You weren’t granted a skill you asked for? Here is a guide to help you understand better the OCUS qualification system.
You can only access assignments matching the skills you were granted. This article will help you better understand each OCUS skill, how to have media in your portfolio(s) that matches expectations, and what could be the reason(s) why you weren’t granted a specific skill. You can add new skills at any time in your profile section. Every skill is reviewed by a team of OCUS professional photographers and can be granted or declined at any time. Your skill was declined? You can request a new review by asking it again and adding a new link to more corresponding media.
Reasons why a skill can be declined:
| PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS | Exposure (in most of your pictures) | White balance (in most of your pictures) | Aesthetics (in most of your pictures) | Technical aspects (in most of your pictures) | Details needed are missing in most of your pictures: | The aspect of your image (in most of your pictures) | Sharpness (in most of your pictures) | Mandatory level to access VIP assignments of the skill |
| REAL ESTATE / ARCHITECTURE: Interior Real Estate photography only | Not correctly managed: The rendering of your images is too dark or too light. | Too yellow because of the interior light or too blue (There are differences of Kelvins, between the light sources). | The point of view chosen is not correct. The view and the way we read the image we don’t understand the room. The view of the room and the elements in the room should be in the center of the image. | The lines are not straight, the image has issues with the perspective. The camera is too high or too low and there is a lot of deformation in the room. | The HDR is too strong. The rendering is not natural The windows are too dark and exposed not in a realistic way. |
The images proposed are out of focus or are not sharp. You can see the blurriness coming from shaking due to a low shutter speed. There is the blurriness of shaking due to a low shutter speed. |
Have a 17 mm lens. You must have at least 5 pictures of 3 different rooms. |
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| LIFESTYLE: Staged in action photography with one or several models/ at least one | Not correctly managed: The rendering of your images is too dark or too light. | Too yellow because of the interior light or too blue (cold of differences of Kelvins). | All the models are showing their back to the camera. We don’t see faces or expressions. We don’t see or understand what is going on (the action) in the photo. | The action depicted feels forced and we are lacking natural actions. Models don’t look comfortable, they are forced to act. | The rendering is not natural. You retouched your images like “Instagram filters”, with too much and/ or contrast saturation. | The images are out of focus or are not sharp. The main person is not sharp. There is blurriness due to a low shutter speed. | You must share with us at least 5 images of different actions. | |
| FOOD: Pictures of meals | Not correctly managed: The rendering of your images is too dark or too light. | Too yellow because of the interior light or too blue (cold of differences of Kelvins). | The elements on the table are not gracefully disposed and the aspect of your image is chaotic. There is dirt on the plate or around it. | The angle chosen does not allow us to see and fully understand the meal and its ingredients. | The rendering is not natural. You retouched your images like “Instagram filters”, with too much and/ or contrast saturation. | The images are out of focus or are not sharp. The main element of the meal must be sharp too, without blurriness due to low shutter speed. |
You must share with us at least 5 images of different meals. | |
| NATURE: Only landscapes | Not correctly managed: The rendering of your images is too dark or too light. | Too yellow because of the interior light or too blue (cold of differences of Kelvins). | The location is not embellished. | Natural conditions are not managed. | The rendering is not natural. You retouched your images like “Instagram filters”, with too much and/ or contrast saturation. | The images are out of focus or are not sharp. The main element must be sharp too, without blurriness due to low shutter speed. |
You must share with us at least 5 images of different landscapes. | |
| PORTRAIT: It can be an interior or exterior portrait | Not correctly managed: The rendering of your images is too dark or too light. | Too yellow because of the interior light or too blue (cold of differences of Kelvins). | Natural conditions such as the sun or the sky in the background are not correctly managed. | The person doesn’t look comfortable. | The rendering is not natural. You retouched your images like “Instagram filters”, with too much and/ or contrast saturation. | The images proposed are out of focus or are not sharp. The main person of the images must be sharp as well, There is the blurriness of shaking due to a low shutter speed. | You must propose to us at least 5 images of different people. | |
| PRODUCT: In monochrome background photoshoots of an object, there must be a single item per image | Not correctly managed: The rendering of your images is too dark or too light. In your images, there are shadows in the background. | Too yellow because of the interior light or too blue (cold of differences of Kelvins). | The product is not well presented, from an angle that we don’t fully understand it. | You don’t have monochrome background pictures. In your images, we see composition product images, not a single item per image photos. | Post-production is not clean, and the background is dirty. | The rendering is not natural. You retouched your images like “Instagram filters”, with too much and/ or contrast saturation. | The images proposed are out of focus or are not sharp. The main element point of the product must be sharp as well, not blurred due to low shutter speed. | You must have monochrome background images with a single product per image. At least 5 images of different products. |
| SOCIAL: Reportage photography | Not correctly managed: The rendering of your images is too dark or too light. | Too yellow because of the interior light or too blue (cold of differences of Kelvins). | We don’t understand the reportage you are proposing to us. | The subject.s don’t look comfortable in your images. | We don’t see spontaneous moments in the reportage. Or critical moments of the event. | The rendering is not natural. You retouched your images like “Instagram filters”, with too much and/ or contrast saturation. | The images proposed are out of focus or are not sharp. The main persons of the images must be sharp as well, There is the blurriness of shaking due to a low shutter speed. | You must share with us at least 5 images of different actions. |
| SPORT: Sports reportage photography | Not correctly managed: The rendering of your images is too dark or too light. | Too yellow because of the interior light or too blue (cold of differences of Kelvins). | We don’t understand the sport that you are proposing to us, we don’t see faces. People are not communicating during the activity. | We don’t see spontaneous moments in the sport illustrated. | We don’t see spontaneous moments in the reportage. Or critical moments of the event. | The rendering is not natural. You retouched your images like “Instagram filters”, with too much and/ or contrast saturation. | The images proposed are out of focus or are not sharp. The main persons of the images must be sharp as well, There is the blurriness of shaking due to a low shutter speed. | You must propose to us at least 5 images of different actions of an event. |
| FASHION: e-shop type of fashion photoshoots, only studio work will be qualified on this skill | Not correctly managed: The rendering of your images is too dark or too light. | Too yellow because of the interior light or too blue (cold of differences of Kelvins). | The model doesn’t pose correctly and the clothing is not correctly shown. | You don’t have monochrome background images. Exterior photoshoots won’t be qualified as fashion of Ocus. | The rendering is not natural. You retouched your images like “Instagram filters”, with too much and/ or contrast saturation. | The images proposed are out of focus or are not sharp. The model is not sharp. The clothing needs to be sharp if we zoom in. |
You must propose to us at least 5 images of different stylings. |
Thank you for taking the time to read this article.
You might have one or many different issues with the images proposed, please note that sharpness and out-of-focus images will not be reviewed or approved. If we receive RAW files we are not taking into consideration what can be done with retouches but what we see. Please don’t send WeTransfer links as they expire we prefer open drive links, it’s easier for us to share them with the team. Last but not least if you were disqualified for a specific skill, you can request it again, by sending us new media at any time. You can send us as many times as you wish, but always keep in mind if there is no evolution there is not gonna be any qualification.
How to improve your images? Keep in mind all of the above, give us at least 3 examples of minimum.
If you need more help understanding what is wrong with your media, please contact us via the Help Centre. An expert from the team will give feedback and help you do a good trial with visual examples and technical points to improve.
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