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Approval of non-photo images?


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So I'm trying to pass my first submission. To be clear, the images I have to submit aren't photographs, but are digitally-created abstract art I've created. (If it turns out Alamy *only* accepts photographs, please tell me!) It seems the approval process has some flaws in this case, because the below three images were rejected for the following reasons:

 

Filename

Rejection reason

20170101.jpg

Excessive similars

Compression artefacts

 

1) I really have no idea what" excessive similars" means? Too many Alamy images already look like them?

 

2) Compression artefacts. These images are created pixel-by-pixel by a C# program. The only reason there are *any* compression artefacts is that the Alamy submission process requires JPG format, instead of the native PNG format they were originally saved in. If you make me submit in a compressed format, of course there's going to be compression artefacts! So I feel that criticism is pretty unfair.

 

Anyway, below are links to the images I submitted, any feedback from forum regulars is appreciated.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y74bces60wq968m/20170101.jpg?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c5r63yfxeuy9c2m/20170317.jpg?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5rpoa7auw1rcgwy/20171117.jpg?dl=0

 

I feel like images such as this have a ton of uses in presentations, backgrounds for brochures or video productions, etc.

 

Thanks!

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So I'm trying to pass my first submission. To be clear, the images I have to submit aren't photographs, but are digitally-created abstract art I've created. (If it turns out Alamy *only* accepts photographs, please tell me!) It seems the approval process has some flaws in this case, because the below three images were rejected for the following reasons:

 

Filename

Rejection reason

20170101.jpg

Excessive similars

Compression artefacts

 

1) I really have no idea what" excessive similars" means? Too many Alamy images already look like them?

 

2) Compression artefacts. These images are created pixel-by-pixel by a C# program. The only reason there are *any* compression artefacts is that the Alamy submission process requires JPG format, instead of the native PNG format they were originally saved in. If you make me submit in a compressed format, of course there's going to be compression artefacts! So I feel that criticism is pretty unfair.

 

Anyway, below are links to the images I submitted, any feedback from forum regulars is appreciated.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y74bces60wq968m/20170101.jpg?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c5r63yfxeuy9c2m/20170317.jpg?dl=0

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5rpoa7auw1rcgwy/20171117.jpg?dl=0

 

I feel like images such as this have a ton of uses in presentations, backgrounds for brochures or video productions, etc.

 

Thanks!

 

 

I just had a look at the first picture and it indeed has very strong compression artifacts. They are not there because Alamy requests jpegs, but because you compressed the jpegs too much. Switch to a higher quality level and they will be fine. I usually usually generate jpegs in quality level 11 (of 12) in Photoshop or 90 (of 100) in Lightroom.

 

Excessive similars means that there were too many images in the submitted batch which are almost identical. I don't understand how this can happen if you only submit three images. Just guessing, but maybe Alamy also wants to see some real pictures in your first submission. 

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Alamy also does not like jaggies in photos. Maybe they don't like jaggies in generated images either: try to use a much higher resolution.

In 20170101 the black parts certainly look like faults to me.

 

wim

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Thanks for responding.

 

I just had a look at the first picture and it indeed has very strong compression artifacts. They are not there because Alamy requests jpegs, but because you compressed the jpegs too much. Switch to a higher quality level and they will be fine. I usually usually generate jpegs in quality level 11 (of 12) in Photoshop or 90 (of 100) in Lightroom.

 

I don't own Photoshop, but I saved the images in Paint.Net at what it calls "100% quality" (I have no idea if that means 12/12 in Photoshop terms or something entirely different.)

 

Here's the original PNG: https://www.dropbox.com/s/klnz9cacro8clf9/20170101.png?dl=0

 

Here's a diff showing the pixels that differ between the PNG and JPG versions of the same image: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1qfuceeqkzyv26d/PNG%20to%20JPG%20diff.png?dl=0

 

So I can see the JPG compressor did a rotten job on edges and leaves out some entire shades of green and blue. That said, this is also a digitally-created image that doesn't suit well for JPG compression, which is designed only for photographs.

 

What I don't understand is if this site is so militant against compression artefacts, why not let me submit an image format that doesn't have lossy compression? I just don't get it.

 

Excessive similars means that there were too many images in the submitted batch which are almost identical. I don't understand how this can happen if you only submit three images. Just guessing, but maybe Alamy also wants to see some real pictures in your first submission. 

 

That's part of what I was asking. If this site is supposed to be photos-only, *please* someone just tell me so I can stop wasting my time. :)

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As for being similar, I'm not sure I would say they were, but maybe Alamy mean they are all the same type of image? You'd have to ask them about that though. Backgrounds can be created easily these days without any skill, and if not, downloaded from free sites. I doubt many people would use a stock agency like Alamy to pay money for such images. Alamy is mainly for editorial photos that could be used for news articles, magazines, presentations, etc.. I know that illustrations and vectors are also on Alamy but I don't rate the chances of someone selling many licenses on Alamy of that sort of image.

 

I'm certainly no photographer. I built a C# program to generate images on a lark, and a bunch of people told me I should try to sell them, so here I am.

 

Maybe you're right and I'm barking up the wrong tree.

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I suggest an email to contributors@alamy.com. You can mention the submission you made so they know exactly what you are talking about. Give them the Alamy ID number. You should get an automated reply immediately and then someone will write you later.

 

Paulette

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I doubt you will be successful here with these images. There are a number of program (of one sort or another) generated images on Alamy, so obviously they didn't have compression artifacts. I really know nothing about it, but it's possible those created by different programs than yours were better able to withstand anything that happens when uploaded.

 

Possibly your program has them barely on the edge of appearing ok, but any further compression puts them over the edge into unacceptable.

But....what do I know? :D

Betty

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It's not about us. Nor is it about Alamy. It's not even about you.

It's about what a client wants and expects.

 

The team that vets the images knows very well what clients don't like.

Now you could fight that or you could produce what they want.

 

Even if you want to just hang it on your wall, at the moment it's very small. So my advice would be: make it at least 4000x6000 and if the jaggies are still visible, double that or change your process.

As for 20170101, I still think that even in your process, the black or dark grey parts in the red can be considered a fault.

 

wim

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That's part of what I was asking. If this site is supposed to be photos-only, *please* someone just tell me so I can stop wasting my time. :)

 

 

 

I'm certainly no photographer. I built a C# program to generate images on a lark, and a bunch of people told me I should try to sell them, so here I am.

 

 

 

 

Since you asked for it: I indeed think you are wasting your time.

 

1. consider everything everyone else in this thread said already

2. This is a stock photography site. Alamy accepts also vectors and maybe also bitmaps like yours, but focus is really on photography. If you don't have any photos, you'll probably not be very successful here.

3. I'm not sure if you realized how many images you need to generate any income. A couple are just not enough. We're usually speaking about 1 sale per month per 1000 images, although some contributors here, me included, do better than that.

4. I never ever sold a license for any picture people (who're not in the stock photography business) told me I should sell them. Fact is that most people confuse visually appealing with having commercial value. Just because a picture is considered nice doesn't mean anyone is interested in buying a license.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Christoph

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Those are illustrations, not photos, so I think you're in the wrong category.  Alamy has a category for illustrations, but from the dialog box, they require vector graphics for them, not JPG files, so you're probably going to need a program like Adobe Illustrator.  

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Those are illustrations, not photos, so I think you're in the wrong category. Alamy has a category for illustrations, but from the dialog box, they require vector graphics for them, not JPG files, so you're probably going to need a program like Adobe Illustrator.

Alamy does sell JPG illustrations.

 

Jill

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