Rejected for Quality issues

[thekelvinlachica]

Hi guys, 

I am new to stock photography. I made my first uploads and most of them got rejected. Would you be able to help me determine how I can improve on them?

[Jill_C]

Here are my observations:

1. Needs to be cropped tighter. Focus on the eye of the fox isn't sharp enough.

2. Beautiful mountain scene, but the sky is blown out, focus is soft and details lacking. Was this shot with a cell phone camera?
3. Again, soft focus, crushed details and purplish artifacts in the sky 

4. what a stunning scene, but the focus is soft, details lacking and sky blownout 

5. Soft focus, blown highlights, lack of fur detail 

6. Soft focus, lack of detail, blownout sky. Additionally you would have needed a model release for the person since he is clearly recognizable.

[John PDX]

The second photo was shot with a DJI drone.  For better results under challenging lighting I set my drone to shoot a set of three or five exposure bracketed photos.  Then I merge them into an HDR photo using PS, LR or Aurora HDR.  I really like Aurora HDR.  That results in a better exposded photo w/out the blownout sky.  

[Jill_C]

Nevertheless, the sky is quite blownout in this image, which is confirmed by looking at the histogram. Additionally, the details are crushed, looking quite pixelated. I don't shoot with a drone, but I question whether it is steady enough in the hover mode to capture sharply focused images, particularly a set of bracketed images. It seems that camera motion is unavoidable. 

[Abambo]

Drones produce very good pictures, nicely stabelized, but the camera needs to be a high quality one. Most drones have cell phone style cameras. The quality is accordingly. I would try to film more than to photograph. 

[Abambo]

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@Jill_C wrote:

Here are my observations:

1. Needs to be cropped tighter. Focus on the eye of the fix isn't sharp enough.

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The focus is a major flaw. The space around the fox is less disturbing, even that a golden ratio crop could help the visual appeal.

[John PDX]

Hi, I think #4 is an amazing photo.  The sky is bright, but not actually blown out.  If I were you I would do a little more editing and perhaps a sky replacement then print and frame it.  Maybe Stock won't want it but it's an exellent shot.

Here are the results of some minor edits in LRC and a *very* hasty sky replacement using PS just to give you an idea.  

[Jill_C]

I agree - it's so unique - I'm really wondering what the location is !

[thekelvinlachica]

Hi Jill and everyone. Thank you for the feedback. I am starting to realize that editing for stock is completely different than the way I approach editing. I will surely do better next time. 

[Jill_C]

You're welcome, please tell us the locale of the images. The one with the red riverbanks is stunning!

[thekelvinlachica]

This one was taken from the Red Rock Canyon in Waterton Canada. 

[Abambo]

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@thekelvinlachica wrote:

Hi Jill and everyone. Thank you for the feedback. I am starting to realize that editing for stock is completely different than the way I approach editing. I will surely do better next time. 

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Editing for stock is to produce technically flawless pictures. It's not about going overly creative. And you really need to do pixel peeking to check the quality. 

If you are new to stock, you should consider these resources: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/tutorials.html
Please read the contributor user manual for more information on Adobe stock contributions: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/user-guide.html
See here for rejection reasons: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/reasons-for-content-rejection.html
and especially quality and technical issues: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/quality-and-technical-issues.html

[ricky336]

Hello,

This may be a matter of opinion, but I think you could fix the white balance in most of the photos. They do have a blue cast over them - especially with the fox and the bear. 

For example, the fox:

white balance corrected - the snow is white now

The canyon - the sky is blown out. It can't be fixed in post because if you decrease the highlights you will get a muddy grey colour in the snow - even if you replace the sky.