Owen Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 Hi, I'm a new photographer and I've wanted to try selling some images so I found Alamy. I uploaded some images and they've been in QC for about 48 hours now so I looked up how long they should take to pass and it's usually about this time but some contributors suggested checking over your images before uploading. So I just want to know what kind of thing I should check for in my images during development and before I upload and what to include/not include when I take the photos. Thanks, Owen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokie Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 It might be worth reading this: https://www.alamy.com/contributor/how-to-sell-images/guidelines-for-submitting-images/ John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted August 28, 2018 Author Share Posted August 28, 2018 Yeah that's helpful but (I know this probably sounds stupid) what is checking at 100 percent and why can you not sharpen images even if they need it? Is it because of artefacts? If I take in raw then surely they need sharpening? Also what about black and white images? I know this is sounds quite scathing but I'd like to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Quist Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 49 minutes ago, Owen said: Yeah that's helpful but (I know this probably sounds stupid) what is checking at 100 percent and why can you not sharpen images even if they need it? Is it because of artefacts? If I take in raw then surely they need sharpening? Also what about black and white images? I know this is sounds quite scathing but I'd like to know. This is not a photo course nor a photo club. The forum will often be helpful with specific questions you may encounter, but the basic education as a photographer you will need to get elsewhere. A really good source will be to search the Alamy forums for topics that have been answered earlier. There is f.inst. a number of threads about sharpening, like this one: https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/6231-sharpening/ Instead of using the Forum search - it often pays to use Google and include "alamy forum" in the search (quotation marks in this place only to show my point). There is a treasure of knowledge hidden there. - and you will face a steep learning curve, I think. Niels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 59 minutes ago, Owen said: Yeah that's helpful but (I know this probably sounds stupid) what is checking at 100 percent and why can you not sharpen images even if they need it? Is it because of artefacts? If I take in raw then surely they need sharpening? Also what about black and white images? I know this is sounds quite scathing but I'd like to know. You are obviously at the beginning of your journey into photography. As Niels says this is not a place to learn photography although people are very helpful here. I would suggest you take it easy with selling images and learn the basics at least before you attempt to offer professional services which is essentially what you are doing when you are making your work available for sale. Alamy is unusual in that they don't check for content of your images so you can basically upload more or less anything with certain limitations but there is a basic level of proficiency that you need to achieve. This is not difficult with the right equipment. However, simply being able to pass Alamy QC does not mean one is a photographer. That is the more difficult part. Enjoy the journey, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted August 28, 2018 Author Share Posted August 28, 2018 44 minutes ago, Niels Quist said: This is not a photo course nor a photo club. The forum will often be helpful with specific questions you may encounter, but the basic education as a photographer you will need to get elsewhere. A really good source will be to search the Alamy forums for topics that have been answered earlier. There is f.inst. a number of threads about sharpening, like this one: https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/6231-sharpening/ Instead of using the Forum search - it often pays to use Google and include "alamy forum" in the search (quotation marks in this place only to show my point). There is a treasure of knowledge hidden there. - and you will face a steep learning curve, I think. Niels Thank you, I'll check these and use Google some more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Checking your image at 100% means whatever software you’re using to view/work on the image, enlarging it on your computer monitor to 100% and then scrolling over the image area by area looking for whatever could be wrong with it. Best done after all work has been finished. I do it in Photoshop or Lightroom. Betty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted August 28, 2018 Author Share Posted August 28, 2018 1 minute ago, Betty LaRue said: Checking your image at 100% means whatever software you’re using to view/work on the image, enlarging it on your computer monitor to 100% and then scrolling over the image area by area looking for whatever could be wrong with it. Best done after all work has been finished. I do it in Photoshop or Lightroom. Betty Thanks Betty, I had a feeling it was but I just wanted to make sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanRohrer Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 I check each image at 200% and 100%. 100% is a zoom to 1 pixel of the image projected to 1 pixel of your screen/display. You are looking for concerns such as: chromatic aberration, sensor dust/dirt, things in the image that would resemble sensor dust/dirt, bad sharpness (lens/camera quality and shooting technique issues), noise, hot pixels, dead pixels, bad retouching (I often retouch at 300% to get clean edges and tone transitions), copyright concerns (logos, trademarks, art/buildings/designs where the copyright is enforced), people (even small parts or silhouettes may need model releases). So you are doing a technical review as well as a legal review in the process of submitting and deciding RF/RM/Editorial/Released categories. Alamy submission inspections do not check so much on the composition or sale-ability of an image but if these are not viable then the image may be added to the library but still won't sell. The learning curve via Alamy is going to be tedious at best. Alamy does a random sample of your submissions so you really don't know from experience where the acceptable thresholds are for each of the potential technical problems. Failing an inspection will put you into the time-out corner where you be stuck for weeks and cannot make new submissions. So front end photography learning is likely better done with a mentor and/or technically proficient photography club or classes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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