Help with reason for technical rejection

[sarahd_tn]

Hi, I'm new to contributing so could really use some help. All of these images were rejected for technical issues. I submitted other similar images that were accepted and I can't figure out how these are different.Thanks for your help!

[George_F · Accepted solution]

I can't speak to the other photos you submitted, but I can confirm these have technical issues.

In general when I looked through, I saw noise and artefacts, exposure issues, and focus issues.  I wonder if the artefacts are from over sharpening.  I find these sorts of things become apparent when viewing between 100%-200%.

I suspect Adobe has more than one photo reviewer, that may explain why multiple photos from a series are accepted and rejected at different times.

Good luck with future submissions 🙂

[sarahd_tn]

Thank you for your feedback. As I'm new to this, I'd appreciate some advice if you have time. Do you think these technical issues are things I can fix on these images or are they beyond help. I did do quite a bit of editing on them and maybe I created more issues than I fixed.

noise and artefacts- I did do some sharpening so maybe without that it would be better. What about noise filters in photoshop? Would that help or is it too bad for that to be a suitable fix? How do I see the noise and artifacts? Not sure what I'm looking for cause I don't see it. Is it  dots when you zoom in around 100 to 200?

exposure issues- I see where whites are blown out. Is that the exposure issues? Is that something that can be fixed with adjusting levels when editing or would that not be a good enough fix?

focus issues- this is why applied sharpening. I guess that's a bad idea. Is there anything you can do to fix that after the image is taken?

Thank you for any help you have time to give. If you don't have time, thank you for the feedback you've already given. That's a great start for me.

[reedesign1912 · Accepted solution]

Here is a screen shot of your one image at 100% magnification in Photoshop.

You can see how the children are no longer in sharp focus and and their faces and clothes don't have smooth surfaces or colours.  This is what @George_F was referring to with the noise / artifacts.

In the photo with the baby, there is a black horizontal line (artifacts) above its head.  It sort of looks like something was being cloned out, but that portion was missed.  You can also see the grain / noise around the eyes.  This portion was only zoomed to about 66% and it was more noticeable.

It looks like several of your photos were taken with your phone's camera.  While it is possible to take stock quality photos with your phone, you are going to have more challenges due to the small sensor size and automatic processing of photos by the phone.  Ideally, if you can shoot in RAW format and you should be able to do that with your Coolpix, you will get a lot more flexibility and control in making corrections in post processing.

They all look like great images with the children, I am not sure if they are salvageable or not.  Try doing some light edits again, but if it doesn't seem to be working out for you don't spend a lot of time on them.  Keep on zooming in at 100%-200% magnification to check for issues.  I heard a phrase once that entertained me "Everyone looks better as a thumbnail."  The small screen makes a lot of photos look much better than they actually are.

Here are some resources it might be worth reviewing:

• Photo requirements:  https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/photography-illustrations.html
• Rejection reasons:  https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/reasons-for-content-rejection.html
• Stock Contributor quick start guide:  https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/user-guide.html

[sarahd_tn]

Thank you so much! That is super helpful.

I can see the noise in the screenshot you did. I thought I had zoomed in but I guess I wasn't looking objectively enough. I can see it now.

I see the black line now too. I was trying to expand the negative space to make room for copy. Good to know that that's an example of an artefact.

Yes, I took the images with my phone. I don't know how to use my Coolpix well.  I guess it's time to learn.

Thank you so much for taking the time to give all of that advice. It's really helpful!