Submission failed - soft or lacking definition

[PatsyCollins]

One of my images has failed QC (first time ever) for being soft or lacking definition. I've disputed this as it's a plant photo with the subject in focus and the plants behind deliberately soft, so the subject stands out better. 

What worries me more is that all my other photos, submitted in the same day period have all failed because of that one image. There were a lot and it took me a long time to process and upload them all. Is there a way to resubmit these without having to upload them again?

[Steve F]

Hi Patsy, no they need to be re-uploaded when you have access again. 

 

If you disagree with the QC finding, you can query it with Alamy QC. If not sure, you can try us here on the Forum:

 

 

[PatsyCollins]

Thanks for replying, even though it's not the answer I wanted!

I've replied to the email saying why I think it should have passed. No reply yet, but it hasn't been long.

I hope that if they agree the batch will then be passed?

Edited January 16, 2023 by PatsyCollins

[spacecadet]

I don't think I've ever challenged QC, just deleted and moved on, but surely upload time is only a few minutes even for a big batch? The processing work isn't wasted.

If you care to host an image at 100% and post the link, the forum will offer an opinion. I use postimages.org

 

[PatsyCollins]

I don't have lightroom so can't keyword my images. Each was uploaded separately with the latin name as the title. Doing that again for 200 images would be a lot of work, even if I had saved the processed files, which I didn't. 

 

[PatsyCollins]

I can't work out how to show you the exact image, but here's a similar one of mine which did pass – https://www.alamy.com/scented-white-summer-flowers-of-lily-lilium-speciosum-album-in-uk-garden-august-image503889120.html?imageid=62E667C4-4526-4CF5-8241-C91B75FF80D9&p=1706080&pn=1&searchId=87c5ae53a8b63db39f0743922d171ef3&searchtype=12 The main subject is in focus, the same plants behind are deliberately soft, so the subject stands out. It's something I do a lot and hasn't been a problem before.
 

[PatsyCollins]

And thanks for replying.

Sorry, this has made me so cross I've forgotten to be polite!

[Steve F]

29 minutes ago, PatsyCollins said:

I don't have lightroom so can't keyword my images. Each was uploaded separately with the latin name as the title. Doing that again for 200 images would be a lot of work, even if I had saved the processed files, which I didn't. 

 

 

Hi Patsy,

I'm a bit confused, I'm assuming you're not talking about the filenames, how did you change the IPTC metadata (e.g. adding the caption?) And why were you not able to save the edited JPEGs? Failing QC is a thing that happens; I'd want to keep JPEG copies at least until I've passed QC (assuming that you have the raw files so you can delete the JPEGs if you don't have enough storage space afterwards)

Steve

Edited January 16, 2023 by Steve F

[Steve F]

24 minutes ago, PatsyCollins said:

I can't work out how to show you the exact image, but here's a similar one of mine which did pass

 

It needs to be hosted online somewhere, not on social media. try imgbb.com or postimages.org as Spacecadet suggests.

[Martin L]

32 minutes ago, PatsyCollins said:

I don't have lightroom so can't keyword my images. 

 

Patsy.

You don't need LR to keyword, I don't.

If you are on Windows just right click on the jpg, select Properties and under the Details tab you can add title and tags (keywords). These will then appear in your AIM.

If you are on a Mac then ignore what I just said.

 

 

 

[PatsyCollins]

Steve, Sorry for the confusion. When I upload an image, I add a title on the upload page. That doesn't do anything except remind me which plant it is. After passing QC I then manually input the cation and keywords.

I could save the edited Jpegs, but I didn't do so. In future I'll go back to only uploading one image at a time and saving the edited version until I've passed QC. I did that originally, but after a year of always passing QC I decided to do larger batches to build up my portfolio more quickly.

[PatsyCollins]

Martin – I'm on a Mac! Thanks for trying though, I'd really like to be able to keyword my images.

[Jill Morgan]

I'm not sure why any photographer would not save their edited jpgs, or at least the edited tiff files.  That leaves you no access to your portfolio, as you can't download your own images from Alamy.  What if you want to upload to another agency? I have almost every RAW image I have taken (minus the real bummers) and all my jpgs I have uploaded to Alamy.  I even have double backups.  Might be one of those hard lessons on life you learn.

 

Jill

[PatsyCollins]

I do keep the RAW files, Jill and have back ups of those. 

[spacecadet]

2 hours ago, PatsyCollins said:

I can't work out how to show you the exact image, but here's a similar one of mine which did pass – https://www.alamy.com/scented-white-summer-flowers-of-lily-lilium-speciosum-album-in-uk-garden-august-image503889120.html?imageid=62E667C4-4526-4CF5-8241-C91B75FF80D9&p=1706080&pn=1&searchId=87c5ae53a8b63db39f0743922d171ef3&searchtype=12 The main subject is in focus, the same plants behind are deliberately soft, so the subject stands out. It's something I do a lot and hasn't been a problem before.
 

Showing us that doesn't tell us anything. We need to see the image at 100%, hence the suggestion to host it, but since you've deleted the jpegs you can't do that.

Your one-at-a-time method does seem rather laborious. With something like LR all the processing information is saved in the catalogue so you can always go back to it. Your method seems to leave you with no processed file at all.

I can go back to 2011 (in some cases, 2004) and simply re-export a jpeg from any of my RAWs if needed. In fact, that's usually quicker than finding a copy of the original export.

[Jill Morgan]

1 hour ago, PatsyCollins said:

I do keep the RAW files, Jill and have back ups of those. 

 

But what you need for portfolios are you processed jpgs. You should be saving those.  But that is hindsight.  If you insist on deleting your jpgs, do wait until you have passed QC. You could email Alamy and see if you can download the images that failed.  Never hurts to try. They are on the servers still, so I would ask

 

Jill

[Rebecca Ore]

LightRoom Classic, DXO PhotoLab 6, CaptureOne (professional version), and some others all have keywording as a function and can do catalogues or projects.

 

I back up automatically to an external hard drive, and that can be set in Macs using Carbon Cloner (what I used on a Mac) or a similar program. 

 

Don't know what program you are using now, but I believe it's worth it to have one of the professional level programs.  And tag your Alamy subs (both the raws and the jpegs) as that so you can find them quickly.

 

Adobe's Bridge can do keywording.  

 

 

[wiskerke]

Alamy has often stated that one of the reasons to declare an image soft or lacking definition, while there may be a small part of the image actually sharp and in focus, is that the thumbnails must not give the client a wrong impression of the overall sharpness.

 

wim

[PatsyCollins]

Thanks for your comments everyone.

I'm not a professional photographer and don't have any of the software mentioned. I use NX studio and Affinity Photo. I could have saved the Jpegs and now realise I should have done until the images had passed QC. I'll do that in future - if I do any more. 

Wiskerke – I hadn't considered that aspect. It is possible that a quick look at the thumbnail could give the impression the image wasn't sharp.

[Jill Morgan]

1 hour ago, PatsyCollins said:

Thanks for your comments everyone.

I'm not a professional photographer and don't have any of the software mentioned. I use NX studio and Affinity Photo. I could have saved the Jpegs and now realise I should have done until the images had passed QC. I'll do that in future - if I do any more. 

Wiskerke – I hadn't considered that aspect. It is possible that a quick look at the thumbnail could give the impression the image wasn't sharp.

 

Here is a link to adding keywords and captions in Affinity Photo:  https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Panels/metadataPanel.html?title=Metadata panel

 

Jill

[PatsyCollins]

Thanks – I'll give it a try.

[Marianne]

I'm confused, how do you process your RAW files and doesn't whatever program you use let you keyword them? As mentioned, it looks like you can keyword in Affinity Photo - you can also keyword in Mac's Photos app. 

 

You should always keep your processed files because why would you want to have to process them again? If you don't have much room on your hard drive, then get a portable one. In fact, you should be backing up your RAW files. You should ideally have 3 copies of all your files, one on your computer or a hard drive if it's too full, a second on a different hard drive, and a third in the cloud. Hard drives fail as do computers (I had two fail within 3 days of each other once). Just best practice. 

 

FYI: Uploading one at a time won't help as much as you're hoping  if one fails since all batches that are in QC will fail, and not just the single photo/batch. 

 

You've got lovely images and I can see that the purposely shallow depth of field hasn't been an issue before. 

 

I urge you to read up on maintaining a photo portfolio and best practices for backup. The loss of 200 processed images is so difficult, imagine what a shame it would be to lose all your images. Pro or ameteur, it's a lot of hard work. Don't purposely discard it. Alamy isn't a backup - they might let you download one or two images due to a loss, but it's unlikely they'd allow you to download your entire portfolio. 

[PatsyCollins]

On 16/01/2023 at 18:38, Jill Morgan said:

 

Here is a link to adding keywords and captions in Affinity Photo:  https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Panels/metadataPanel.html?title=Metadata panel

 

Jill

Thanks, Jill.

I've tried that and keywords added in Affinity do transfer across to Alamy, so that will make things a little easier for me.

[Jan Juerges]

On 16/01/2023 at 15:01, PatsyCollins said:

Martin – I'm on a Mac! Thanks for trying though, I'd really like to be able to keyword my images.

Hi Patsy, may i ask about your workflow? What software do you use for RAW processing? Is there not a function to see and alternate the meta data for each image? I would strongly advise to add all relevant meta information like title, description, copyright holder AND keywords right to the RAW file, if not then at least to the processed jpg. That way you only have to do it once and also other stock websites you might want to sell through can use that meta data. There are plenty of cheap or free EXIF data tools available. 

[PatsyCollins]

Thanks, Jan.

After this issue I've revised my work flow a bit. Jill kindly pointed me towards the info on how to add keywords using my existing software, so I now do that for the processed images and make sure I keep those until the images pass QC.