What changes got your focus and noise rejections successful resubmitted?

[Elliott Cowand Jr]

Occassionally, I make NO changes to a rejected submission and it is accepted.

 But raw photos need to be sharpened or they look soft. Sharpening adds noise. 

So what works for you?  What adjustments have worked getting rejected images accepted (ie: sharpening no more than 50%, noise reduction to 30%?)

[Former_Poster]

None at all.  I upload, if they're rejected i resubmit immediately with no changes.  Mostly then they get accepted.

Its fairly clear they dont bother reviewing at all now, its just a random cull to keep the queue down.

It USED to help downsizing images to about 8-12mpixel with sharpness rejections here but doesnt seem to matter these days.

(fwiw, sharpening done properly does not add noise)

[David Calvert]

No changes.

I get a lot of rejections when my images contain large amounts of tree foliage, bushes and hedges etc. This mainly happens on video. It's always 'noise' they reject it for. I guess they are using AI that doesn't understand foliage, because there is no noise in the shots.

What I do is wait a day or so, change the file name and resubmit, without checking the resubmission box. About 70% of the cases it's accepted on the 2nd or third try.

[oleschwander]

1 hour ago, David Calvert said:

What I do is wait a day or so, change the file name and resubmit, without checking the resubmission box.

Yes - but it's tideous ... especially with video.

[HodagMedia]

My advice is NEVER SHARPEN! OK with that out of the way.

1 hour ago, David Calvert said:

No changes.

I get a lot of rejections when my images contain large amounts of tree foliage, bushes and hedges etc. This mainly happens on video. It's always 'noise' they reject it for. I guess they are using AI that doesn't understand foliage, because there is no noise in the shots.

What I do is wait a day or so, change the file name and resubmit, without checking the resubmission box. About 70% of the cases it's accepted on the 2nd or third try.

And you don't need to change anything, the name or keywords or anything to trick the system. Just upload again.

16 hours ago, Former_Poster said:

None at all.  I upload, if they're rejected i resubmit immediately with no changes.  Mostly then they get accepted.

Its fairly clear they dont bother reviewing at all now, its just a random cull to keep the queue down.

It USED to help downsizing images to about 8-12mpixel with sharpness rejections here but doesnt seem to matter these days.

(fwiw, sharpening done properly does not add noise)

I don't know about the random or what that cause is, but yes, sometimes the identical image, no changes will pass the second time. Myself, if the image isn't likely to sell anyway, I don't care, I don't upload a second time. If it's something I think has an outside chance, I'll try again. If that doesn't do it, I drop the image size to 6MP and try the last effort.

@Former_Poster suggested before, the AI might be looking at edge sharpness. Also as @David Calvert supposes,, and I've suspected the same, leaves, branches, or something that's not the main subject, will trigger "out of focus" when the main image is just fine. This started back longer ago than the new, stricter version of "focus".

This was rejected for focus. The flag is blowing in the wind. Second upload it was accepted.

Or is it the grass? 😉

Whether sharpening does or doesn't add noise, don't sharpen. Focus issues are focus, not sharpness. I'll let people figure that out for themselves, but sometimes, highlight or mid-tone contrast or structure or something else like one of those, ONE not all, will be enough to make an image look much sharper and cleaner, without sharpening.

 

 

[Former_Poster]

Ive had a few with (deliberately) blurred foreground grass but a tack sharp subject.  It got rejected for focus.

I had the genius idea for a test cropping out that grass and submitted - it got accepted.

Then to prove my theory i submitted the original with OOF grass again expecting it to be rejected......

It got accepted.

Im sure there is SOME sort of overall edge sharpness going on (foliage as you say on video and stills seems to affect it) but its not applying all the time as shown by the fact we can all instantly resubmit with zero changes and the same media gets accepted.

I wonder if SOME get AI screened, SOME get to a human and that ratio depends how big their current upload queue is.

[Alexandre Rotenberg]

My adjustments are to resubmit until the AI gives up and accepts

[Elliott Cowand Jr]

2 hours ago, David Calvert said:

"What I do is wait a day or so, change the file name and resubmit"

Interesting.  I wouldn't have thought using the same file name could work against me.

[Former_Poster]

Filename doesnt seem to matter - each upload gets assigned an internal SS ID on submission.

(I must have hundreds of same filename uploads as well due to how i set things up)

[Thijs de Graaf]

Sometimes I already have some doubts myself. Then I don't make any new attempts. Otherwise, I'll try again later.
Here's an example from today. An hour later I tried it again without changing anything.

[HodagMedia]

20 hours ago, Alexandre Rotenberg said:

My adjustments are to resubmit until the AI gives up and accepts

I should have thought of that, the simple power, multiple repeated attacks and sheer force methods.

[Darla Hallmark]

On 11/19/2020 at 12:29 PM, Elliott Cowand Jr said:

 But raw photos need to be sharpened or they look soft.

It is possible to take pictures that are not soft.  Check your equipment.  Refine your technique. Calibrate the monitor you use to edit.

[David A Litman]

For focus rejections, I downsize the image, all the way to the minimum, if necessary, which is 4.1 MP.  The image will still be OOF, but harder to notice at 100%.

When you shoot jpeg, the camera automatically processes the image, including some sharpening.  So yes I usually add a bit of sharpening in LR to my RAW images.

I try to make my images "pop" in post processing,  but unfortunately this does sometimes introduce some noise.  I try not to go over 30 with noise reduction in LR.  Otherwise, it's a matter of dialing back on other settings, such as contrast, highlights, shadows, clarity, dehaze, etc.  Downsizing the image also makes noise less apparent.  The biggest effect on decreasing noise is exposure and whites, so dialing those back helps, but the trade off is a darker image which may or may not be a deal breaker.  

[Elliott Cowand Jr]

23 hours ago, Alexandre Rotenberg said:

My adjustments are to resubmit until the AI gives up and accepts

 Funny. I usually throw in the towel after two rejections.  Decided to experiment this ONCE and followed your advice. Photo was accepted on the 4th try.  

The trees in the foreground may have been the issue.  As for others suggesting uploading a smaller MB, my submissions are usually  6 - 10MB.

[Elliott Cowand Jr]

1 hour ago, David A Litman said:

 ..."I usually add a bit of sharpening in LR to my RAW images...I try not to go over 30 with noise reduction in LR. " 

Agreed.  I've been told unlike jpegs, Raw files need sharpening.  Know every photo is different, but generally do you find sharpening to 60 is stretching it too far? 

[David A Litman]

1 hour ago, Elliott Cowand Jr said:

Agreed.  I've been told unlike jpegs, Raw files need sharpening.  Know every photo is different, but generally do you find sharpening to 60 is stretching it too far? 

I don't know, there's a lot of trial and error and personal preference, but I typically haven't gone that high on sharpening.  Unless you're looking for a specific style, like the "Dragan effect", where people push sharpening to 100 for maximal effect:

blob:https://www.youtube.com/e67ac27c-643b-4031-b0a5-e672b6348c84

[Former_Poster]

4 hours ago, Elliott Cowand Jr said:

As for others suggesting uploading a smaller MB, my submissions are usually  6 - 10MB.

 

Resolution and file size are completely different things.....

[Elliott Cowand Jr]

1 hour ago, Former_Poster said:

Resolution and file size are completely different things.....

Former_Poster, Perhaps I am confused, in Lightroom what should I be adjustinging instead -the long edge?

[Former_Poster]

1 minute ago, Elliott Cowand Jr said:

Former_Poster, Perhaps I am confused, in Lightroom I reduce the quality scale downward which in turn makes the photo's MB smaller.

What should I be adjustinging instead -the long edge?

Megapixels are a resolution

Megabytes are a file size.

They're totally different things.  Megabytes are determined by the resolution and the quality.

 

[Elliott Cowand Jr]

9 minutes ago, Former_Poster said:

Megapixels are a resolution

Megabytes are a file size.

They're totally different things.  Megabytes are determined by the resolution and the quality.

 

What reduction to my long edge of 5616 would get me to between 6 - 10 MP?

[Former_Poster]

16 minutes ago, Elliott Cowand Jr said:

What reduction to my long edge of 5616 would get me to between 6 - 10 MP?

No idea because we dont know how big the short edge is, what quality is used or the content of the image.

 

[David A Litman]

15 hours ago, Elliott Cowand Jr said:

What reduction to my long edge of 5616 would get me to between 6 - 10 MP?

If you're using LR,  you can adjust the settings when you export the image.  Under "Image sizing" select "Resize to fit".  There is a drop down menu of choices where you can select width and height, dimensions, long edge, etc.  I select Megapixels, and also select "Do not enlarge".  Then you enter the number in Megapixels you want your final image to be.  For full resolution,  if I think my image is very sharp and has no noise or other flaws, I choose 20.1 MP.  If I want to downsize to minimum, I select 4.1.  I frequently take the middle ground, at 8 or 12 MP.

[HodagMedia]

22 hours ago, Elliott Cowand Jr said:

 Funny. I usually throw in the towel after two rejections.  Decided to experiment this ONCE and followed your advice. Photo was accepted on the 4th try.  

The trees in the foreground may have been the issue.  As for others suggesting uploading a smaller MB, my submissions are usually  6 - 10MB.

Amazing. No changes, just upload until the AI gives in and accepts the image? 😁

What camera and what lens? Just wondering. How long was the exposure, what aperture and what ISO.

 

[Clupeidae]

On 11/21/2020 at 8:27 AM, Darla Hallmark said:

It is possible to take pictures that are not soft.  Check your equipment.  Refine your technique. Calibrate the monitor you use to edit.

How does calibrating my monitor make my images sharper?

[Darla Hallmark]

Calibrating your monitor makes it possible for you to see when they are not.

Which, hopefully, can help you make better pictures by giving you a clearer idea of what you are currently producing.