blog main page

Are Artificial Inteligent (AI) photography software worth it? The Denoise battle.

I was always a strong believer in Open Source software. However, last year, my faith had been shaken. I used to spend several minutes fiddling around with slider or even masking in order to remove noise while other software out there can do it in just one single click! I read and bought softwares that were supposed to give stellar noise reduction performance because of their Artificial Intelligent (AI) denoise engine... read more

My new website hajakely.com is up and running!

I have a new website hajakely.com. While I am still maintaining the blog section on this site, my new photos will be available only on my new website. Please have a look at and download them!

Solved: Delete large TIF image file on windows

Problem: I had a huge TIF image file and was not able to overwrite or rename or delete it.

Solution: Open the command line as an administrator, stop Windows explorer, delete the file from the command line (for more details, see below).

I ran into an interesting problem today. I was playing around editing photo in GIMP with my new graphic tablet. Once I was satisfied with the result, I exported the image into TIF file. GIMP managed to exported the file but it was a 1.8GB file!

I was surprised with the file size so I checked why is the file so large. Then, I realized that I forgot to uncheck the "Save layers" option.

Gimp export dialogue

Shutterstock just joined the dark side new royalty $0.10, new earning structure sucks

Shutterstock sucks
I received the shocking email about the change in Shutterstock royalty rate couple of months ago. If you do not want to read all the way down then this is the summary: The new Shutterstock royalty rate is $0.1 per download. Yes, you heard it, $0.1 per download.

My top performer photos at Shutterstock

Please, find below my "Top performers" at Shutterstock until now (March 2018). For each of these photos, I earned more than $20.

Microstock earning: September 2017 was my second best month ever at Shutterstock

September 2017 was my second best month ever ($95.02). I was second after February 2017 ($104.46), my only 3 numbers earning so far. I have 738 pictures in my Shutterstock portfolio.
What made this September nice was 4 "Single and Other" download.

First milestone reached: Good bye 25 cents, welcome 33 cents

After 15 months, I finally reached my first Shutterstock milestone. Despite last month slow sale, I reached the $500 total earning.

The Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock Photography: Review

Brutally, and honestly, this book is not for you if you just want to learn how to take a picture and how to use your new camera. However, I dare to say that it is one of the best out there if you want to plunge into the world of microstock. This book is a must-read if you plan to turn the piling pictures on your hard drive into money.

Warning: Fotolia registration, don't get trapped and tricked!

Just a quick note on what I just experienced.
As you all know, I am a contributor at Fotolia. One year after my registration, I finally reached the minimum payment threshold of 50 credits.

For your info, Fotolia payment is a bit different from the other microstock site. For each photo sold, you get credit. Once you reach 50 credits you are allowed to ask for payment and convert the credits into currency.

Shutterstock rocks: February was my best month ever!

Despite the fact that February only has 28 days, it was my best month ever since I joined Shutterstock. I had 4 video and 70 photo downloads which gave me $104.

MAROLOOK