Please, Tell me what's wrong...

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

Hello again,

It's time for me to be brave and let you experienced folks, rip apart my image. I suppose I must know exactly what I'm doing wrong and the only way to do it is post images. Here is a recent rejection. Yes, I know the histogram is off, but I wanted the background furniture darkened and no the watermark was not on the submitted image:

Alright, have at it!

Thanks, in advance for the critique, even though it will sting my pride, LOL.

Annette 

[RALPH_L]

As soon as you post the original we will "have at it".

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

Here you are: it was rejected for technical issues ( I predict there is probably an unacceptable amount of noise):

[Abambo]

There is a high noise level. look at the background. That should be no big deal, however. And I haven't checked the histogram, but even if you intend something, the histogram needs to be OK.

I would get the overall colour temperature warmer. There is a greenish cast on the baby's face, probably some kind of reflection. 

If the eyes are sharp, you can get this picture accepted, with some work.

[Jill_C · Accepted solution]

Beautiful eyes on this cute baby! I think the dark background is the problem. It looks like you darkened part of it but missed some areas... Also, in terms of increasing saleability of the image I would do some skin cleanup to reduce the reds and blotchiness, which are very common issues with baby skin. ( I did newborn photography for a while, and always had to spend a significant amount of time editing their skin.)

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

Wow, lmao, this is my granddaughter, who is so white, she is pink! I spent quite a lot of time, but thanks for the feedback. I cleaned off all the saliva already, haha

[Jill_C]

Check out the images from renowned newborn photographer, Kelly Brown. I took an online course from her to learn about photographing babies and editing those images. I also bought her Photoshop Actions which make editing skin a breeze. 
Sale on Now - Newborn Posing

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

I like the sounds of skin editing being a breeze. She is so pale that I can't imagine how many hours it would take to fix everything, LOL Thanks for the information.

[Jill_C]

One of the first newborns I photographed when I was just starting out had the worst case of baby acne I've ever seen ! It was everywhere on his body too, not just the face. When I loaded those pictures onto my PC to start editing, I almost cried. It took so long to edit that shoot... To his parents he was a beautiful boy, but they definitely wouldn't have wanted to send any of those unedited pictures of him out into the world. I didn't yet have the Kelly Brown "Beautiful Skin" PS Actions yet, but had learned that the cost was well justified!

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

That is funny! I would imagine it was great practice though 😃

[Jill_C]

Oh yes, great practice and my Photoshop retouching skills improved by leaps and bounds !

[Nancy OShea]

Ditch the copyright & signature.  That's a no, no on Stock images. 

What was the rejection reason Stock gave you?

If we can't see the original image as submitted, we can't provide honest feedback.

Reviewers reject out of hand any images containing watermarks, vignets, borders... as non-compliant. 

Read the Dos & Don'ts in your Contributor User Guide.

• https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/reasons-for-content-rejection.html
• https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/quality-and-technical-issues.html
• https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/user-guide.html/stock/contributor/help/photography-illustr...

[Jill_C]

she said that the watermark was not in the submitted image....

[Test Screen Name]

Yes, and it's a good time to emphasise: DON'T DO THAT. We can only give our best feedback on the actual image that was submitted - not a different image that has been resaved for ANY reason. Resaving can introduce new faults, or remove the faults in the original, especially JPEG artefacts. So the feedback we give may not be accurate or complete if you are driven to resave it.  

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

No need to YELL! I was taught to protect my images from thievery! I will post the exact image...

[Nancy OShea]

Nobody is yelling.  Caps are used for emphasis here.

Signatures don't add any protection.  They just obfuscate the image making it harder to give honest feedback.

[Nancy OShea]

Also, to use this baby's likeness commercially you will need to provide a signed model release from the baby's parent or legal guardian.  Do you have one? 

Model/Property Releases:
https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/model-release.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/property-release.html

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

Yes, I provided one--this is my granddaughter.

[Nancy OShea · Accepted solution]

In the upper left, I see some subtle color ghosting / fog.

Histogram panel shows some clipping.

Slight color adjustment is needed to counter green light coming off the baby quilt.

And I agree with Jill about skin retouching. 

Customers are lazy.  They won't buy images that need correction.

Hope that helps. Good luck with your next submission. 🙂

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

Nancy, I can't thank you enough for always taking the time to help everyone who has questions--it's really kind of you, plus you're so extremely knowledgable.

OK, I hear what you're saying. My goal was not to eliminate the background; I just wanted to tone it down. Not acceptable, huh? The histogram was fine, until I darkened the shadows to hide the obviousness of the furniture. Did you circle her ear and foot because they're not in focus? Is it not OK to draw attention to the face of the subject? Or, is that where you saw the green cast? I'm just trying to clarify! 😃

One more question: if they reject and then we fix the image, can it be resubmitted?

[Abambo]

Fix and resubmit! No trouble with that.

[RALPH_L]

Thanks for posting the original. I see you have a lot of comments. I think the main problem is the dark background is not good around the edges and the light spot behind the head.

Also, if viewed at 200% you can see that the mouth is in focus and the eyes are slightly out-of-focus. 

[Ricky336 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

There is another major problem with this photo. White balance. The baby's skin is blue! You have to correct this!!

E.g.