Batch Submission Rejected

[dbiermanphotog]

This is my first post, I did introduce myself in the Newbie thread. I hate my first post is to ask about a problem, but I didn't know this forum existed,  I had a problem and my search for answers led me here.

 

I submitted a batch of 18 images, 1 was flagged for being soft but the whole batch was rejected.

Is this normal?

I tried to select that photo and delete it but I couldn't see a way to do that so I could resubmit the other images.

The only option I see is resubmitting all the images and having to retag all the images again.

I hope I'm missing something.

[Martin L]

On 30/08/2024 at 06:52, dbiermanphotog said:

 

Is this normal?
 

Yep

[NYCat]

You don’t need to delete it from Alamy. Go over the other images very carefully and only submit ones you are sure have no flaws. 
 

Paulette

[Betty LaRue]

Hi, this is how Alamy operates.

I don’t know what software you use, but I tag in Bridge before I upload, so the tags always stay with the image. I save the folder of uploaded jpegs, so it is easy to take out an offending image & upload the rest again. I’d probably slit my throat if I had to tag a batch again.

I would suggest that you inspect each of your images at 100% before uploading them. You can catch all sorts of imperfections that could cause a fail. It took me a while when I joined to figure out what was sharp enough and what wasn’t. It’s a thin line & I failed a lot my first year, less often the second. Cataract surgery helped a lot! 😁

Good luck & keep trying. Persevere through failures & don’t take it personally. Nobody is out to get you. It’s just a learning process that will make what you submit better & better.

The first year I joined, I did take it personally and stopped uploading for a year or so. I only hurt myself & had to develop a thick skin. I haven’t failed in ages, now.

[Steve F]

Hi Duane,

Yes, it's standard. Welcome to Alamy. Submission procedure is:

https://www.alamy.com/contributor/how-to-sell-images/alamy-quality-control/?section=5

 

• We’ll just spot-check a few of your images per submission 
• If the images we check are ok, your whole submission will pass 
• If we find a problem with one image, your whole submission will fail 

Alamy get over 100,000 uploads a day and do not have the resources to check every image and also expect contributors to do their own QC and submit a high quality product. 

 

This might assist with passing QC as well:

https://www.alamy.com/contributors/alamy-how-to-pass-qc.pdf

 

You can submit as many images as you want in one go - but don't fail QC. If you fail regularly, your images will be very scrutinised and you will spend a lot of time being blocked from uploading. 

 

 

Best of luck,

Stephen

[Mr Standfast]

Some more help:-

 

https://www.alamy.com/blog/common-qc-failure-reasons-and-how-to-avoid-them

 

https://www.alamy.com/blog/alamy-quality-control-qc

 

https://www.alamy.com/blog/your-most-asked-alamy-quality-control-questions

 

https://www.alamy.com/blog/the-10-most-common-qc-failure-reasons

 

As the guys above have said, if one fails the batch fails. It's a common and cost effective practice.

 

Good luck

[M.Chapman]

Yes - if one image fails, the whole of that submission is rejected, but also any other submissions that a contributor has waiting in the QC queue will also be rejected.

 

It's therefore wise to wait for each submission to pass QC before submitting another batch, at least until 100% confident of meeting the quality standard Alamy requires.

 

Mark

[dbiermanphotog]

Thank you all for the responses.

I'm primarily a sports photographer, I shoot prep sports for MaxPreps, a few other organizations and freelance for myself from time to time, so I know about sharp photo requirements.  I'm always working with images that need some post processing. MaxPreps is very strict about photo quality.

 

I keyword my sports photos with photo mechanic and write any IPTC data to them on ingestion. I edit and catalog all my images with LR classic and I use Photoshop for composites.

 

Just lately I started to delve into stock photography, I've been using whatever program I uploaded to to add keywords.  I've noticed some of the programs don't accept all the keywords you apply, i.e. Getty/iStock, simple/common keywords with them won't be accepted, so just using the native keyword tool for whichever platform I was uploading to made sense.

 

I understand the need for quality photos, I don't understand why the whole batch would have to be redone, seems like it wouldn't be unreasonable to let me delete the offending photo or photos and resubmit without all the extra work.

 

I'm currently trying out 6 different stock sites and seeing which ones are best for me.

 

Thank you all for the help.

[NYCat]

If they start checking every photo they will need more people and our share will have to be diminished. It sounds like you are expert enough that you will seldom have a fail.

 

Paulette

[Jill Morgan]

6 hours ago, dbiermanphotog said:

Thank you all for the responses.

I'm primarily a sports photographer, I shoot prep sports for MaxPreps, a few other organizations and freelance for myself from time to time, so I know about sharp photo requirements.  I'm always working with images that need some post processing. MaxPreps is very strict about photo quality.

 

I keyword my sports photos with photo mechanic and write any IPTC data to them on ingestion. I edit and catalog all my images with LR classic and I use Photoshop for composites.

 

Just lately I started to delve into stock photography, I've been using whatever program I uploaded to to add keywords.  I've noticed some of the programs don't accept all the keywords you apply, i.e. Getty/iStock, simple/common keywords with them won't be accepted, so just using the native keyword tool for whichever platform I was uploading to made sense.

 

I understand the need for quality photos, I don't understand why the whole batch would have to be redone, seems like it wouldn't be unreasonable to let me delete the offending photo or photos and resubmit without all the extra work.

 

I'm currently trying out 6 different stock sites and seeing which ones are best for me.

 

Thank you all for the help.

 

The idea of having the whole batch fail is to motivate photographers to only upload technically correct images.  In order to do it your preferred way, they would have to inspect every image, and as Paulette has pointed out that would mean hiring more people, people who like to be paid.  And where does Alamy get their money?  From us.  So in order to inspect every image they would have to take a bigger piece of the pie than they already do.

 

Photographers would become lazy and let Alamy do their pixel peeping for them.  It isn't hard.  I've only had one fail in 11 years.

 

Jill

[Steve F]

What Jill said.

[M.Chapman]

16 hours ago, dbiermanphotog said:

I'm primarily a sports photographer, I shoot prep sports for MaxPreps, a few other organizations and freelance for myself from time to time, so I know about sharp photo requirements.

Do you agree with Alamy that the image that failed was soft or lacking definition? If not, then you can either contact them on contributors@alamy.com for clarification, or post a 100% crop to the forum for comment/advice.

 

Mark

[dbiermanphotog]

7 hours ago, M.Chapman said:

Do you agree with Alamy that the image that failed was soft or lacking definition? If not, then you can either contact them on contributors@alamy.com for clarification, or post a 100% crop to the forum for comment/advice.

 

Mark

I do, it was soft.

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

1 hour ago, dbiermanphotog said:

> and resubmit without all the extra work.

> it was soft.

I just had (336) new images go live.
That was minus (3) soft of (339) in which (1) failed couple days earlier.
The only extra work was quick re-inspection of (338) to find (2) more softies...

That took what (5-10) minutes "extra" work...?

[dbiermanphotog]

13 minutes ago, Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg said:

I just had (336) new images go live.
That was minus (3) soft of (339) in which (1) failed couple days earlier.
The only extra work was quick re-inspection of (338) to find (2) more softies...

That took what (5-10) minutes "extra" work...?

I wasn't keywording prior to uploading, I can assume you are?

You must save the gallery somewhere and if the upload gets rejected you just delete the bad photos and re-upload them again?

Do you actually go into each photo and do the super tagging?

My last batch I tried, I did all my titling and keywording in Lightroom before I exported them, that works better.  But as I stated earlier, I'm new to stock photography so I'm still working this out.

[Steve F]

10 hours ago, dbiermanphotog said:

do the super tagging?

 

Super tagging is done in Alamy Image Manager (AIM). It is used by Alamy for ranking your images (where they appear in customer searches), so it is necessary to do. You can speed it up by selecting multiple photos in AIM with the same keywords and selecting the super tags.

 

Here's a video talking about keywording on Alamy and the use of super tags:

https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/17795-alamy-webinar-learn-how-to-improve-your-keywording/?do=findComment&comment=365553

 

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

16 hours ago, dbiermanphotog said:

a. I wasn't keywording prior to uploading, I can assume you are?
b. You must save the gallery somewhere and if the upload gets rejected you just delete the bad photos and re-upload them again?
c. Do you actually go into each photo and do the super tagging?

a. keywording along with deleting unwanted images is me very first step, using Photoshop Bridge

b. save all keeper files in folder in triplicate using (3) external hard drives
c. add supertags only after an image licenses, that's my way, most others supertag ALL their images...?

[NYCat]

I supertag all mine but I am a tiny contributor compared to the mighty Jeff.

 

Paulette

[Steve F]

26 minutes ago, Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg said:

most others supertag ALL their images...?

 

6 hours ago, Steve F said:

It is used by Alamy for ranking your images (where they appear in customer searches), so it is necessary to do.

 

Well you don't have to do it, but it was just confirmed in the keywording seminar that it improves your image ranking.

[M.Chapman]

14 minutes ago, Steve F said:

Well you don't have to do it, but it was just confirmed in the keywording seminar that it improves your image ranking.

Yes, and a simple test can be used to prove it.

Tag a new image with a unique (to you) tag that's also not too common (so only a few hundred competing images)

Wait for database update (24-48 hrs)

Check where the image appears in results when searching for the tag

In AIM convert the tag a supertag

Wait for database update again

Recheck where the image appears

 

Mark

[Steve F]

1 hour ago, M.Chapman said:

Yes, and a simple test can be used to prove it.

Tag a new image with a unique (to you) tag that's also not too common (so only a few hundred competing images)

Wait for database update (24-48 hrs)

Check where the image appears in results when searching for the tag

In AIM convert the tag a supertag

Wait for database update again

Recheck where the image appears

 

Mark

 

Mark, I'm lazy 😝 care to share your results? 

[NYCat]

I've done it... a couple of years ago... and a combination of caption and super tag gave the best results.

 

Paulette

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

Briefly, let’s say all one’s images, all supertagged, appear starting tomorrow,
in top pages of all searches in which one is involved.
That could only continue, IMO, if those images licensed or were zoomed…?
Immediately most would start “spoiling” one’s CTR followed by rank downfall…?
It is also my opinion, images that have sold have ?3X? greater chance of selling
again vs. images that have never sold.  That is why some put only sold images
in one pseudo & all other images in different pseudo…
Does the “sold” pseudo lift ranking of “unsold” pseudo?  IDK, does anyone?

[M.Chapman]

23 minutes ago, Steve F said:

 

Mark, I'm lazy 😝 care to share your results? 

Not in detail, other than to say that using a supertag versus a tag generally improves an image's position in the search results. The amount of improvement appears to depend on many factors. For example how many of the competing images also have the search term as a supertag and what the ranking of the other contributors is. If ranking is the same and yours is the only image to use a supertag it might even appear as the first image! Another strong factor is whether any images have been zoomed previously using the same search term, in which case they may be promoted in the results.

 

NB. The above was based on extensive testing a while ago, and Alamy can (and do) change the weighting given to different factors (tags, supertags, caption, previous zooms, age of image, rank of contributor etc.) from time to time. So if you want to see what's currently happening, try some tests. There are lots of things to be discovered...

 

Mark

[M.Chapman]

2 hours ago, Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg said:

a. keywording along with deleting unwanted images is me very first step, using Photoshop Bridge

b. save all keeper files in folder in triplicate using (3) external hard drives
c. add supertags only after an image licenses, that's my way, most others supertag ALL their images...?

Only supertag sold images? That's interesting. Perhaps a useful way of ensuring the most saleable images appear earlier than other images you have that meet same search criteria? Might also help CTR, but it only works if images get seen at all before they are supertagged? Out of interest what are your CTRs?

 

Mark

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

1 hour ago, M.Chapman said:

what are your CTRs?

Pre-restricted supertagging, same as entire system’s CTR ~0.60;
since restricting supertagging, ~0.70, but as we know, CTR data off 2023-4;
before data kerfuffle pre-2023, was reaching ~0.80 some months…