezionati uno ad uno, provenienti da tutto il mondo: Usa, UK, Sudafrica, Canada, Germania,  Turchia, Estonia, Romania, Thailandia, Rep. Ceca, Olanda,  Slovenia, Spagna, Pakistan e Italia. Siamo suddivisi in 6 team, ogni team si occupera’ di coprire   giornalmenye alcuni temi differenti nella citta’ di Istanbul. Al termine dei 5 giorni le foto dovranno essere inviate a Getty e saranno inserite nel mercato editoriale.

Il mio team oggi si occupa di documentare i contrasti tra nuovo e tradizionale nel cibo. La mattina l’ho trascorsa realizzando un reportage all’interno di una scuola di cucina turca, il pomeriggio tra i vicoli della citta’ a documentare i mercati e i venditori ambulanti. E’ una sfida, un approccio fotografico completamente nuovo rispetto ad   iStock. I tempi brevinon permettono di interagire con le persone come vorrei e la barriera lingustica e’ difficile da superare. Sorridere sempre, aiuta. Stimolante. Inoltre il fatto di realizzare un lavoro su commissione per Getty mi riempie di orgoglio.

Nella foto il centro di Istanbul di notte, i riflessi dei bar e negozi si specchiano nella strada bagnata (copyright Giorgio Fochesato)

Hanukkah is coming up, and part of the holiday is lighting candles in a menorah for eight nights, starting with the helper candle and a single candle to the side, and ending with a total of 9 on the last night.  Stock photographically speaking, I could upload 8 different images to represent the holiday, each with another lit candle, but here’s a different tact, giving a little more flexibility to the buyer.

I’ve actually uploaded two images.  One with just the helper, and another with the helper and all 8 candles.  In Photoshop, you can make any number of nights you wish.  Check it out.  (By the way, these images will be here and here on iStockphoto.com when active in a day or two.)

So, to do this magic, we start with the two open images, as above.  Select the “move” tool in Photoshop (hotkey: v) Click on the tab of the lower image to make it active.  Hold down the shift key (this will lock it into the same location in the upper image) and click on the lower image itself and draaaaag it into the top image.  Now, since you have both versions in the same workspace, you can close the lower one.   Open your layer editor to see that you have both versions in the same file (hotkey: F7).

You’ve got “Layer 1″ selected (if you don’t, click on it).  Now, create a mask for it.  A mask is an “image” attached to that layer that tells Photoshop which part of the layer is opaque (solid) and which is transparent (see through).  White represents opaque and black means transparent.  Just click on the grey square with the white circle inside at the bottom of the layer editor.  It will make a white rectangle next to the thumnail of “Layer 1″, indicating the entire image is opaque.

Also, notice the extra black border around the white rectangle?  That means it is selected, and any painting we do now will go into that “image” to define opacity for the full menorah.  You can only paint in this layer in black and white, because you only need black, white and grey to define opacity.

What we will do is use the selection tool to draw a selection around the candles that we want to get rid of.  For example, we want an image representing 4 nights of Hanukkah (be sure to remove the ones from the left because you put candles in from right to left as the nights go on).   So, draw a box around the leftmost 4 candles.

Now, all you have to do, is fill (hotkey: Shift F5) the area with black to reveal the empty menorah that is stacked below the full one in the layer editor.

You can see we now have a perfect image representing four nights of Hanukkah.  In the layer editor, you can also see the black area in the opacity mask which reveals the empty menorah below.  So, basically, you get nine images for the price of two, for a few minutes of work.

Opacity masks are used all the time in Photoshop, but this is a very specialized example.  Hope this was useful to you.

Dank eines wieder einmal sehr starken Fotolia-Umsatzes war der Oktober 09 für mich mein persönlicher Rekordmonat bisher.

Bildagentur Einnahmen Oktober

É il momento di scaricare i file gratuiti da iStockphoto.com per il mese di novembre.

Ogni mese infatti é possibile scaricare gratuitamente una nuova illustrazione vettoriale, un file audio e un video in formato HD.

Mentre ogni settimana é possibile scaricare gratis una fotografia in alta risoluzione.

Come fare?

Per scaricare i file gratuiti da iStock é sufficente essere registrati e cliccare sui seguenti link:

• immagine della settimana (é anche la foto di questo articolo)
• illustrazione del mese
• video del mese
• traccia audio del mese (che consiglio a tutti essendo una versione gratuita di Jingle Bells, ideale per il Natale in arrivo…)

Inoltre consiglio di dare un’occhiata all’archivio completo di tutti i file gratuiti, con le fotografie delle ultime tre settimane.

foto copyright sandsun/iStockphoto.com

A few weeks ago, one of my iStock buddies, Thomas_EyeDesign, asked me to do an interview for his blog about my stock photography work.  In case you missed it, and are interested , you can find it here: http://eyedesign9.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/sean-locke-interview/

Along the path to where it is today, iStockphoto found, that by educating buyers and contributors on topics related to design and photography, they could increase both the quality of the content offered, and the knowledge of the buyers to use and appreciate said content.  There are a lot of good articles in their database, but here are a couple of my favorites.

1. Tips on Lighting And Isolated Shots – One of the classic articles, oft pointed to in the forums when discussing how to do the infamous “isolated on white” shot.  Good for designers because it gives a basic overview on what “white” means to a camera
2. Know Your Type – A good primer on typography, written by an outside company.  Good illustrative graphics accompany the text.
3. A Very Important Message For Everyone at iStockphoto – Founder Bruce Livingstone announces the sale of iStockphoto to Getty Images.
4. “K” is for Tags? – Buyers often run into roadblocks when searching the image database.  This article explains how the controlled vocabulary system works.
5. I Resolve to be More Resolute – Answers the hows and whys of dpi.  Why pixel resolution is what really matters on the front end and the final use is what you make from that.  A definite “must read” for newbie buyers.
6. Evolving Intellectual Property Standards at iStockphoto, pt. 2 – This series addressed concerns of what content is safe to portray in commercial royalty free imagery for sale.  This article was heavily read because it addressed some popular topics – NASA imagery, autos and especially the use of model releases.
7. Any of the “Points and Paths” articles about vector creation.  I’m just a beginner when it comes to illustrations, and these how-to’s can benefit everyone, from creators to integrators.  Like “RGB CMYK Q&A“, “Layout, Cutout, Knockout” and “Develop a Personal Palette“.  Even if you don’t use the software, it’s neat to see how the magic is done.
8. Top 5 License Faux Pas – This article echos a lot of what I’ve written in my blog about safe and correct ways for the buyer to use their licensed files, but it’s nice to get it straight from the officials.

Ok, that was 8.  Not 5.  But a catchy title does not an exact list make… There’s a lot more in the article morgue, so page back and check them out.  Some from a few years back are timeless, and some are tired, but there’s probably a little something about everything you didn’t know in there.