New Contributor. Can anyone help me understand why my image was rejected?

[michaelh53887362]

Hello, I am new to Adobe Stock. I had this photo rejected on the grounds that it was not in focus when blown up to 100%. But when I look at it at 100% "actual size" the bud of the flower and water droplets look fine to me. It has an intentional shallow depth of field but they can't be referring to that, can they? Are they looking for super-sharp images? Any help or information would be appreciated.

[joanH]

Hello michaelh53887362, Everything stated by Adobe in their guidelines for stock contributors should be read and followed to a T. Yes, the central image must be very sharp, in focus totally. The secondary flower is not completely in focus. Adobe clients are very particular and so is Adobe. While this is a very nice shot it is probably not outstanding enough to compete with a few thousand others of the same subject. Go to the stock site and look up stock photos of this flower. The search through the competitions photos is worth a thousand words. Just in case, here is a link for more information. Best regards. JH  To learn more about the reasons why we decline certain images, including technical issues, please visit this page: https://www.adobe.com/go/stock-contributor-help

[jacquelingphoto2017]

Hi michael

I do love that flowers. It's pretty. However you might have made the depth of field a little too shallow. Most of the flower bell is sharp, however unfortunately the far edges are a bit soft. The very top petal point is out of focus. The lower edge of the bottom flower, closer to the tip of the petal is not so sharp either. Make a comparison of the apex of the petal lobes that are in the middle with the edges of the half apexes at top and bottom and you will see the difference.

Images should be sharp enough that they are easily cropped using any editor crop tool. If parts of the image is out of focus, or not sharp enough, the crop tool will not find the edges, and cropping will not be smooth.

I hope you found this helpful

Regards

JG

[ricky336 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

I see that your f stop is 5.6 so this gives quite a shallow depth of field.

See here, it isn't sharp - you really need this bit to be sharp and in focus as well (especially for stock photos).

The bottom part of the flower also isn't very sharp.

The subject itself needs to be sharp!

You may have intentionally wanted a shallow depth of field, but I think it is too shallow in this case. You need to have the whole flower in focus, so that stands out from the background. Here, part of the flower merges with the background.

Compositionally wise as well, it is unbalanced. The flower bell on the edge of the frame makes it top heavy, so think about your cropping more. Give the flower some room.

[michaelh53887362]

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. What I have to get used to is the idea of how these pictures will be used. I have to keep in mind that these aren't pictures to be matted and hung somewhere, but are instead for commercial purposes. I'll chalk this up to a learning experience.