Shutterstock’s New Content Editor

Uploading your files to Shutterstock keeps getting easier. They just upgraded the Content Editor to make it faster and more powerful. For a limited time, you can continue to use the Batch Editor or the Legacy Editor, but you should switch soon, as those tools will be phased out.

With the new content editor you can:

      Add titles, keywords and releases to several files at once, or just 1 at a time.

      Quickly add and delete keywords.

      Undo and redo changes.

All of the best features from the Batch and Legacy Editors were also preserved:

      Copy and pasting keywords

      Tabbing through fields

Watch a short video from Shutterstock to see how the new content editor will save you time.

The new PantherMedia contributor portal

PantherMedia has launched their brand new contributor portal. They claim that the first priority while implementing was to speed up the submission process, especially for bulk images or whole series of images. The PantherMedia beta-testers have uploaded thousands of new images.

The PantherMedia contributor portal is now the fourth portal in a family next to the stock agency, the photo community and the blog. All sales relevant functions are bundled on this new platform. From upload to payout, you can find everything here that is important when selling photos online. 

The portal indeed seems to be quick, well-structured and easy to use! Check it out here.

Shutterstock introduces the Darkroom: Shape The Future of Shutterstock

Today Shutterstock is launching the Shutterstock Darkroom, a place for you to see contributor features in development. It will be used to show off new features and make sure developers are on the right track before deployment of these features to everyone. Every Darkroom page will have a feedback tab on the left, so you can tell Shutterstock team what you think.

The first two new features in the Shutterstock Darkroom are a new Content Editor (which some of you are already testing) and a new Image Gallery Stats page, designed as a better way to monitor your image statistics.

As you use these new tools, please remember a few things: Shutterstock Darkroom features are live and functional, but they are tests and might not work perfectly. Darkroom features have not been optimized for all web browsers, so developers recommend using the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome or Safari.

Visit the Shutterstock Darkroom and see what develops!

The Latest iStock iPhone App

iStockphoto has released a new version of the official iStock iPhone App. Version 1.1 contains new features and improvements (hello recently accepted files), so you'll be spending even more time on iStock than usual. Get the App from iTunes.

Now let’s hope the Android app will also be published. Join iStockphoto to buy and sell photos online.

Fotolia commission system updated

New royalty structure was announced by Fotolia. Commissions have been reduced approximately by 10-20%, depending on the contributor rank. The good news is that no changes were done for those with the emerald status and higher. While the newcomers, who want to sell photos through Fotolia, will earn just 20% of the stock photo price based on the new system. Take a look at the new royalties here. If you are interested in older Fotolia commission information, it is available at microstockgroup wiki.

Royalty changes at iStockphoto are live

As announced earlier in September, iStockphoto implements the new royalty structure. This change caused a huge resonance within the microstock industry. Now the system is confirmed, and the only thing that has changed, is the structure of redeemed credit target. The changes were recently announced and can be found here: new royalty structure at iStockphoto.

Based on the previous year redeemed credit target, iStockphoto defines the starting royalty for 2011. And to be frank, it is still disappointing at least 90% of the microstock contributors. Despite the announced changes, these targets are just enormous. Even the exclusive contributors get less than non-exclusive at some other leading microstock websites. Well, only time will show what are the consequences of such decisions.

Also, you will need to agree with all changes of the iStockphoto Artist Supply Agreement. The next time you log in you will be directed to the new agreement.

Keymaster program changes at Dreamstime

The keymaster program from Dreamstime has been frequently used lately and those using the program might have seen an increase in the pending time for their images to be keyworded. At this point, the images submitted via this program are far too many for the existing keymasters to handle. There is a need to select new members as well as motivate the existing ones to work faster and better. Hence, it was decided to increase the price for this service. The new price is $0.60/file keyworded via this program.

The new pricing structure goes live as of December 15th. All images submitted and/or reviewed prior to this date that are pending for keywording are charged at the old $0.40 price. The price, although increased, is claimed to still be the lowest in the industry.

Dreamstime also points out that the images submitted for re-keywording are now given low priority for keywording. They will be keyworded but the pending time will be longer than that of newly uploaded files.

iStockphoto Now Accepting Contributor Submissions of Editorial Images to be Offered on iStockphoto.com Early Next Year

iStockphoto has announced to its community of more than 85,000 contributing artists that in January it will begin accepting images for use under a new “editorial use only” licensing agreement to be rolled out in early 2011. These images will be available to those needing non-released imagery such as news outlets, publishers, magazines, bloggers and presenters. They will be licensed for use as a descriptive visual reference to a product, place, event or concept.

While all images currently available on www.istockphoto.com can be used for editorial purposes today, they are most commonly used commercially for advertising and promotional materials. This creative type of usage requires contributors to follow a stringent set of guidelines. For example, images of specific products or anything marked with a logo are not allowed, images of people require model releases, and many buildings and landmarks may not be shown.

Because editorial only images may not be used for commercial purposes, they are not subject to the same guidelines. This makes it easier for contributors to provide additional content and provides customers with access to more great imagery.

iStock is currently accepting several types of editorial imagery including:

                  Products

                  Architecture and landmarks

                  Travel and lifestyle

                  Social commentary

                  Urban living

iStock is not looking for time-sensitive news items or images or items that fall within the realm of traditional photojournalism. Contributors looking to submit these types of images are encouraged to contact Getty Images. For more information on submitting editorial content, please visit http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=939.