Whatever you might think about Alamy QC failing images for "soft or lacking definition", as explained here, so far those of us who frequent the forum have yet to see a picture that the photographer can show at 100% to be free of some kind of flaw. Since I seem to be capable of creating pictures that are soft and lacking definition on demand I thought I would put up some more examples for those who are still in denial about it.
Last week I had just such a moment. I'd had no failures for a week or so and was thinking all was fine and then three times in a row I got a soft and lacking definition failure. It turns out that the two photos responsible for the failure are soft, as follows (shown as 100% crops of the original 48+Mb files):
This one is most likely mis-focussed @ 1/350s f10 31mm handheld
This one is most likely the subject moving and/or mis-focussed and to cap it all, there is clear CA at the edges of the bird @ 1/800s f8 400mm VR handheld
Don't stare at them too long, they hurt your eyes (that's a clue!).
Alamy QC seem to do a very simple thing, they zoom to 100% in the centre of the image (which is the quickest check they can do). So, apart from scanning across the image for dust and odd birds and things, I would do a final check by zooming to 100%, dead centre and if it ain't right, don't submit it.
Here's other common effects that gets the dreaded soft and lacking definition failure:
This picture was taken at high ISO and then noise reduction was applied heavily leaving a painterly effect @ ISO1600 1/60s f4 18mm handheld
This picture has been interpolated up from 6MP RAW NEF to 71.8Mb 8-bit PSD showing "jaggies" on the edges @ 1/1000s f5.3 300mm VR handheld
The other failure which is poorly understood is demonstrated in the following images, "chroma noise is something you get with older digital cameras, low MP cameras and at higher ISO settings:
The lower half shows chroma noise, the upper half has had the noise removed.
This shot shows the chroma noise exagerated by pushing the saturation to 100%.
Alamy have written a guide to removing chroma noise and some other retouching techniques, here
Hope that helps...
Houses on the Damrak canal, Amsterdam, The Netherlands with window box of geraniums" />
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