When we receive image submissions to any of the PicoLib libraries the images go through a thorough quality control check before being accepted

The following article can be used as a guideline for preparing submissions to any of the PicoLib libraries.

When we receive your images from upload, we evaluate the image as follows:

• Composition

• Salability

• Image size

• Quality Control:

• Sharpness
• Focal point
• Depth of Field
• Noise
• Artifacting
• Colour depth and Fidelity
• Dust and scratches
• Other Damage (fringing, flare, burnout and haze)
• No Logos or trademarks

• Descriptions and Keywords

• Categories

If your image fails the review on any of these points. It will be rejected.

ets look at the various criteria a little closer:

Composition:
Before we even inspect the image at full size we check to see if the image adheres to the relevant rules of composition for its specific category or type of image. Badly composed images have a drastically reduced sales value and have no place as stock images.

If your image suffers from weak composition, you might want to re-shoot, or alternatively crop the image into a more effective composition (if possible). Once cropped, DO NOT resize your image into a larger format! Any upsized images will be rejected out of hand as upsized images seriously deteriorate in quality and artifacts become apparent.

We would like to give our image buyers the best quality images possible.

Salability:
Even though the image might be very nice, we cannot accept the image if we cant sell it. If we have excessive amounts of images in a certain category, we will end up rejecting images that clutters up the search results. This also goes for images uploaded to the wrong website. We cannot move them for you, so please only upload images that is relevant to the specific site.

Image Size:
We aim to give our image buyers what they want and need, so to this extent, we will not sell images that are less than 4mp in size. To ensure a good range of usage, we will not accept images with a shorter short side than 2000px (pixels). The system is designed to through out any submissions that come in (Watch out!! If you are submitting them in a batch, other images might also be thrown out as the whole batch gets rejected automagicaly)

Quality Control:
At this point we start looking at the images at 100% size… that means we check the image at actual pixels, the way it was shot, to see whether it has good enough quality to be accepted.

Sharpness:
Is the images sharp, and is the point of focus where it suits the image best? If the image is blurry or not pin-sharp at the focus point, we will not accept the image. There is a place for movement to illustrate motion, but it is quite clearly distinguishable from movement because of incorrect shutter speed.

Focal Point:
Is the focal point at the correct place, i.e. at the point where it creates maximum impact? If the focal point is too far ahead or behind the actual point of interest then the image loses impact and salability.

Depth of Field:
It is, once again, very important that the image has the correct Depth of Field for it’s composition and type. We do not expect miracles, but it needs to match the image and what the image portrays.

Noise:
The ugly result of leaps and bounds in consumer technology. Noise is a big no. if noise is visible, then the image is out. Always.

Noise must not be confused with grain. Even though they are generated by the same root cause (low light ability, or lack of ability, by the film or Image Sensor) the are two different beasts altogether. Grain can be aesthetically pleasing where noise a collection of red and blue (sometimes they look more pink and green) pixels that usually show up in even tone areas, especially when the image was not correctly exposed to begin with.

There are ways to handle noise, and get rid of noise, and all of them takes time. Either in post processing or in re-shooting, so do yourself a favour and learn to read your histogram, and get your exposure right from the word go! (getting your exposure right also means you get richer crisper colours with better contrast)

Artifacting:
Also known as “Jaggies” or more correctly as “compression artifacts” occur when an image is continuously resaved and re-compressed. The effect is exaggerated by sharpened areas, and/or noise or noisy areas (especially in the sky) and show up as “halos” around the noise and dust.
To minimize the effect of compression, we prefer a single step compression in the workflow. Do not shoot on your camera’s JPEG settings… when editing or converting, keep the files as TIFF or PSD files to stop compression when saving, and only once your final file is ready to be sent, create a single JPG image with the least amount of compression available.

Colours:
If an image appears washed out or bleak, it’s not very enticing to buyers and will just waste disk space. Your camera is capable of giving excellent colours without too much post processing by just getting your exposure correct and following simple tricks, like shooting with a lens-hood. Good colour makes the image pop of the page and into the buyers shopping cart!
Also be careful of banding when editing your images. This frequently happens when an image is over-edited while in an 8-bit mode (basically there is just not enough colour range to go around)

Dust and Scratches:
If we come across any dust marks, finger prints or loose hairs on the image when reviewing, out it goes without a second glance. Check your images at actual pixel size, and remove what needs to be removed from the get go!

Other Damage: (Fringing, Flare, burnout and haze)
If we see it, the image is gone. All of these have to do with overexposure and show up as un-detailed areas in your image (and in the case of fringing, with a purple or red/blue edge surrounding one side of the burnt out area)

No Logos or Trademark:
If we see any registered trademarks or recognisable logos (even if obscured) we cannot sell the image under a Royalty Free licence and therefor cannot accept it into our Library (also keep in mind that you must have a legal and valid model release for every recognisable person in your gallery. It's illegal to sell an image of a person without their consent!)

9 times out of ten half of these problems can be solved with correct exposure, or a filter and lens hood. If not, then now is not the time to take the picture, come back when the light has changed.

If you have made it this far, good… two more hurdles:

Keywords:
Do yourself a favour and spell-check your keywords. Make sure they are spelled correctly otherwise they won’t show up, and also make sure they are relevant.

Keyword what is in the picture, not what you think people might be thinking in the picture or what the picture can be used for. Just say what is in the picture and that is it… job done… Bad keywords (either spelling or spamming) will get an image thrown out.

And before you ask, no, we cannot fix your keywords for you, but if you want, we can refer you to services that does this for a fee.

Categories
Last hurdle… pick the right categories… don’t choose them all, we will just reject your image. Don’t choose categories that are not relevant, or out goes the image. Everything must match up right.
Once you have passed all of these criteria with flying colours, your image will be incorporated into our databases, and will be ready for sale. So the job is done… go out and shoot some more while we start this list again with the next image.