DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register
 

DPChallenge Forums >> Stock Photography >> Jeez, sure took long enough...
Pages:  
Showing posts 1 - 19 of 19, (reverse)
AuthorThread
12/10/2014 06:30:42 PM · #1
...but finally, FINALLY got a royalty cheque from Alamy, which I joined a few years ago after making it in the first time round. I had sold the same pic a couple times over as the publisher renewed rights to continue using it. But Alamy won't pay out til you reach a certain threshold.

Seem that some pics brought in about $275 USD for them, of which I get a whopping - don't hold your breath! - $122 USD!! Woohoo! Set off the fireworks!

*eyeroll*

Even funnier, the images that sold recently (I didn't even know they HAD sold til I got the royalty statement) are of two fairly yucky subjects...a banana slug, and a bug on a leaf. So much for all those cute shots of deer in the woods etc!!

Just thought I'd share. Nothin else remotely exciting enough to report on.
12/10/2014 07:06:26 PM · #2
Congrats.

Side note, how do you prep your images for stock, processing wise?
12/10/2014 08:09:54 PM · #3
Awesome! Even if it's not much, It's still something! :D
12/10/2014 08:33:54 PM · #4
Yeh, what Cory said.
12/10/2014 09:35:01 PM · #5
Congratulations! I signed up with Alamy when they first showed up here, then they went and made my camera "unacceptable" for submissions.

You should sign up for MicroStock (if you haven't already) so you can enjoy the daily excitement of a few $0.33 downloads, with the occasional $2.50 or $15 download to keep you interested. ;-)

If you haven't signed up at Shutterstock and want to, use
this link ...
12/10/2014 10:41:59 PM · #6
Originally posted by snaffles:

I get a whopping - don't hold your breath! - $122 USD!! Woohoo! Set off the fireworks!

*eyeroll*


I'll take it if you don't want it!! ;)
12/11/2014 01:09:01 AM · #7
Way to go, Susan. That's $122 more than the sum total I have made from photography. Congrats.

Message edited by author 2014-12-11 01:09:49.
12/11/2014 09:46:21 AM · #8
they did all the marketing of your images, seems fair.
12/11/2014 06:53:09 PM · #9
Originally posted by MadMan2k:

Congrats.

Side note, how do you prep your images for stock, processing wise?


To be honest, in terms of actual pp, nothing more than Advanced editing in PS cause my Expert PS skills are crap...sorry, not crap, just plain nonexistent!

In terms of final-stage stuff they very, very strongly discourage sharpening. In terms of file size and requirements - they have (or had, it's been a year or more since I last uploaded anything) a list of 25 potential reasons, most of them technical, on which they can reject any image if it has just one hint of any of these 25 flaws.

So, say you upload 10 images and 9 are absolutely perfect...but the 10th has, say a little chromatic aberration...adios to all 10!!! Of course you can fix the errors in the image needing it, and re-upload the whole 10 again in a queue and see what happens.

Best to visit alamy.com yourself for more info if you're interested.

@ GeneralE...I did some microstock stuff through Fotolia but never got a single penny from the images I sold, just *credits* which I could apply towards purchasing images on the site...
12/11/2014 07:37:20 PM · #10
I've had much better results at Shutterstock -- I only have a couple of hundred pictures up (and many are abstract borders and stuff), and not that many are that great, but I have a couple which get pretty consistent downloads ... over many years I've made over $1000. They have a variety of purchasing models, so many downloads are (like I said) mere cents, but every so often there is a sale for up to $20 or so (for the same image!). AFAIK Shutterstock will give you a cash (PayPal) payout when your royalties accrue to $100. I you decide to try them, use my link, and I'll get a 2-cent commission for each of your downloads for a while ....
12/11/2014 08:14:28 PM · #11
I have accounts at alamy and shutter stock and have sold a total of like 90 bucks over the past 4 years, but all the photos I've recently submitted were rejected (probably because I messed with them too much in post, I'll probably resize to their minimum file size (to make it look sharper) and other than that send it SOOC
12/12/2014 08:24:48 AM · #12
Originally posted by MadMan2k:

I have accounts at alamy and shutter stock and have sold a total of like 90 bucks over the past 4 years, but all the photos I've recently submitted were rejected (probably because I messed with them too much in post, I'll probably resize to their minimum file size (to make it look sharper) and other than that send it SOOC


SOOC? What dat? And if Alamy rejects images they're usually pretty good about telling you why.

@ GeneralE...Alamy pays out when I think you hit $75 in sales, and they also paid me through Paypal.
12/12/2014 09:48:02 AM · #13
Straight out of camera.

Some of them included street signs and apparently those are copyrighted? rejected for that. Unfortunately one of my panoramas was rejected for having too much noise or something, but I shot it at like ISO 400 but I think it's because I brightened the shadows too much, maybe if I sent a less processed one they'll take it.

Seems like a panorama of San Diego shot from Point Loma would do pretty well sales-wise but it might be a common one.
12/12/2014 11:00:03 AM · #14
Originally posted by MadMan2k:

Seems like a panorama of San Diego shot from Point Loma would do pretty well sales-wise but it might be a common one.

Super-common :-) I got one hanging over my work table reminding me of what used to be home, with snow on all the mountains in the background for that exotic touch :-)
12/12/2014 06:17:43 PM · #15
Oh so SOOC is just another way of saying SFTC ...gotcha...;-)

From my microstock days, we were basically told to not bother submitting sunsets/sunrises, pictures of clouds etc as they have pretty much all been done to death. I don't recall Alamy having any similar lists of images they would turn down based only on subject matter (except stuff like copyrighted material) but they did have a list up of themes that were currently hot. Like lifestyle shots of various demographic groups. But then of course you need model releases etc.

Message edited by author 2014-12-12 18:18:49.
12/12/2014 08:54:42 PM · #16
Originally posted by snaffles:

From my microstock days, we were basically told to not bother submitting sunsets/sunrises, pictures of clouds etc as they have pretty much all been done to death.

Or flowers, or doggies, or ... when stock agencies have multiple millions of images on file practically everything has been done to death ...

That said, one of my sunset pictures (got it in early!) was downloaded just a few days ago ... :-)
12/13/2014 09:53:11 AM · #17
Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by snaffles:

From my microstock days, we were basically told to not bother submitting sunsets/sunrises, pictures of clouds etc as they have pretty much all been done to death.

Or flowers, or doggies, or ... when stock agencies have multiple millions of images on file practically everything has been done to death ...

That said, one of my sunset pictures (got it in early!) was downloaded just a few days ago ... :-)


True, Murphy's Law will always find a way :-)

I think that before I uploaded my yucky pics of the bug and the slug, I did do a search on Alamy to see how many of those images were already up...and there weren't and probably still aren't many!
12/13/2014 11:07:43 AM · #18


one of my most downloaded image recently. Last month 7 times.

Edit: I don't make money with miscrostock. I used to earn nicely from referrals but they changed the rules and all refs older then 2 years were cut. However big part of my equipment WAS made with microstock and the respective referrals.

Message edited by author 2014-12-13 11:09:55.
12/18/2014 07:32:22 PM · #19
snaffles, Congratulations on the payout from Alamy.

Tiberius, I feel with you! This rule change for referrals at Shutterstock took a big bite out my income too.
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 03/28/2024 09:40:52 PM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Prints! - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2024 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 03/28/2024 09:40:52 PM EDT.