This article is a bit of a read, but well worthwhile for the microstock photographer.

Microstock agencies are very particular on image quality. They only accept the best images, images that can be downloaded and sent off to print without any work needing to be done to them. This is one of the reasons why the entry tests to some microstock agencies are quite demanding. Once you have passed the initial reviews, all your future submissions will be examined for any imperfections and rejected should they fail to meet up to industry standards. Some of the most common reasons for rejections are all technical and I have compiled a list to show you what to avoid when submitting material.

Chromatic Aberration

Chromatic Aberration occurs when your lens does not focus the light onto a single point. Some of the colors are split at the focal point, also known as “purple fringing” although technically it is not always purple. One of the common causes for chromatic aberration is cheap lenses. The more expensive lenses have special glass elements inside that minimize chromatic aberration. The elements are made up of two things, the shape of the glass and the composition. A special hybrid material containing fluorite is used to offer very low levels of light dispersion. Of course when you buy a lens they don’t list all the compounds included in their glass, they call it a “special coating” or something appealing to the market.

If you do have an expensive lens, you are not entirely safe from this problem. Extreme optics will also suffer from this problem, so if you have a super-wide angle lens and shooting at F2.8, you may have a problem with chromatic aberration, but definitely less than if you were shooting with a cheap lens. Photographing a subject against a very bright backlight can cause this problem as well. The best way to remove this in post production, using the lens correction tools in Lightroom or Photoshop. Further desaturation of the problem area will also help.

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Logo or trademark

Stock photography cannot contain any logo or trademark. All images containing any form of branding will be rejected. Buyers do not want images containing either competitor logos or logos of brands they do not associate themselves with. The owners of those brands depicted in your picture may also not approve of their product being used to advertise something unrelated to their business. There are just simply too many legal issues. That is why all microstock agencies require you to remove these logos prior to submission.

The best way to do this is plan your shoot properly, making sure you minimize the chance of capturing any branding. If you have photographs with logos, your best bet is to use the patch and clone tools in Photoshop. The new CS5 has an amazing tool to help with this problem. Remember that Photoshop is a skill best learned through practice. Don’t expect to open it up and have all the tools do everything for you. I would still consider myself a novice when it comes to touchup work.

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Out of focus or Unsharp

When buyers click on an image to download, they expect nothing but superior image quality. Anything out of focus or containing camera shake will be rejected before even making onto the sales floor. Once again, optical quality makes a difference. A good lens will produce a much sharper image than a cheap one of similar focal length. Do not compromise when it comes to glass. Your camera can be upgraded and changed when new models come out, but good glass is a lasting investment.

One of the reasons for camera shake is that the photographer is trying to use a shutter speed too slow for a hand held shot at that focal length. I have heard that you should shoot at a speed no less than the equivalent of your focal length e.g. 60mm lens, 1/60^th sec. 200mm lens, 1/200^th sec. I would say go even faster than this. One thing people might tend to do is up their ISO in order to shoot with a faster shutter. Do not do this. Higher ISO will add noise to your images, anything over 400 (on a top end DSLR) or 200 (on an entry level DSLR) will produce quality unsuitable for stock. If the location you are shooting at is too dark, add light or use a tripod. Another reason your images may appear out of focus is because you have moved the camera slightly between selecting the focus and pressing the shutter. Use a tripod or monopod to avoid this.

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Compression and noise

Compression causes artifacting and I find this to be one of the most difficult problems to deal with. When photographing for stock, make sure your camera settings are on the highest possible. RAW is ideal. If your camera cannot shoot RAW, then put it onto the highest setting. The reason I say shoot in RAW is because it is an uncompressed format, jpeg on the other hand is a compressed format. The more compression, the more degrading to the image quality and the more artifacting will occur. The main way to avoid artifacting caused by post processing is to work with 8bit tiff files until you are ready to submit. Then save as a jpeg in the highest quality. If you edit and save a file in jpeg more than 4 times, the continual compression will render the file unsuitable for stock.  It is important to make sure that your software has the latest RAW processing updates for your particular camera.

Noise is usually generated from high ISO settings, stay away from turning up your ISO. The reviewers at microstock agencies will see it straight away and reject your submission. Another source of noise for digital cameras is long exposures, the longer you leave the shutter open the more background electrical noise it picks up. This is generally higher in cameras that have a smaller image sensor. Do not use any noise reduction software as it is not tolerated in microstock.

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Over filtering

If you do not use photshop filters subtly then you will have files rejected for over filtering. The most common of these is sharpening. Microstock agencies do not like to see files that have been overly sharpened. Let this be a warning, send an image in like the sample pic and it will be rejected. Visible other filters are also reason for rejection. Filters like poor cloning or obvious airbrushing of skin. The quality standards of microstock post production are very high. If you do not have the skills to touch-up your work professionally, then I would suggest just slightly tweaking the levels, saturation and contrast. There is nothing worse than spending hours retouching photographs and then having them rejected for poor touchup work.  However, that does not mean you shouldn’t practice and refine your skills. I am just saying, be careful.

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Banding

Also known as posterisation, banding occurs when your camera or computer struggles to gather enough color information to form a smooth gradient. The different colors in that gradient will break apart and form blocks of solid color. This is quite common with cheaper cameras that do not have the processing power to read color gradients correctly. Likewise, if you over-saturate your image you may start to see banding occur. Ways around this is to be careful not to push the levels of your image too far, there is only so much certain cameras can take. This is a reason why good HDR shots look so amazing. Most pictures are 8bit color images, HDR makes up a 32bit image with a lot more color information to work with.  There are no easy filters to apply that can help with banding, layer masks and photo blending is the only real way. This can be time consuming and quite advanced for some. All I can say is try not to push the limits, if you do, you may encounter banding problems.

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I have outlined for you the most common reasons for rejection. You still may face some rejection notices based on poor lighting, composition, boring content or low commercial value. It is important that you make every effort to submit only your best work. Reviewers are not looking for boring content such as a portrait of your dog. Take some time to conceptualize and plan your shoots first. Do not despair if at first you do struggle with high rejection percentages, practice does make perfect. If you seek advice, contributors forums are very helpful on iStockphoto and Shutterstock.