Phil Robinson Posted May 7, 2014 Share Posted May 7, 2014 I have just been going through my latest submission to pass QC. They include some images I uploaded on Monday to the news feed and more carefully processed versions of some of the same images I sent today. As I was viewing the different versions of the same pictures I was struck by how much sharper the thumbnails were of those I sent on Monday. As they were live news, I did the processing less carefully than for general stock - just a bit of tweaking for lighting and colour. I think I uploaded Monday's batch at JPEG level 11, whereas today's were level 12. Both the thumbnails and the zoom-size images are clearly sharper for the live news versions in all cases. Has anyone else experienced this or can anyone come up with a possible explanation? Do level 11 JPEGs perhaps produce sharper thumbnails as there is less info to condense? I'm going to try an experiment with my next batch, sending the same image at levels 12, 11 and 10. I hope QC don't get me for too many similars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted May 7, 2014 Share Posted May 7, 2014 Did you by chance shoot the live news photos in JPEG mode and the regular stock images in RAW? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted May 7, 2014 Author Share Posted May 7, 2014 Did you by chance shoot the live news photos in JPEG mode and the regular stock images in RAW? Nope - all done from the same RAW files. There isn't any visible difference in the finished images, sharpness-wise, just in the Alamy thumbnails. Weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted May 7, 2014 Share Posted May 7, 2014 Perhaps News thumbnails get sharpened by Alamy, they do go through a different workflow from normal stock images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted May 7, 2014 Author Share Posted May 7, 2014 Perhaps News thumbnails get sharpened by Alamy, they do go through a different workflow from normal stock images. That's what I was wondering. But if so, they should do it to the stock as well - the results are much clearer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 Alamy certainly seem to sharpen the download preview stock images. Slightly too much IMO, makes them look a bit "gritty". Never easy sharpening low res images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brooks Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 Alamy certainly seem to sharpen the download preview stock images. Slightly too much IMO, makes them look a bit "gritty". Never easy sharpening low res images. I agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted May 9, 2014 Author Share Posted May 9, 2014 Here's an example: E07JR0 - News upload E08J7H - Normal route If you zoom both and view them side by side, the first looks noticeably sharper. Not 'over-sharpened' just like a better, sharper, more in-focus image. I may have made one slightly lighter, but the face and the accordion are clearly sharper. Or am I imagining it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 Perhaps not a straightforward comparison. E07JR0 appears to be both more contrasty (the blacks are much blacker) and shows more edge sharpening artifacts than E08J7H. If you uploaded a more contrasty image then any Alamy applied sharpening will have more effect. I agree that E07JR0 looks punchier, but is that largely because you uploaded a more contrasty version? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted May 21, 2014 Author Share Posted May 21, 2014 I've just checked two images I've uploaded - the same photo, twice, once at JPEG level 12, the other at level 11. Absolutely no difference, in the thumbnail or the zoomed image. Must be something to do with the news feed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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