Introduction to Microstock Photography – Other Reasons for Rejection
Table of contents for Microstock Photography
In my previous post I started to discuss what types of things will result in a rejection. I started with copyrights and in this post I will cover noise and focus. Many of these will affect how you take the picture in the first place and in theory should improve the quality of your photographs.
I will start with a discussion of noise. What is noise? Noise are those little out of color specs that you see in an image. It is most common in pictures with a high ISO and an underexposed image. All microstock sites are uniform in their hatred of noise. While in some print and display formats (such as video) noise is sometimes desired, in stock photography it is universally despised. All images must be free of noise. The easiest way to avoid noise is to not take the picture with noise in the first place.
Read on for how to do this as well as avoid other common rejection reasons.
The easiest way to avoid noise is to use as low of an ISO as possible. Generally, I always try to take all pictures in ISO 100. I only switch to higher ISO’s when absolutely necessary. The following are my experiences with a Canon 5D.
ISO 100 – 200 – Usually this is OK and I do not receive rejections for noise.
ISO 400 – This usually needs some type of noise reduction, though occasionally I can get pictures in without it. Nowadays I always run ISO 400 pictures through noise reduction software such as Noise Ninja.
ISO 800 – This always requires noise reduction.
ISO 1600+ – Send the image to Flickr. It is useless for stock photography.
Recently I ordered the Canon 5D Mark II which should improve my noise levels by at least two stops. Some of the newer Nikon cameras such as the D700 and D300 will also have better noise handling than the existing 5D and on par with the 5D Mark II (but at 12MP vs 21MP).
To remove noise, the best software to use is Noise Ninja. I generally find that the noise removal built into Photoshop is not sufficient. This is the only plugin I own and I find it more than worth the cost. It will work with all sites except for IStockPhoto. For some reason, IStockPhoto not only hates noise but also noise removal. They can detect when Noise Ninja was used and will almost always reject the shot. Therefore pictures with noise removed generally are not accepted at IStockPhoto – which is likely another reason why my sales there are lower.
Focus
In general, images must still be sharp at 100%. This is the primary reason that I am a pixel peeper. I make sure to buy only the sharpest lenses that can be used at low apertures and still be sharp. This is one reason why I still do not own a true telephoto lens. However, you do not need to own all L lenses in order to take stock photos. High end lenses just allow you to be a bit lazier in terms of deciding the aperture and shutterspeed to use. They also allow you more flexibility with lower apertures. However, if you have an ordinary lens you can still take stock photographs as long as you understand the limits of the lens. If you have the Sigma 150-500 for instance, I would never take a shot at 500mm f/6.3 – it is almost guaranteed to be soft. Instead, use f/8 and f/11 and avoid using the full 500mm. Most lenses perform similarly at f/8-f/11 outside of the extreme limits of the zoom. Another alternative is to use primes – which are still generally sharper than the equivalent zooms.
Sharpness is not just a function of the lens but is also affected by the settings you choose to take the picture. Always favor higher shutterspeeds in order to minimize the chances that camera shake can reduce sharpness.
Finally, note that sharpening during post processing is not the answer. This will almost always get your shot rejected with the message ‘too much post processing’ or ‘too much sharpening’.
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Tags: focus, microstock, noise, photography, reduction, sharpness, stock