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Author Topic: DPA is distributing pictures with terrible sensor spots  (Read 4656 times)

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« on: August 07, 2009, 16:20 »
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Just check out the quality of editorial contents that is being used on one of Germany's most popular news websites. The sensor spots are a disgrace for any professional photographer. Unbelievable. It's not that the motive is in the middle of a desert with dust unavoidable - its NY with the ability to buy any sensor cleaning solution a couple of blocks away.

http://www.spiegel.de/schulspiegel/ausland/0,1518,grossbild-1576899-641142,00.html


zymmetricaldotcom

« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2009, 16:37 »
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Well from the quality of the English text version of the Spiegel, i'm assuming they have only post-Abi students doing many jobs there. On one hand the German education/job training system is very advanced, because in Canada for example we would never get bureau-level jobs straight out of high school, sponsored by the government. On the other hand, there is a real pile of young people working in these professional environments, often without adequate guidance or experience - the effect of 'fill my quota for student-types in the office, get on with my own job' seems not uncommon.

I can't really form an opinion whether the net effect is positive overall - yes the young people make mistakes and do sloppy work but maybe they come out more advanced in a shorter period of time than the dastardly Canadians who are kept at arm's length until the point where they start having receding hairlines.  

Or.. maybe you are just showing an example of one photo editor on a bad day and i'm just daydreaming. :)

« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2009, 16:41 »
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The photographer should submit to microstock.  They'd teach him a thing or two!! :D


« Reply #3 on: August 07, 2009, 16:42 »
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The photographer should submit to microstock.  They'd teach him a thing or two!! :D



That's why I posted here  - exactly my thought.

« Reply #4 on: August 07, 2009, 18:40 »
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This may be a bit harsh , but if you look at many of the editorials on the www.,
you see frightful copy of news reports, almost everywhere, and every single day... even on yahoo news.
I shake my head every time I see silly mistakes that even my 5 year old nephew would be able to pick out. Tells me that most of these "journalists" did not master the language even in their primary school, never mind pass Journalism.
They also rely so heavily on their spelling checker rather than their brains, which is highly evident when you see words like "loose" instead of "lose", "fare" instead of "fair", "herd" instead of "horde",etc... just to mention a few.
This  reflects unfavourably on the editors as they are the ones who should have caught those silly errors before going to press. Thus, when someone presents me something in photograph like you have here, it does not surprise me at all.

That being said, micro stock, on the other hand, has raised the bar perharps to a height that does not reflect the amount of money a photograph is worth.
What is the point of showing the media world how high your standard is with micro, when you progressively continue to undercut the earning of your contributors?  It is absurd just thinking about this.

If you set the standards so high, surely any logical person will expect the buyers to willingly pay for such high standards.
Failing that,  it would be like announcing to the world that a Ferrari which must possess extreme quality, and pass stringent QA test to make it the best working luxury automobile, should only be expected to sell at the lowest price possible...
something much like the price of a Volkswagen or worst a second hand bone shaker. Which is the perfect analogy of where we are now with our "high quality images" being sold at subscription rates.

Yes, there is something very wrong in the media standard to allow such an oversight. But, there is also something equally wrong for micro stock to allow
something just as equally obnoxious as to keep underpaying their contributors
for "such high quality" images.

There is something wrong with this picture, no pun intended.
« Last Edit: August 07, 2009, 18:59 by perseus, Who ? »

« Reply #5 on: August 07, 2009, 19:41 »
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There are many newspapers and magazines that use very poor quality images, sometimes I am amazed at this.  It's not an excuse, though, but does this agency have reviewers?

« Reply #6 on: August 07, 2009, 19:47 »
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There are many newspapers and magazines that use very poor quality images, sometimes I am amazed at this.  It's not an excuse, though, but does this agency have reviewers?


 If your agency has no reviewer, there is still a photo editor.
Even a high school newspaper or a two bit weekly tabloid has an editor and a photo editor. The editor inspects and approves copy, while the photo ed inspects and approves photos for press. In a shoestring op,  the owner would do all this.
« Last Edit: August 07, 2009, 19:54 by perseus, Who ? »

« Reply #7 on: August 10, 2009, 17:48 »
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I have to confess..... when I first started out.... unbeknowst to me, I uploaded several pix with sensor spots... and some micros didnt catch them. It wasnt until I uploaded the same files to IS that they were caught.   Needless to say, I went back and corrected the earlier submissions... cleaned my cam and learned a lesson

I shot in many locations where it was a problem... such as the deserts of the American west... it's a wonder any of those pix came out,  110 degrees in the shade, blowing wind and trying to change a lens...  if the sensor wasnt dirty, the mirror, the lens... and everything else was.  including every orifice on my body...... but, you make it work, do what you gotta do to get the shot.

Thankfully, the 5D Mk II  cleans itself every time I power down. Ya gotta love that.  8)=tom


 

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