Convert Raw to JPEG without shrinking the file

[Matt Kynaston]

Hi,

 

I am trying to upload 3 images for my first stock submission, and obviously want to stay within the guidelines.

 

I can't seem to find a way or any advice on how to save an image on Photoshop or Lightroom into a jpeg without shrinking the file down.

 

An example, the .raw file I want to submit is 23mb but shrinks to 7mb when I try to save it. How can I change this?

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

Many thanks,

 

Matt

[John Morrison]

Hi Matt...

 

Your numbers look fine to me. The jpg format condenses the file, and when the customer opens up the image in PS, it will be full-size again.

 

Just upload your 7mb files to Alamy (having checked for critical focus, dust-spots, etc)...

[Avpics]

15 hours ago, Matt Kynaston said:

Hi,

 

I am trying to upload 3 images for my first stock submission, and obviously want to stay within the guidelines.

 

I can't seem to find a way or any advice on how to save an image on Photoshop or Lightroom into a jpeg without shrinking the file down.

 

An example, the .raw file I want to submit is 23mb but shrinks to 7mb when I try to save it. How can I change this?

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

Many thanks,

 

Matt

If it's the QC guidelines that's worrying you, then those figures will be fine. As said, it's the uncompressed image size rather that the saved file size that counts.

[DDoug]

9 minutes ago, Avpics said:

If it's the QC guidelines that's worrying you, then those figures will be fine. As said, it's the uncompressed image size rather that the saved file size that counts.

Of course, but some might interpret this to mean that the extent of JPEG compression doesn't matter. JPEGs saved at low quality levels such as 2 or 3 will have more compression artifacts than those saved at 10 or 12. Best to save at the highest JPEG quality levels to be on the safe side.

[Matt Kynaston]

Thank you so much for your responses. I definitely misunderstood the QC guidelines to mean that the file sizes had to be 17mb on submission. I have submitted my first 3 stock photos and will see what comes back.

 

Thanks again!

[jodyko]

AlamySizeCheck

 

http://www.braeside.plus.com/photography/alamy/alamy.html

 

I use this and it's worked well for me. Mostly useful if I crop something and am in doubt.

 

It's probably worth mentioning that there is a "Not secure" warning preceding the URL. Entry of sensitive information such as credit card/ passwords is not recommended. Not necessary as it's DonationWare.

 

I've had no issues with the software itself. Perhaps others will have thoughts or experience to share. This issue seems to come up from time to time, particularly with new contributors. I know it was confusing to me.

[Harry Harrison]

2 hours ago, jodyko said:

I use this and it's worked well for me.

Well yes, apart from the fact that it only approves images in the Adobe RGB (1998) Colour Space. That's fine, and of course you can upload in that space (they will be converted) but Alamy supply all images in the sRGB colour space but with no profile, so you may as well upload in sRGB also. There is an exhaustive thread on this:

 

https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/11753-colour-space/page/6/

 

Edited September 18, 2019 by Harry Harrison

[Allan Bell]

2 hours ago, jodyko said:

AlamySizeCheck

 

http://www.braeside.plus.com/photography/alamy/alamy.html

 

I use this and it's worked well for me. Mostly useful if I crop something and am in doubt.

 

It's probably worth mentioning that there is a "Not secure" warning preceding the URL. Entry of sensitive information such as credit card/ passwords is not recommended. Not necessary as it's DonationWare.

 

I've had no issues with the software itself. Perhaps others will have thoughts or experience to share. This issue seems to come up from time to time, particularly with new contributors. I know it was confusing to me.

 

I used to use this excellent software too back in the day. Not so much now.

 

Allan

 

[Harry Harrison]

2 hours ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

I wish they would ditch this and just say that all files have to have a minimum of 3000 pixels on the longest side

Yes, I would welcome something simpler also but that wouldn't take into account Micro 4/3, square or panoramic images, all of which would need different figures. A 3000 pixel panoramic would be too small. A chart would be good by way of clarification.

[jodyko]

15 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

Well yes, apart from the fact that it only approves images in the Adobe RGB (1998) Colour Space. That's fine, and of course you can upload in that space (they will be converted) but Alamy supply all images in the sRGB colour space but with no profile, so you may as well upload in sRGB also. There is an exhaustive thread on this:

I remember going through that discussion and admit that much of it is over my head. I use  it simply for pass or fail and disregard the profile warnings.

[Harry Harrison]

2 minutes ago, jodyko said:

I use  it simply for pass or fail and disregard the profile warnings.

OK, maybe I'm missing something, can you change the parameters? It seems to be working on 24MB minimum uncompressed file size. I suppose the way to use it is to ignore all the warnings and let it calculate the uncompressed file size. But, as mentioned above, if you've got a standard '35mm' format sensor (Full frame, APS-C, Sony RX100 etc.) then it is much easier surely to just make sure the longest size is always greater than 3000 pixels.

[jodyko]

15 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

I suppose the way to use it is to ignore all the warnings and let it calculate the uncompressed file size

That's the way I use it and really only when I crop which is not often. I use mostly Micro 4/3. Saved at level 12 (98%) in Adobe Elements I get 4608 x 3456, 45.56 MB uncompressed.

[jodyko]

3 minutes ago, jodyko said:

30 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

I suppose the way to use it is to ignore all the warnings and let it calculate the uncompressed file size

That's the way I use it and really only when I crop which is not often. I use mostly Micro 4/3. Saved at level 12 (98%) in Adobe Elements I get 4608 x 3456, 45.56 MB uncompressed.

 

Micro 4/3 resized to 3000 x 2250 uncompressed 19.31 MB. Passed by Sizecheck.  Mostly this is beyond me technically at present so I'll stop here.

[Harry Harrison]

1 hour ago, jodyko said:

Passed by Sizecheck

Well that sounds OK, the information with the last update in February 2015 said the following, which was clearly based on earlier Alamy standards:

 

Colour codes Size - Red for less than 24MB (Fail), Blue for 24 to 48MB, Green for 48MB and above.

 

I can see that it can be useful and I should probably spend more time looking at it before commenting, it's very quick and you can sort on the uncompressed size column.

[jodyko]

Just now, Harry Harrison said:

Well that sounds OK, the information with the last update in February 2015 said the following, which was clearly based on earlier Alamy standards:

 

Colour codes Size - Red for less than 24MB (Fail), Blue for 24 to 48MB, Green for 48MB and above.

 

I can see that it can be useful and I should probably spend more time looking at it before commenting, it's very quick and you can sort on the uncompressed size column.

 

Sounds good to me!  😊

[Keith Douglas]

2 minutes ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

1:1 = 3000 x 3000

4:3 = see above

Panoramas = Why would you ever downsize a panoramic image when the whole point is to increase pixels!!!???

 

If the size constraint is more than 6,000,000 pixels, which I believe it is, then it's 3000 x 2000 (3:2) or 2450 x 2450 (1:1) or 2829 x 2122 (4:3)

[MDM]

 

I  can never understand why this size thing is problematic for experienced photographers. In Photoshop the pixel dimensions are clearly displayed in MB in the Image SIze dialog box as well as the Info panel. Lightroom gives the size in MP so if it is showing 6MP then it is over the 17MB limit with a simple x3 multiplication. I know the x3 isn't exact bit it should be sufficient in the vast majority of cases.

 

I can understand of course why novices don't understand the relationship between pixel dimensions and file size on disk but surely that indicates that they have a bit of background work to do to bring their knowledge up to scratch. This has to be the No 1 FAQ on here and it never goes away. 

[Harry Harrison]

23 minutes ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

Why would you ever downsize a panoramic image

That's what I was pointing out, a panoramic with a longest side of 3000 pixels would be downsizing, it wouldn't meet the Alamy spec.

[Harry Harrison]

20 minutes ago, Keith Douglas said:

If the size constraint is more than 6,000,000 pixels, which I believe it is, then it's 3000 x 2000 (3:2) or 2450 x 2450 (1:1) or 2829 x 2122 (4:3)

Yes, absolutely, and you could add 2:1, 2.5:1, 3:1 panoramics to that I guess, so a chart like this would be a guide and help new contributors understand but ultimately Alamy have got it right by specifying a minimum uncompressed size and getting the photographer to understand the basics.

[jodyko]

10 minutes ago, MDM said:

they have a bit of background work to do to bring their knowledge up to scratch

In my case I certainly agree. Just one area among many.

[M.Chapman]

3 hours ago, Harry Harrison said:

OK, maybe I'm missing something, can you change the parameters? It seems to be working on 24MB minimum uncompressed file size. I suppose the way to use it is to ignore all the warnings and let it calculate the uncompressed file size. But, as mentioned above, if you've got a standard '35mm' format sensor (Full frame, APS-C, Sony RX100 etc.) then it is much easier surely to just make sure the longest size is always greater than 3000 pixels.

 

Alamy SizeChecker - You may need to update to the latest version which accepts 17MB

 

Mark

[Keith Douglas]

39 minutes ago, MDM said:

 

I  can never understand why this size thing is problematic for experienced photographers. In Photoshop the pixel dimensions are clearly displayed in MB in the Image SIze dialog box as well as the Info panel. Lightroom gives the size in MP so if it is showing 6MP then it is over the 17MB limit with a simple x3 multiplication. I know the x3 isn't exact bit it should be sufficient in the vast majority of cases.

 

I can understand of course why novices don't understand the relationship between pixel dimensions and file size on disk but surely that indicates that they have a bit of background work to do to bring their knowledge up to scratch. This has to be the No 1 FAQ on here and it never goes away. 

 

I don't understand why it's so problematic either. Perhaps Alamy just need to say that the image needs to have at least 6,000,000 pixels and forget about the confusing 17MB requirement. There again, it may not stop this still being the number 1 FAQ!

 

There is no fixed relationship between image size in pixels and file size on disk for a JPEG, so anybody looking at the file size of an image they are about to submit is going to be little wiser about whether the image is big enough. On the other hand (in Windows) look at Properties -> Dimensions and it will tell you what you need to know. 

 

[M.Chapman]

2 hours ago, Harry Harrison said:

Well that sounds OK, the information with the last update in February 2015 said the following, which was clearly based on earlier Alamy standards:

 

Colour codes Size - Red for less than 24MB (Fail), Blue for 24 to 48MB, Green for 48MB and above.

 

I can see that it can be useful and I should probably spend more time looking at it before commenting, it's very quick and you can sort on the uncompressed size column.

 

Definitely an old version - I'm running 1.1.7 which only goes red below 17MB.

 

It would also be great if the author of Alamy SizeChecker could produce a version that also showed green for sRGB as there's absolutely no point in submitting AdobeRGB to Alamy because they convert to sRGB on receipt. In fact I would argue it's better to submit sRGB to Alamy so that you can check the colour rendering and histogram in sRGB colour space before submission. Does anyone know how to contact him? (The contact link on his website no longer works - he's retired).

 

Mark

Edited September 18, 2019 by M.Chapman

[Keith Douglas]

49 minutes ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

I was just trying to simplify it with a minimum 3000 px , it doesn't seem to be getting through though

But you can't simplify it with a minimum of 3000px on the long side. Some images that pass the test will (correctly) fail the Alamy criteria. And some images that fail the 3000px test would have passed the Alamy test. And we're not just talking about at the margins of a few pixels. 2450 x 2450 would pass the Alamy test. 3000 x 1500 wouldn't pass.

[M.Chapman]

50 minutes ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

I was just trying to simplify it with a minimum 3000 px , it doesn't seem to be getting through though

 

But that doesn't work for all formats. Simple rule, make sure you have more than 6 million pixels in the image.

 

Also, I sometimes make panoramic crops from 4:3 images, so going "panoramic" isn't always about increasing the number of pixels.

 

Mark