file size reduction after background removal confusion

[andyl56398885]

Hi, I am prepping photos of animals for stock photography I begin with a raw of at least 30MB in photoshop and end with a file of 400kb and unusable for stock when all I have done is delete the background and cropped the image a bit. Please helo what am I doing wrong, its really fistrating?

Cheers

Andy

[Peru Bob]

I've moved this from the Using the Community forum (which is the forum for issues using the forums) to the Stock Contributors forum so that proper help can be offered.

[Abambo · Accepted solution]

Foremost, the picture is not usable because your photography and Photoshop skills are not good enough for stock.

The picture is out of focus, noisy and missing details. In addition, your background removal is not done correctly. Operations like this need to be done cautiously and with great attention. If not, the result is not naturally looking.

Now to the 30Mb to 400kb: The Photoshop file is, when seen on screen, uncompressed (when saved lossless compressed). A JPEG file, depending on the quality factor, is highly optimized and destructively compressed. That is the nature of the JPEG compression. The full white background is great for compression with any compression algorithm, but JPEG also can compress ANY file, with little artefacts (remember: the compression algorithm is lossy), given a good quality factor. I'm not surprised with your 400kb file, but as I stated above, that will not be the rejection reason by any stock agency. The lack of quality will be.

[andyl56398885]

So if the image is the right quality for stock photography the file size will also be okay? I'll try some of my stock photography photos that have been accepted but I still have a RAW and see what happens.

[Abambo]

So if the image is the right quality for stock photography the file size will also be okay? I'll try some of my stock photography photos that have been accepted but I still have a RAW and see what happens.

By @andyl56398885

Yes, the file size in Mb is irrelevant if the rest is OK. An all white file, which is with 16 bit channels around 50 Mb big, saves down with maximum JPEG-quality to less than 700k. That is normal, as there is no information to save and 700k is still a lot for an empty image... 🙂

Going down to Q10, which is still good enough, you get half of the previous size.

If the visual inspection does not reveal compression artefacts, then the file is OK.

I've done cutouts for around 30 years now, and I know that it is very difficult to get convincing results, especially if the object is hair or feathers, as those tend to blend very specifically into the background. When doing pictures especially for this aim, I took care to photograph my subject before a uniform, neutral background.

[andyl56398885]

Thanks for that any other tips for doing good cutouts? Or is there a good YouTube video? Want to get better at this stuff. 

[andyl56398885]

how could i have taken a better photo of the subject in your view?

[Abambo]

Get your subject in focus (portraits: you should aim the eyes) and correctly exposed.

And IMHO, it's not worth doing cutouts for stock. You will spend hours on the subject and still getting refusals. If you're looking at cutouts on magazines, they are rarely perfect. Layouters optimize for time, and the result will be as good as asked for. If you are doing it for stock, you need to work perfectly. But the sales will be frustrating low. 

[Nancy OShea]

Which version of Photoshop are you using?

[andyl56398885]

Hi using the latest as I pay the subscription. 

[Nancy OShea · Accepted solution]

https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/remove-background.html

Video ~ Jesus Ramirez, Photoshop Training Channel, YouTube