Stock Photography


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visualise

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Jul 1, 2007
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www.visualise.tv
Hi I've just setup a Singapore-based stock photography website it's called PhotoStocked.com

I know quite a lot of you here have been actively submitting photographs to the major stock photography sites out there.

We're still customising the site before launching it officially. I would appreciate feedback on the structure, user friendliness etc of this site and how it compares to others.

Thank you.
 

Hi I've just setup a Singapore-based stock photography website it's called PhotoStocked.com

I know quite a lot of you here have been actively submitting photographs to the major stock photography sites out there.

We're still customising the site before launching it officially. I would appreciate feedback on the structure, user friendliness etc of this site and how it compares to others.

Thank you.

Any photo ID should do. There are age requirements as well as verifications to ensure that there is a legitimate transaction.

There is a local website that does not require photo ID. It's registered under a Singapore company. Photostocked.com is in its initial stage, do comment on the site, feedback and constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you.

I uploaded one batch to photostocked, and to be honest, its hugely flawed.

Major issues:
1. Your server does not strip out all metadata, it misses titles and descriptions which your staff seem to fill in during the review process. If you ever reach high volume you will not have the resources to do this.
2. Model release forms have to be emailed to you guys?! This is not a very efficient way of doing things and would suggest an upload tool on site rather than via email.
3. There seems to be no actual review process? All files just went straight online? This is poor quality control and will get you guys nowhere, people will just go to the major sites for quality images unless your doing some kind of major promoting, and all ive heard about you guys is through clubsnap, which has an extremely small stock community.
4. Heavy sharpening is applied to the photos and makes properly taken photos look poor on site, almost pixelated they are so sharp! Again, not the way to do it.
5. The batch upload tool is ok, but would much rather prefer FTP. Its much easier for uploading.

How are you guys going to differentiate yourselves from the major players like iStock, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, StockXpert, 123 Royalty Free etc etc etc, the list really does go on.

Hope this helps you out a little bit.
 

I uploaded one batch to photostocked, and to be honest, its hugely flawed.

Major issues:
1. Your server does not strip out all metadata, it misses titles and descriptions which your staff seem to fill in during the review process. If you ever reach high volume you will not have the resources to do this.
2. Model release forms have to be emailed to you guys?! This is not a very efficient way of doing things and would suggest an upload tool on site rather than via email.
3. There seems to be no actual review process? All files just went straight online? This is poor quality control and will get you guys nowhere, people will just go to the major sites for quality images unless your doing some kind of major promoting, and all ive heard about you guys is through clubsnap, which has an extremely small stock community.
4. Heavy sharpening is applied to the photos and makes properly taken photos look poor on site, almost pixelated they are so sharp! Again, not the way to do it.
5. The batch upload tool is ok, but would much rather prefer FTP. Its much easier for uploading.

How are you guys going to differentiate yourselves from the major players like iStock, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, StockXpert, 123 Royalty Free etc etc etc, the list really does go on.

Hope this helps you out a little bit.

coming from an experienced stock photographer! better take the feedback seriously
 

Congratulations!

I find surfing PhotoStocked.com is a better experience than the sluggish Corbis' SnapVillage. :)

Keywording is something you have to look into as highlighted by wildstallion. It is a skill not everyone can do well in it. Many major stock agencies have full-time specialist keyworders who are assisted with keywording software.

Commercially probably aiming to be a niche market and specialised online stock agency rather than a jack-of-all-trade general stock sites which are too many. Have a look at www.asiapix.com. Stock photographers are now picky about only spending their time with those that can bring in the $.
 

Hi Wildstallion

Thanks for the feedback. let me address them one by one.

Major issues:
1. Your server does not strip out all metadata, it misses titles and descriptions which your staff seem to fill in during the review process. If you ever reach high volume you will not have the resources to do this.

I've looked at your uploads, the server didn't miss out anything...we didn't fill in any extra stuff for you at all...however if the photographer is inexperienced and didn't include certain categories and keywords, we will help to fill that in

2. Model release forms have to be emailed to you guys?! This is not a very efficient way of doing things and would suggest an upload tool on site rather than via email.

I have changed this system. You can upload the model release form together with the photos as a jpg, and we will file it for future reference. Would this be convenient enough?

3. There seems to be no actual review process? All files just went straight online? This is poor quality control and will get you guys nowhere, people will just go to the major sites for quality images unless your doing some kind of major promoting, and all ive heard about you guys is through clubsnap, which has an extremely small stock community.

There is a review process. Perhaps it just happened that I was online at the time and approved your photos almost immediately. It seems I am spending half my life online! :) We are promoting the site through Facebook advertising as well as other websites, and also Google Adwords later on. Currently we are still signing up photographers, and we intend to launch officially in 2-3 months' time.

4. Heavy sharpening is applied to the photos and makes properly taken photos look poor on site, almost pixelated they are so sharp! Again, not the way to do it.

I see what you mean. The thumbnails are generated automatically and the logo to protect the image is also automatically applied. Most of the uploads do look ok though. We'll look into this...

5. The batch upload tool is ok, but would much rather prefer FTP. Its much easier for uploading.

There are FTP issues such as security. The batch upload tool is basically the same as FTP - you can just drag and drop without the need for an external FTP program.

How are you guys going to differentiate yourselves from the major players like iStock, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, StockXpert, 123 Royalty Free etc etc etc, the list really does go on.

Hope this helps you out a little bit.

We are looking to provide more localised Asia stock photos. In terms of quantity there is no way that we can fight with the major players, but we hope to build a community that comes together beyond stock photography - by having events, a Facebook group, monthly photo contests etc. These are all the the planning stage right now.

Thanks a lot for the feedback it has been very useful. All the best.

regards

Isaiah
 

Congratulations!

I find surfing PhotoStocked.com is a better experience than the sluggish Corbis' SnapVillage. :)

Keywording is something you have to look into as highlighted by wildstallion. It is a skill not everyone can do well in it. Many major stock agencies have full-time specialist keyworders who are assisted with keywording software.

Commercially probably aiming to be a niche market and specialised online stock agency rather than a jack-of-all-trade general stock sites which are too many. Have a look at www.asiapix.com. Stock photographers are now picky about only spending their time with those that can bring in the $.

Thank you Sion. Keywording is definitely an important part of any stock photo website. We will keep that in mind.

Asia stock photography is definitely one of the key niche markets for us. Besides this, we have been actively promoting the site in Facebook, and we hope to utilise new technologies and avenues to promote the site.

Thanks again for the thoughts. :cool:
 

Ok, Ive been uploading for years, I know how to enter metadata and titles and descriptions for that batch came up on all the other sites I uploaded to but not at yours. Weird! The great thing about FTP (for us) is that we can have the same batch and keep uploading it with one click to all our different sites, which makes it much much easier compared to selecting and dragging on the internet. Thanks for clearing up the other things though :thumbsup:
 

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