News
Culled Assets
A new feature to say goodbye to your old Assets. Find assets that have been deactivated and their similars.
As requested by many, we've created the new Culled Assets section, as part of the Portfolio section.
What it is
The DeepMeta Culled Assets section shows a list of all your assets that have been deactivated by Getty Images.
To maintain the collection and to make sure customers have the best experience possible, Getty Images performs regular cleanup of assets. This can be for the following reasons:
- Duplicate or very similar files
- Legal or rights issues
- Content that could be considered inappropriate
- Assets that do not meet the current submission requirements
If an asset is removed by this process, it cannot be resubmitted.
Filtering and sorting
As with most other sections in DeepMeta 4, the top of the list is reserved for a toolbar with filter options. For the Culled Assets section, the filters are divided into two groups: Asset Type and Similars.
Note that you can select multiple buttons at the same time. If none of the buttons of a group are selected, the resulting list will be empty.
Filter by Asset Type
Select: Images, Video and/or Illustrations.
Blue color means selected: these file types will be shown. Multiple selections are allowed and at least one is needed to see results.
Show Similars
When this filter is enabled (blue color), an optional corresponding Similar Asset will be shown beneath the culled one, if such a similar was designated by Getty Images.
Note that these only show up for assets that were deactivated for having similars, so it's perfectly possible that you don't have any in your portfolio. In that case, this filter button will seem to have no effect.
Search box
Type a search term in the box and hit Enter. Only assets with this term in their title or description will be shown.
Sort selector
Select one of the following sort options:
- Has similar: groups the culled assets that have a similar.
- Detection date: sorts by the date the deactivation was detected by the DeepMeta sync process. Remember, detection can be weeks after the actual deactivation; it is just an indication.
- Royalty: Sort culled assets by Royalty amount in USD.
- DL: Sort by number of downloads.
- RPD: Sort by RPD: Revenue per Download
For Royalty, DL and RPD: Note that sorting is only on the culled assets, not the similars. This can look a bit confusing when Similars are shown.
How it works
Unfortunately, the Getty server does not provide a direct way to get a list of culled assets.
The procedure DeepMeta uses to detect them is as follows:
- When you first sign up for DeepMeta, your full portfolio is fetched from the Getty server and stored in the DeepMeta database.
- Whenever you visit the Portfolio section, DeepMeta starts a quick incremental sync of your portfolio, fetching the latest additions.
- From time to time, DeepMeta performs a full re-sync of your portfolio. This is where it detects deactivations.
- DeepMeta never deletes assets, even if they are removed from the Getty server. They are marked by DeepMeta as culled.
- It is these culled assets that are shown in the Culled Assets section.
- For some assets, a search by ID on the Getty server will return a different asset. DeepMeta also keeps track of this and marks that asset locally as a similar.
What are similars
For some culled assets, a search by ID on the Getty server will return a different asset in your portfolio. DeepMeta also keeps track of this and marks that asset as a similar.
This most likely means that the asset was deactivated for being too similar to another asset in your portfolio. In that case, Getty returns the similar asset that survived. One of the places where this is apparent is in Getty "Boards". These are collections of assets maintained by customers to keep track of their favorite assets for a project. If an asset was placed in such a board and is later deactivated, the board will link to the similar asset.
Shown thumbnails
Unfortunately, when an asset is deactivated, its thumbnail is also removed from the Getty server. This is why most culled assets in this section show a gray placeholder with a cross. You then only have title and description to guess what the asset was.
Similar assets are still in your portfolio, so of course for those we can show the thumbnail.
If we can find the culled asset in your Batches & Uploads, we will show the thumbnail from the upload.
Scope of the detection
It is important to note that DeepMeta cannot detect deactivations from before your first full portfolio sync, i.e. from when you signed up for DeepMeta 4.
This means older deactivations are not shown. There is no way to detect them.
On the other hand, all new deactivations will be detected, so you can visit the Culled Assets section from time to time to find out about them. You can use the "Detection date" sort selection to easily find them.
Note that the full portfolio syncs that detect the deactivations happen in the background. With huge amounts of assets, we do this at a controlled rate so as not to overwhelm the Getty servers.
As a result, it can take up to weeks for new deactivations to be detected.
No results
If no culled assets were found, the following panel is shown:
This is okay and not an error. DeepMeta simply has not detected any deactivations yet. It could be that you have a small portfolio, that you joined DeepMeta only recently, or simply that you are lucky :)
Usefulness
We see the main use of this feature to allow you to learn about the deactivations, since Getty does not report these to you.
Say you uploaded images of a specific landmark in your area, and are planning a new shoot on the same subject. The Culled Assets section allows you to learn that these previous images have been deactivated, possibly for legal reasons. Laws and rules change over time, so Getty Images must adapt. In that case, the deactivations would teach you that it makes no sense to do a new shoot on that subject.
Similars can be equally helpful. If you see many deactivations showing a similar: try to learn from this to avoid similars in your future shoots.
Feedback
This is a brand-new feature and we hope to improve it in the future. As always, your feedback is warmly appreciated. You can contact us with your suggestions and bug reports.
Header image: (c) Vidar Nordli Mathisen (Unsplash)