Advice on high ISO submissions please

[Mike S]

Some of my photography is in situations where I have to use high ISOs as it’s low light without the ability to use a tripod e.g. concerts. Whilst I produce photos that are in focus, there’s obviously a lot of noise which has meant some get rejected as soft focus. How can I try to get these type of photos accepted? I don’t want to over process them and get them rejected for that reason. I use Lightroom on a Mac to process my photos…if I end up at ISO 6400 for example is it inevitable that they’ll fail QC? Thanks

Edited February 3, 2023 by Mike S

[MDM]

Shooting at ISO6400 is meaningless in itself as you don't say what camera you are using. In addition if you underexpose at ISO6400 you will get a noisier image than if you expose correctly for the subject. There are no hard and fast rules.

 

If you shoot raw and use Lightroom noise reduction followed by downsizing to around the minimum size required by Alamy then you give yourself the best chance of passing QC. If you want more informed opinions then provide extra detail (camera) and maybe upload some sample images.

[Mike S]

51 minutes ago, MDM said:

Shooting at ISO6400 is meaningless in itself as you don't say what camera you are using. In addition if you underexpose at ISO6400 you will get a noisier image than if you expose correctly for the subject. There are no hard and fast rules.

 

If you shoot raw and use Lightroom noise reduction followed by downsizing to around the minimum size required by Alamy then you give yourself the best chance of passing QC. If you want more informed opinions then provide extra detail (camera) and maybe upload some sample images.

Hi MDM - thanks for your reply. I’m using a Fuji X-T20 shooting RAW. I hadn’t thought about resizing down so I’ll have a play with that

[MDM]

I'm not familiar with Fuji gear myself but there are lots of Fuji fans on the forum so I'm sure you will get some input there. I recall there were some problems with Lightroom and the X-Trans sensors but I don't know if that is still relevant. 

 

In addition to universal noise reduction over an entire image, you can also use localised NR on areas that show a lot of noise. The new masking tools in Lightroom should make this a lot easier than before as well. Bland areas typically show more noise than areas with detail.

[Rebecca Ore]

I have DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite for the extreme noise cases.  It supports the latest Fuji (not sure about the earlier ones) and can be downloaded as a 30 day trial.   The DeepPRIME XD only works on native raw files, not TIFFS or DNGs, but it does an excellent job.  Lightroom Classic's masking is also extremely useful for doing noise reduction to the background.   DXO's raw file program is cheaper, but DxO PhotoLab 6 can, per DxO's FAQ, do everything their raw file program can do and more.  Check DxO's program site to check on what costs and does what.   I'm getting upgrades to DxO PhotoLab, so for me, that's cheaper than buying their raw conversion program new.   Also, they have periodic sales which are worth waiting for.

 

DXO has a plugin for Lightroom, so you can set to DxO from Lightroom and export to Lightroom from DxO.  For more normal photos, I work in LRC only. 

[Ed Rooney]

 

Mike, hopefully you are looking around and reading other posts on this forum. There is lots of useful information. We were discussing high iSO and noise recently on page 138 of my Post A Bad Thing thread. 

 

Edo

Edited February 3, 2023 by Ed Rooney

[geogphotos]

Give DXO Pure RAW2 a test run. 

[Cal]

7 hours ago, Mike S said:

if I end up at ISO 6400 for example is it inevitable that they’ll fail QC? Thanks

 

No. I've submitted ISO 6400 images shot on several cameras, older Sonys and a Nikon D500, single submission, and have passed. I have also had an image fail for noise, where the actual noise level was pretty low but it was mostly made up of chroma noise - the colour splotches. So based on that experience my advice would be remove as much colour noise as you can - the LR default of 25 is usually enough except for very high ISO shots. Downsize to 6MP and submit.

 

Failing QC isn't the end of the world, IMO pushing to see what passes and fails is fine too rather than risking perfectly licensable images sitting dead on your hard drive.

 

I have in the past used Denoise to remove noise but I find it needs a lot of tweaking to avoid the image looking like plastic. I don't care if it'll pass QC, if it looks like crap I don't want it up there.

Edited February 3, 2023 by Cal

[sb photos]

18 hours ago, Mike S said:

Hi MDM - thanks for your reply. I’m using a Fuji X-T20 shooting RAW. I hadn’t thought about resizing down so I’ll have a play with that

 

No need to worry about resizing, I often do either to upload quickly via my phones hot spot or to combat high iso noise. My highest license fee last month was for a 17.2mb image 3000 pixels on the longest side. I often shoot with D750's up to 12800 iso when photographing bands in poor light (not for Alamy) and sometimes use PureRAW 2 to good effect. Also try to choose and edit shots where you don't have to open up shadows, good exposure helps.

[John Mitchell]

I never shoot at very high ISOs, so can't really the answer the question. However, I'd experiment with downsizing to 17MB (about 3000 pixels on the long side) and see if your images pass QC. I often downsize images to varying degrees. It's better than getting into debt buying expensive lenses (especially these days), plus most editorial uses are small size.

 

Best of luck.

[MDM]

Downsizing reduces noise and increases apparent sharpness which means you can apply minimal or no sharpening to the image (sharpening has a very nasty effect on noise). As John says, 3000 pixels or so on the long side is sufficient for most stock uses. 

[Jill Morgan]

I shoot a lot of birds, so it is quite common for me to have high ISOs in order to get those jet propelled creatures in focus.  I use Topaz Sharpen AI and Topaz DeNoise AI.  Depending on the image, one or he other usually does the job.  Not sure you want to invest in software though.

 

Jill