1 factor risks lowering your search visibility - photo pixel problem

[ScottCuppArt]

I'm having an issue with uploading pics to use as primary listing photos. Every so often, I'll take an improved photo for a listing and will get "1 factor risks lowering your search visibility" even though it has reached the 2000px resolution requirements in either direction. Regardless of the pixel count, I will get the warning. Interestingly, the older photos (which often are of poorer resolution) are accepted without issue. What am I doing wrong and will Etsy lower my listing's visibility because it doesn't like my photo?

[DesertChains]

Perhaps the size isn’t the problem, but the image composition. Which image is getting flagged?

[ScottCuppArt]

It's the first item listed in my store. That was the last photo I took, and left it even though it had the warning. In this case, it only talks about resolution and pixel standards.  I'm open to any suggestions regarding composition.

[SpottedOctopusShop]

That's what I'm thinking too. The composition. The video does an excellent job of explaining your product but the lead photo with the white side on the right almost looks like a photo mistake. Also with the pure white background. It's hard to place the size of your mobile or how they work or ideas for where they will complement rooms. I'd use the first photo as a later photo.  After the potential buyer has an idea of the rest.

[ScottCuppArt]

Thanks for the input. The rest of the photos in this listing has white backgrounds, and Etsy didn't have an issue with them as a primary. I did have another piece that used a living room sofa as a background but that was rejected as well.

[BrooklynStVintage]

@ScottCuppArt  Three of the Acuti Folded Steel Mobiles are flagged an Etsy Pick. They do not have shapes of color in the photo which may confuse AI ?

 

[ScottCuppArt]

It wouldn't surprise me if that were the case, especially if this current AI program is new. This has only been a problem in the last couple of weeks for me and, obviously, I'm worried that this may cause my store to get less exposure. 

[GlassyFields]

I had over 200 listings flagged for using collages as the main photo. I've revised the majority of them. A collage consisting of 20 tiny photos to create a border, with one large photo in the middle works about 90% of the time - but a few don't work. I've tweaked spacing, background, contrast ... I can't figure out what makes some fail Etsy's test. 

And a few of the original collage photos - a grid were never flagged. 

I want my photos to comply with Etsy's algorithm thinking it impacts their quality score which presumably impacts listing placement ... but there are obviously some criteria that Etsy hasn't shared.

I've also had a few of my primary photos flagged as having a problem, and then later the flag disappears. And sometimes, the opposite happens also. (maybe the AI is so advanced that it's moody).

[MaryNotMartha]

Our shop's visits have dropped 50% over the last several months. Our sales reduced by 30% over same time last year (our best part of the year). All because they're using AI to flag photos that are not compliant?

Who has determined what is acceptable? I've had over 300 listings flagged as not being acceptable when they're all items we have been selling regularly, some of them for YEARS! 

Not at all happy with this - and to try to talk sense into a CS rep about all of this is pointless. I've been on the phone with them twice, chatted several times, and emailed several times. 

We've been on Etsy going on 16 years and this is not good - never had issues like this in the past and am looking into starting a shopify store - if we have to drive our own traffic we may as well have a huge reduction in fees!

[TreeSeedMan]

I'm getting the same nonsense low resolution photo garbage and this is getting ridiculous 

[AutumnHollowStudio]

I have the same problem with one recent listing - all of my photos are hi-res, with a minimum 2000px on all sides. No matter what I do the warning is there. I figured it was a glitch. 

[MaryNotMartha]

no glitch - they're using AI now and it's very finicky. So now we have to try to figure out how to make AI happy.....

[ArtsByKilgore]

I'm having the same issue. My photos are atleast 3000px by 3000px and Im getting flagged for low resolution. I think it's a problem on Etsy's end. 

[yuneekDesign]

Yes, we are experiencing this issue also for the last two days approximately.  My primary mockup image gets the following error even though I'm making them the same why I always have - "1 factor risks lowering your search visibility.  We found some ways you can improve your shop to help how you show up in search.  1 way to improve.  This improvement can help your search visibility:

• Upload a higher-resolution primary photo"

I've tried following the links to Contact Etsy Support and the screens just keep going around in circles.  How does one actually log a ticket with Etsy?

[FancyTogs]

Just a guess, and outside chance . . .

Check the ppi / dpi settings of your uploaded images.

The dpi/ppi is actually totally irrelevant for images displayed on the internet, however Etsy help pages keep regurgitating the myth that images must be 72ppi for the internet.

There is therefore a chance that Etsy's technical experts have decided to start checking dpi/ppi settings of newly uploaded images as a mark of image quality.

Lawrence (Clare's other half)

[MaryNotMartha]

They don't have enough techs to check on this - they've adjusted their algorithms and AI is taking over..... if you can't make it happy, it flags you. And for no apparent reason. 

[yuneekDesign]

Just to follow up on my previous note, I recently encountered an issue with one of my most recent listings that showed the following error:

"1 factor risks lowering your search visibility. We found some ways you can improve your shop to help how you show up in search. 1 way to improve: Upload a higher-resolution primary photo."

Initially, I decided to try using a standard stock image provided by Printify (my POD provider). Once I re-published the listing with this image, the error disappeared. However, when I switched back to my original mockup, the error returned.

To troubleshoot further, I went back to Placeit, where I create most of my mockups, and selected a different image—one that appeared more crisp and clear. After uploading this new mockup to Etsy, the error went away. This suggests that the original image I was using might not have been clear enough for Etsy's requirements, even though it looked fine to me.

While I’m relieved to have resolved the issue (at least for now), I spent about an hour trying to report it to Etsy and couldn’t find any way to actually log a support ticket. The "Contact Support" button on Etsy’s support page kept leading me in circles with no resolution.

It's a bit unnerving that contacting support is so difficult, especially for issues like this. Hopefully, this note helps others who might face a similar problem!

[FancyTogs]

@yuneekDesign 

Those are interesting observations.

When Etsy started talking about measuring "image quality" they mentioned measuring sharpness.

Lack of sharpness can be due to low resolution, but also many other reasons.

It is not unusual for Etsy to incorrectly identify the reason for listing problems.

Sharpness is a perception based on contrast gradients.

If edges are not clean high contrast gradients then Etsy are likely to be detecting "low sharpness".

Lawrence

[MaryNotMartha]

We had over 300 photos "flagged" - our shop sells supplies and thus we have almost 4000 items for sale. 

Trying to keep up with all of this is making me want to leave the site or retire. 

[FancyTogs]

@ScottCuppArt 

If @yuneekDesign 's observation and my deduction is correct, then I suspect that your problem is:

• how you are brightening your images,
• and how you are lighting your images,
• which is causing the edges of your product to blur into the white background,
• resulting in Etsy detecting low sharpness,
• and so Etsy is reporting your images as too low resolution

So to fix your brightening:

• it looks like you are using the brightness slider. That brightens all the pixels equally, causing the shadow araes to also brighten. Instead change the white point, and contrast. How you do it depends on which photo editor you are using.
• you are over exposing, brightening the image too far, so that you are hitting a problem with edge definition. You have rounded products that are reflecting your lighting sources along their edges. The product edges are therefore brighter than your white background, but by editing so that your background is above the white point (brightest point of the image) you are also taking your product edges over the white point, merging them into the background. Pixel colour values are limited to 255,255,255. That is pure white, that is the white point, there is nothing beyond it, no detail, no separation.

If you have bright reflections on the product then other editing options to create a white background are by masking the product, and either brightening the background on its own or replacing the background.

With products that reflect lighting sources, if you cannot eliminate the reflections along edges, then it is often better to keep the background slightly darker so that there is separation.

A useful lighting trick to eliminate lighting reflections along edges is to use reflections of black to define edges. Place black material (card, fabric, or underexposed surroundings) to the sides of the shooting area so that the reflections along edges are dark.

Also keep your lighting more central, near the camera, so that reflections of lighting are towards the centre of rounded surfaces. Shadows can be softened by placing hard light out of shot and behind the subject directed onto the background.

Avoid using a large area of soft light behind a subject as that than can wrap around the edges of the subject causing loss of edges. This can happen if the background is too close and lit too strongly, it acts as a big soft light source and wraps around the subject edges. Moving away from the background will reduce the brightness of the light from the background due to the inverse square law.

Lawrence

[FancyTogs]

@ScottCuppArt 

I meant to include: for brightness editing, use either "levels adjustment" or "curves adjustment". These are common editing controls on decent photo editors.

On most editors these are destructive edits, so work on a copy of the original image, or apply the edits in a new layer. Some software, such as full fat Lightroom (but probably not all the diet varieties) and most Raw processors, will allow you to create a modifiable recipe of edits, which then need to be applied to the image when you output (save) as the edited version of the image.

On the levels adjustment you should see the histogram with Input and Output slider bars below it.

The histogram height shows the number of pixels at each brightness level. The brightness levels are zero on the left, to brightest (255) on the right.

On the Input bar you have 3 sliders, they are the black point on the left, grey point in the middle, white point on the right. Ignore teh OUtput sliders.

The usual editing sequence is

• if you want bright whites but the whites in the image look grey then you should see is a gap in the histogram bars on the right. Move the input bar's white point (righthand slider) to the left until it is below the far righthand edge of the hump. That sets the maximum brightness in the output image.
• To make sure that dark shadows are dark move the input bar's black point (lefthand slider) to the right until it is under the lefthand edge of the histogram hump.
• To vary the image brightness further you can move the grey point (centre slider) to the right to darken the image, or to the left to brighten the image. Some editors don't allow the grey point to be adjusted.

Curves Adjustment can perform a similar job, but editing of the diagonal line into a curve allows more nuances than a single central grey point slider. It is very powerful, and well worth learning to use, but I don't have the time (ore energy) available to explain it here. Have a play.

If you are making large edits to jpg images with these tools then you will hit a problem of posterisation. The editor can only move and combine brightness levels, not separate brightness levels, so you will lose detail. The result is bigger colour steps instead of gentle gradients, it will appear on the histogram as vertical spikes.

To avoid posterisation you have 2 choices:

• if saving as jpg files on the camera then get it as close as possible in the camera by using correct exposure settings. Use exposure compensation to brighten images, but do not over expose as that causes problems with white balance.
• save as raw files from the camera. The raw files are the full sensor data, usually in 10 to 14 bits per colour channel (jpg is only 8 bits per colour channel). Raw file processing software therefore allows you to move the pixel brightnesses around a lot more before the posterisation gaps become obvious when you output as a jpg.

Note: always do colour correction (white balance adjustment) before any brightening.

Lawrence

[ElectroEclecticShop]

Extremely helpful information! Thank you!

[LaDiDaAntiques]

I have no idea what you are saying. Your last two comments went WAYYY over my head! But thank you for commenting. I’m sure some people understand what you’re saying.

[AnnikVintageHome]

I have the same problem. I tried replacing the flagged photo, and it says I've solved the problem and my listing looks good now, and then a few minutes later it flags the listing again. Which makes me think it may be a glitch on Etsy's side rather than an actual problem with my photo.

[LyttonRoseBotanical]

I had the same issue recently, but it turned out the problem wasn't actually the primary photo they were saying it was. I have an canva infographic about shipping times as my 10th photo and I amended it recently and didn't set it as 2000x2000. Once I amended it, even though it wasn't in the primary slot, the error went away.