Rejected due to Technical Issues

[shamerox]

Hi guys, the following shot of mine got rejected due to "technical issues". This is one of my good shots, and I don't seem to understand what could go wrong here.

I'm a newbie when it comes to stock photography, let me establish that. Please guide me in understanding why it got rejected.

[joanH]

Hello shamerox, Very nice photo, and interesting lighting. However, I think you have prospective problems amd some of your light and shadows are not realistic or true to your light sources.  I think this work might be something you have created from several parts. The gatepost on the right is much smaller than the left, the depth of texture is not well defined and has blur problems. The path and the pottery along the sides also could use a bit of adjustment and shading/lighting help. Do the adjustments and resubmit. Best regards, JH

[shamerox]

By "prospective" do you mean perspective problems? Because I now notice that the compound and the subject is little skewed. And about the light sources, I did not add any edits relating to that, all the light and shadow here are natural. The main light source here is the sun setting to the east of the subject. All I did was do "Apply image" in photoshop to produce some interesting contrast.

[Abambo]

I suppose it's perspective...

Was the original raw or jpeg?

[shamerox]

The original is JPEG

[Abambo]

You should start doing raw!

[Abambo]

Stones do not have structure, the sky shows banding and there is a halo around hard edges.

I would say too much noise reduction, to much sharpening, and your HDR processing needs to be refined.

[ricky336]

I think the HDR effect is too strong - it looks like too much of an HDR. For stock, it should be less noticeable.

Secondly, I think the photo is a bit oversaturated and a bit too much contrast. So I would suggest reducing the saturation and vibrance. (As well as sharpening.)

You could also correct the perspective.

As a quick example:

[jacquelingphoto2017]

Hi Shamerox,

In addition to the halo around the structure there is also color noise on the gate (green or cyan, purple, yellow).

Best wishes

JG

[shamerox]

Can you suggest how to easily reduce those noises?

[Abambo]

Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom have a slider for that:

You can normally add a big chunk or colour noise removal and the picture will still be good.

[jacquelingphoto2017]

Hi Shamerox,

Most photo editors are equip with a specific slider for luminance and chromatic noise reduction. Photoshop Camera RAW is the editor I use. For photoshop if your image is taken in RAW noise reduction is easy without damaging the pixels when you apply 200% zoom to inspect while dragging the slide to the right. With this zoom you will be able to see when the grains do smooth out. If however your image is in JPG for example, successfully removing all the noise without damaging the pixels is a bit difficult. I was introduced to a Photoshop technique that should yield better results, but not yet versed at it. I will revise the technique and post it at a later date. However for now I'd suggest you ensure your lighting/exposure is adequate while shooting. That to a small extent reduces the amount of noise produced, making noise reduction easier.

Regards

JG

[Abambo]

To avoid in camera noise, there is only one thing to do: get the ISO down to the lowest possible value. I‘m mostly at ISO 100 with my settings. Sometimes I’m higher as it is rarely possible for handheld pictures to use flash and catch specific lightning situations. A handful of such pictures are in stock. Shooting was raw (I never do JPEG) and noise reduction was applied using Lightroom.

My camera came also with a raw processing software that does a great job, similar to Lightroom or ACR, so there is not always a need to use commercial tools. All tools have some noise reduction and most are probably great with their raw processing.