Alamy advice

EMA747

EMA747

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Andy
Edit My Images
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Just back from my trip to Iceland and I think I will give Alamy a try and see if I can get any sales. Just looking for a bit of advice really on what they look for in getting the first 4 shots accepted. I'm not sure how well travel shots will do but I have quite a backlog and, well they are certainly not making any money for me sitting on my computer or on flickr. :lol:

I use a 7D and 1DmkIII. 7D file size will be fine but not sure about the 1D at only 10mp.

I assume it's best to keep editing to a minimum and not to use any funky effects etc (i'm meaning some of the more wacky effects from the likes of Nik Software etc).
How about sharpening?

Can anyone post their full workflow from RAW to sending the files off to Alamy?
 
As for the 1D at 10mb, my 30D at 8mb has no problems but it is how you do it.

Make sure the shot is clean of any dust bunnies or anything that looks slightly OOF.

Adjust levels accordingly, a brighter image usually sells better. NO NOISE or noise reduction.

When up-scaling make sure you set it to their target of 48mb. My 30D requires my final image to be up-scaled 144%, you will have to work yours out. Don't try and send bigger file sizes, there is no need.

Your raw image will need a sharpen and I do this as my last action but after sharpening I do then recheck the image for dust spots and noise in the shadows as the sharpening will often bring these out again.

Hope this helps.
 
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tiler65 said:
When up-scaling make sure you set it to there target of 48mb.
Click to expand...

Which would be 16MP for those not sure. (16MP x 3 bits per pixel == 48MB uncompressed).
 
Read the help on their site. It's all there. Including sharpening.
 
tiler65 said:
When up-scaling make sure you set it to their target of 48mb. My 30D requires my final image to be up-scaled 144%, you will have to work yours out. Don't try and send bigger file sizes, there is no need.
Click to expand...


I'd check this - the minimum uncompressed size they accept is now 24mb not 48.

They are quite strict regarding the technical aspects of your photos, but make no comment as to the artistic merits. The help section on the site is pretty good.

For sharpening, don't over sharpen - I tend to leave RAWS at lightroom default of 25 so howeever b uys an image can sharpen again as the last part of their workflow

Hugh
 
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I'd submit boring, straightforward, but technically perfect images for your first submission.
It may have changed since I last submitted anything but I thought that images had to be unsharpened. Mine were unsharpened from a 1d mkIII and passed QC no problem.
 
On the Alamy site it says:

RAW files should be checked for correct exposure, colour cast, etc, and any adjustments should be made at this stage. When converting from RAW, ensure all sharpening is turned off - it’s applied by default in Photoshop.
Click to expand...
So does that mean turning the sharpening off completely in LR Develope module rather than leaving it on the default 25%?

Should I then be exporting from LR as a jpeg and adding some sharpening in PS at that stage before sending it off to them?
 
Hi Andy, I passed first time also and I did some sharpening on the RAW file in CS4 for each picture, not sure of the actual values, just enough so that at 100% it looked good enough without being harsh or pixely.
 
EMA747 said:
On the Alamy site it says:


So does that mean turning the sharpening off completely in LR Develope module rather than leaving it on the default 25%?

Should I then be exporting from LR as a jpeg and adding some sharpening in PS at that stage before sending it off to them?
Click to expand...

Most of mine have 0% sharpening and even the ones from 30D passed OK. I had to send a couple that were slightly sharpened and were still OK.
 
View each image at 100% and as Tom said look out for dust bunnies especially in the clear blue skys.
 
I've just heard today that my initial submission of four has passed. Alamy now state that 24mb is acceptable and all mine, from the 10mp E-3, were around 27mb. Regarding sharpening, Alamy specify none whatsoever, even advising that default sharpening in raw converters should be disabled. I followed this to the letter for 3 images, but purposely included one that had the default sharpening from ACR. The reason for this was I don't really want to re-process hundreds of tiffs that have no sharpening apart from the ACR default. Seems it's not a problem so that's good news for me. :)

Now I need to test the water for the quality of my Medium Format scans and hope they are OK. :eek:
 
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