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editing images for stock photography website


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<p>Hello<br>

I shoot with a Canon 400D camera. The two lenses which I use most of the times are 50 mm f1.8 and 100 mm f2.8. I sometimes use the 18-55mm EFS lens that came with the camera. <br>

I have just started to do photography for stock agency.<br>

I shoot all all images at ISO 100 in the RAW format and convert them to tiff files. In Camera Raw, I upscale the images to +25mp (the maximum available) at 300dpi and then convert them to TIFF files. I get TIFF files of about 72MB. <br>

The stock agency ( to which I submit my stock photographs to ) has complained that my photographs "become softer" because they are upscaled to 72MB. Since my camera is 10MP the stock agency would prefer the TIFF files of my photographs to be of about 50MB. <br>

I would like to know, if the photographs become soft because they are upscaled to 72MB or because the photograph taken is not sharp. <br>

Please can someone let me know their views. Thank You Very Much in advance. <br>

I have problems with histogram too, and I do not know how to ask the question I want to ask. Bascially I was my files to be technically correct . I have heard I can check that with the histogram and the main thing is that there should be no clippings. But I do not know more about it. I will try to frame my question soon . <br>

Thank You. </p>

<p> </p>

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<p>You might do better to search for this information, it has been covered before. These are very basic questions about photography. Books have been written that cover it all, and there are simplified descriptions available on the Internet. <br>

First all images have to be "sharpened" at various states in processing, if not then they could appear soft. If you do not know the very basics about using Photoshop, like clipping, you may have not know how to use your camera well enough yet. Read your camera manual. I'd start there, reading all the headings, and subheadings, highlight what you think is important. Then read it like a novel, from cover to cover. Go back and read it again, highlighting the first sentence of any paragraph you feel is very important to what you are doing. Then, go back and read what you highlighted, and repeat that once a week until you really know it. Then, Id check with adult education in your area to take a course on Photoshop.<br>

Until you know your "tools" really well, your work will not be consistent. It is not enough to just have an automatic camera, and a copy of Photoshop. We need to know how to use them, as well or better than anything else we can do in life. Know our camera and read the documentation about Photoshop, then you will know what questions to ask.<br>

Without knowing what questions you have, how would we know how to answer.</p>

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<p>Upsizing too far will exacerbate any issues that may already be present. When you do the RAW conversion, look at the pixel dimensions rather than the amount, choose the lowest one that has the longest side at or just above 5125px. Bigger is not always better, especially if your camera is 10mp.</p>

<p>If you are not fully conversant with Photoshop, I caution you that you are setting yourself up for many problems if you start doing any short of sharpening at any stage of your workflow. Your 50 and 100mm lenses will produce images that will more than meet the criteria for the stock agency (assuming it is the one I think it is), when upsized just enough to finish at an 8-bit 50mb size, and without any of the much touted sharpening at any stage.</p>

<p>I agree with Robert that you need a better understanding of both your camera and Photoshop if you want to produce consistent results. Just keep in mind, that many of the books and workshops, not to mention forum advice, is aimed at producing beautiful prints of your work, not necessarily saleable stock photography that meets agency criterias.</p>

<p>Louise</p>

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