Alamy - The Challenge - DPChallenge Forums

11/13/2005 05:24:21 PM · #501

Originally posted by leaf:

Right now i am standing on thin ice with everything only in one spot. I DID buy an external hard drive to back everything up, but now that and my computer are both nearly full of only one copy of anything... need to start backing stuff up. :S

Externals drives are only as good as you use them, and backups are best done on a regular basis and kept in another location (i.e. your office).

Thats in a perfect world.

In the real world ppl rarely do this. I realized a long time ago that unless I automated the procedure to make it really easy, I would never do it. And I had to lose a bunch of work to figure this out.

So now I run at least two physical drives in my system and do simple batch copy backups from one drive to the other in between "real" backups to an external drive.

nico_blue

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

11/18/2005 04:45:34 PM · #502

I PASSED QUALITY CONTROL!!!! wooohoooo!!!!!!!!!

*jumps up and down*

*starts planning next cd to send in*

Message edited by author 2005-11-18 16:46:23.

idnic

Canon EOS-60D

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

11/18/2005 05:32:34 PM · #503

Way to go Nico!! Congrats! :D

I'm still waiting...

11/18/2005 05:56:22 PM · #504

Originally posted by Mary Ann Melton:

No editing has nothing to do with photo post processing. They go through your images to check to make sure that the quality of the image is up to their standards. If you do poor post processing, they will reject photos for that. They are getting ready to limit "similars (those different views of the same subject". However, they don't go through the images you submit and choose which ones - you are expected to edit your own work. As long as your image quality meets their standards - they let you submit the subject matter you wish. You are not having to submit your photos to an editorial board who might only choose one or two of your shots.

Thanks for the reply, Mary Ann!

I'm hoping to get some things together while I'm off next week.

Thanks again!

11/19/2005 01:28:36 AM · #505

Congrats Nico :)

Just a word of warning to you and all the other submitters... be careful of your monitors profiling (or lack of it) as you process your images.

The brightness on my monitor got jacked up way higher than normal and I didn't realize it until after I had processed and shipped a DVD with 75 images on it. Now Alamy will be getting 75 very dark images of mine in their mail one day soon.

I already contacted them. Seems the best thing to do at this point is to let them get through quality control, and deal with them as they become available for me to edit and keyword, etc....

Tomorrow I buy a spyder, and I'll start shopping for a decent monitor while I'm out. I'm looking for a 19" NEC FE991 or 992... anyone ever used one of these?

11/19/2005 02:01:47 AM · #506

Originally posted by mcmurma:

I'm looking at the lacie 319. It seems to be pretty good.

John White

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

11/19/2005 02:31:40 AM · #507

Great agency. I have 800 odd photos on Alamy. Many of my sales are from a Canon G2 three years ago upsized to 50MB images. Sales to 9 different countries (at last count) so worth the effort. Another site I had a bit of success with is photographer direct. Lets hope every one keeps away from the sites that gives away images for very small amounts as I can see it having quite an impact on the income of all photographers. I look at some of the amazing photos on the micro sites and just wish the photographers would take them off and submit to the mainstream agencies and earn what their photography is worth.
Now waiting for the flames!!!

Message edited by author 2005-11-19 02:39:05.

11/19/2005 02:55:19 AM · #508

Originally posted by Brent_Ward:

I'm looking at the lacie 319. It seems to be pretty good.

Looks very good. Also way out of my price range right now. Besides, if I had that kind of dough to throw at it I would buy a Sony Artisan and be done with it :)

11/19/2005 03:08:35 AM · #509

Originally posted by John White:

.... Lets hope every one keeps away from the sites that gives away images for very small amounts as I can see it having quite an impact on the income of all photographers. I look at some of the amazing photos on the micro sites and just wish the photographers would take them off and submit to the mainstream agencies and earn what their photography is worth.
Now waiting for the flames!!!

Sorry John, but I think you're mostly preachin' to the choir on this thread. Even those in here that do microstock seem to accept that mainstream is probably the way to go. The payoff from microstock is good for many (folks can make some sales and turn a dollar pretty quick) and until the payoffs from the mainstreams start meeting and exceeding what they are making with micro... hell, I'd be skeptical too!

11/19/2005 03:17:07 AM · #510

Originally posted by mcmurma:

Originally posted by Brent_Ward:

I'm looking at the lacie 319. It seems to be pretty good.

Looks very good. Also way out of my price range right now. Besides, if I had that kind of dough to throw at it I would buy a Sony Artisan and be done with it :)

I don't think they make those anymore.

Carl Zeiss 35mm f2.4 Jena/Flektogon MC

11/19/2005 03:32:07 AM · #511

Originally posted by Brent_Ward:

Originally posted by mcmurma:

Originally posted by Brent_Ward:

I'm looking at the lacie 319. It seems to be pretty good.

Looks very good. Also way out of my price range right now. Besides, if I had that kind of dough to throw at it I would buy a Sony Artisan and be done with it :)

I don't think they make those anymore.

You may be right. It's getting harder every day to find any CRT, much less a good one. LCD's have become the norm for new purchases.

Uusilehto

Canon EOS-1D

11/19/2005 03:35:14 AM · #512

Eep.. Just looked at some of my school book and half of them have most of their images from Getty Images, Stockbyte, Istockphoto, Shutterstock and such..

And damn, the images suck. The whole english book is full of blurry shots with messed up white balance and whatnot.

And why did LaCie stop making CRTs? In my opinion, CRT monitors are somewhat superior to LCDs..

Message edited by author 2005-11-19 03:36:24.

11/19/2005 03:36:00 AM · #513

Originally posted by mcmurma:

Originally posted by Brent_Ward:

Originally posted by mcmurma:

Originally posted by Brent_Ward:

I'm looking at the lacie 319. It seems to be pretty good.

Looks very good. Also way out of my price range right now. Besides, if I had that kind of dough to throw at it I would buy a Sony Artisan and be done with it :)

I don't think they make those anymore.

You may be right. It's getting harder every day to find any CRT, much less a good one. LCD's have become the norm for new purchases.

That's no kidding. Tonight I was going to bid on a year old lacie 22" CRT. Brand new it went for $924. It sold for $910.!!! I was amazed to say the least.

leaf

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

11/19/2005 05:46:44 AM · #514

Originally posted by Uusilehto:

In LaCie's opinion lcds are better.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

11/19/2005 09:32:57 AM · #515

Originally posted by John White:

I look at some of the amazing photos on the micro sites and just wish the photographers would take them off and submit to the mainstream agencies and earn what their photography is worth.

I did. They were rejected for being too small/excessive upsizing, as I expected. No matter how amazing the subject, classic the composition, or perfect the exposure, if it comes from one of my cameras it's only work $0.23 -- not much I can do about that.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

11/19/2005 09:35:46 AM · #516

Originally posted by leaf:

Originally posted by Uusilehto:
And why did LaCie stop making CRTs? In my opinion, CRT monitors are somewhat superior to LCDs..

In LaCie's opinion lcds are better.

I'm another LaCie customer who prefers the CRTs. But they're huge and heavy and toxic.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

11/19/2005 02:54:03 PM · #517

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by leaf:

Originally posted by Uusilehto:
And why did LaCie stop making CRTs? In my opinion, CRT monitors are somewhat superior to LCDs..

In LaCie's opinion lcds are better.

I'm another LaCie customer who prefers the CRTs. But they're huge and heavy and toxic.

The LCD's are said to be at least equal, if not better. Bu tI just found out the NEC makes the 321 for them, it seems they just rebrand it for $300 more.

riot

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

Helios 40-1 85mm f/1.5

11/21/2005 11:27:32 AM · #518

Just got notified that i made my first sale today... this image:

I'm very happy, this is the first bit of "real" money i've made with my photography - $365.00.

Just goes to show, there's hope for us all!

dswebb

Canon EOS-20D

11/21/2005 12:32:48 PM · #519

Congratulations!

11/22/2005 11:17:07 AM · #520

Wow, that's great. Even more motivation that I need to get some pics sent in! Thank you.

11/22/2005 11:40:13 AM · #521

I played with one image. Would you say this quality is up to par after upsizing?

This is what the original looked like, though web size.

100% crop of original before upsizing.

100% crop of original TIFF after upsizing.

To me, the two 100% crops look the same, meaning no noticeable loss. Are these acceptable to Alamy, do you think?

Thanks for any input.

Message edited by author 2005-11-22 11:40:44.

leaf

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

11/22/2005 11:59:25 AM · #522

well if it is a true 100% crop then the upsized one should be a LOT larger.. however perhaps you just cropped the 'same' amount... even though it contain more pixels than an actual 100% crop.

but otherwise, yeah, they look good

11/22/2005 12:16:28 PM · #523

Originally posted by leaf:

Oops, my bad! I didn't realize my crop tool was set on 72. Could you have another look?

Thank you!

11/22/2005 01:33:17 PM · #524

ButterflySis, your images are way more than sharp enough. But once you get the DPI up to 300 and the file size to about 50mb your photos should start to look fuzzy. This is not a problem, and even leaves a bit of room for cropping if the original is very sharp.

I sent several upsized 3mp images from my powershot s30 to Alamy in my initial submission, and they accepted them all. These images my have been walking the thin line, and I have to wonder what kind of review they put these images through before accepting them....

Message edited by author 2005-11-22 13:35:10.