Beginner Stock Photo Database?

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11
Name
Pete
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone used a sort of self-built database (in Access or something) to record which photos they've submitted to a stock agency, which agency, when submitted, why rejected (!) etc, etc.
I suppose there might be a way to utilise functions in existing photo software, or have a specific collection in an image hosting site. Would these give enough flexibility to record information though? Sounds a bit vague, but I hope you can see what I'm on about!
 
Could you use lightroom and tag the images with the agency name? I seem to remember there's a comments feature in lightroom as well so you could record the reason for rejection in there.

You could then use the text search feature to query your catalogue.

I seem to recall there's a way you can query the lightroom database using SQL but can't remember what tool you'd use for that.

James
 
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone used a sort of self-built database (in Access or something) to record which photos they've submitted to a stock agency, which agency, when submitted, why rejected (!) etc, etc.
I suppose there might be a way to utilise functions in existing photo software, or have a specific collection in an image hosting site. Would these give enough flexibility to record information though? Sounds a bit vague, but I hope you can see what I'm on about!

I only know and use Microsoft Access. I would say that is a good idea, because assuming you try to learn about it (buy a book and study it), you could customise your own database to suit your liking. I usually print out a catalogue of my downloads in my iTunes Library but since Version 11, the print outs are often in the wrong order. So I created my own database where I can print them out in the order suited to my liking.

Some of the good reasons for your own database is...
  • You only need to input the information only once, but you could create many different forms that display cherry-picked information to your liking, because all information comes from the same source. For example, you could have one table that holds the whole records, have all the fields, photo, date, camera used, subject, yes-no, etc., etc., but create a form to display a photo and if it had been submitted to a stock agency, create another form to display a photo and show only details about it.
  • You could sort your records in various order. Taking the above example, one form would display all photos submitted in order of date, another form would show photos submitted according to A-Z of stock image company.
  • You can customise your own print outs (called Reports in Access) to suit your liking.
I found it more useful for keeping track of any recordings I had on video tapes, then later on DVD-Rs. I could display what had been recorded onto this tape/disc, or I could display ALL the programmes I recorded in a full A-Z order, just look up for any programmes I want to watch, then see which tape/disc it was recorded onto.

You can create and customise your own database to your liking. Compared to using any templates or ready-made database where some fields may not suit your liking.

I would say, go for it if you can manage to learn some basics and have a go creating it.
 
I use Lightroom, and tag photos with the name of the agency that I've submitted them to. That way I can find them quite easily. That's it - I don't bother otherwise. The stock agencies I use keep a record of all submitted, accepted and rejected images, so I can just check that out with them if I want to.
 
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