Too much or too little contrast

[Paul Stam]

Lately I have a lot of rejections. The reason is almost always:

Too much or too little contrast

This reason is very confushing, because does the screener means: too much or too little contrast. You have to guess.

For example these two photos. They are the same, but the first one was rejected, reason: Too much or too little contrast

So I read the upload guidelines again, about what is said over contrast and read the following side over this subject:

http://www.seahawk.gmxhome.de/contrastreject.pdf

With the guidlines of this side, I edit the photo again. But this one was also rejected. Reason: Too much or too little contrast

Can somebody gives me advice, what to do with the photos. What is the right contrast

[pdeboer]

The problem with the images is not the contrast of the photo as a whole, but the contrast within the image. It is actually a photo of an a/c taken under backlit conditions. But with the sun behind the clouds the backlit is not too obvious. The effect is similar though: the sky is bright, the side of the a/c we see is partly mostly (too) dark, small part (too) bright. So some parts have too much contrast, others too little.
I must say I would have voted to reject for backlit to be more clear.

Your next question will unboubtably be: can I save this?

I am afraid not. You need to partly brighten the a/c. This will bring up noise, and probably also a halo around the a/c.

Hope this helps.

cheers, Pamela

[Paul Stam]

Thank you Pamela,

You know the place very well where I have taken the photo. It is a place were you are facing the sun.
But in the past I had several photos accepted in cloudy conditions.

Indeed, if the screener had rejected the photo for backlit, I had accept that.

But the remark: too little or too much contrast is confushing.

Why not split the remark in: too little contrast, when there is a lack of contrast and too much contrast when indeed it is to much.

When a photo is rejected for sharpness, you get the remark: oversharpen or soft in stead of too little or too much sharpness. Why not so with contrast

[LX-A343]

Why not split the remark in: too little contrast, when there is a lack of contrast and too much contrast when indeed it is to much.

Because there's more than just too much or too little contrast. A photo can have too much highlights but correct shadows, lack midtones or highlights, and so on.

The easiest when you get this rejection: check the histogram! It reveals everything you need.

[Paul Stam]

I always check the histogram, but that is no guarantee.

[LX-A343]

That's right, the histogram is not a guarantee, but it can give you some ideas, some hints.