Exclusive with Istockphoto

Will it ever happen? Off course.

I still have 203 downloads to go before I can ever consider about going exclusive with Istockphoto, and only 44% acceptance rate. So there is a possibility that even with 203 new downloads I won't make it yet.

Because you have to have 250 downloads and 50% acceptance rate, otherwise you must have 500 downloads to become exclusive.

In januari 2009 they have an Istock'lypse in Berlin. That's very close for me since I'm living in Holland. I would like to go there.

So I have a small race with myself: try to become exclusive before the end of the year.

So wish me luck (or help me and download my photos at Istockphoto)

But before I go exclusive I can still use some other agencies like Shutterstock and Mostphotos. Here some new photos:

Prostockmaster

Last week I read on Microstockgroup about a new program, called Prostockmaster

It promised to help you reducing the time with uploading and possibilities with keywording.

Most of the time these programs won't work for me, because I'm postprocessing on an Apple Imac, and most of these software is only for Windows. But Prostockmaster is available for Mac and Windows.

My normal workflow is to postprocess in photoshop CS3, then do the keywording in Bridge and finally upload it to all the sites. Very time consuming.

So I downloaded Prostockmaster to help me reducing some time.

You can download this program for free, but then there is a limit on it. You can only upload 5 different images per day. You can upload these images to all the sites you want (the ones that are supported by Prostockmaster are Shutterstock, Istockphoto, Bigstockphoto, Fotolia, Dreamstime, Stockxpert, 123RF, canstockphoto, Alamy and Myspace).

I really liked the program, so after one day I bought a license. This cost me $49. I don't care, the program saves me time so I'm willing to pay for that.

So what does it do to all the sites:

• Canstockphoto: I upload first to Canstock. After uploading you have to go to your portfolio and finish the unfinished files. Canstock always suggest some more keywords, so if they are oke, then I add them in bridge to the file (you can also do that in prostockmaster, but I categorized my keywords in Bridge and the keywords won't be added to the right category in Bridge then) After finishing I close the program, open it again and the new Keywords are also visible in Prostockmaster. Then I upload to the other sites.
• Shutterstock: it uploads the files like you do with ftp. After that you still have to do the normal editing like putting a category or a modelrelease. 
  
• Istockphoto: it puts the file immediately in the queue. Only the category is standard "Object/equipment", if you want to change that then you have to edit the file. You also have to check your keywords and maybe allow prints, and also ad Model releases. But it reduces some time with the uploading, you can now upload everything in one time
• Dreamstime: Uploading everything at the same time (I never used ftp there, so for me a lot time reduce). Then editing the categories and save
• Fotolia: If you wish you can put the files after uploading immediately in the queue. But with the Fotolia search I always want to put most important 7 keywords first and give it some categories. Also here the Model Release has to be added.
• Bigstockphoto: very fast uploading, after that the normal editing from the queue
• 123RF: Immediately in the queue. If you don't have to put Model Release, then you're finished
• Stockxpert is not working. You can only upload 1 file, although the program says it uploaded everything. This is a known problem and they say that it's fixed in the soon to be released new version
• Alamy: I never uploaded to Alamy, so I don't now
• My Space: I don't use my space.

It's possible to generate your keywords in Prostockmaster, but when I click the button my Mac almost freezes.

I only work with psd or jpg files, the program can't read the psd files.

For me the most time reducing is that I can click on the files that I want to upload, also click the sites that I want to upload the images to and then upload. In the meantime I can do other things and the program gives me a signal when it's finished with uploading.

Attention: I only tested the Mac version, maybe the Windows version is a little bit different.

Besides playing with the program, I also uploaded some more photos. I show you a couple of them:

Contributing to a new Stocksite: Cutcaster

Yesterday I started contributing to a new Stocksite: Cutcaster

The first start didn't go to well, because I didn't receive the confirmation email. But after mailing to contact, they sended me a very fast reply that my account was confirmed and that I could start uploading.

For now I uploaded 50 files. I don't have much pictures at this moment, so only a few left for uploading. But al the 50 files were accepted by the site.

The uploading proces is easy, I uploaded with the site uploading tool, but they also have a ftp possibility. For my small portfolio that's not necessary, but if you have a couple of thousand photos, than you're glad it's there.

You can fill in you own prices for your pics or let the cutcaster alghorithm make the prices for you.

Hopefully there will be a lot of sales soon.

I also uploaded two new pictures, one from my trip to Brazil and one for the Japan collection, a new kokeshi doll.

I have a lot more pictures of Brazil to postproces, but also from my trips to Laos and Cambodja, Surinam, Kenya and Tanzania and Berlin.