Rejected due to technical issues

[Tim Short]

Hey, I'm new to photography and just had two photos rejected for technical issues.

Hoping someone with an experienced eye would be able to point out what I seem to be missing, please!

The photos themselves were decreased in resolution to fit the MB limit on photo uploads, as an FYI.

[Nancy OShea · Accepted solution]

Image #1: Uneven exposure.  The foreground is too dark.  For best results, don't point your camera at the sun.  Try to shoot photos with sun directly above you or behind your shoulder. 

Image #2:  Underexposed and B&W.   Stock customers want full color photos for use in commercial projects.

Read these links for more tips:

• 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...
• https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/how-to/tips-stock-image-acceptance.html

[Tim Short]

Hey.

In situations where photos are being taken (unavoidably) with the sun directly infront, what would you recommend in this case? But thanks for the headups in general!

That's actually a full colour photo, it was how the picture came out. I put them both into Lightroom to 'auto' tune them but generally they are both as taken! So because of the colour of the photo (or the actual, real life content within the photo) it would be considered unusable, commercially? 

Thank you for the links, I'll be sure to look through them!

[Abambo]

---

@Tim Short wrote:

Hey.

In situations where photos are being taken (unavoidably) with the sun directly infront, what would you recommend in this case?

---

Using a graduated nd filter. (hardware, not software!)

[Jill_C · Accepted solution]

1) poor focus, underexposed shadows, overexposed / blown out highlights; the branches and powerlines that intrude into the frame are distracting. You should either have recomposed or edited those out.

2) same issues here - underexposed shadows, overexposed highlights and poor focus

[Tim Short]

Hey Jill. Thanks for the response! 

By underexposed shadows you mean the extremely dark branches etc in the foreground?

Overexposed highlights I dont see, could you choose a key area for me to take a quick look at on the photo so I understand what you mean in this case?

I am also slightly confused about the focus, is it because not all of the photo is focused or is it because the focus is on a particular area that is sub-optimal?

Thanks again for your help! 🙂

[Nancy OShea]

In a nutshell, proper exposure is when you don't lose details. Check your images with the Histogram Panel.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/viewing-histograms-pixel-values.html

Also read up on Depth-of-Field as it pertains to focus.

https://photographylife.com/what-is-depth-of-field

[reedesign1912 · Accepted solution]

Yes, the foreground needs to be lightened in both.  And for landscape photography you would benefit from a larger depth of field.  For example with the horse, you could have gone up to f11 rather than f5 and had the fence and the horse in focus.  It's very challenging shooting into the sun, because often you or your camera adjust your settings based on that bright light in the sky and then everything else is dark and noisy. I lightened the shadows and you can see how much noise / grain there is when you zoom in on the horse (which I assume is the primary focus of this photo.)  I also did a quick edit to get rid of the branches and powerline.  I will point out that as it is, the photo would still be rejected for technical reasons.  You can lighten the shadows and reduce noise, but rarely can you fix the focus.

And like @Jill_C said, same exposure issues and focus issues in this photo.

I hope this helps you.

-Rob

[Abambo]

---

@reedesign1912 wrote:

 It's very challenging shooting into the sun, because often you or your camera adjust your settings based on that bright light in the sky and then everything else is dark and noisy.

---

Manual setting for the camera and bracketing helps.

[Jill_C]

The horses, the rock, and the bushes are completely black with no detail. Just lifting the shadows and adjusting the blacks, 2 sliders in Lightroom, will expose the detail in those areas. You'll have the best success in adjusting the exposure if you shot in RAW.

In both images, proper focus is difficult to detect due to the underexposed areas. Sharpest focus should be on the main subject in the frame. Background elements can fall out of focus. Large unfocused areas in the foreground can be quite distracting. Always zoom in to at least 100% or more and scroll around in your images to verify focus and look for other defects before uploading.

[RALPH_L]

The area around the sun is overexposed, the shadows are underexposed. The branhes and the wires need to be removed. The focus needs to be better.