Image rejected due to quality issues ... seriously

[H_Vojvoda]

Hello every one. Received a refusal due to quality issues. I can't see those issues. Thanks everyone for the answer.

[daniellei4510 · Accepted solution]

Blown out highlights, shadows could be opened up, and over-saturated reds.

[H_Vojvoda]

Thank you. But this is my Lightroom histogram

[daniellei4510]

And this is what Lightroom shows for me, with the shadows and highlights still needing some attention. As for the descripency, maybe @Abambo can chime in. He understands histograms far better than I do. In any case, one doesn't need a histogram to notice the over-saturated reds. In fact, they register as R: 255 with the dropper tool.

[Abambo]

@daniellei4510 ,

Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw should show the same histogram. If not, I would guess that the colour profile is not the same. I'm on my iPad and I can't check the histogram here. 

[daniellei4510]

That explains it. Since AI results don't apply a color profile, I have Photoshop set to turn everything I open into sRGB. It's so automatic I don't even think about it anymore. The image as submitted was probably Adobe RGB or something else.

[H_Vojvoda]

Yes indeed. The image submitted is with Color profile Adobe RGD

[Abambo]

You need to submit sRGB. AdobeRGB has a wider gamut, but if you open an AdobeRGB file as sRGB, without conversation, colours are dull, because AdobeRGB codes colours differently. https://www.viewsonic.com/library/creative-work/srgb-vs-adobe-rgb-which-one-to-use/

The specs for Adobe stock demand sRGB. 

BTW: ProPhotoRGB is still "better" than AdobeRGB. All those colour profiles are however only as good as the operator in front of the computer.

[H_Vojvoda]

Thank a lot for your help and interesting comments and tips. There is something I noticed and I don't know why it happens, but it's the origin of the problem. My original picture is a psd file with some layers to control highlights, contrast, sharpness,.... It is a 7016 x 4682 px file. Red color is between at the highest R: 220 and R: 177 at the lowest (with PS dropper tool), high but not oversatured ; color profile ProPhoto RGB.

I only downscale the image at 6000 x 4000 px directly in PS, I change to 8 bits. Everything's fine so far. It's when I change the color profile to sRGB or Adobe RGB that my Red color climbs to R: 255

[daniellei4510]

And that's when you need to jump into Camera Raw and adjust the endpoints of the Curve. It usually doesn't take much. Just make sure you're settings allow for the little arrows on the right and left sides to be visble. 

[Abambo]

How do you change the colour profile? Photoshop makes a good job, by remapping the colours outside of the gamut for the new profile. BTW: I'm using Lightroom for most of those adjustments and only jump in Photoshop to edit out logos and other disturbing elements. I submit from Lightroom, who also takes over the colour profile conversion. 

[H_Vojvoda]

I make the general adjustments in Lightroom. I usually always go them to PS to clean the image, dust spots or other, or sometimes chromatic aberration, always make some local dodge and burning and/or vignette, and I put a Topaz Photo Ai layer on top because the resutls of this plugin are really amazing. Them I downscale the image, usally to 6000x4000px, change to 8 bits, change color profile from ProPhoto RGB to sRgb and save as a JPG.

[Abambo]

 dust spots

By @H_Vojvoda

Works best in Lightroom.

or sometimes chromatic aberration

By @H_Vojvoda

Works great in Lightroom.

always make some local dodge and burning

By @H_Vojvoda

Lightroom with the new masking feature.

 vignette

By @H_Vojvoda

Lightroom

and I put a Topaz Photo Ai layer on top because the resutls of this plugin are really amazing.

By @H_Vojvoda

OK, I suppose that is done easier in Photoshop. Some corrections that need finer control than Lightroom offers for spot cleaning are also better done in Photoshop.

change to 8 bits, change color profile from ProPhoto RGB to sRgb and save as a JPG.

By @H_Vojvoda

That can all be done in Lightroom. In Photoshop is this destructive (except you create smart layers for that), with Lightroom not. Saving as JPEG reduces automatically from 16 to 8 bits.

[oleschwander]

Vojvoda - Use your eyes instead of diagrams.

[Abambo]

Vojvoda - Use your eyes instead of diagrams.

By @oleschwander

The histogram does not lie… However, yes, between blacks to the outer left and whites to the outer right, there are countless steps to create bad assets. 

[George_F]

I agree with @daniellei4510 on the blown highlights and oversaturated reds.  When I zoomed in to 100% view, many red surfaces and white surfaces like the coolers were missing texture/detail.  If you zoom in on the cooler on the right, it appears skewed and in need of geometry correction.  From a composition standpoint the ground pads entering the tents look dirty, and the entrance to the tent on the right side should either be closed or open instead of in-between.

I hope this perspective helps 🙂

[H_Vojvoda]

Thank you for detailled feedback. The cooler indeed is missing texture. I had to take away logos and handwritten with a black marker and the ground pad entering the tents is dirtty of course, it's a campsite in the tropical forest 🙂

[daniellei4510]

"the tents is dirtty of course, it's a campsite in the tropical forest "

It could still use some cleanup. Reality sometimes has no place when it comes to stock photography. I have no qualms about turning someone's brown eyes blue if I think it might improve salability. 🙂

[George_F]

Aspects of a photo that are taken or edited intentionally on your part may be considered a technical error by the standards that Adobe sets. 

I would encourage you to view this photo from a commercial perspective and think about the message this photo conveys, and how it would be used in a commercial setting.

Cheers!

[Abambo]

 the ground pad entering the tents is dirtty of course, it's a campsite in the tropical forest 🙂

By @H_Vojvoda

Who do you want to sell your asset to? For travel agencies and travel websites, the setting is too messy, people want to see nice vacuumed places, where the crokodiles (or other beasts) not just chased (or eaten) the campers.  A camping site with no campers is a basically useless picture. 

But we are talking here about the obvious technical issues, and those are to be found exentially in your oversaturated colours, especially the reds, not only in the cooling box, but also on the water dispenser and the stools. There are nearly no shades of red left. 

(we are here in commercial use photography, not in a reality site photography. Check your stage setting before taking the picture, and expose correctly and be carefull to get the focus on the right assets.)

[Nancy OShea]

I'm of the opinion that no one should sleep where they eat when camping.  Anyway, enough about camping safety

Composition is a technical issue.  You have too many competing elements here. It confuses the viewer's eye.  I honestly don't know what the main focal point is.  Choose one keyword that best describes your subject.  Remove everything else.  Keywords are essential because that's how Stock customers find the images they want to buy.

Maybe break this out into 2 or more separate images.  Fix the other technical problems mentioned above and resubmit.

Hope that helps.  Good luck.

[Jill_C]

Definitely over saturated !

[ricky336 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Your composition is messy - rather too much clutter! Reds are too red. I also think you could make a slight adjustment in the colour balance; it is just a bit too yellow/green.

Read this about the histogram:

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/discover/how-to-read-a-histogram.html

[H_Vojvoda]

Thank you for your advice. I changed the overal color balance by lowering the green and yellows. For the reds I just want to tell you my discovery. I explained the same issue to "Abambo".

I didn't know about this issue, but it's the origin of the problem. And maybe it can help some other photograpehrs, My original picture is a psd file with some layers to control highlights, contrast, sharpness,.... It is a 7016 x 4682 px file. Red color is between at the highest R: 220 and R: 177 at the lowest (with PS dropper tool), high but not oversatured ; color profile ProPhoto RGB. So for me my file is OK.

I then only downscale the image at 6000 x 4000 px directly in PS, I change to 8 bits. And everything's fine so far. It's when I change the color profile to sRGB or Adobe RGB that my Red color climbs to R: 255.

[Abambo]

As a side note: You don't need to repeat what you've written somewhere else in the flow. That clutters the thread with duplicate information. If you want to address specifically someone, you can use the @ and select their screen name. Like @H_Vojvoda! That user will get notified.