Photo Creativity

[kmahaffy]

Can I use post-processing to make a photo look old?  For instance - I have a photo of a paddle-wheel boat and I have made the photo look as if it was from the Civil War Era (tin type, scratches, faded) - Would that be accepted or rejected?

 

Thanks,

Kmahaffy

[NYCat]

I see that you have no images here yet. I'd advise starting with 4 that are not "creative" and perhaps later you can post your boat image in the forum for an opinion from people here.

 

Paulette

[Ed Rooney]

Listen to Paulette, Kmahaffy -- you will not be judged on your creativity with those first 4 images, just technical perfection. Get the exposures and the sharpness right. Good luck. 

[Betty LaRue]

I had a cup of tea in a vintage floral cup that I made look more vintage (sepia) using software. Then I added grain, like an old photograph. It failed and I spent a month in the sin bin.

Step very lightly with images like you are talking about. If the QC person doesn't have an artistic bone in the body, but sees grain as noise, it will fail. So scratches and such, who knows. I think a lot depends on the QC person you draw.

 

I've had some pass easily that were more heavily manipulated than the one that failed.

 

I just submit those elsewhere these days. They sell.

You can do that stuff for Stockimo.

Wish there was a division for it here.

[naughtygoat]

I had a cup of tea in a vintage floral cup that I made look more vintage (sepia) using software. Then I added grain, like an old photograph. It failed and I spent a month in the sin bin.

Step very lightly with images like you are talking about. If the QC person doesn't have an artistic bone in the body, but sees grain as noise, it will fail. So scratches and such, who knows. I think a lot depends on the QC person you draw.

 

I've had some pass easily that were more heavily manipulated than the one that failed.

 

I just submit those elsewhere these days. They sell.

You can do that stuff for Stockimo.

Wish there was a division for it here.

 

hi betty,

 

I had forgotten reading on the forums that you get suspended for a month if you fail QC.  Thought you all were a bit fanatic about it, but you're not!

 

That just happened to me.  A first batch image was too dark so I jazzed it up a lot then got failed for Noise so re-submitted it just a little brighter and it passed.  I didn't get suspended from submitting though.  Any idea why?

 

Shame about the your above advice.  Love myself a bit of colour and funk!

 

Vickie.

[Jill Morgan]

 

I had a cup of tea in a vintage floral cup that I made look more vintage (sepia) using software. Then I added grain, like an old photograph. It failed and I spent a month in the sin bin.

Step very lightly with images like you are talking about. If the QC person doesn't have an artistic bone in the body, but sees grain as noise, it will fail. So scratches and such, who knows. I think a lot depends on the QC person you draw.

 

I've had some pass easily that were more heavily manipulated than the one that failed.

 

I just submit those elsewhere these days. They sell.

You can do that stuff for Stockimo.

Wish there was a division for it here.

 

hi betty,

 

I had forgotten reading on the forums that you get suspended for a month if you fail QC.  Thought you all were a bit fanatic about it, but you're not!

 

That just happened to me.  A first batch image was too dark so I jazzed it up a lot then got failed for Noise so re-submitted it just a little brighter and it passed.  I didn't get suspended from submitting though.  Any idea why?

 

Shame about the your above advice.  Love myself a bit of colour and funk!

 

Vickie.

 

 

Quite often they don't suspend the first time.  But if it happens again, they may or may not put you in the sin bin for 30 days.  Repetitive fails will definitely throw you there.

 

Jill

[naughtygoat]

I think those who have talked about getting banned for a month, are those who have often failed QC. Alamy aren't going to ban you for a whole month for the odd failure. My only 2 failures in 6 years were 2 batches in a row (both my own stupid fault), and the next batch passed in the same fast timescale.

 

Geoff.

 

Good to know.  And the programme you showed me which judges the file size and colour should be helpful.  (Alamy no fun!)

 

Vickie.

[naughtygoat]

 

 

I had a cup of tea in a vintage floral cup that I made look more vintage (sepia) using software. Then I added grain, like an old photograph. It failed and I spent a month in the sin bin.

Step very lightly with images like you are talking about. If the QC person doesn't have an artistic bone in the body, but sees grain as noise, it will fail. So scratches and such, who knows. I think a lot depends on the QC person you draw.

 

I've had some pass easily that were more heavily manipulated than the one that failed.

 

I just submit those elsewhere these days. They sell.

You can do that stuff for Stockimo.

Wish there was a division for it here.

 

hi betty,

 

I had forgotten reading on the forums that you get suspended for a month if you fail QC.  Thought you all were a bit fanatic about it, but you're not!

 

That just happened to me.  A first batch image was too dark so I jazzed it up a lot then got failed for Noise so re-submitted it just a little brighter and it passed.  I didn't get suspended from submitting though.  Any idea why?

 

Shame about the your above advice.  Love myself a bit of colour and funk!

 

Vickie.

 

 

Quite often they don't suspend the first time.  But if it happens again, they may or may not put you in the sin bin for 30 days.  Repetitive fails will definitely throw you there.

 

Jill

 

 

Hi again Jill,

 

Yeah, I only intend to submit my best photos for that reason. 

 

Vickie.

[spacecadet]

Alamy doesn't edit for content. Every image you produce ought to be capable of passing QC.

[naughtygoat]

Alamy doesn't edit for content. Every image you produce ought to be capable of passing QC.

 

Absolutely.  I meant 'best' in terms of technical quality (still learning...).  I wouldn't submit rubbish content photos though, cause no-one would buy them... 

[naughtygoat]

 

Alamy doesn't edit for content. Every image you produce ought to be capable of passing QC.

 

If a special effects filter/process is used though that intentionally puts what looks like dust and grain on an image, I wonder at which point Alamy will see it as an effect, or will see it as an imperfection? After all, effects like that are supposed to look realistic, so it may just look like imperfections that shouldn't be there. I suppose it depends how obvious it is that it's supposed to be some sort of effect.

 

Geoff.

 

 

 

Yeah, I read that here before.

 

Agree with you that Alamy could keep its contributors more informed.  Don't know why everything needs to be a guessing game!

[naughtygoat]

 

 

Alamy doesn't edit for content. Every image you produce ought to be capable of passing QC.

 

Absolutely.  I meant 'best' in terms of technical quality (still learning...).  I wouldn't submit rubbish content photos though, cause no-one would buy them... 

 

 

 

Wouldn't they? Oh damn it, I may as well delete this one then. Thanks for the tip Naughygoat. 

 

 

 

 

Ha ha.  You're welcome.  I am a helpful NewBeeee

[Inchiquin]

 

Alamy no fun!

 

 

 

Alamy heap fun!

 

Alan

[naughtygoat]

 

 

Alamy no fun!

 

 

 

Alamy heap fun!

 

Alan

 

 

Allan not funny  

[Cryptoprocta]

I love playing around with filters and effects, but tend to use them on point of sale art sites, rather than on Alamy.

I have got a very few 'cartoonish' images on Alamy, made from my original photos, but they haven't had any sales (but then, neither have most of my photos, truth be told!)

[Betty LaRue]

I had 30 or so of my artistic images here, but when the personal use came out, I deleted them all.  Why get $10-15 for a download when I'm getting 8-10 times that for them elsewhere.  That killed it for me.

[AlessandraRC]

My idea about stock images is that we provide a base image for a designer who wants to work on it, either artistically or commercially. So if I apply too many filters to an image, it might not serve that purpose. At least post the base image whenever possible with the artistically modified one.

[Dave D]

If I feel a filter moment coming on, I've tended to submit the base version and the art version, then the reviewers and ultimately the client can choose which suits best.

[Hugo]

Hi,

 

Most of the pictures I took are highly retouched as I have always been more interested in the artistic side than on getting sharp realistic pictures. For what I understand here is that I should only submit the realistic ones in Alamy, where would you recommend to sell then the artistic ones? Because Alamy staff says that they are manipulated like if it was a bad thing.

[Betty LaRue]

Alamy has put out an article on split toning, so the final example photo has quite different color than the original.

I don't think they will fail us for obvious color shifts, because I have submitted some with Nik two-toned filters with no problems. Sepia is ok. But the things QC looks for, sharpness, no CA or spots and such needs to still be up to snuff.

 

It's when we do the other things like scratches, grain, etc. that the images are in danger of failing. As I said earlier, I had at least 30 images here that I considered creative. Some had the PS watercolor filter applied, all had textured backgrounds, so creative images are accepted. I deleted them here because they sell for much more on my POD site and I prefer them not to go for 19.99 here.

If you PM me, I'll tell you where.

I will say this. For the 6-12 months my creatives (the textured ones) were here, none were ever zoomed, let alone sold. As far as the ones with tones, I've not sold any of those, either. It may be that buyers prefer to get the unadulterated image that they can add the filter of their choice instead of what I've thrust upon them.

Betty edit...forget about PMing me, look below my signature.

[David_Buzzard]

As soon as you start adding Photoshop filters and effects, editorially speaking, you're crossing the line from photograph to photo-illustration, so that's something to keep in mind.  Newspapers and magazine have their own graphic designers, so the market for already done illustrations is probably fairly limited.

[KevinS]

Our OP has only one post and zero images after six months. Either advice not followed or OP unable to attain necessary quality.  

[Photo Spud]

Never over filter your stock photos or you will fail more often than not. Concentrate on getting the image looking natural and not going overboard. Adhere to the QC guidelines Alamy provide.