I have recently developped a simple Java GUI-based tool which combines multiple images into one. It supports selection of the images to be mixed and the intensity at which they are mixed.

You can download the source code from BitBicket – ImageMixer and an executable JAR package from ImageMixer.jar.

I have recently developped a simple Java GUI-based tool which plots a histogram of a JPG image. The tool manually implements the code for computing and plotting the histograms. It also uses a suple histogram smoothing. The following types of histograms algorithms are computed:

• Luminosity – the histogram for the luminosity of the pixels is computed.
• Grayscale 1 – a red-blue-green color pixel is converted into a representative gray pixel based on one popular forumula and the grayscale histogram is computed.
• Grayscale 2 – a red-blue-green color pixel is converted into a representative gray pixel based on second popular forumula and the grayscale histogram is computed.
• Red – the histogram for the red color is computed.
• Green – the histogram for the green color is computed.
• Blue – the histogram for the blue color is computed.

You can download the source code from ImageHistogram.zip Eclipse Project and a JAR package from ImageHistogram.jar.

At the moment I upload photos only to iStockphoto and Getty Images only. I am a member at iStockphoto since February 2008 and an exclusive contributor since June 2012. The table below is a summary of my profile at iStockphoto since my membership (until October 28, 2012).

Does being exclusive pay more? – In my case, yes

Before continuing with the numbers I will first explain what exclusivity is to those who are not familiar with it. Almost all stock photography agencies have exclusivity program. Exclusivity may apply for a specific photo or the photographer. If you select a specific photograph to be exclusive then you must sell this photograph only at that agency and you are not allowed to sell it in other agencies. In return the agency may provide you some more benefit for the exclusive photographs such as higher commission or let you sell the photo for higher price, etc. If you opt to be an exclusive photograph at one agency then you must sell your photos only at that agency and you are not allowed to sell you photos in other agencies. In return the agency gives you more preferences such as higher commission or sells your photos for higher price or shows your photos within the first search results.

Now let’s compare my earnings before and after becoming exclusive contributor at iStockphoto. This might be helpful for those who do not know what the world look like being an exclusive.

I will also put average per month statistics as well because I do not have statistics for 1 year after I became exclusive contributor.

From these numbers you can clearly see that my income at iStockphoto only has increased 3 times, from $15.36 to $46.48. But, to be fair I should account for the fact that my income from the other agencies has become zero after becoming an exclusive. Nevertheless, in my case I would clearly conclude that becoming an exclusive at iStockphoto is a win-win situation because two reasons:

1. it is much easier for me as an amateur to organize and upload photos to one web site only –simply my life became easier;
2. being exclusive at iStockphoto only still pays me more than what I earned altogether when I was uploading to multiple web sites.

Which photos sell most?

The approach of taking photos is fundamental for how they sell. As I said, I am an amateur and I do not take photos with the sole purpose to sell. Instead, I first take photos as a pleasure and hobby and then I try to sell those which look beautiful. Because I do not take photos with the purpose to sell they do not sell much . Typically the photos which sell more are simple, with one (or few objects which constitute a big object), and convey a certain message or describe a certain concept such as happiness, success, frustration, etc. You should always keep in mind that, stock photos are used mostly for advertisement. Therefore, if you want your photos to sell then try to answer the following questions: “What can I advertise with this photo?”, “What advertising message can I use together with my photo?”. Below is my most downloaded photo of a flower shop. It can be used to advertise fertilizers, flower shop, flower market, companies for flower decorations, etc.

Review: Which stock photography agency is best?

There are quite many stock photography agencies where you can sell your photos. I tried few of them. Below they are ordered based on my personal preference:

1. iStockphoto
2. Shutterstock
3. Fotolia
4. BigStockPhoto

iStockphoto

Stockphotography agencies differ by commissions which they pay and their customer model (the people whom they sell photos). I started with iStockphoto and I continue with iStockphoto only. Somehow, iStockphoto matches better my approach of selling photos – I do not take photos with the sole purpose to sell. Compared to the other 3 agencies which I used, iStockphoto generated most money so far. Also, iStockphoto has many professional contributors which I guess are happy with their income. Moreover, iStockphoto has pay model which favors skilled and loyal professional photographers – the more photos you sell the more royalties you get. On the other side, which is also very important, iStockphoto has a lot of clients who have different needs for photos. This, unlike some smaller and less popular agencies, opens an opportunity for beginners to explore and find their niche in this big and also very competitive business.

Shutterstock

The second agency which I found as most profit generating is Shutterstock. Compared to iStockphoto, Shutterstock has different model with respect to how its clients buy or pay for photos and consequently the money which the photographers are given. Unlike the pay-as-you-go model Shutterstock encourages subscription based payment. In this model, photographers are paid tiny commissions of $0.25 but they have many downloads which at the end of the month may sum to a nice wage. In my case, I did not earn good money from Shutterstock – only $96 for almost 2 years. One reason and probably the most significant reason for this low income was the style of my photos – they were not taken with the sole purpose to sell, or said in other words, my photos did not have stock value. Because of this reason many of my photos which were accepted at iStockphoto were rejected at Shutterstock. Like iStockphoto, Shutterstock is a very popular stock photography agency and it has many clients. Because of the subscription program, they have loyal clients which download many photos trying to fill their download quota. Certainly there are many professional stock photographers which make good money from Shutterstock. Just I think it did not work for me as an amateur.

Fotolia

The third agency which I tried is Fotolia. Although the high number of photos which I have online at Fotolia I made very small profit. Most of the downloads were from subscription users for which I was being paid the nothing $0.25. I guess it is less popular than iStockphoto and Shutterstock but I might be wrong. Still you can go and try it.

BigStockPhoto

The fourth agency which I tried BigStockPhoto was a waste of time for me. I think it is really unpopular and has few customers. I did not have any download from this web site. My wife, who is trying to start selling photos as stock also has disappointing results with this agency. But if you are a professional photographer who can clearly see the stock value in the photos and takes photos with the sole purpose to sell; this agency can be an opportunity to grow. Why? Because it is easy to become authority in small community with inexperienced and non-established stock contributors. However, I repeat again, you need to have the eye to find and see the stock value in the photos. I think inexperienced, beginners or even amateurs like me are not going to get much of the byte in this web site.

Other stock photography agencies

Certainly there are other smaller stock photography web sites which I will mention for your record:

• Dreamstime
• 123RF

In summary, if you are a beginner I would suggest you to go for a large popular stock photography agency such as iStockphoto, Shutterstock and Fotolia. These websites have many clients with different needs and the probability somebody to download your photo is higher than other web sites. After gaining some experience you will adapt yourself and take on your own direction.

I and the readers of this blog post would appreciate if you share your insights and experience by writing comments under this blog post.

Related

There is a related blog posts which I wrote before that you might be interested to throw a look at:

• Selling Photos on Flickr.

Luckily I found a workaround for it. I used special configuration parameters to delay the popup of the toolbar with arbitrary time. What you need to do is add the following lines (colored in green) in VMware's preferences.ini file.

pref.fullscreen.showDelay = "5000" – delay the showing of the toolbar 5000ms (5 seconds) 

pref.fullscreen.hideDelay = "1000" – hide the toolbar after 1000ms (1 second)

In Win7 the preferences.ini file is located at

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\VMware

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

2.       Perseverance is priceless.

 “It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

3.       Focus on the present.

“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”

4.       The imagination is powerful.

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

5.       Make mistakes.

 “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

6.       Live in the moment.

“I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.”

7.       Create value.

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

8.       Don’t be repetitive.

 “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

9.       Knowledge comes from experience.

“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”

10.   Learn the rules and then play better.

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

• 2.17 days a week; or
• 13 days a month; or
• 5.2 months during the year.

How was this tax calculated?

The average gross salary per month for 2011 in Spain is calculated to be 2292 Euros.

The tax to be paid for 2292 Euros is 711 Euros with average tax rate of 30.03%.

Then the net income for 2292 Euros becomes 1581 Euros. But the story about the taxes did not end.

Every time when we buy something we pay value added tax (VAT). The base VAT rate in Spain is 18%. If we assume that we spend all our income (we eventually spend it by buying car or house). When calculate the 18% VAT on the net salary of 1581, the additional tax paid for VAT is 285 Euros. Now the total amount paid in tax sums up to 996 Euros which I have rounded to 1000 at the beginning.

Where does this money go?

The money paid in tax goes directly to the government’s budged. Then they are distributed to the public sector and services such as:

• Free healthcare
• Free/subsidized education
• Police
• Military/Army
• Church
• Public administration – such as people working at the town hall
• Etc.

All of us pay tremendous amount of money to the government and to pay this money we essentially work for the government. Therefore, all of us should be acknowledged that when it comes time to use the services from the government we should insist for the best quality possible because we already paid a lot for it. It is pity that most civil servants do not realize their responsibilities to the people (tax payers) and abuse with their money as if they are nobody's and magically appeared from somewhere.

Consumer goods are defined to be movable goods for private consumption/use such as:

• Optical instruments and equipment, photography, watches and music
• Tools, knives, cutlery and other common metal manufacturing
• Furniture, home furnishings, accessories and household goods
• Appliances, electrical, electronic and computer and software
• Vehicles and spare parts
• Toys, games for recreation and sport
• Dwelling

For reference http://cec.consumo-inc.es/cec/secciones/ayuda/Derechos/Espana/Derechos/Garantias_es.asp

The problem is that many companies for example, Dell, HP, Apple, Canon and many others write in the warranty card of the warranty period of the purchased items is 1 year which violates the already set law buy the state. If your purchased item breaks between the 1st and 2d year after you have bought it and the seller refuses to repair it for free  then you should show the seller the text from the link above.