JimGreulich Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Hello, I am new here and would like to ask for some feedback on a few of my images as to why they may have been rejected. Of my first 4, 2 were accepted but 2 rejected for "softness". Upon further inspection, I did agree that this claim could be legit against one of them (a sunset pic that I actually hand-held) but could really not find see any softness, even at 100%, of the 2nd rejection, a several second exposure waterfall shot. I thought that possibly this was being run through some kind of computer-driven (non-human) CQ review where it was unable to tell the the "blurriness" was due to the cotton-candy effect on the water. There are static objects in this shot in both fore & background that look completely sharp to me. Anyway, I decided to give up on both shots and submit 2 more along with the 2 that were already not rejected from my first sub. I went through some of my best shots and made the primary focus in selecting the new 2 sharpness, but sure enough, the next day, the 2 new ones get rejected for softness. At this point, I am at a loss for what I could be missing. I have inspected the 2 that passed and compared to 3 of the 4 that failed and cannot see any difference, even at 100%. Maybe my eyes are just shot or maybe I am falling pray to wishful thinking on some otherwise nice looking shots. Either way, I would like to ask for some feedback from those more experienced here. I know that I need to post examples to get feedback, but I can't seem to find anywhere on the site that describes the preferred way to do this. If someone could please point me in that direction, I will happily add my photos to this post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 There is no facility on the forum for posting images as such - you would need to put them on the web somewhere and link them. You would need to have crops at 100% for anybody to give a reasonable judgement. Your initial submission just needs to demonstrate that you can take a decent picture - sharp and properly exposed as in the Alamy guidelines. Sunsets and images with motion blur for the initial submission are not the way to go initially. Alamy QC doesn't care about the image content so you don't need to demonstrate artisitic abiiities. My advice is to submit 4 simple sharp images which demonstrate that you know how to take a picture - a brick wall, a tree (with no wind blow) etc should get you in the door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 QC is all done by hand, or rather eye. There is no machine involved. Photographic effects such as selective focus and motion blur are taken into account but as MDM says your initial sub is no place for fancy stuff. f8, sunny day, 1/125 or above, even a tripod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armstrong Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 I use Photobucket for forum uploads. Others use Flickr. If you haven't seen the Alamy Blog on QC - it's worth a read. It notes that Soft and Lacking Definition can be also used "when it’s clear an image isn’t up to scratch, but we can’t fully determine why." I had a crowd sourced forum QC check when I first started. It was pretty to the point but really helped. Often things get pointed out that the poster hadn't even considered. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultanpepa Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 We say it time and time again, that it is extremely important to check all images for submission at 100%, ie. full size. Only by doing this can you see softness and definition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 Be sure you have no CA. It will appear where trees meet a bright sky (often in the corners), or something white or bright in the image is next to something darker. Check skies for tiny birds that look like dust spots. I just cloned out about 10 of those yesterday that showed up at 200%. Do you check for color cast? Put the camera on a tripod and shoot something simple like a cup of coffee, a rolled up newspaper lying on a table, an ink pen lying on a sheet of paper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 As someone else noted, "Soft and lacking definition" (SoLD) is something of a catch-all phrase -- i.e. it can mean a combination of different factors according to Alamy. Most of my SoLD failures were due to not having an obvious area/centre of focus. Alamy is a real stickler for this. There are lots of other possibilities, though. Sunny day, f/8 sounds like good advice these days. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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