What to do to make the screeners accept my photo?

Good morning

I took a picture of the terrminal of Martinique airport and the picture wasn't accepted.

I uploaded the picture a first time and they told me it's not sharp, over-saturated, digital noise is visible (because of the saturation) and sky over-processed : shadowy edges on the clouds

I uploaded it a second time after saturating less and sharping it a little, and it wasn't accepted because digital noise is visible but I don't see it, the JPEG compression is visible and the sky is blotchy

So what process should I apply to get my picture accepted ? It would be great to have a terminal overview photo of my airport on AP, unfortunately I don't manage to do it and I'm a beginner with processing.

Thanks

This post has been edited by Martin Krupka on 19th July 2014 - 23:05

Attached photos:

It's a nice picture, sets the scene well but as you say it has faults

Sharpening is the root of all, well most evils and the sharpening or your processing has caused noise in the sky, most noticeable where I have drawn in red. Sometimes screeners erroneously attribute noise with JPEG compression, whatever you call it it is a flaw and needs to be fixed.

Only the middle to foreground, in yellow needs to be sharpened.

If your editing program does not allow you to do layer masks, then perhaps a sharpened layer and use the erase tool may do the trick but some form of selective sharpening will help you.

I would ask you if your processing is that important or even to go back and rework it to minimise the processing / noise but it would be worth further effort.

Attached photos:

Cédric, what software do you use?

If you use Photoshop, there is some vídeos on youtube teaching how to do some "selective sharpening", where you make more sharp only the parts that really need it.

When you apply sharpening to the whole photo, the sky always tend to be noisy. So, it is good to define the edges you want to sharpen.

Try out these vídeos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sccx5Gcv3rc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leXkTPMTxvE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqJmV8RUbqw

I learned a lot with it!!

Thank you very much !

I use Photoshop cs5 and I'll try selective sharpening for the foreground. I will post the picture here before uploading it just to be sure it would be accepted.

And about the JPEG compression ?

About the saturation, the contrast and the white balance is everything good ?

This post has been edited by Cédric O.Lafontaine on 16th April 2014 - 18:24

Cédric, sometimes sharpening by using Hi Pass filter is good....

After you adjust your image (Sharpening must be the last adjust), Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer, then you will have two layers. On your duplicated layer (the layer selected just one click on it) apply the Hi Pass filter. Go to Filter - Other - Hi Pass then adjust the bar until you see just the edges, basically make visible just the part that you want to apply sharpening.

After this you will have a gray layer and you need to overlay this on your "main" layer so go to "Layers" tab on your right side and switch the blending mode from "normal" to "overlay" and now you sharpened your photo by using the Hi Pass filter.

To avoid JPEG compression is very important shoot in RAW file. Did you shoot RAW? If you shoot in JPEG will be a little hard to avoid JPEG compression and I am not good enough to edit photos that came out of the camera in JPEG....rsrsrsrsrs

In MY opinion the other factors as color and saturation are good.... I would try some contrast just to see...

This post has been edited by Ricardo Abritta on 16th April 2014 - 18:44

I'll try to sharpen the foreground by using the way given in this video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcT8fJTejcM

Thaks but I didn't understand what the Hi Pass filter is made for

I don't shoot in RAW, i tried once but I saw that even in JPEG I process the picture after and I don't really understand why it's bettre to shoot in RAW ( I must be wrong)

Cédric, the Hi Pass is a tool for sharpening. It highlights the image edges and apply sharpen only to it. The only areas that have sharpening applied to them are the edges, which is exactly what you want, not to the clouds or the sky. Sharpening is only applied to edges.

Read this article about Hi Pass filter: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/sharpen-high-pass/

Regarding the RAW file, it is good because it gives you all power over the image. It reduces the JPEG compression and do not apply any adjusts by the camera. And the adjusts made with Photoshop are more effective and have more quality when applied on RAW files than to a JPEG file.

If your picture had been shoot in raw I'm sure you would not have the problems you are having.

For RAW shooting, try to read some articles on internet. Take a look below:

http://photographyconcentrate.com/10-reasons-why-you-should-be-shooting-raw/

http://christinagreve.com/jpeg-raw-beginners-guide-start-shooting-raw-image-mode-easy/

Thank you

I did what you told me

What do you think now ?

I also changed the levels of the blue sky and reduced the noise with PS5

Attached photos: