Rejected for Technical Reasons

Great feedback!  Thanks to all those who provided helpful tips.

Now on my PC:

Bunny: ISO1000 & agressive noise reduction does not work well together for stock! You see noise in the eyes and the noise reduction effects all over the picture. Simply look at the leaves in the bunny's mouth or the missing detail in the fur.

Squirrel: is out of focus.

Chilies: is too soft too. It would need a dose of sharpening.

Hello,

The squirrel - white balance for me - it is a little cool looking, so add a bit more yellow, and reduce the tint, because there is a slight magenta cast. Also on the 'snack', there's a slight chromatic aberration:

With the colour balance fixed and removal of the chromatic aberration 

you get this - a quick fix.

Bunny - also white balance, again it is just a little cool looking.

Chillies- I would give it more contrast. The colours are a little flat, they could 'pop' a bit more. Bring out the red in the chillies - just a bit. And maybe give just a bit more room at the bottom of the chillies.

I agree with the above. The squirrels head looks out of focus and especially his nose and the border running up from there. Bunny needs more to be in focus as well, his mouth and what he is eating is out of focus and there is too much noise as already stated.

As for the chilis, I do not think it is so much a technical error but an IP violation with the book.

Congratulations. I had far more refusals than you have. So don't bother... 🙂

But, yes, I understand that you want to understand the rational behind this. I'm currently looking on my iPad, which is not ideal for the task, but normally I can spot quite some problems on the pictures. But not that much on yours.

So lets only comment on the bunny and let the hard parts to my colleagues... 🙂

You did a good analysis on that one. The noise level is higher than it should be, also if you look at the eyes.

The squirrel does not look very sharp to me. The shadow is probably not the problem. 

As for the chilies I do not see much on my iPad that would even give me a hint into the problems. I'll need to have a look on this on my desktop.