Light on nose - Shame on Railpictures

Rejected

Backlit (Nose): The nose of the lead unit is too dark due to backlighting

Backlit (Nose): The nose of the lead unit is too dark due to backlighting

Accepted - with no light on nose:

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/581566/

What difference in terms of light on the nose???

Which of the 3 above pictures does not deserve printing in a coffee table book on excellent B&W railroad photography???

And still, they keep selling themselves as the "BEST" ! ...

And also, I quote Railpictures: "..We encourage creativity in our submissions. Please avoid uploading the standard 3/4 wedge shot; we would much rather see a nicely composed angle instead."

In reality wedgies with sun in the back are much more likely to be accepted right away, when more difficult, creative photography is more easily rejected.

They will never learn!

In terms of light, here is the kind of light that makes pictures easily accepted here:
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/583390/

Or common wedgies, repeating again and again the same pictures:
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/583252/
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/583345/

What bothers me most, is that RPN risks loosing attractiveness and audience from good photographers, when I have invested energy and time in preparing many pictures for RPN and uploading them, etc.

I consider more and more seriously going to Flickr.

They have just fallen asleep. Seems that they have no interest any more in permanent improvement, or moving the boundaries.

Another evidence of the lack of attention to their creation? There are more frequent bugs that remain unfixed.
For example when a rejection does not show up in my rejection log.
I will post other bugs here when I meet them.

Another bug that I have noticed for some time and that keeps recuring:
when I happen to notice that there is a mistake in the data below one of my pictures, I submit a photo correction form, with the result that the name of the location is systematically changed for the name of the city where I live (that I mentionned in my personal profile data): Garches.

Look at the data below the following pictures that I have recently updated with a photo correction form:
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/578020/
RPN has updated the locomotive type, which was wrong, and it has also changed the location from Qapi, Iran to Garches, France !

If they go on like that, it will become a derelict site sooner or later...

[Mberry]

Originally Posted by J-M Frybourg

I consider more and more seriously going to Flickr.

Railpictures or not, you (and everyone) should upload photos to Flickr. Complete control over what you upload, you can upload hi-res files, etc.

[troy12n]

You get quite a bit of leeway based on their rules from what I have seen. Quite a bit more than most people. Just saying...

See, they reject mine too, and mine has a lot more detail than yours. Yours is so dark on the nose you can not see much detail at all

http://www.railpictures.net/viewreje...76&key=8235307

[bigbassloyd]

Shocking. RP is inconsistent. Certainly the first I've heard of it.

No idea what to tell you J-M. Nothing has changed since the last time you went Dennis Miller on here. My daddy did say "don't waste time making threats, make actions."


*Edit* After some examination of your shots and the dark nose example that was accepted, there's honestly no comparison. The accepted shot oozes mood and has a great detailed plume. You have a blown out sky in one and a cows ass in the other (his ass isn't lit either). Quite frankly those two shots are beneath your normal caliber of work.

Loyd L.

[magicman_841]

The accepted shot is great and has awesome contrast. It makes sense for it to be in black & white.

The other 2 are more of the "black-and-white-to-save-crappy-light" variety.

[JRMDC]

Those dark noses are solid black blobs in the frame, most off-putting to my eye. In such cases I do a touch of shadow recovery - having a bit of detail in a dark area, while preserving the essential darkness, makes a huge difference in how such areas are perceived.

The Poggi shot is in an entirely different class. It is in part an abstraction. Deep black is part of the point. The treatment of the nose "fits." It's not an eyesore.

Originally Posted by troy12n

You get quite a bit of leeway based on their rules from what I have seen. Quite a bit more than most people. Just saying...

True. Or more precisely, has been true a number of times over the years.

I do agree with some of your general points re RP.

[Mgoldman]

Jean-Marc -

Not the best examples to prove your point.

I agree, dull and flat lighting "saved" by a black and white rendition vs a dramatic and moody b&w photo, though, none-the-less, certainly more appealing and unique to the database then 60 /70% of what got accepted that same day.

Best fix for RP, in my opinion - other than having admin care to check in now and then, as well as fix some issues (can't add to an album any longer, nor view the abbreviated EXIF info) would be adopting and following a new theme - "Best Railroad PHOTOGRAPHERS on the NET". Keep the rejections, ease up on the rejected appeals - especially for well revered patrons - or patrons that achieve a specific statistic (length of time as a patron, a number of PC's, a resume of "X" number of published images, a high enough views per image ranking (though it would be a shame to have photographers remove photos from the database as we, I think, we all value RP as a place not just for pretty photos, but news, historical reference and general reference as well. Admin would be hypocritical if they said otherwise considering the "love" for wrecks), ect.

/Mitch

[Daniel SIMON]

Originally Posted by J-M Frybourg

Rejected

Backlit (Nose): The nose of the lead unit is too dark due to backlighting

Hello Jean-Marc,

Don't worry, you are not walking alone .................. We are in the same boat !

http://www.railpictures.net/viewreje...73&key=6046219

[troy12n]

Let's be honest, he gets a ton of shots on that most of us would have been almost automatically rejected... let's call a spade a spade here

[Decapod401]

Jean-Marc,

Like you, I am of the belief that photos with less-than-RP-textbook lighting can be perfectly acceptable, and side lighting without well-lit noses does not necessarily constitute a bad photo. I frequently submit images with less than optimal lighting conditions, with the expectation that they will get rejected, but sometimes the screener will see other merits that outweigh this "flaw". Recently, some of these photos that made the cut have been placed in an album:

http://www.railpictures.net/album/2251/

The theme of this album is that European photographers are the victims of discrimination, and North American photographers don't receive rejections for bad lighting conditions, especially the so-called backlighting. Believe me, I have had plenty of images rejected for this reason, and I'm sure that many other contributors from this side of the pond have had similar experiences with the screening process. While there is a natural human tendency to be more critical of unfamiliar material, I think that your perception of this bias is somewhat overstated, because you don't see the majority of the rejections that North American photographers receive.

If you truly feel that non-North American photographers never get good photos in bad lighting or without nose light accepted, please consider these recent additions to the database:

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/582874/
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/582354/
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/580854/

If I had taken these, whould they be added to the album?

Doug Lilly

[JRMDC]

Originally Posted by Decapod401

Recently, some of these photos that made the cut have been placed in an album:

http://www.railpictures.net/album/2251/

Doug, putting aside that the album documents an issue that admin will never respond to because admin is currently not receptive to any desires for change, I think the album is misguided in that it includes quite a number of decades-old shots which are well known to get much greater leeway - which is not to say they are not screened at all nor that such images are never treated unfairly. But I was expecting to see an album of botched screenings of recent shots, where the quality issues are not overriden by historical value.

[Decapod401]

Janusz,

If I understand your point, you are agreeing that the shots in that album have some merit due to historical value, and the album does not necessarily reflect the anti-European bias that it advertises.

I do feel that some of the historically significant shots from Europe may not get in because the screeners, like most of the rest of us in North America, are not familiar with much of the history of non-NA railroading.

Otherwise, I think that North American contributors are subject to nearly the same level of rejections as the Europeans, but these rejections are apparent only if we place them on the forums for opinions.

Doug

[ShortlinesUSA]

"Otherwise, I think that North American contributors are subject to nearly the same level of rejections as the Europeans, but these rejections are apparent only if we place them on the forums for opinions."

Exactly. I think a VERY small percentage of contributors bring their rejections to the forums. As was pointed out in another thread, somewhere between half and two-thirds of what is submitted to this site every day is rejected.

That tells me the vast majority take their rejection and rework it, or just move on with their lives and submit something else (or give up).

[ShortlinesUSA]

Originally Posted by bigbassloyd

Shocking. RP is inconsistent. Certainly the first I've heard of it.

No idea what to tell you J-M. Nothing has changed since the last time you went Dennis Miller on here. My daddy did say "don't waste time making threats, make actions."


*Edit* After some examination of your shots and the dark nose example that was accepted, there's honestly no comparison. The accepted shot oozes mood and has a great detailed plume. You have a blown out sky in one and a cows ass in the other (his ass isn't lit either). Quite frankly those two shots are beneath your normal caliber of work.

Loyd L.

Honestly, this thread could have ended right after this post, because everything that needed to be said was. Nicely done, Loyd.

[JRMDC]

Originally Posted by Decapod401

Janusz,

If I understand your point, you are agreeing that the shots in that album have some merit due to historical value, and the album does not necessarily reflect the anti-European bias that it advertises.

I do feel that some of the historically significant shots from Europe may not get in because the screeners, like most of the rest of us in North America, are not familiar with much of the history of non-NA railroading.

Otherwise, I think that North American contributors are subject to nearly the same level of rejections as the Europeans, but these rejections are apparent only if we place them on the forums for opinions.

Doug

I took the album to be an album that says that RP accepts things it should not. I was not thinking specifically about anti-European bias. My point was that the album would be more effective (and, to repeat, admin doesn't care! ) if it were limited to true examples of bad screening, according to my view of "correct." It includes a number of shots that, if contemporary, would (hopefully) be summarily rejected but which are accepted because they are decades old.

I have not pondered the issue of decades old European shots.

It's not clear that we disagree on much other than I would have constructed the album not to include the older shots.

[nikos1]

I'd accept both, they are interesting enough even with the less than ideal lighting, though the comparison to the other steam shot without light on the nose is not a good one. But yes, too many shitty photos getting on lately, the rolling roster shot flash photos are the worst.

PhotoID: 583378 Photograph © CJ Bolish

[ShortlinesUSA]

Yes, I too thought we were past the "Ooooh, it's a night shot!" era, but alas it continues...

[miningcamper1]

Originally Posted by Decapod401

Recently, some of these photos that made the cut have been placed in an album:

http://www.railpictures.net/album/2251/

Oy!
Some of those are pretty awful, vintage or not. Is it possible, even likely, that "who took it" helped some of those gain admission?

BTW, they can and they will reject even rare vintage submissions.

[Noct Foamer]

Originally Posted by J-M Frybourg

Accepted - with no light on nose:

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/581566/

Tremendously more dramatic light and composition here. You don't see that?


Kent in SD