Smartphone upload

[MDM]

10 hours ago, Matt Ashmore said:

I thought the last paragraph in the email was interesting:

 

"Thanks again for being part of Stockimo; it's been a great learning experience and we've seen some fantastic creativity which we're hoping you'll continue to share with us direct to Alamy. Whilst the acceptance process for Smartphone images is slightly different, Alamy Quality Control Team will be reviewing uploaded images and judging based on content, creativity and saleability and not just technical quality, so the Stockimo spirit will hopefully live on. Looking forward to seeing what you'll share with us"

 

That is very significant information. If they are judging content, does that mean they will fail or pass images individually in an upload so one failed image will not cause an entire batch h to fail? They really need to get some proper guidance out including info about what cameras are acceptable. Given what Mark Scheuern said about his rejected image from the 48MP camera on the iPhone Pro Max, the acceptable camera bit is going to be complex as there are other cameras on that iPhone so it’s not just about the phone but the actual camera used. In any case Mark’s image should not have been rejected.. 

Edited October 7 by MDM

[BidC]

On 03/10/2024 at 17:41, Allan Bell said:

I hardly go out without my Sony RX100 mk7 which is discrete and, so far, all images have been accepted from it.  Unless I boobed on the QC front but that is me and not the camera.

 

Doubt I will use my iPhone 12 for taking photos for Alamy.  Anyway I would not know how to prepare them nor upload from the camera.

 

Allan

 

 

Any iPhone (or smartphone) pics can be edited using a Lightroom app for the phone .... 

[MDM]

1 minute ago, BidC said:

 

Any iPhone (or smartphone) pics can be edited using a Lightroom app for the phone .... 

 

They can be edited on a computer as well. There are numerous ways to transfer images from a phone to a computer, especially easy for iPhone to Mac. 

[BidC]

1 minute ago, MDM said:

 

They can be edited on a computer as well. There are numerous ways to transfer images from a phone to a computer, especially easy for iPhone to Mac. 

 

Yes - I was just explaining that it is possible to edit within the phone, as Allan was saying he wasn't sure. Its so much easier (and quicker) to edit (and soon upload) all from the phone.

[NYCat]

26 minutes ago, Matt Ashmore said:

I thought the last paragraph in the email was interesting:

 

"Thanks again for being part of Stockimo; it's been a great learning experience and we've seen some fantastic creativity which we're hoping you'll continue to share with us direct to Alamy. Whilst the acceptance process for Smartphone images is slightly different, Alamy Quality Control Team will be reviewing uploaded images and judging based on content, creativity and saleability and not just technical quality, so the Stockimo spirit will hopefully live on. Looking forward to seeing what you'll share with us"

 

 

 

 

I judge it to be good news that they will be careful about what they accept from smartphones. Maybe it will keep quantity down and quality up. I've never been very successful with my phone photos but maybe I can improve.

 

Paulette

[Betty LaRue]

Sounds like Alamy still wants creativity & filters with the phone images?  Maybe it would be useful for those who are trying it out to tell us what sort of image passed, and what failed.

if they are considering content, I wonder if “unsuitable camera” is a blanket phrase like “soft & lacking definition “. If so, it’s possible MDM’s iPad image of a fence really failed for content, rather than camera. 
It would be nice to know these things.

[MDM]

4 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Sounds like Alamy still wants creativity & filters with the phone images?  Maybe it would be useful for those who are trying it out to tell us what sort of image passed, and what failed.

if they are considering content, I wonder if “unsuitable camera” is a blanket phrase like “soft & lacking definition “. If so, it’s possible MDM’s iPad image of a fence really failed for content, rather than camera. 
It would be nice to know these things.

No it was rejected at the upload phase just like camera images that are too small or too big. If it had gone into QC and failed, that would show in AIM. It was rejected immediately. I’ve not had a QC failure since 2012. 

Edited October 7 by MDM

[Betty LaRue]

1 minute ago, MDM said:

No it was rejected at the upload phase just like camera images that are too small or too big. If it had gone into QC and failed, that would show in AIM. It was rejected immediately. I’ve not had aQC failure since 2012. 

Thanks. Good to know.

[Harry Harrison]

Significant implications for Alamy QC department then.

[Tony ALS]

1 hour ago, Tony ALS said:

Nothing either

Just got the email

[Number Six]

I was sad to see the demise of Stockimo as I quite enjoyed "getting down with the kidz" by applying whacky filters via Snapseed. I've asked for my 520 iPhone images to be transferred to Alamy as per the email but will be waiting for the phone app and official guidance before uploading any new ones. I certainly see no point in trying to apply the traditional Alamy QC mindset to smartphone images regardless of the phone's camera spec as they do say that judging "will be based on content, creativity and saleability and not just technical quality, so the Stockimo spirit will hopefully live on". I hope the latter permits the use of whacky filters🤪!

[Harry Harrison]

So far Smartphone uploads are not appearing via the Social filter, that's got to change I would have thought. 

[Sue Norwood]

I hope I get the email as I would like to keep my S images although there aren't many.  I too enjoyed playing around with Snapseed but I will probably try and wait in the hope we get a bit more information on what is wanted before I upload from my phone.  I've only just started to upload images to Alamy again after a break so do not want to damage my QC rating.

[Mark Scheuern]

Here’s the response I got on my iPhone 16 Pro Max images being immediately rejected. What we suspected. And, like MDM said, it seems like this is going to be a bit tricky for them to manage. 
 

—

Apologies for the confusion.

We’re still in the process of adding some of the newest model smartphones to our accepted whitelist.

This shouldn’t take long, likely fixed by the beginning of next week.

Edited October 7 by Mark Scheuern

[StokeCreative]

Hi all

 

Betty said she's like to see examples of smartphone images that have been accepted (iPhone 15Pro in this case)

 

I've also put DSLR shots taken at a similar time (but not for this particular experiment). Smaller ones are iphone which has coped well in rather dim evening light, and possibly due to my processing I think they look stronger than the DSLRs, at least at this size. I have a tendency to reduce the highlights too much and that's probably why DSLRs look a little

muddy in this particular case.

 

Having said all that it doesn't feel right to me taking pics for Alamy on the phone (I also need a viewfinder really) so will just use it for when I haven't got my DSLR or need to be stealthy!

 

One positive, I was about to spend  $$ on a Sony RX100 or similar, I'm no longer going to do that....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[EDIT: I perhaps wasnt clear above ,the phone images are unedited,  uploaded straight from the phone)

Edited October 7 by StokeCreative

[Number Six]

2 hours ago, Harry Harrison said:

Significant implications for Alamy QC department then.

From the tone of their email I'd assume that the QC team will be applying the same (or very similar) criteria that they expected the Stockimo volunteers to use for scoring iPhone submissions. I'm also hoping that the new phone app is based on the Stockimo version which was very user friendly. After all, why reinvent the wheel?

[Rebecca Ore]

5 minutes ago, Number Six said:

From the tone of their email I'd assume that the QC team will be applying the same (or very similar) criteria that they expected the Stockimo volunteers to use for scoring iPhone submissions. I'm also hoping that the new phone app is based on the Stockimo version which was very user friendly. After all, why reinvent the wheel?

 

Stockimo only worked with iPhones. 

[geogphotos]

Do Smartphone images suffer from CA?

 

How realistic is it to avoid any processing at all. 

[Number Six]

1 minute ago, Rebecca Ore said:

 

Stockimo only worked with iPhones. 

True, but I'm assuming/guessing that the new Smartphone app will be a revised version of Stockimo's that permits uploads from multiple makes of phone. As they had yet to add the latest iphones to the "list" I'm also assuming that there will be a cut-off on the age of the phones.

[Rebecca Ore]

On 04/10/2024 at 10:54, John Mitchell said:

This all seems rather convoluted to me. Why not look at the images rather than what phone they were captured with? If the results are OK, who cares what kind of phone was used... 🙄

 

One thing -- most people on the planet will have budget and midrange phone.  If photos from those have to be checked by human eyeballs, the cost to Alamy can go up by huge numbers.    So far, both iPhones and top level Android phones mostly have successfully uploaded and passed quality control.   One exception was a very new iPhone. 

 

[Rebecca Ore]

5 minutes ago, Number Six said:

True, but I'm assuming/guessing that the new Smartphone app will be a revised version of Stockimo's that permits uploads from multiple makes of phone. As they had yet to add the latest iphones to the "list" I'm also assuming that there will be a cut-off on the age of the phones.

 

The new Smartphone upload route doesn't look like a revised version of Stockimo.  It functions more like the regular web upload that screens out photos that are too small or taken with a smart phone.  The filters up the phone upload option look similar with some modification, i.e. not all smart phones as well as the earlier size screening.  Anything uploaded from a computer seems to not have worked the first couple of days, but works now.

[Matt Ashmore]

7 minutes ago, Number Six said:

True, but I'm assuming/guessing that the new Smartphone app...

I personally doubt there will be a new smartphone app and the email doesn't say there will be one either...  I reckon they will just make their website recognise that it is being accessed from a smartphone and render in a way which is smartphone friendly.

[Rebecca Ore]

17 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

Do Smartphone images suffer from CA?

 

How realistic is it to avoid any processing at all. 

 

I believe that has been changed in the last couple of days, so people can shoot raw if their phones support that (my mid-range Samsung doesn't) and edit on their computers in their preferred program, and upload from the computer.

[wiskerke]

27 minutes ago, Rebecca Ore said:

 

I believe that has been changed in the last couple of days, so people can shoot raw if their phones support that (my mid-range Samsung doesn't) and edit on their computers in their preferred program, and upload from the computer.

Samsung A24 right? Have you checked the api?

https://gcamport.us/samsung/google-camera-for-samsung-galaxy-a24-4g/

 

wim

[MDM]

56 minutes ago, StokeCreative said:

Hi all

 

Betty said she's like to see examples of smartphone images that have been accepted (iPhone 15Pro in this case)

 

I've also put DSLR shots taken at a similar time (but not for this particular experiment). Smaller ones are iphone which has coped well in rather dim evening light, and possibly due to my processing I think they look stronger than the DSLRs, at least at this size. I have a tendency to reduce the highlights too much and that's probably why DSLRs look muddy in this particular case.

 

Having said all that it doesn't feel right to me taking pics for Alamy on the phone (I also need a viewfinder really) so will just use it for when I haven't got my DSLR or need to be stealthy!

One positive, I was about to spend  $$ on a Sony RX100 or similar, I'm no longer going to do that....

 

 

You mean $$$ or even $$$$. But definitely, the recent iPhones are an excellent replacement for these little cameras and for the type of photography I used to do with mine before I sold it. The lack of a viewfinder does make it difficult in bright sunshine.