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Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

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    Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

    For those that don't know, Alamy is a Stock/Editorial/News Photography website. It's a place for you to upload your best work and people buy the license to use it.

    Getting Started
    Signing up is easy. You submit 4 images, they review them, accept or deny them and you're off and running.
    Quality Control Policy can be found here.

    For me it took 28 days to get my images reviewed, however, I have heard it was sooner for some.

    Quality Control
    They are very strict about what they require from you.
    If you simply cannot do without over editing images, sharpening and adding your touch to things, then it may be hard to get accepted. They are looking for everything that looks like it came straight out the camera. There are a few rules though.

    No sharpening of any kind
    No watermarks, copyright info or text added to the image
    No Chromatic Aberrations in the image at all
    Uncompressed file size has to be over 24Mb (usually converting from RAW in DPP works wonders)
    Your camera has to be on the list
    That's the small important things. Here is the extensive list of things they don't accept in an image LINK

    How does it all work?
    Alamy has two types of contributors from what I can make out.
    Pure stock, and editorial jouro type people that submit to the news feed daily.
    There is the few like myself that float about both areas. I prefer the news route and it can be quite exciting.
    Alamy has loads of diverse buyers. Anything can sell, and nothing is too rubbish for stock. As long as it meets the submission criteria, you can sell it.

    What's the difference between RM and RF?

    RM = Rights Managed - A license model that applies a date range to the cost of the license and buyers must adhere to that range. Anything outwith that license period and they must buy a new license.
    RF = Royalty Free - The buyer can license the image for use as much as they like and how many times they like within the parameters of the original usage.

    What sells the most?

    RM & RF sales vary greatly. Some RF sells higher than RM and vice versa. I have a strict RM catalogue, because I like the protection RM offers.

    How long before I can expect to see a sale?
    You get an Alamy Rank, it's a base rank that all new people get. This fluctuates when you add images. The more you add and more chance you see views, zooms and sales. I started to see views at 100 images, zooms at 400 and sold my first image at 96 images. There's no science to it.

    Views? Zooms?
    Views are when someone enters a search critera and your picture came up on the page.
    Zooms are when that search criteria is used and your picture was clicked on to produce a larger image on screen.
    There's a theory that there's one sale for every 4-5 zooms, however, I've not experienced this.

    Amazing!! I'll be buying a new FF in no time!
    Wow hold on. Alamy isn't a quick selling system. For the most part it's actually quite a slow process. You upload batch of images and it can take up to a week for them to be cleared in QC. They then go into the Manage Images pool, and then you key word them. Keywording an image is a nightmare. So many variables, however, if you have a hard time keywording an image then it's going to be difficult to sell to anyone.

    Who is Alamy for?
    It's for everyone. You're not selling your soul to the devil. You are well protected and thought of. Submit your best work, have a good story attached to it and you will be a success. One guy is making $5000 a month on it. So there is success.

    I created this because of a few enquiries of late and thought it would help folk who didn't want to PM me to ask. It's not a secret society. There's a lot of really disgruntled photogs on the Alamy forum who constantly moan about it not being as good as the old days, but I just get on with it.

    We all have thousands of images kicking about doing nothing, and I just think in this day and age of austerity it's about time they went to good use.

    If I can sell an image of a boiler to Scottish Gas for a promotional campaign then anyone can sell on there.

    Any help you need, I'll be happy to do so :)

    Paul
    Fuji X-T1 | 1D IV
    www.campsie.photography

    #2
    Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

    Thank you Paul. A really useful post.

    Now where have I stored those 19,000 + images that I am going to sell ??
    David

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

      Thanks Paul, super post.
      Russell
      Canon 7D MkII, 550D EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS USM, EF 70-200mm f/4.0L IS USM, EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro, 300mm f/4L IS USM, Extender EF 1.4x III, Speedlite 600 EX-RT Speedlite 320EX
      http://www.flickr.com/photos/photorussell

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

        Thanks for taking the time to produce this, selling images isn't something I've considered before. Your post has made me think I should try this. Thanks again Paul👍
        Peter

        Feel free to browse my
        Website : www.peterstockton-photography.co.uk
        Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/the_original_st/

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

          No problem folks :)
          Fuji X-T1 | 1D IV
          www.campsie.photography

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

            Great Info Paul, Thanks for sharing.

            Paul
            EOS 1Dx, - EF 24-105L f4,- Sigma 135 f1.8 Art - EF 400L IS f2.8, - Speedlite 430EXII.
            Freelance Sports Photographer for local Press - https://twitter.com/P_linton99

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

              Nice one Paul

              Chris
              EOS 7D, EOS 600D, EFS 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II , EFS 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II, EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 L IS, EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

                Good post that. I can'r believe it took a month to clear your first images. Mine were done in about 72 hours.

                I've sold nothing but only stuck up half a dozen images, I must put a lot more on. Some people don't like the pricing but if they are only sat on your hard drive I think it's worth a punt.
                TS-E17 F4L, 70-300L, 100 F2.8L Macro. http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynelsworth/

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

                  Originally posted by Wayne Els View Post
                  Good post that. I can'r believe it took a month to clear your first images. Mine were done in about 72 hours.

                  I've sold nothing but only stuck up half a dozen images, I must put a lot more on. Some people don't like the pricing but if they are only sat on your hard drive I think it's worth a punt.
                  The guys that moan all the time are the folk that were trying to make a living from it, or retire on the funds. They don't like new photographers jumping on the bandwagon either. QC has got faster over the 9 months I've been there.

                  To date I've sold 6 images. Not bad for a small catalogue in a 40m data base of images lol.
                  Fuji X-T1 | 1D IV
                  www.campsie.photography

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

                    hi Paul
                    A very interesting and comprehensive post. May I ask, how much folk pay for an image
                    r

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

                      Originally posted by hhcanon View Post
                      hi Paul
                      A very interesting and comprehensive post. May I ask, how much folk pay for an image
                      r
                      It's price is based on its usage. Date range, news, or book usage. Advertisement or publication? printed or online media. It really depends. Once you images go live you can pretend to be a customer by viewing your own portfolio and selecting an image to give a mock up of what something would cost. I use it sometimes to give a price for images If I'm asked by someone.
                      Fuji X-T1 | 1D IV
                      www.campsie.photography

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

                        What an informative post Paul, thanks for that.
                        Are there any start up/registration fees?

                        Bill.
                        7D, 400D, EF-S 15-85 f3.5/5.6, EF 100 f2.8 USM macro, Sigma 10-20 f4/5.6, Sigma 70-300 f4/5.6 APO, Sigma 50 f1.4, EF 28-90, EF 90-300, Sigma 150-600C, 430 EXll, Yongnuo 568 EX ll, Yongnuo Triggers, Yongnuo YN14-EX Ring Flash

                        Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/94610707@N05/

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                          #13
                          Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

                          None at all bill :)
                          Fuji X-T1 | 1D IV
                          www.campsie.photography

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect


                            Thanks for this. One of these days I might.. just might..
                            Di ~ Trying to take "the" photograph.
                            Di's Flickr

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Alamy - Getting started and what to expect

                              For people who would like to set up and load images to Alamy life has got a bit easier with them. There QC has relaxed a little bit as I,ve found they are now accepting coloured grad filter images which they didn,t before, also they don't mind sharpening the image as well.
                              Image pricing has lowered due to the competition from the microstock providers, I use to get sales varying from $60 to $250 bot over the last 12months these are now from $10 to $90, selling could vary between 1 to 10 images a month.
                              I hate Microstock such as Fotolia and Dreamstime I have sold loads of images with them but most sales are now subscription type which gives the contributor an insulting 35cents, because of this my contribution these days is zero.
                              An Image in Time is a Stepping Stone to Eternity

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