Im not complaining about the rejection, but....

[BNSF_or_SOO]

Take a look at this image. http://www.railpictures.net/viewreject.php?id=69478 It was rejected for bad cropping. I figure that is becuse of all the billboards and lights in the background? If so......isnt that cheating? Why do you want me to change the way an area naturally looks? To me that is cheating.
In this image I can understand that you want me to cut out the part of the street in the foreground right? http://www.railpictures.net/viewreject.php?id=69462
Sorry for being a lil annoying but whats wrong with this one? It said it is underexposed..... http://www.railpictures.net/viewreject.php?id=69436 This is my favorite picture that I have ever taken by the way. Thanks for your time.

[cmherndon]

Before you mention anything about "cheating" you may want to read these two topics: http://www.railpictures.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=914 and http://www.railpictures.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=929 The photo in question from the first has been removed, but you'll get a good idea as to what is and what isn't cheating. The third photo there looks like you were shooting on the dark side of the train, and that photo looks like it would've been better if you were shooting head on or on the other side of the tracks.

Take a look at the next two photos though and compare.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewreject.php?id=69478 - Your original of CEFX 132 and compare it to:

http://www.cmherndon.com/CIT_132.JPG.33013.jpg

That's been cropped to eliminate the dead space to the left of the train out, and the levels have been adjusted to brighten the photo up just a tad.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewreject.php?id=69462 - Your original of BNSF 4673 and compare it to:

http://www.cmherndon.com/BNSF_4673.JPG.39155.jpg

This has been cropped to elimiate the dead space to the left of the train, and levels adjusted to darken the photo up a little bit. The only thing that was altered was the pole in said dead space to allow for cropping.

It's not cheating when you remove certain things from a photo. However, if you're trying to show something that never happened (as in the case of the photo in the thread mentioned earlier) it is cheating. Removing power lines and telephone line markers isn't a big deal. I've even removed people from a photo before. You may want to take that into consideration.

[Ween]

It's not cheating when you remove certain things from a photo. However, if you're trying to show something that never happened (as in the case of the photo in the thread mentioned earlier) it is cheating. Removing power lines and telephone line markers isn't a big deal. I've even removed people from a photo before. You may want to take that into consideration.

From a historical perspective, I totally disagree. I don't have a problem so much with removing people, since people are fleeting, but removing a pole or telephone line removes the a part of the 'permanent' scenery. Sure, lines and poles change or get removed over time and aren't permanent, but when you look at a series of shots taken from the same spot over a period of time, if one of those shots is older and has some object digitally removed but a newer shot still has that object in it, it feels like a gyp.

Look at these two photos:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=85742
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=76120

They were taken at the same spot, 21 years apart. You can instantly look at them and see how much (or even, how little) has changed in 2 decades. When you start removing objects and altering the scenery, you get a good photo at the expense of distorting history. To me, it's not worth it. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should...

[chris crook]

I gotta agree with ween. To me, taking anything out of a picture no longer makes it a photograph of a scene that actually existed, instead it becomes a fake, a forgery, a made up image, like a painting or something.

I figure people who get all bent about wires and stuff have such limited attention spans that they really aren't safe to walk upright. And people who allow a distracting element to ruin a picture aren't very good photographers. (what is distracting is up for interpretation, of course)

Just my 2 cents, often viewed as being worth far less than 2 cents.

[BNSF_or_SOO]

I got to my computer to late to see your photographic suggestions, but I have an idea what to do. Im still heasitant about cropping stuff, but if that will give me a better chance to get on here, so be it. Thanks guys.
P.S. The third photo, the Soo Line one, wouldn't have been possible from the sunny side of the train becuase there are very tall weeds on that side of the tracks. Im gonna try one last time to lighten it up, but its still gonna be my favorite picture. Thanks anways. :wink: