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Jani Freimann

8 Years Ago

Qc For Uploaded Images

I wish there was a way poor images that aren't printable aren't able to be uploaded in the first place as well as a thorough cleansing of all those that already are uploaded to FAA. They are poor quality clutter and there are thousands upon thousands of them here.

Three Reasons:
1. FAA offers museum quality and they ain't.
2. Visibility of good and great images would improve.
3. Good paying customers want quality and will not come back if they see poor quality being offered when museum quality is stated as offered.

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Thomas Zimmerman

8 Years Ago

This is why the search works like it does. Artwork that is good, and subsequently sells, is what shows up in the search, while poor images that don't sell aren't really ever seen by the buying public unless they come up in very specific searches or by finding the artists.

 

Bradford Martin

8 Years Ago

1.They offer museum quality prints. It's up to the artists to offer museum quality art.
2. The search and the collections help to keep top quality art in front of visitors.
3.Good paying customers choose the art they want. FAA makes sure what they choose is good enough for making a top quality print. Most is good or requires a minor adjust such as cropping.

The logistics and cost would be enormous. Artists are already complaining about the miniscule fee now and expect the world handed to them.

It would change the whole low entry open source business model and exclude emerging artists.





 

Jani Freimann

8 Years Ago

Okay, point made and recieved. I like the low yearly fee and all the other goodies offered here.

Still it would be nice.

 

I agree Jani. It would be nice, but as Thomas and Bradford said, it works the way it works. I see some beautiful art that is poorly photographed, a shame, certainly loss of potential sales.

 

Jani Freimann

8 Years Ago

Carlin, I do what I can in that department by offering help to those in my horse group. When they submit beautiful art that is poorly photographed, I share my tips on photographing art thread. It has helped several great artists in my group get better image quality.

 

Mike Savad

8 Years Ago

the hard part is, the rules change and they don't tell use the rules or when they change. things that printed fine in the first year, didn't in the second. and stuff that printed fine in the second had other issues in the third and so on. sean tried making examples of what it should not look like, but they aren't really live examples, and many don't look very closely at their work anyway.

as for me, i have an entire clean up cycle mostly because of this site.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

 

Jani Freimann

8 Years Ago

I learned my lesson when an image wouldn't print. Spent a boat load of time teaching myself how to photograph my art. Hard knocks, but worth every second.

 

Jani Freimann

8 Years Ago

I just had one print that I thought wouldn't print at the size purchased. I trepidaciously added the larger size. I know who bought it so I'm going to check out the quality when it comes to them.

 

I've had a couple that wouldn't print. One I really did need to re-photo. The other, I had to beg them that the blur in my painting was on purpose ! :-)

 

Patricia Strand

8 Years Ago

I'm with you, Jani, but I get Thomas and Bradford's points.

I don't recall what FAA says to new members here when they sign up, but it wouldn't hurt to have some solid, concise advice offered, written by proven artists (maybe hire a professional to do a write-up, Anne Geddes, etc.), on how to proceed for best results. For example, put-your-best-foot-forward kind of thing, along with a few practical tips on proper cropping, checking for noise, etc. What could it hurt?

 

Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

There must be a lot of business in people ordering their own stuff. Most of the FAA advertising is aimed at this market for some reason.

...

Raising the minimum upload size (is there one?) would eliminate a lot of problems.

1. Photos from old cameras.
2. Images stolen from the Internet and uploaded as card only size.

 

Jani Freimann

8 Years Ago

So far, since my unprintable one way back, I haven't had an issue. So my personal QC checks seem to be working.

 

Jani Freimann

8 Years Ago

Edward, I have ordered some of my own stuff too. Partly to see it for myself - the quality - and partly because I needed them.

 

Jani Freimann

8 Years Ago

That might be a good way to solve some of the problems, Edward.

 

Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

Of course. People of all abilities will order their own stuff.

 

David Randall

8 Years Ago

I'm a painter. I use high resolution scans (Cruse scanner). Not many photographers can compete with them on quality. Costly? Yes, it's part of the cost of doing business. You are serious about your work or you are not.

There could be a juried section of the site with reputable jurors but that's still a crap shoot in some measure. Not everyone wants to be judged and egos will be trampled.

 

Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

Not going to happen unless its an automated process like minimum file size.

 

Jani Freimann

8 Years Ago

Thanks for that post, David. I will look into that scanner. Been wanting to get one.

 

Thomas Zimmerman

8 Years Ago

For the record I would love it if the site was juried or artwork was somehow removed if it was poor or unprintable....however FAA makes a great deal of profit off of thousands of those $30 subscriptions, so it won't change, and that is fine. The cost of doing that would be enormous, all our subscriptions would go up (which I would be fine with), but I think FAA's bottom line would decrease, so it won't happen. I play the game with the rules that are here and don't worry about changing it, for the most part your effort is much better spent selling.

 

Roy Erickson

8 Years Ago

Thomas - that is hogwash - art that sells hits the front page and it matters not if it's good bad or ugly (it's all a matter of personal taste, opinion, and the buyers $$) - what matters is the selling - and what counts there is marketing - at which I'm obviously a failure.

 

Jani Freimann

8 Years Ago

Speaking of selling. Struggling there. I know you do well, Thomas, as do others on this thread. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. I can't seem to get more than one or two sales a month here.

 

Dan Carmichael

8 Years Ago

Can't be done by man or machine because of the nature of the item being reviewed - art.

A work can have an added texture which could be perceived as noise. Or even a canvas texture - same thing. Or a work could have an intentional blur which might be confused with softness and rejected when it was intentionally done.

There is just too much stuff uploaded daily to be reviewed - at any price - and add the possibly it can be misjudged.

However, there is a change that can be made to current FAA procedures that can help alleviate the problem. And it can be done with minimal impact on labor costs.

Unless changed, current procedures are to not review work when uploaded. However, when a piece is sold, it is reviewed for printability and if not good, an email is sent to the artist. If any given piece is judged as poor print quality, then that artist can be flagged for a check of a random 10 or 20 pieces of other art. If any additional piece(s) looks bad, that might indicate a problem and an email can be sent to the artist asking them to review their galleries for poor quality pieces.



 

Thomas Zimmerman

8 Years Ago

Roy I wasn't very clear, I am talking the riff raff, the really really REALLY bad stuff that does nothing but clutter the space up, and is clearly unprintable. It would be nice to get rid of that, but I don't think its really hurting anything currently either.

Jani just keep figuring out how to get your work in front of your market, you have to have one or make one. I myself am in a bit of a slump for a few days, but I was due for one, its been a really really great couple months. Its probably going to continue for a week or two because I have to go to the farm to help harvest starting tomorrow, and won't have time to market or bust it out of this slump until then. I am actually playing with twitter though to see if I can do some marketing on there from the truck when I am stuck in line. We shall see!

 

Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

The worst of the worst is profitable to the site if the uploader buys it. Or their mother.

......

Thomas you can' t fight the summer slump! ;-)

 

Thomas Zimmerman

8 Years Ago

Or nobody and they just payed their $30 a year.

 

Valerie Reeves

8 Years Ago

I agree with you, Roy! "This is why the search works like it does. Artwork that is good, and subsequently sells, is what shows up in the search, while poor images that don't sell aren't really ever seen by the buying public unless they come up in very specific searches or by finding the artists."

That is misleading. There are THOUSANDS of beautiful images that never get found and never get sold. It is NO reflection at all on their quality.

 

Thomas Zimmerman

8 Years Ago

Edward I fought it hard yesterday and pulled 2 sales out. Time to go sharpen my marketing axe because I am leaving to go harvest and make new art for a week to week and a half, it would be nice to pay for the gas!

 

Jani Freimann

8 Years Ago

I'm trying to find my market.
It's good to hear that you are able to shake the bush a little bit and get a couple of sales. Gives me hope that it's possible for me too. I know I have good stuff and even making better stuff. I just have to find the right bushes.

 

JC Findley

8 Years Ago

But but but the micro stock does it...... (and pays the artist pennies per sale for the most part.)

"If it sells it hits the front page."

Nay nay I say. Individual sales actually count very little in the search algorithm. Over all multiple sales of the artist and multiple sales of an image will get it moved up. If a single or even a few sales worked to move you instantly to the top then the system could be easily gamed. I have 995 total sales on FAA and I am still NO WHERE near the first page in many categories and that includes images that have in fact sold.

"There are THOUSANDS of beautiful images that never get found and never get sold. It is NO reflection at all on their quality."

This is absolutely true, BUT it is up to the artist to find a way to start selling then and only then will the search work for them in saturated categories.

 

This discussion is closed.