Commercial Stock Photography

[digirebelva]

"We strongly recommend that images are captured on a digital camera capable of producing files of 17MB and upwards (6 megapixels). Please then interpolate the images to a minimum of 48MB using professional upsizing software.
We recommend Genuine Fractals™, although other professional upsizing software is equally acceptable, including Abobe Photoshop versions 7 and CS/CS2 (if the bicubic option is used). "

[neilwood]

Thanks for the quote digirebelva.

I have to clarify - my comment was lead by a post on another forum (P.O.T.N.) where a number of posters have had their images accepted with 125-150% upscaling.

[Igor]

Sorry-,
My original question (was?) technical. (But I'm not , really, from a photography sense, a photo expert.)

I have a 10 Mgpixel camera (Sony A100), but mostly I shoot "Medium/JPEG" so I get 600+ images in the 1Gig CF.

As I look at the stock/microstock photo sites, I can't figure out how you get 30+ Meg files. My 10 Mpixels "RAW" files would be 15+(?) Mb (on the computer) file size. There is no compression, as far I as know.

I am using Paint Shop Pro, looking at Image Information, "In Ram" is large, but they are adjusting for 72 dpi monitors.

So, the question is, what am I missing in the calculation? How do I submit to a site with a 30-50 MB min?

[Transistor]

Without getting into the mathematics of it (because I don't entirely understand them myself :P), there are imagine "enlargement" programs out there that use the mathematics's in generating fractals (geometric patterns based on mathematical rules) to upsize these images for large display without the typical quality loss you'd get by just doing it photoshop.

So the photo starts typically as say an 11MP jpg (maybe 4mb) but then gets upsampled so advertisers can display it as an A1 print of whatever if they want. This does need pretty decent picture quality (ie - good glass and a good body) to begin with to end up with a reasonable end product though.

Note that most microstock agencies will not allow you to do this, but have far far smaller image requirements (>4mb) to begin with. If you're shooting with a P+S, then this is a far better option for you, just be aware of (seemingly insane) strict noise and artifact requirements.

[Igor]

Just by way of an update. I’m getting closer to understanding sizes.

Medium resolution on my Alpha is 2896 x 1936 = 5.6 Mpixel, using Standard compression (case 1):

• Camera to Computer = 875 Kb JPG file
• Open in PSP = In Ram = 16.4 Mb
• Save as 8 bit AdobeRGB TIF = 16.4 Mb
• Saving as 16 bit Adobe RGB TIF = 32.859 Mb

Large size is 3872 x 2592 = 10.03 Mpixel. Shooting in RAW(case 2):

• Camera to Computer = 11,300 Kb ARW file
• Save as 8 bit AdobeRGB TIF = 29.403 Mb
• Open (the TIF) in PSP = In Ram = 29.403 Mb

And I learned that my version of PSP doesn’t handle ARW files elegantly. The program chokes and throws an error. The SONY software converts RAW to TIF, and then PSP can handle a TIF.

So, am I correct in assuming that if JPEG compression doesn’t destroy the photo, my Medium Standard shots (case 1) are in the 16.4 Mbyte range? (Depending of course on picture color content.) Well above the submission minimum for a number of microstock sites.

Transistor, I found this site if your interested in fractals and enlarging.

[Transistor]

Thanks very much for the link, that's some interesting in-depth reading.

http://www.all-things-photography.co...print-pro.html might help if you're still going for the 50mb file size, but personaly i find it far easier to meet the 4mp requirements of most microstock sites. Normaly they're happy for you to submit in jpg provided it's at minimum compression (ie- no compression artifacts) which can save a lot of upload time.

[soxboston]

I've heard a lot of people don't have success in getting their photos "accepted" by stock sites. I just uploaded a bunch of my own photos to BSP so I'm eager to see how they do. Anyone with BSP experience have any idea of how long it takes for someone to look at them?

[Lebowski]

Originally Posted by soxboston

I've heard a lot of people don't have success in getting their photos "accepted" by stock sites. I just uploaded a bunch of my own photos to BSP so I'm eager to see how they do. Anyone with BSP experience have any idea of how long it takes for someone to look at them?

I submitted several photos on Thursday evening, and have yet to hear back. Note that they temporarily suspended submissions over the weekend, so they must be busy. Fotolia got back to me with a response in about 1-2 last week.

[windrider86]

Hey, I just sold one to Big Stock and made a whole fifty cents.lol

[Taallyn]

Woot! Go Windrider!