MicrostockGroup

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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