 One of the first hurdles for me was to get to know the jargon. After all, your rejected photos will have reasons for the rejection noted for your information.
I must pause first. In this day and age, I believe the term “rejection” would be viewed as extremely negative and could cause some emotional issues that I am not prepared to address at this time. Therefore, I would like to reject the term rejection in favor of a more friendly term. From this point on, I will refer to a “deferred acceptance” to more pleasantly describe this event.
As I was getting ready to explain, photos with deferred acceptance will almost always have a brief explanation as to the issues that may have caused the said, deferred acceptance. There are a couple of reasons why these comments can be frustrating.
One of which is that the comments can be general and unspecific. Another is that you vehemently disagree with the comments. Those are both rather subjective and can be the source of lengthy dissertation on the support forums at microstock sites.
However, when reasons listed aren’t clear to you because you just don’t know what the words mean, well – that is where just a little vocabulary lesson can go a long way.
So, for those of you who, like me, are not privy to the little details of “photospeak” – I have decided to introduce you to some of the terms that left me baffled and confused. I have also taken the time to define or describe these in language that the average human can understand. (Author’s caveat – the following definitions may or may not be complete and/or precise. They are, however, correct in their content and should help you as you begin your foray into the world of stock photography).
JPEG – Just Pretend Everyone Gets it.
This is a type of image file. That’s it.
You will see it as a suffix at the end of the name you have given to your image as “.jpg”. I could take the time to explain exactly what each letter actually means, but I have found that is not knowledge I use. It just takes up space in my brain (which in itself is not that difficult to find, but when I get too much information rattling around in there, it all becomes clutter and I can’t sort through what’s relevant!). Therefore, I will not impose upon you information that I myself seem to be getting along just fine without.
I do know that it is the best balance between file size, quality and universal use. It is not the BEST quality of image, because (in part) it is a smaller file, and that every time you save a .jpg file, you lose quality. Therefore, if your image requires any editing, I would recommend that you save it as a TIFF if you are not finished with your editing. You won’t lose any quality in a TIFF file. Then when you’re done editing, you can save the last version of it as .jpeg.
TIFF – Totally, Incredibly Fine Format
This is also a type of image file.
This one is humongous! So, great– you can save everything as a .tiff file (which, incidentally, is also very universally recognizable), but you’ll bog down your available memory in about five minutes! Well, ok, I exaggerate, but it is a large file and it takes up a lot of space on your hard drive.
RAW – the Really Awesome Way
Guess what? It’s a type of image file!
(I don’t have any idea about the size issue.)
Super duper way to fine tune and edit and manipulate, if you understand it. However, that is pure data, and not all programs recognize it and not all cameras have that capability. However, you will see that those who shoot in RAW or convert to RAW for editing consistently state that it results in the highest quality images they see.
“Pure data” kind of means the same thing that “00111000001010” code means in computer-eze. (In case I just wrote some stupendous code that means SOMETHING, I hereby state I have absolutely NO idea of what that may be – I just know what it’s supposed to look like. So, no comments, please, on the zeros and ones!)
If you’ve got questions about RAW, you’re probably ready to start uploading and should go ahead and sign up!
For those of you who, UNLIKE me, actually know the technicalities of each of these terms, I invite you to comment back with clarification. However, please keep in mind these definitions are from the mind of an amateur and probably only useful to other amateurs. That being said, it would surprise me to learn that any of you would actually be reading this for any reason other than amusement. So go ahead and giggle - and then by all means – straighten me out!
Check back soon because I’ll be detailing various terminology on a regular basis. If you don’t see a word you’re curious about, then just ask! I’ll be glad to help! Perry Correll [contact] [bio ] |
The Micro Shooter 
