Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic - Help on rejected photos

markrhiggins · Joined: 28 Jan 2008 Posts: 2042 Location: Australia

Thanks Matt

semmickphoto · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 6:39 am

mattgibson · Joined: 11 Nov 2009 Posts: 607 Location: London

If I had a quid for every poster who said "The originals are tack sharp" and then posts a 100% crop.....

Asked for critique on composition and ANY OTHER aspects

ruxpriencdiam · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 8:29 am

Karin Babin · Joined: 16 Jul 2012 Posts: 20 Location: Calgary, AB

Ok, if anyone gets to be pissy here, it's me and I'm not pissy, so enough bickering.

I don't have time to figure out how to do the crops right now as I'm running out the door in a minute, but all the feedback is really helpful, I'm not offended, it's the best way get better and I appreciate it.

I will learn to resize properly for this purpose this evening because again, I shrunk these and they also look terrible now.

SOOOO back to composition - are these any better? Just the composition please.

semmickphoto · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 12:01 pm

Please accept my apologies Karin. Everyone here is respected and very helpful. I didnt mean to bicker.

Good luck with your endeavours in the stock world :)

kellythorson · Joined: 22 Sep 2011 Posts: 743 Location: Canada

ruxpriencdiam · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 12:31 pm

Perhaps more like this because we read left to right.

It also get the horizon out of center.

Just trying to be helpful to you because a lot of people think their images are sharp but once they see them at 100% and still think they are sharp we have to show them what sharp really is.

All the reviewers are different and see different things so just trying to be on the cautious side.

And hey if your images are sharp as you say i will be glad to say you are right!

But i am just me and that's it.

hhltdave5 · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 12:35 pm

I agree with Kelly. Often times you can fix one issue such as an improper use of depth of field by composing it differently. As mentioned the out of focus grass in the foreground hurts the image but if you crop that out during composition or in editing you have a better image.

The second has does have a very distracting background. You have a lot of lines moving in all directions. Some look like shelf supports, there seems to be tiles which have grout lines and there is also what appears to be a handle of something else sticking into the shot. Too many things which causes the eye to wander over the image.

Try and compose it better if it is possible or simple shoot it in a different place where you can control the background and therefore have a more pleasing composition.

rinder99 · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 2:42 pm

composition can include many things as in How you compose an Image , There are for centuries been Compositional rules as in leading lines,vanishing points,Thirds and so on.Knowing these rules is Important but , whats more important is knowing when and how to break them and that is totally subject specific, I break them all the time to force viewers into looking where "I" want them to. Placing a horizon in the center of any Landscape Image is right up there in the top 3 No,No's. It leaves the viewer nowhere and makes it static, Horizontal thirds is very Important,Much more than vertical Thirds.I prefer barrys version as in Left to right and dropping the horizon.

The coffee/Pot Image as said is way to busy,Lighting is Poor and the reflections of whatever Light coming down kills it. Thats composition also, Composition goes hand in hand with Lighting to attract or push away a viewer,Also as you mentioned DOF is a very big part of composition and should always be considered when composing a shot and having a complete understanding of how to use it is critical, How it is affected by Distance to subject and focal length used.

Theres a lot that goes into composition, Not just where you stand Thats why of the Big 3 Composition is king,Then comes Exposure and DOF . If you say the Images are tack sharp where the subject is, Thats fine with me.

Personally and because I've been doing this longer than anyone here, I Like to see the overall and a 100% crop of the subject. I want you to get accepted, Thats why we do this. The reviewers here are getting tougher and tougher every single day. I reviewed for 3+ years and trust me, we hit the wrong button all the time and.... What one reviewer misses the next one will see and you can take that to the bank Like noise,artifacts,WB,Shadows and most of all commercial value and uniqueness of subject that hasen't been done a million Times.And again Like I always say. getting accepted is the easy part of this whole thing.

Good luck.

Help us, Help you.

Karin Babin · Joined: 16 Jul 2012 Posts: 20 Location: Calgary, AB

Thanks so much gentlemen! I am not really sure that stock is for me. I love animals, people, kids, beautiful pregnant ladies and tiny babies (awwww), and since my background is actually in commercial real estate and leasing, I lucked out when I decided to do photography as business (or actually it morphed into a business and I jumped the world of real estate ship), and I also ended up with a pretty good real estate clientele.

But I've been told a few times to give this a shot, so I thought, meh, why not? But this type of commercial photography is very different than what I'm used to, and honestly, I've never tried to take photographs that would qualify as stock before this past month. Maybe I need to try to take photos I would actually take but look at them from a stock photo perspective rather an artistic or emotion-evoking perspective. Not sure that you needed all that info...

All this info is really invaluable. I will take it all and spend a few days shooting and trying to apply the advice. I'll try and get accepted again, and see if I can develop the eye I need for this. I'll be back, with properly cropped photos next week possibly and see if I've improved any. Look for my post all!

rinder99 · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:24 pm

How does one become unique??? simple. You shoot what turns YOU on. Forget what anyone says, Your job is to keep it yours, No one knows what sells and what doesn't in stock and thats what makes it fun in a strange way. also, It is not your job to determine the value of your work, let all that go, Your job is to just simply do the work. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

hhltdave5 · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:43 pm

jeffbanke · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:46 pm

Stock photography will actually make you a better all round photographer!
There are a few simple guidelines that one must follow:

Backgrounds must be clean and free of clutter
(The background in your cable drum or the vertical lines coming out of the coffee pot )

Copyright is a big issue,
Logos, emblems are copyrighted and must be removed
Certain buildings, vehicles and other objects are copyrighted, since you were in the real estate business you will know that any Frank Lloyd Wright building is copyrighted, the Chrysler building and TransAmerica building in San Francisco, The opera house in Sydney, and the lighting on the Eiffel tower, and the list goes on, are all copyrighted.
(The name of the company on your big cable drum for example is a no-no)

All images must have commercial value, by that I mean they must convey a concept, illustrate a process or service, support a product or exemplify a perfect example of the subject.

Pregnant ladies, cute babies and in fact any images of people are high on the list of commercial images as they can be used in many ways. Just remember to get down to the level of the child, images from an adults perspective looking down on a child are less artistically pleasing and have less commercial value. People can be shot doing activities, my wife doing her Jazzercise exercises is on several sites, a closeup of a foot and another of a hand/arm massage are high sellers for me, turning up on medical sites, massage sites, etc.

Animals have less CV, but do sell depending on how they are done, one of my most easily found images (now in 4 books on Horse care) is the rear end of a horse with a woman's arm grooming the horse with a brush. One of my best selling images is an isolation of a turkey, but I have images in books on Pheasants, pigeons, turkeys and several other animals.

Anything that does not ADD to an image should not be in the image, for example the blurry grass in the front of your image of the power lines serves no purpose, does not add to the image and therefor does not belong in the image.

The other guys mentioned a few things like the "Rule of thirds" which almost always makes an image particularly landscape images more attractive.

So as you can see these guidelines are not just specific to stock photography, but to photography in general and will make you a better photographer.

If indeed your insects are sharp, and you have the pixels the suggested crops to remove distracting elements in the background are the way to go and would probably be accepted.

Hope all this helps,

Jeff

BTW these are a few of what sold again today :-)

mauijon · Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 4311 Location: Maui, Hawaii

Don't give up Girl!