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Microstock Photography Forum - General => Photo Critique => Topic started by: sponner on November 22, 2010, 05:33

Title: Any pointers greatly appreciated and specific pic critique
Post by: sponner on November 22, 2010, 05:33
Hi,

I am a complete newcomer to photography having picked up my first dslr on fleabay a couple of months ago.
I am having a bash at stock photography as a way of trying to learn and have been uploading to some of the sites with limited success, at the moment I am really enjoying just trying to get pics accepted, the handfull of sales are a bonus.

My dreamstime pics are http://www.dreamstime.com/resp2709173-free-images (http://www.dreamstime.com/resp2709173-free-images) 

and fotolia http://en.fotolia.com/p/202044759 (http://en.fotolia.com/p/202044759)

Any observations are more than welcome.

This one http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14783063/cow6.jpg (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14783063/cow6.jpg) was turned down at crestock for Artifacts and/or Compression flaws. I can't for the life of me see what they mean!
Title: Re: Any pointers greatly appreciated and specific pic critique
Post by: Perry on November 22, 2010, 05:54
This one [url]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14783063/cow6.jpg[/url] ([url]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14783063/cow6.jpg[/url]) was turned down at crestock for Artifacts and/or Compression flaws. I can't for the life of me see what they mean!


I can't see those flaws either. I would have cloned out the dung tho. I wouldn't give too much attention to CS, I just dump my portfolio there and they accept/reject what they want and I don't even bother to see if my images went trough...
Title: Re: Any pointers greatly appreciated and specific pic critique
Post by: FD on November 22, 2010, 05:55
Any observations are more than welcome.
Perfect salable stock images. You don't need any lessons.  ;)
Crestock, oh well. Who cares about that picky 0.25$ site? Try Shutterstock and keep shooting.
Title: Re: Any pointers greatly appreciated and specific pic critique
Post by: Noodles on November 22, 2010, 05:55
Good solid stock shots - maybe start thinking more creative - develop a style, that kind of thing. The cow shot looks good to me, nice amount of copy space too! I suppose if you want to nitpick, but otherwise I'd use if for sure and I use a lot of cow shots for companies selling ear tags. My 2 cents, good luck :)



Hi,

I am a complete newcomer to photography having picked up my first dslr on fleabay a couple of months ago.
I am having a bash at stock photography as a way of trying to learn and have been uploading to some of the sites with limited success, at the moment I am really enjoying just trying to get pics accepted, the handfull of sales are a bonus.

My dreamstime pics are [url]http://www.dreamstime.com/resp2709173-free-images[/url] ([url]http://www.dreamstime.com/resp2709173-free-images[/url]) 

and fotolia [url]http://en.fotolia.com/p/202044759[/url] ([url]http://en.fotolia.com/p/202044759[/url])

Any observations are more than welcome.

This one [url]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14783063/cow6.jpg[/url] ([url]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14783063/cow6.jpg[/url]) was turned down at crestock for Artifacts and/or Compression flaws. I can't for the life of me see what they mean!
Title: Re: Any pointers greatly appreciated and specific pic critique
Post by: sponner on November 22, 2010, 06:42
Thanks for the feedback.

I have had one failure at alamy and istock, haven't dared to try shutterstock yet :)

Quote
I use a lot of cow shots for companies selling ear tags

That's good info thanks. Half of my grand total of 7 sales are pics of cows. I hadn't worked out who was buying them, this just shows you have to think outside the box and there are markets that aren't immediately obvious.
Title: Re: Any pointers greatly appreciated and specific pic critique
Post by: FD on November 22, 2010, 07:04
This one [url]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14783063/cow6.jpg[/url] ([url]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14783063/cow6.jpg[/url]) was turned down at crestock for Artifacts and/or Compression flaws. I can't for the life of me see what they mean!
For Shutterstock, the lighting and the attention focus would be off. In general, I found your shots too dark. The clouds are blown here out at points too. Why didn't you wait till the cow was in the full sun?
I cloned out the blown out clouds, made the shot lighther cropped the blurred bottom out and added some soft light layers on the cow:
(http://cjoint.com/data/0lwmWcnvl6v_cow6-.jpg)
Title: Re: Any pointers greatly appreciated and specific pic critique
Post by: sponner on November 22, 2010, 07:12
hmm, very interesting!

I am using gimp rather than photoshop ( feeling virtuos after reading the piracy thread;) ) but I suppose i could have tried something similar, I've never had PS and certainly can't afford it atm and don't want to go down the torrents route.

I didn't wait or get any closer as he was starting to get rather fidgety and there was no fence between us  ;D
Title: Re: Any pointers greatly appreciated and specific pic critique
Post by: lisafx on November 22, 2010, 11:59
You do have some clever concepts there!  Love the digital piracy one :D.  Also the counting down to new year one. 
I was quite impressed with your shot of sheep on the hill.  You have a great eye for composition, and a natural sense of what will be marketable. 

I agree with FD that most of the pictures appear too dark.  A bit of brightening in curves would help them pop more. 

Obviously PS is too expensive if you are just starting out, but Photoshop Elements is only around $89, and has about 85% of the functionality of full version Photoshop.  As a bonus, the interface is very similar, so if you ever upgrade you will hardly have any learning curve. 
Title: Re: Any pointers greatly appreciated and specific pic critique
Post by: sponner on November 22, 2010, 13:31
Again, Thank you.

Can anyone give an opinion on the extra functionality gained by PS Elements over Gimp 2. Gimp + UF Raw (which are free) seems to have all the functionality I need but I am still learning how to enhance my pictures.

I take on board the "dark" comments. To my eye they seem ok, wonder if its my monitor ?
Title: Re: Any pointers greatly appreciated and specific pic critique
Post by: FD on November 22, 2010, 22:06
I am using gimp rather than photoshop ( feeling virtuos after reading the piracy thread;) ) but I suppose i could have tried something similar, I've never had PS and certainly can't afford it atm and don't want to go down the torrents route.
You don't need PS to do the simple adjustments I made which are mostly simple levels and cloning. GIMP is great if you have the shortcuts in your "fingers". I'm not a PS "wizzard" at all since I try to get it right in cam. My last seascapes series was even done in DPP, the free Canon RAW developer: fringe, lens correction (vignette), levels, on the full image. PS (or GIMP) is just for cloning here and there.
The major flaw, imho, on your dropbox cow picture was not waiting till the main attention focus, the cow, was in the full sun. Be aware that the patchwork I did (levels, soft layers) will introduce noise and artifacts but luckily, the skin of the cow is very textured.
Title: Re: Any pointers greatly appreciated and specific pic critique
Post by: FD on November 22, 2010, 22:22
Can anyone give an opinion on the extra functionality gained by PS Elements over Gimp 2. Gimp + UF Raw (which are free) seems to have all the functionality I need but I am still learning how to enhance my pictures.
You could do a search here on the boards with "GIMP" as search term. The issue has been covered (I think). If not, Google for it. I'm quite confident you can do all you need with PE and certainly with GIMP. I remember PE doesn't have adjustment layers, but I just used those once. In general and for microstock, try to get the shot right (well lit, well composed) in cam. When not sure, just take many shots of the same subject with minor variations and only keep the best. The days of a 36 shots limit on a film roll are long over.  ;)
I take on board the "dark" comments. To my eye they seem ok, wonder if its my monitor ?
It certainly does but there is a trick for it one of the gurus of this forum mentioned once. Your images will be bought by the thumb, so download some thumbs of similars from DT (since you're there), make a thumb from your image and view it next to those. The comparison will learn you if yours are too dark or the whether color is off.
Title: Re: Any pointers greatly appreciated and specific pic critique
Post by: sponner on November 23, 2010, 03:21
thnaks for the tips  :)
Title: Re: Any pointers greatly appreciated and specific pic critique
Post by: RacePhoto on December 01, 2010, 02:15
Small disagreement with FD, yes Elements does do adjustment layers and if I remember right has since version 2 (the free one that still comes with cameras?) But they are up to version 9 which is much better than the free outdated, light version.

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/PhotoshopElements/7.0_Win/WSae2ea3b149d0c3591ae939f103860b3d59-7f8c.html (http://help.adobe.com/en_US/PhotoshopElements/7.0_Win/WSae2ea3b149d0c3591ae939f103860b3d59-7f8c.html)

I use PSE 7 because I'm cheap. If there's some feature in 9 that I really, really, need, I'd buy it. Since I don't know of one, I'll wait. ;) Many people qualify for the education version which is under $70 but walk into your local electronics store and you can find it for under $100, maybe under $90.

You and everyone else starting out, do not need Photoshop Creative Suit / CS5 or anything that does all that, at this stage. In fact most photographers will never really "need" CS. Lightroom may do it for you some day.

I found it funny where someone said they tried Elements and it didn't do what they needed. I asked what version and they answered, the free one that came with the camera four years ago. Well that's amazing, a free light version and they decided that Elements was sub-standard?  ???

I really don't know anything wrong with GIMP except menus and ease of use and since I haven't used it in over two years, that may be wrong on my part. Free is good but the convenience and ease at doing some editing functions may be the only difference from pay software.