Astronautilus Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 (edited) Hi everyone, I recently went more than 30 submissions with no fails, and then this year, a flurry of SOLD fails. I look at all parts of every image at 100%, but it seems that suddenly my judgement is flawed. For example a landscape pic in poor light so taken at f2.8, so limited DOF, and the grassy foreground is out of focus. My judgement was as it's a landscape focussed on infinity, the foreground doesn't matter. But QC disagreed and judged it SOLD. So it's a little worrying that I can no longer anticipate their QC criteria. But my last submission really left me dumbfounded. It has 3 SOLD fails in a batch of 12 that for the life of me, I can't see their justification. Here's one of them, it's a 5742 x 3648 57.1MB jpg. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_nofRlIYx00YCq0qcrxpvxyJQTjOfk6Z/view?usp=drive_link There's some slight fringing on the apartments to the right from LR gentle sharpening, but SOLD? I wouldn't have said so, but suddenly I'm not so sure! Thoughts? Edited May 21 by Astronautilus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KitJames Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 Oh, I have no access to it so I can't look for myself. Focused to infinity? I never did infinity focusing other than know that it tends to soften the entire image? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 Same here, it's password protected so I can't take a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 25 minutes ago, Astronautilus said: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_nofRlIYx00YCq0qcrxpvxyJQTjOfk6Z/view?usp=drive_link "Access denied" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astronautilus Posted May 21 Author Share Posted May 21 OK, the link should work now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astronautilus Posted May 21 Author Share Posted May 21 10 minutes ago, KitJames said: Oh, I have no access to it so I can't look for myself. Focused to infinity? I never did infinity focusing other than know that it tends to soften the entire image? I'm not sure what you mean by 'infinity focusing'... I just mean the horizon was sharp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astronautilus Posted May 21 Author Share Posted May 21 8 minutes ago, Brian Yarvin said: Same here, it's password protected so I can't take a look. Link fixed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astronautilus Posted May 21 Author Share Posted May 21 8 minutes ago, spacecadet said: "Access denied" Link fixed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 Yes indeed! Now I can see two problems that would cause an Alamy failure; first, the foreground - especially the guy sitting - is out of focus. And second, the windows of the building are filthy. Try again! We are all always learning! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astronautilus Posted May 21 Author Share Posted May 21 5 minutes ago, Brian Yarvin said: Yes indeed! Now I can see two problems that would cause an Alamy failure; first, the foreground - especially the guy sitting - is out of focus. And second, the windows of the building are filthy. Try again! We are all always learning! The people are deliberately pixellated, and if QC have an issue with bird poo on the windows, why SOLD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve F Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 They won't fail it for the windows. I don't think Brian is referring to the people's pixelated faces. The whole image looks like it has been oversharpened. What camera settings for the image and how much sharpening applied in LR? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve F Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 It's a 6MB file, did you downsize it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astronautilus Posted May 21 Author Share Posted May 21 3 minutes ago, Steve F said: They won't fail it for the windows. I don't think Brian is referring to the people's pixelated faces. The whole image looks like it has been oversharpened. What camera settings for the image and how much sharpening applied in LR? No sharpening in the camera, and one of the LR sharpening presets. And would they fail it on SOLD if they thought it was oversharpened? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve F Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 2 minutes ago, Astronautilus said: No sharpening in the camera, and one of the LR sharpening presets. And would they fail it on SOLD if they thought it was oversharpened? I've only had 1 QC failure in 10 years, so not much experience. But I guess maybe Alamy use SOLD as a catch all term for various failure reasons. There's either a problem with the upload of the image to Google Drive, or if this is the original image, it is really oversharpened, something has gone wrong with the processing. It's very smudgey and pixellated when you zoom in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve F Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 Be aware that your uploads will be scrutinised a lot more now. Alamy would only have been doing spot checks before and some images may have slipped through if you've had this problem before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 (edited) 44 minutes ago, Astronautilus said: No sharpening in the camera, and one of the LR sharpening presets. And would they fail it on SOLD if they thought it was oversharpened? Downloaded and inspected in PS. Pixelating the faces of the people may not help QC? But the Panasonic FZ10002 only has 1" sensor and 16x zoom lens, so submitting without downsizing is going to risky and post-processing will be critical. There's definitely some loss of detail. I notice from the EXIF data that quite high levels of luminance NR have been applied. If you're shooting in RAW then using the new Adobe Denoise in LR might well have helped. Mark Edited May 21 by M.Chapman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 There are "jaggies"- I don't know what causes them, is it the oversharpening?- but I think the pixelated faces would be enough for a fail. They're not necessary. You should be able to read the text on the board- I can only read all the words because I know what they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 (edited) 3 minutes ago, M.Chapman said: the Panasonic FZ10002 only has 1" sensor and 16x zoom lens I didn't check the EXIF but I agree with Mark. The sensor is too small to give any leeway in processing. I don't think the foreground is OOF btw- I think it's the oversharpening on too small a sensor. Edited May 21 by spacecadet 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 It's really interesting to read other people's comments! I'll take it all into account. However, if the bird poo resembles sensor dust, it can be failed. I've had that happen and know firsthand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 (edited) I also notice the EXIF data shows <crs:RawFileName>P1001504.JPG</crs:RawFileName> and <xmpMM:PreservedFileName>P1001504.JPG</xmpMM:PreservedFileName> Are you shooting in RAW or is this an out of camera jpg that's then been further processed in LR? If it's the latter then I also wonder if the jpg compression from the camera was too high? Mark Edited May 21 by M.Chapman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiskerke Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 Does QC allow pixelated faces? They certainly do not allow visible retouching. I see that your Luminance Noise Reduction Detail is set at 100 and Luminance smoothing is at 61 while your sharpness is at 75. (Which is all not that gentle in my book.) Is this an OOC jpeg? As the others have said: 1" sensors need careful editing. wim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 (edited) Also wondering about the pixelated faces. Do the other images that have failed also have pixelated faces? Aside from anything else, it seems pointless as it would be very easy for anyone in the pictures or anyone who knows them to recognise them anyway, as the pixelation barely conceals the faces. Edited May 21 by MDM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 16 minutes ago, Brian Yarvin said: It's really interesting to read other people's comments! I'll take it all into account. However, if the bird poo resembles sensor dust, it can be failed. I've had that happen and know firsthand. Sensor dust is always dark and generally rounded. Birds in the sky might be confused with sensor dust though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 (edited) 18 minutes ago, wiskerke said: Luminance Noise Reduction Detail is set at 100 and Luminance smoothing is at 61 while your sharpness is at 75 Very fierce and certainly not a "preset", sharpness default (5.7) is 25 and if I go to luma 50 on a low-ISO image all the fine detail goes. I might use it at 3200. Some of OP's other images of the Arts and Sciences are the same size and have passed QC so maybe it's a problem with this image. Edited May 21 by spacecadet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Standfast Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 47 minutes ago, spacecadet said: I didn't check the EXIF but I agree with Mark. The sensor is too small to give any leeway in processing. I don't think the foreground is OOF btw- I think it's the oversharpening on too small a sensor. +1 so there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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