Great work Andrew! Your video is simple, honest and with real valuable information for those who want to start as a stock photographer. I see a lot of video on youtube but they're so focused in making a lot of money on youtube than actually providing you a good content!
Very interesting Andrew, I am a contributor on Alamy since 2015. A fun fact is shots I specifically targeted at sector sometimes won't sell but shots I dun expect to sell is sold. Very informative video you created and something for me to learn from your wise experience.
I didn't think about the issue of people being in an editorial photo. Some of my photos are general street scenes. I'm currently in Hong Kong for a week shooting stock and relaxing! It's so busy here most of the street stuff has people in lol
Poor guy, trapped in plastic AND in public :) I got 12 sales in 2023 so far, with port of 1500 images. My protest/demonstration/hot news photos are also not selling on Alamy (and I have to say I have some exclusive ones). Have you tried to get accepted for News or Reportage on Alamy? I guess I would have to have press card and work with some media to make any money from that content. Anyway, thank you for the long-awaited vidoe Andrew, it was really informative.
One of my biggest fears, is to be trapped in public, 🙂. Your 2023 is not going too badly at all with Alamy. I have uploaded pics that are marked as news in the categories and also uploaded protest pics with mixed results. I always find it hard to make stock if i'm doing a specific editorial assignment shoot for a magazine or publication. Press cards are handy but it can be complicated with regard to what you can use for stock and what you can't. Requires a few hundred words that answer.
Stock shooting is a *_numbers game_* these days... having a few hundred (or even a few _thousand_ images) in an agency isn't enough anymore. Tens of thousands - or hundreds of thousands - of images may be required to generate regular worthwhile returns. And remember that all agencies take a sizable commission on your sales, often upwards of 50 percent. In addition, although the internet is accessible worldwide in theory, many agencies do not _sell_ (have clients) in all geographic areas or markets. In such instances, they may appoint a local distributor (partnership) to handle sales in those places. If the distributor makes a sale for you, they _also_ get a percentage of your revenue, and then the photographer is receiving well below 50 percent of any sales figures.
exactly. they pay peanuts for your effort and make a nice buck with the commissions and the buyer also often making nice profits with it. Better of printing it to frame or on tshirt and sell it yourself
Thanks for the tips Andrew. It took me a good year before I made my first sale on Alamy and was pretty disheartened by then. After that, sales trickled in every few months or so. It gave me the incentive to upload more to Alamy. Now I have 1910 images there with regular monthly sales. My sales seem to be split evenly between editorial and commercial. As to the news story suggestions from Alamy, it reminded me of a video from Nicole Glass several years back. They informed her of news images they needed from certain events around the DC area. She supplied them with the images they needed, but none of them ever sold. That's if I'm remembering correctly...! As to Adobe, they accept all my illustrative editorial content within hours, but they now reject 100% of my commercial images for unknown reasons. It's so bad at Adobe now that I only upload editorial there.
Hi Brett, thanks for sharing your experience with Alamy. I've also noticed Adobe being quite hard on my uploads lately as well. !00% rejection though, that is a worry. Perhaps they are having a reaction to the influx of AI commercial images that are rolling in? Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep that in mind and see what's going on there. All the best! AB
Alamy are @@@@ hot on QC very exacting and images have to be excellent quality to get accepted but worth it as sales can be good, thanks for the video 👍
Hi Sean, yes you're right. I forgot to mention that contributors shouldn't use any camera with a sensor smaller than APS-C and images must have excellent composition and all of the technical ducks in a row.
I would upload to other agencies such as dreamstime first to become more accomplished with what therequirements are for sellable stock. Once you're confident there then spread out to others. Only time I was rejected on Alamy was when I used a small sensor camera. (Did not meet technical requirements). @@philliphickox4023
Interesting and candid, many thanks. I'm VERY new to Alamy and I find them so radically different to Getty, which will take some acclimatisation - particular emphasis on focus and detail (lack of). They rejected a photo of distant people on a beach in silhouette for lack of detail; the people's outline was sharp but of course no detail as just black as silhouettes which was my intention. So, things look iffy at present not with standing my account's been frozen for 3 days after a total submission of just 20 images 11 are on sale....whatever!!!!
Is normal for some beginners joining Alamy facing the issue of picture being rejected, but once you get how it work it will be a breeze. Don't give up. I see the images like a long term investment and it is yielding for me. There's a lot of factors of whether the image can sell or not, it can be lack or improper use of keywords, poor description, saturated images in the market etc.
I did have an account with Alamy at some point, but closed it after six months, having not made one sale in that period. I had about 500 images at that point. Maybe I should have been more patient. They did teach me to try and include nearly 50 keywords for each image in my other agencies.
I know this is an Alamy video Andrew, and I’m not sure if you’ve ever been hit and miss as to what’s accepted by ShutterStock, but have you noticed them accepting a lot more photos a lot more easily recently?
It depends. The UK and US have more relaxed laws about editorial photos of people in public. In the Netherlands it's whether the person can recognise themselves. If yes, then you should get a release form signed unless it's at a public/political protest/demonstration/rally (I believe) but the laws in Europe are complex and stricter. Don't know about Asia or other regions.
There was a guy who posted how Alamy notified him that his editorial photo was a part of a lawsuit. It was simply a photo of a newsstand rack of magazines. It could have been any super market and there were no people in the photo. So be very careful.
I wonder if there some Ai apps/Lr plugins that can change/randomize faces. Yeah, it’s too difficult to chase news. I think the best idea is to be seasonal. Like, in a month or three, Halloween, and Thanksgiving in the states will be big for stock I believe. Fall scenes, so leaves…etc.
I've been struggling uploading images to Alamy, for some reason they won't accept images below 17mb, even though my camera takes high res 32mp images they are still not 17mb files. meaning I have to upscale every image
I upload files using a 20mp apsc sensor on my Canon 70D. The exported (compressed) JPGs are around 10mp - 27 mp depending on whether I crop etc. I would not suggest upscaling your photos. I believe they don't accept images from cameras with sensors smaller than m4/3s.
@@andrewbalcombe1338 Thanks for your response. Not sure why my uncropped file are smaller than yours when I have 12 more MP than you, maybe it's something to do with the conversion to JPG because I shoot RAW? cheers
No worries. You didn't mention the camera you use or the image editing software you use. I shoot RAW too and use lightroom. Maybe get into contact with the Alamy contact support staff. They usually respond with suggestions. @@tonyw3250
Alamy has been sucking big time! I put images up and it takes a month or more for them to review them. The worst stock house in the industry for reviews
Great work Andrew! Your video is simple, honest and with real valuable information for those who want to start as a stock photographer. I see a lot of video on youtube but they're so focused in making a lot of money on youtube than actually providing you a good content!
Thanks very much for that. It means a lot that it helps!
Very interesting Andrew, I am a contributor on Alamy since 2015. A fun fact is shots I specifically targeted at sector sometimes won't sell but shots I dun expect to sell is sold. Very informative video you created and something for me to learn from your wise experience.
great to hear that you found the video interesting and helpful. thanks for reaching out!
I didn't think about the issue of people being in an editorial photo. Some of my photos are general street scenes. I'm currently in Hong Kong for a week shooting stock and relaxing! It's so busy here most of the street stuff has people in lol
I've had two good photographs in June this year with Alamy, one sold for $60.00 and the other sold for $69.99!!
Thanks for sharing your experiences, Andrew
My pleasure Alex. Hope it was useful!
Poor guy, trapped in plastic AND in public :) I got 12 sales in 2023 so far, with port of 1500 images. My protest/demonstration/hot news photos are also not selling on Alamy (and I have to say I have some exclusive ones). Have you tried to get accepted for News or Reportage on Alamy? I guess I would have to have press card and work with some media to make any money from that content. Anyway, thank you for the long-awaited vidoe Andrew, it was really informative.
One of my biggest fears, is to be trapped in public, 🙂. Your 2023 is not going too badly at all with Alamy.
I have uploaded pics that are marked as news in the categories and also uploaded protest pics with mixed results. I always find it hard to make stock if i'm doing a specific editorial assignment shoot for a magazine or publication. Press cards are handy but it can be complicated with regard to what you can use for stock and what you can't. Requires a few hundred words that answer.
Really well done. Great video. Refreshing to find such an honest and informative video.
Thanks Brett. Much appreciated!
Stock shooting is a *_numbers game_* these days... having a few hundred (or even a few _thousand_ images) in an agency isn't enough anymore. Tens of thousands - or hundreds of thousands - of images may be required to generate regular worthwhile returns. And remember that all agencies take a sizable commission on your sales, often upwards of 50 percent. In addition, although the internet is accessible worldwide in theory, many agencies do not _sell_ (have clients) in all geographic areas or markets. In such instances, they may appoint a local distributor (partnership) to handle sales in those places. If the distributor makes a sale for you, they _also_ get a percentage of your revenue, and then the photographer is receiving well below 50 percent of any sales figures.
yes, thankyou for your feedback and input!
exactly. they pay peanuts for your effort and make a nice buck with the commissions and the buyer also often making nice profits with it. Better of printing it to frame or on tshirt and sell it yourself
Always great info, thanks Andrew!
Thank you for watching and your kind words!
Thanks for video Andrew, Alamy is fine, no biggest seller but is working fine
Thanks Miro!
Thanks for the tips Andrew. It took me a good year before I made my first sale on Alamy and was pretty disheartened by then. After that, sales trickled in every few months or so. It gave me the incentive to upload more to Alamy.
Now I have 1910 images there with regular monthly sales. My sales seem to be split evenly between editorial and commercial.
As to the news story suggestions from Alamy, it reminded me of a video from Nicole Glass several years back. They informed her of news images they needed from certain events around the DC area. She supplied them with the images they needed, but none of them ever sold. That's if I'm remembering correctly...!
As to Adobe, they accept all my illustrative editorial content within hours, but they now reject 100% of my commercial images for unknown reasons. It's so bad at Adobe now that I only upload editorial there.
Hi Brett, thanks for sharing your experience with Alamy. I've also noticed Adobe being quite hard on my uploads lately as well. !00% rejection though, that is a worry. Perhaps they are having a reaction to the influx of AI commercial images that are rolling in? Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep that in mind and see what's going on there. All the best! AB
Alamy are @@@@ hot on QC very exacting and images have to be excellent quality to get accepted but worth it as sales can be good, thanks for the video 👍
Hi Sean, yes you're right. I forgot to mention that contributors shouldn't use any camera with a sensor smaller than APS-C and images must have excellent composition and all of the technical ducks in a row.
The worst thing about Alamy QC, is that if like I did uploaded 70 images and one does not meet their QC all others are rejected on the spot.
I would upload to other agencies such as dreamstime first to become more accomplished with what therequirements are for sellable stock. Once you're confident there then spread out to others. Only time I was rejected on Alamy was when I used a small sensor camera. (Did not meet technical requirements). @@philliphickox4023
Interesting and candid, many thanks. I'm VERY new to Alamy and I find them so radically different to Getty, which will take some acclimatisation - particular emphasis on focus and detail (lack of). They rejected a photo of distant people on a beach in silhouette for lack of detail; the people's outline was sharp but of course no detail as just black as silhouettes which was my intention. So, things look iffy at present not with standing my account's been frozen for 3 days after a total submission of just 20 images 11 are on sale....whatever!!!!
Is normal for some beginners joining Alamy facing the issue of picture being rejected, but once you get how it work it will be a breeze. Don't give up. I see the images like a long term investment and it is yielding for me. There's a lot of factors of whether the image can sell or not, it can be lack or improper use of keywords, poor description, saturated images in the market etc.
I did have an account with Alamy at some point, but closed it after six months, having not made one sale in that period. I had about 500 images at that point. Maybe I should have been more patient. They did teach me to try and include nearly 50 keywords for each image in my other agencies.
It can be very frustrating and confusing when the sales don't come in after so much effort.
Thanks Andrew!
Thanks amigo!
Just made my first sale and in terms of the Big Mac Factor, I could buy maybe a quarter of a Big Mac, The sale was One Whole Dollar.
well done on breaking through and making your first sale. I hope one day you sell one and buy a burger and fries. Dare to dream 🙂
I know this is an Alamy video Andrew, and I’m not sure if you’ve ever been hit and miss as to what’s accepted by ShutterStock, but have you noticed them accepting a lot more photos a lot more easily recently?
That's a good question. I haven't noticed it lately but I'll take a closer look and let you know if I see any pattern.
The key with photos of people is… can they be identified?
It depends. The UK and US have more relaxed laws about editorial photos of people in public. In the Netherlands it's whether the person can recognise themselves. If yes, then you should get a release form signed unless it's at a public/political protest/demonstration/rally (I believe) but the laws in Europe are complex and stricter. Don't know about Asia or other regions.
There was a guy who posted how Alamy notified him that his editorial photo was a part of a lawsuit. It was simply a photo of a newsstand rack of magazines. It could have been any super market and there were no people in the photo. So be very careful.
I wonder if there some Ai apps/Lr plugins that can change/randomize faces.
Yeah, it’s too difficult to chase news. I think the best idea is to be seasonal. Like, in a month or three, Halloween, and Thanksgiving in the states will be big for stock I believe. Fall scenes, so leaves…etc.
news media can't use editorial images that have been manipulated (i.e faces changed). Seasonal uploads always work well as do evergreen images.
@@andrewbalcombe1338 Ah, I see.
I've been struggling uploading images to Alamy, for some reason they won't accept images below 17mb, even though my camera takes high res 32mp images they are still not 17mb files. meaning I have to upscale every image
I upload files using a 20mp apsc sensor on my Canon 70D. The exported (compressed) JPGs are around 10mp - 27 mp depending on whether I crop etc. I would not suggest upscaling your photos. I believe they don't accept images from cameras with sensors smaller than m4/3s.
@@andrewbalcombe1338 Thanks for your response. Not sure why my uncropped file are smaller than yours when I have 12 more MP than you, maybe it's something to do with the conversion to JPG because I shoot RAW? cheers
No worries. You didn't mention the camera you use or the image editing software you use. I shoot RAW too and use lightroom. Maybe get into contact with the Alamy contact support staff. They usually respond with suggestions. @@tonyw3250
Do you sell all your images rights managed ?
No I also sell royalty free
@@andrewbalcombe1338 so how do you decide what to offer them as ? ( thanks for replying , great videos)
Alamy has been sucking big time! I put images up and it takes a month or more for them to review them. The worst stock house in the industry for reviews