Technical issue

[Simone Cooper]

What is wrong with these? I think these are on the edge of beeing accepted. Of course "Technical issue" image rejection.

[reedesign1912]

It's always important to view your photos at 100% magnification or higher.  A lot of technical issues become clearer then.

You can see the bird is out of focus.  The photo is grainy and there is chromatic aberration in the feathers.  There is also a white balance issue where everything is too blue.  Also, the branch in front of the bird's face is unfortunate and it is unlikely even if this photo was technically sound that anyone would want to purchase it without having a clear view of the bird's head.

Similar issues in this photo with lack of focus, noise / grain and white colour balance issues.

Again, lack of sharp focus and it looks like this photo was taken with your phone.  While not impossible to get stock quality photos with your phone, it is difficult due to the small sensor size.  Your phone will also do a lot of automatic filtering and compression which causes the tree bark to look "painterly" rather than natural.

It would be worthwhile for you to take a look at some of the Stock Contributor help files to better understand what is required.

• https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/photography-illustrations.html
• https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/reasons-for-content-rejection.html
• https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/user-guide.html

Best of luck in your future submissions.

[Simone Cooper]

Hi there. Only the last one was taken by phone (I agree this could be grainy then), but the first ones (two birds) was made with Camera (do not know if I can say the names but "N" brand). So if the real camera does not allow me to take clean shots and is equal to phone shots, then it is probably only for sale... or I do something wrong. Thanks for the answer.

[reedesign1912 · Accepted solution]

@Simone Cooper yes, you can say Nikon.  🙂  What would help is if you can change the settings on your camera to manual rather than automatic.  One of the things I noticed on your first two photos is the ISO is quite high and that usually causes a lot of noise in the photos.  The higher ISO is needed for low light situations and often you can clean up the noise in post processing.  Focus is the bigger issue here. In the first bird photo the camera is trying to focus on the twig rather than the bird's head.  That's why composition is so important and you need to change your angle to get the focus on what you really need.  The other issue is going to be the zoom - because your camera uses a combination of optical and digital zoom, the camera itself does a lot of the processing of the photo. 

Also, if you can take the photos in RAW format rather than JPG, you have a lot more opportunity to process the photo yourself and make a lot of corrections.  Get to to know your camera better and try some of the manual settings.  Your camera may be limited for wildlife photography, but great for portraits.  I wouldn't be selling the camera right away, just learn it's qualities and limitations.

Good luck and happy snapping.  🙂

[Jill_C]

I agree with Rob that you shouldn't be in a hurry to replace the current camera until you have mastered all its features, including shooting in RAW, utilizing manual mode to dial in the appropriate shutter speed, aperture and ISO for each scene, and choosing the appropriate focal point. You can go a long way in perfecting your photography skills with an entry level camera. Buying a newer, more expensive camera is not necessarily going to improve your images unless you've mastered the basics.

[Simone Cooper]

It's great to hear some good words from you both. I am pretty sure these are auto mode shots, so probably I've ruined these (birds) photos - I don't count the last one, it's phone photo (personally the best one, just as a photo). Very high ISO captured by automode. It's B700 model so I can't change the lens. It has superzoom itself, but... I don't expect high-end model quality with that, but I have hope for a clean photos... You could be right that I combined optical with digital, there is a chance in it, so maybe if I didn't go in digital sphere it wouldn't be also as grainy. People said to shot with "fine" format instead of "normal" and also avoid the "raw" if I want to sell the images. I will try to teach myself more about photography, I will listen to you and give it a chance, thank you.

[Jill_C]

The Nikon B700 Coolpix is 5-year old technology, essentially a point and shoot camera with a fixed lens and little control over the settings. The latest iPhone probably has a superior camera. Nevertheless, it can still provide many lessons in composition and focus and editing while you research what camera upgrade you may want to invest in.

[Simone Cooper]

I guess it is going be on the different topic there then to what invest. Anyway I will try to improve my photo shots and understanding of doing it, untill investing for a new camera. I think so too today phones are better than this, but I had hope that optical zoom will change everything but this is more than that. Though you can't do photo of a bird that is 10-20 meteres away (let's forget about even more like 50 - 100 meteres away) with good quality with a phone even with P50 Pro. However they are amazing to macro photography in my opinion. Thank you for the advices!

[reedesign1912]

@Simone Cooper , I think your friends did you a disservice when they told you to shoot in FINE rather than RAW.  You will have so much more control in editing your photos and correcting things like white balance and noise if you shoot in RAW.  FINE jpg format is great to make it easier for you to share photos with friends or to post on social media, but when you want to sell your photos, you want RAW to control the quality.

Like @Jill_C said, this is still a good camera to improve your photography skills.  I've upgraded my cameras several times, but studying, joining a local photography club and lots of practice has made me a better photographer not necessarily the equipment I am using.  On a side note,  I have had photos accepted here that were taken years ago with my old Nikon Coolpix too. Learn how to take the best photos you can with the equipment you have and when you do decide to upgrade you'll have a much better idea of what you want in a new camera.

Best of luck to you.

[Simone Cooper]

Thank you

[Jill_C]

Noise and lack of sharp focus 

[Simone Cooper]

Hi, thank you for the answer. No clue what to do then, especially about the bird ones. That was made by camera not the phone. Still grainy after 100% zoom in. Seems this camera is hopeless though all photos in my library (after short check) are grainy.

[Jill_C]

What was the ISO? A high ISO would explain the noise. Soft focus could be due to subject motion, camera motion, or both as well as a poorly calibrated camera/lens combo. The kit lens on lower end DSLR's is also frequently not a very good lens... 

[Simone Cooper]

ISO on first 640, second 800, third 160 (with exception becasue last one made by phone so it doesn't even say anything). It's B700 model so I can not change the lens sadly. I am aware of quality of this model, but it shouldn't make as bad images... To be honest I am a begginer so that's a second part of it. 

[PepeCastro]

A Nikon coolpix or any type of bridge is a fun camera that gives you good family moments for your trips and for your private videos, but it does not have the necessary features for a professional nature photo. Perhaps the photo of nature and animals in freedom is the one that most requires you to have good lenses and expensive material, apart from shelters and camouflage booths and infinite patience of spending hours and hours waiting for the right shot in the rain or snow. or the full sun. If you want to dedicate yourself to nature photography professionally, I think you will have to consider a big change

[Simone Cooper]

I do consider, I am going to look for a good camera and good lens. But as I said as a begginer it's even hard for me to know which lens would be good for photos like that and what camera would be good. That's probably different topic for advices. Thank you.

[RALPH_L]

Focus and noise