One of the things I like about the microstock world is the openness and helpfulness of everyone. Now I just saw this, a video post from Yuri Arcurs about how he shoots. It appears that this is the first of what is going to be a series of posts. If you don’t know who Yuri is, you will, if you’re at all involved in microstock photography.
Allen
Didn’t do as poorly as what I had thought this month. Only loaded a couple images into ShutterStock and IStockphoto. My computer is currently getting rebuilt so that hasn’t been very helpful either. Hopefully I didn’t lose many pictures.
| Site | Portfolio Size | Downloads | Earnings | Comments |
| Fotolia | 148 | 5 | $8.85 | Sold another EL accounting for $6.60 of the total |
| IStockPhoto | 86 | 5 | $7.48 | |
| Crestock | 21 | 0 | $0.00 | Still nothing, Didn’t even try to get my portfolio sized increased in Sept |
| ShutterStock | 85 | 13 | $3.25 | Added the 10 new photos at the beginning of the month but nothing since |
| Stockxpert |
107 | 4 | $0.60 | |
| Dreamstime | 34 | 1 | $1.78 | |
| 123RF | 121 | 1 | $1.29 | |
| Totals | Avg.86 | 29 | $23.25 |
Here’s a couple other blogs I follow that report their earnings:
Microstock Diaries
Nil to Mil
Pixels Away
Captured Little Moments
Allen
I just finished an interesting article describing the differences in shooting between JPG and RAW files which gives the pros and cons of each type. I actually decided soon after I got a camera that could shoot in RAW, that it was the way I wanted to do most of my shooting. I like the fact that all the data is stored and so much manipulation can be done after the fact if the data is there. With JPG so much information is lost as well as introducing artifacting I just don’t use it until the final step of editting.
I use Photoshop Elements currently as my editing tool which does everything I need right now. Although I would like to move up to a higher end product at some point. Elements does have the ablity to export lots of files to various file formats, like LightRoom, which is nice. I can do all my editing then just go to organizer and select all the finished photos and export them to JPG files. The ability of LightRoom to apply standard edits to groups of files would be real nice. I don’t do big enough batches right now to warrent something like that but as I increase my microstock shooting I can see the appeal.
The digital negative format is nice for longevity of the file format. I can understand the desire for something like this but don’t see a lot of photographers adobting it in a hurry. It’s just an extra step required in most post processes that people probably wont do. Now if/when Nikon or Canon, etc comes out and says they’re dropping support for a particular RAW format there may be a rush of people converting files to it. I know I’ll be looking into it if/when I see waning support for the Nikon D80 RAW format from Nikon and/or Adobe.
I don’t know if any cameras save straight to the DNG format yet or not. Not sure if camera makers would really want to do that, their proprietary RAW formats are one of the things that seperate them from on another. It still would be a nice option.
Allen
Buy, sell and create high end framed art at Imagekind.com.
I have recently begun to make some of my photography prints available for purchase on ImageKind.com. Most prints are available in sizes from 10 x 6.7 to 36 x 24. There is a selection of 6 different paper types for the prints as well as many custom framing and mat options. You can order the image and have it ready to hang on the wall as soon as you option the package (well, you might need to add hangers to the back of it). The mats and frames are wonderful options to get a stunning piece of artwork right out of the box.
For the ulitmate piece of of artwork they offer printing on canvas that can also be custom framed. Or they offer a gallery wrap for the canvas is you are interested.
Cards are available for as low as $2.29 / card in packs of 24.
If you are interested in selling some of your own prints or just getting some of your own images made into high end prints they have several levels of accounts available.
Watch my portfolio for new additions coming soon.
Allen
