Rejected Photographs -- a coming trend?

[Charles L. Cotton]

I shoot photos on a Canon Rebel XTi and use the highest quality (a/k/a largest) setting. My CHL photos are almost 4 MB each! In the last three weeks, I've had 3 students contact me about DPS rejecting photos, some allegedly are "grainy" and two "pixelated." They aren't. Each received a letter about the photos after DPS had the application for quite some time.

Are any other instructors having this problem?

Chas.

[Crossfire]

Same here. We have not changed anything. Same camera, same printer. Suddenly, we are seeing photos rejected as "grainy" or "pixilated" or "too large" (even though it fits in the template)

On the other hand, we have not had any fingerprints rejected in months! I guess they backed off that, as it is no longer an issue, since they are forcing us to go with L1 in 2011.

[flintknapper]

Four out of five family members that took the course at the same time...(here) had their photos rejected. All photos looked perfect to me.

I think we are seeing the same thing going on as (suddenly) happened with fingerprints last year. (A good way to delay processing when they are overwhelmed).

[OldSchool]

I think we are seeing the same thing going on as (suddenly) happened with fingerprints last year. (A good way to delay processing when they are overwhelmed).

Funny! But seriously, they wouldn't gain anything by doing this to slow things down, given how quickly they've been getting them through in the past year; few would argue with DPS' recent success. What could possibly cause them to suddenly reject perfectly good images?

[ELB]

...
I think we are seeing the same thing going on as (suddenly) happened with fingerprints last year. ...

Hmmm. Wild, evil, speculative, conspiratorial thought: L1 does not only fingerprints, but "biometric data," including photographs, and background checks, and so forth. IOW, everything that needs to be done to process a CHL card except the actual class content and shooting course. If someone were to want to move the administrative processing from DPS to L1, then there would have to be a plausible reason, like reduced cost...and/or a problem with CHL instructors's photographs, forms, etc. Thus one might become much pickier about such things...

[Charles L. Cotton]

Folks, I just need information about rejects so I can pursue the issue. Please start another thread on photos.

Thanks,
Chas.

[ELB]

Sorry. It was just too obvious.

[longtooth]

So far I have not got any photos back.

[puma guy]

I shoot photos on a Canon Rebel XTi and use the highest quality (a/k/a largest) setting. My CHL photos are almost 4 MB each! In the last three weeks, I've had 3 students contact me about DPS rejecting photos, some allegedly are "grainy" and two "pixelated." They aren't. Each received a letter about the photos after DPS had the application for quite some time.

Are any other instructors having this problem?

Chas.

Are these prints that are attached to the application or digital files sent electronically? If I recall the photos are approximately passport size, approx 2" x 2" and are physically attached to the app. That sized print made from a 4mb file should have excellent resolution and any pixelating would be quite obvious. I guess the term grainy could be used but that's really a term for negative based prints.

[garcia946]

Ive had serveal students all have the same problem. I havent changed anything and all of a sudden , had pics come back on some students. They ended up going to Wallgreens or CVS and no problems since there. Its weird...
Im using a 12 mp camera , a Nikon cool pix.

[kahrfreak]

I shoot photos on a Canon Rebel XTi and use the highest quality (a/k/a largest) setting. My CHL photos are almost 4 MB each! In the last three weeks, I've had 3 students contact me about DPS rejecting photos, some allegedly are "grainy" and two "pixelated." They aren't. Each received a letter about the photos after DPS had the application for quite some time.

What format are you sending them in as? If you are using a lossy compression scheme such as JPEG, resampling them to 2" x 2" will result in the artifacts you've described. If you're sending them in a lossless format (such as LZW embedded in a TIF file format), then DPS (or whomever) is resampling them incorrectly.

I thought an example might be appropriate. I downsampled a 5184x3456 4MB JPEG image of a radio tower to 600x600 (assuming a DPI resolution of 300dpi), then did a screen capture of both. You can see the level of pixelation that may or may not be present depending upon the resolution of the printer and the eye of the viewer. (These were zoomed in to show details; one would actually have to print out the image on the printer in question to determine true image quality.)

[Charles L. Cotton]

I shoot photos on a Canon Rebel XTi and use the highest quality (a/k/a largest) setting. My CHL photos are almost 4 MB each! In the last three weeks, I've had 3 students contact me about DPS rejecting photos, some allegedly are "grainy" and two "pixelated." They aren't. Each received a letter about the photos after DPS had the application for quite some time.

Are any other instructors having this problem?

Chas.

Are these prints that are attached to the application or digital files sent electronically? If I recall the photos are approximately passport size, approx 2" x 2" and are physically attached to the app. That sized print made from a 4mb file should have excellent resolution and any pixelating would be quite obvious. I guess the term grainy could be used but that's really a term for negative based prints.

They are passport photos I take during the class and you're right about file size and pixelating. DPS doesn't take digital photos; the ones L-1 sends to DPS are for identification purposes only.

Chas.

[Charles L. Cotton]

I shoot photos on a Canon Rebel XTi and use the highest quality (a/k/a largest) setting. My CHL photos are almost 4 MB each! In the last three weeks, I've had 3 students contact me about DPS rejecting photos, some allegedly are "grainy" and two "pixelated." They aren't. Each received a letter about the photos after DPS had the application for quite some time.

What format are you sending them in as? If you are using a lossy compression scheme such as JPEG, resampling them to 2" x 2" will result in the artifacts you've described. If you're sending them in a lossless format (such as LZW embedded in a TIF file format), then DPS (or whomever) is resampling them incorrectly.

DPS doesn't accept prints electronically. I print them on a dedicated photo printer from a 4 MB file. I see the photos before they I give them to the students are they are excellent quality. If there is any doubt in my mind about lighting on a particular photo, I shoot it again.

Chas.

[kahrfreak]

DPS doesn't accept prints electronically. I print them on a dedicated photo printer from a 4 MB file. I see the photos before they I give them to the students are they are excellent quality. If there is any doubt in my mind about lighting on a particular photo, I shoot it again.

Ah...so you know the pictures are excellent quality when they're sent. I wonder, then, how DPS is handling the rescanning. That's the only other place in the process chain where artifacts could reoccur.

[CompVest]

We have had a 3 students that had photos rejected as being too dark. Same camera settings, lighting, and location as always for photos.