kindly asking for your opinion! :)

[eyeCatchLight]

Hello!

I have signed up for microstock a few days ago. (Fotolia for the moment). I got one picture accepted (hooray!), three rejected, and a few more under revision.
Their email doesn't say very clearly what might be wrong, it says technical problems, and it might be any of noise, blurriness, etc.

That's why I would like to show you my first trials and ask you for an opinion. If I shoot in RAW and do not sharpen at all, will they consider it blurry? I deliberately left it unsharpened, because they suggest so. And how much noise is too much? If I look at 100% and see a vague impression of noise, is that already too much?

Thank you so much!
S.

[davey_rocket]

This is just my opinion so take it however...

I like the composition of the first but I think the selective focus might get harped on by reviewers as well as the fact that it seems underexposed.  Color balance seems off as well.

The color balance is really weird on the second and the softness/blur on the fingers will probably garner a critical eye from reviewers.

Over all the photos seem photoshopped a bit too much.

Interesting composition though, I'm just pointing out the technical flaws as it seems that beautifully captured scenes get rejected for such issues.

[eyeCatchLight]

Hello!

Thank you so much for your answer. So I probably have a problem with two things: 1) Colour balance and 2) softness. 1) I think is because I like colourful images, and also because my monitor is not calibrated well (will do that soon).... and 2) well I also like that softness. I took these pictures on purpose with a f1.8 lens.

But most of the stock images are soooo vibrant and blue and red and whatever...it seems they're really photoshopped!
And should I submit sharpened pictures? Who knows.....

Thank you for everything :-)))
S.

[lisafx]

Hi Simsi,

These are not full sized photos you have linked to so it is very difficult to tell much about noise or sharpness from them.  

To me, the middle one of coffee is way too soft.  Narrow depth of field is okay, as long as something is clearly in focus,  but I don't see any clear focus in that picture.  You could stop down to 2.8 and get more sharpness while still having a shallow depth of field.

As for noise, I can't tell if there is any, but as the pictures seem slightly under exposed there probably is noise there.  To avoid noise, always shoot at ISO 100 and also expose a half stop or so over rather than under.  If you are shooting in RAW you don't have to worry about blowing highlights by slightly over exposing.

Also, if you do get shadow noise, you can add an additional layer, blur just the noisy area, then mask out the rest.

Davey is right about the white balance issues too.  It would really pay off to do a custom white balance.  This is especially important when shooting indoors in ambient (tungsten or flourescent) light.  Otherwise it is nearly impossible to avoid the yellowish or greenish cast.  

Good to hear you will be calibrating your monitor.  That is a must.  Personally I have found the Huey to be both cheap and the most accurate calibrator I have tried.  

Hope that helps

[leaf]

It is hard to tell from the thumbnails but I am guessing it could be 'all of the above'  They don't look very sharp and they look like they may have a fair bit of noise.  They also look like they all have fairly strong color casts.  On the first wine image and the blue image it could work, but on the hand with espresso, the yellow cast doesn't help the image.

Make sure you double check the shutter speed you are shooting at.  It looks like the hand and espresso was taken at about 1/25 seconds.  It looks like it has camera shake in addition to a very shallow depth of field.  Stock images, without a flash, pretty much always have to be taken outdoors to get enough light.  

Also try out different angles.  Back to the espresso shot again, it looks like what you would shoot if you saw a glass and shot it while sitting in a chair.  To make a shot interesting you should experiment with different angles.  Shoot from the top, go down to the level of the table.. shot from anywhere that isn't the 'default' position.

[ap]

if this is for fotolia, the noise is not such a problem for them (at least in these photos). as for the first image, the focus on the glass in the foreground is just not sharp enough. in the second, the focus may not be in the right place and in the third, the colors may just be too artsy for them.

but i like the ambience of all the photos though.

[Fred]

I like the composition but they all seem soft to me also.  The EXIF data says they were shot at ISO800.  I shoot with a D300 and have real fits getting acceptable noise levels at ISO 400 and would be reluctant to even try at 800.  Lately I have been shooting at ISO 100 whenever possible.

c h e e r s
fred

[eyeCatchLight]

Thank you thank you thank you!!
You guys are so great, what a nice forum. :-)

Only one more question: Do you sharpen your pictures?


I will take care of all the suggestions! What a great way to learn photography.

[ap]

i find sharpening only helps the image seen at 100%, ie bringing the details more into focus. however, it also creates noise and artifacts. sometimes it's just easier to downsize it 20-50% where the focus is naturally sharpest.

i always aim to shoot with sharpness at 100% in mind. so, the above is only for when i've failed miserably. 

[JerryL5]

At that size, noise doesn't seem a problem, but I think they are
oversaturated. You usually want the color to snap, but not so
much that fingers, for instance, look reddish. Also, the cup has
a vertical smear, like the camera moved a little.

[a.k.a.-tom]

You have plenty of good advice on the photos...
My advice if you are new to microstock is this.

Take the time to research all agencies BEFORE  you submit.
Understand completely their terms of business, what you can expect from them, what they expect from you.
Understand the partnership arrangement with each agency.
Read all the fine print, don't be surprised later.
Understand the nuances of their business, for example, such as subscription sales..

One thing I've see so much of is photographers joining all these agencies and then months or even weeks or days later, upset about something that came to their attention a bit later on. And then,  NOT being able to get out of their agreement with that agency. And having the personal frustration of spending so much time uploading only to be dissatisfied.

Know where you are going before you put your step forward. MSG is a superb place to read up on most of the micro agencies out there.  Read, think, THEN, make your decision.  Opinions are like noses...everyone has one.  Some are great, some arent.  However,  check them all out,  then you decide what direction you want to take.  Don't sign up for another one until you have done yourself this service.  You'll be glad you did later on.

Welcome to the club!! =tom

[eyeCatchLight]

Dear Tom,

thanks for the nice advice. It is really good what to say. I read quite a bit before, and I am not the person jumping like this into things, so I feel confident. I will give it a try. If it doesn't work it's fine. I might have lost some time of work on photos, but you know, I like this a lot, so I'd probably even do it without submitting there (maybe with less perfection and in different ways, but anyway).

I am just trying, I have no idea if I am good enough, but I also think it is a great opportunity to get better, because we're forced to bring our shots to perfection. :-) Momentarily the money is not the highest importance for me. Yes, it's great, but I have a great passion for taking photos. The only not so funny thing about it is all the stuff about releases. It makes everything so complicated and I don't feel like walking up to somebody I don't know asking if he/she wants to sign something. I don't know...

Thank you very much for everything!

[eyeCatchLight]

Hello! :-)

I found out that in dreamstime you get better descriptions of your rejections. You guys were totally right!

For the wine glass they said:
- Image is out of focus or too much of the subject is out of focus (DOF too shallow or DOF not justified) / Image is shaken. Use a faster speed or a tripod. Please check the files at 100% zoom before submitting them.
- Poor lighting setup, poor contrast or incorrect exposure.

Coffee cup:
- Image is out of focus or too much of the subject is out of focus (DOF too shallow or DOF not justified) / Image is shaken. Use a faster speed or a tripod. Please check the files at 100% zoom before submitting them.

Tunnel:
- Poor lighting setup, poor contrast or incorrect exposure.

It's things I sometimes don't even see, there is a lot to learn! :-)

They accepted other things, so i don't feel bad now ;-))). At dreamstime they accepted one that was rejected in Fotolia and vice versa. I will stay with those two and see what will happen.

What do you suggest to improve my photography? How did you learn?

Thank you so much! I'm really happy about this, I can learn a lot here.
S.

[a.k.a.-tom]

Dear Tom,
.............. Momentarily the money is not the highest importance for me. Yes, it's great, but I have a great passion for taking photos.

There my friend is the most important part of it all.  Micro is just a side line for most of us to make a couple bucks  (although some very good and dedicated photogs do make it a fine career).  And even if you do make some good money on it...   never forget why you started taking pix in the first place.
   Your love of it.  Never let the passion die, certainly not because some guy somewhere said, a picture sucked... LOL ....   I take a hundred or more pix a week... why?  not for stock, but because I love doing it. 
   Good you see the proper view... never lose it my friend!!   =tom

[eyeCatchLight]

Hello,

I need your short help. Do you have a calibrated monitor? I just calibrated my monitor with Spyder express.
I am shocked.........
I need your help to say if what I see is true.... lol
all the things turned very yellow, and blue turned into purple.

For example in my coffee cup, is it really that horribly yellow? I mean....not beautifully yellow but TOO yellow? For me the blue glass border is purplish.
Same in the tunnel picture, the walls are purplish that before were blue.
The wine isn't so shocking, a bit too saturated and a bit too yellow.

is it really like this or is my calibration wrong? I did it 4 times now...resetting all graphics card settings and windows settings. Does Photoshop CS4 load some Adobe Gamma or something like that that could trouble me here?

Thank you so much!
Simone

Color test:
MICROSTOCKGROUP FORUM IS GREAT
MICROSTOCKGROUP FORUM IS GREAT
MICROSTOCKGROUP FORUM IS GREAT

PS in this colortest (using red, blue, green) the blue is purple.......hmmmmmm.....
In this page http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/calib.html the blue on the right side looks purple. I guess this is not normal.
Did you experience such problems?