I disagree...It wouldn't be viable for them to send $1.50 cheques to anybody that uploaded a few pictures, then asked for their payout.
Most stockphoto sites like this have the same threshold for sending out earnings to photographers. I think it makes sense for the sake of cost effectiveness and incentive for photographers to 'stick around' and keep uploading photos...
I was able to upload photos tonight using the alternate to the activex method. I did get booted off the internet a couple of times while uploading, but not sure if the problem was on my end or the internet end. Anyway, just wanted to say the other way did work eventually. Hope they get appoved after all this:)
I tried to upload 40MB worth of images with the fancy method...I'm on dial-up, so this would have been a four hour task so I submitted and left for the evening.
I just got back and I got booted as well, so it looks like none of my images made it!
The ActiveX component is only 130kb! (less than a MB)
We are going to look into massive transfers over the AX -- but i would start off uploading 5-10MB at a time... we are getting lots of images this way - and it seems to work..
We haven't tested huge amounts of files - like 40MB.
Understood - but the whole point of a mass uploader is for me to do 50 and walk away. :) I don't want to have to 'browse' 50 images. That manual way is the suck.
So what is the earning potential of using sites like ShutterStock.com? Is it worth the effort? How much royalty do most people make a month using them?
I just checked back and all of the four I uploaded have been approved:) That was really fast, especially at this time of night! I will definately be uploading more.
I'm thinking I should uninstall that program since I will be uploading the non-active x way - does anyone know under "programs" what it would be called so I can uninstall it? I can't seem to find it - unless maybe that was the problem to begin with that it didn't really download. Thanks in advance - I'll be signing off for the night:)
I emailed a couple of questions but haven't heard back yet ...
When you say "no embedded copyright" do you mean only visible notices on the image, or what shows up in the title bar if you fill out Photoshop's "File Info" fields?
How can you upload the model releases electronically?
Pretty cool site. One problem is the login and payment information page is not SSL protected. Your info can be easily intercepted if you submit any payment info using this page. :( Bad news.
EDIT: I take it back, it's only the images at the top of the subscription page that are not secure. The rest is. Might confuse users but it's an easy fix.
I've only uploaded one photo there. It only took a couple of hours for approval.
One thing I find odd though is that you have to register twice if you want to both submit and participate in the forums or any other part of the site. I guess that's one way to keep designers and photographers separate.
I got one rejected for no model release as well. It's the BACK of someone's head. There is NO WAY I need a model release for this shot. Wtf. I think I'm done with people shots. Too much headache for stock.
@Shutterstock -- Model releases are only needed when a person is "clearly identifiable." Tell your inspectors. Please.
I am apparently very clueless about stock photography. I doesn't seem like 20 cents an image is very much. What am I missing? I know this is how people end up making money in fotog but i would need to sell a heck of a lot of them at those rates.... someone please explain : )
thx
You don't make a living at it, but it's money you didn't have before. Using my own totals and estimating, if you had 1000 stock photos on Istock for a year at my download rates (probably very low) - you would end up with approximately $1400 US a year. That's a new 20D body for some of us, an L lens for others. Istock is non-exclusive, like Shutterstock, so you could theoretically put those same 1000 images up on 4 or 5 sites and make 5000 or 6000 for the year. :) With images that are still yours to do with what you want - as opposed to Corbis, AgeFoto, etc.
