Author Topic: My rejects  (Read 3560 times)

Offline j.c1987

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My rejects
« on: September 18, 2011, 02:06:51 PM »
Hello,

I have had two photos of NS 7129 rejected from railpics.net.  The quality of these photos are pretty close to what they allow on the site.  I use a basic digital camera 14 megapixel 36mm-108mm which I know isn't much.    What can I do to make the quality better?  I do this as a hobby and I am not a professional by any means.  The third photo is a shot that hasn't been edited. 



Offline Ed Fury

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Re: My rejects
« Reply #1 on: September 18, 2011, 03:00:57 PM »
What reasons did they give for rejection? Work to correct that first.

Then look at someone on there who has had a lot of photos accepted. Try and mimic them. Imitation is the best form of flattery as the saying goes. Some of those photos on there are works of art and others are just basically documenting the history of the railroad. Find your balance between the two. Watch your lighting and I know they (that site) hates certain elements in photo submissions and rejects them on a pretty consistent basis.

Steve Schmollinger, if I may name drop or use as an example, was the inspiration for me when I first started becoming a railroad photographer hobbyist. He has photographed the Union Pacific Mineola sub between Longview and Dallas Texas extensively and this line was about 15 or 20 miles North from where I was living. While I was there I really never had an opportunity to railfan except for a handful of times and I had nowhere near the equipment as a more serious photographer. I can remember seeing those locations in person and then looking at the photos Steve took in the same places and it is like I am standing right there again. I looked at how he did his photos and tried my best to copy that.

After realizing I was limited in my camera and not able to do long zoom shots. I settled for the widely rejected and openly panned 3/4th wedge shot because that was about all my p&s camera could do. I used my pictures as rotating wallpapers on my laptop and enjoyed seeing the close up in your face type photos of engines. I still love finding a parked train or switch engine and getting those close up shots, without trespassing of course.

On this site there are quite a few excellent Norfolk Southern photographers who you can look to as sort of an online mentor. Look at their photo collections and how they framed certain photos and you can learn a great deal that way and apply it to yourself when out there photographing trains.

As with any hobby the more you do it the better, generally, you will become. The more hours you put into it the better your results will be. After that the only options you really have are buying a high end camera and purchasing (sort of) expensive software to do things like make all your train photos HDR.

Offline Kentucky & Indiana Terminal RR

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Re: My rejects
« Reply #2 on: September 18, 2011, 07:30:05 PM »
If its just a hobby then that website is a waste of time, hobbies are fun and enjoyable, meeting their standards takes all that away in my opinion. Those are nice shots, of engines I personally love to see, but like Troy said they probably won't exactly meet their expectations, theyre funny about shadows and lighting, and they can be difficult to work with. I'd keep it as a hobby and keep the fun in it, go to like rrpicturearchives or pbase to share your photos with people that would just like to see them. Railpics is so frustrating they could make Billy Graham run his fist through a stained glass window.
"The engineer in the old high cab his gold watch in his hand, looking at the waterglass and letting down the sand, rolling out on the old main line taking up the slack, gone today so they say but tomorrow he'll be back...."

Offline j.c1987

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Re: My rejects
« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2011, 10:18:30 PM »
I take no offense at all.  Thanks for all the comments and opinions.  I understand that even though to me those photos may look the same to a few on railpics.net I know obviously they are not.  One of my photos that I have took was rejected for not having enough light one the nose of the train.  It didn't make any sense to me. I don't see that, but someone else does.  Not just the screeners.  So asking others about my photos helps me alot.  thanx again.

Offline E.M. Bell

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Re: My rejects
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2011, 08:59:25 PM »
JC, Welcome to Jreb..glad to have ya with us....

From a purely technical standpoint, I would have cropped that first one some, and got rid of a lot of the shadows. Those are rather distracting, but dont totally kill the shot for me. That last one is just a wedgie of a catfish, but hey...nothing wrong with that, I have a ton of those myself.

As said above, DONT let your desire to get a picture on RP be the driving force behind your hobby. You will quickly find that you will spend so much time over thinking what you are doing, that it will zap the enjoyment out of doing it...and I am saying that with first hand experience. At one time, I had the most pictures on that site for any one person, and was a screener for them from the time it started, up to about 3 years ago.  I came to the conclusion that I was not qualified to judge others work, nor did I like the stigma associated with it. Since I had all my stuff pulled off there, and stopped shooting the way "they" think is right, I have found the HOBBY to fun again, and that its easier to be more creative.

I am not saying you shouldn't even try, if that's what you want. Its a fine site, with a lot of awesome images, but its NOT the pinnacle  of ones life to get accepted there.  Go out, have fun, do your own thing. If you come home with a shot or two YOU like...then that's all that really matters!

Feel free to post more pics here on Jreb. If you ask for an honest opinion on something, you will probably get it, and if you just want to share what you like, I highly doubt you will be ridiculed or rejected for it..
E.M. Bell, KD4JSL
Salvisa, KY

      

Offline Ponce de Leon

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Re: My rejects
« Reply #5 on: September 22, 2011, 06:27:54 AM »
I fully agree with Emmit's comments. Too often folks upload a photo or two to Rail Pictures---they get rejected for some reason---and unhappiness quickly follows. As for these three shots----well, to be honest, they're not very memorable. They're not "bad," but neither are they "good." Rather than fret over cropping or trying to salvage something---go out and bag some more shots! It's not as if these are once-in-a-lifetime subjects. Practice makes perfect----be it basketball, violin lessons or railroad photography.

Very important point for all to consider: good photographers NEVER show their "bad" shots! I have stacks of Logan slide storage boxes full of "bad" shots I've taken. Unless there's some compelling reason, most of them will never be scanned, and will never appear on the internet or anywhere else. Edit, edit, edit, edit, edit......and only roll out what you feel are your very best efforts. The rest of the world will thus be duped into thinking that every time you press the shutter, you create an award-winning shot. Sure!!!!!!!!! :)
Ron Flanary

Offline T. Mahan

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Re: My rejects
« Reply #6 on: September 22, 2011, 01:17:24 PM »
The first two photos, the shadow made them 'un-RPesqe'

The third was just out of balance, had the train on the left half, and nothing on the right.

Don't get me wrong, the pics are great, it depicts railroad operations and equipment as is!

As for RP, I'll jump on the band wagon with the rest....  At one point when RP first started, I contributed a lot, then the tougher screening kicked in.  I then found myself trying to get 'accepted' photos.  Eventually I realized that this is not what the hobby is about, I'm a railfan who photographs trains, not a photographer photographing trains.  I still contribute to RP, but my theory is this.  I look at RP daily, just to see what's going on in the RR world, I also note what photos the screeners are accepting.  I'll just spend a day or few hours out shooting trains, and sometimes I'll get a shot or two that looks like something RP may accept.  For example, out of the 150 shots I took at TVRM railfest, I submitted 5 and only two got accepted, do I really care that only 2 were RP worthy? No!  But I will tell you I have about 130 great shots and 20 so-so shots, and that's my opinion, and when it comes to my photos, that's all that matters.  But the main thing I care about is that I had an enjoyable time trackside, and I may have captured a scene, equipment or other oddity that may cease to exist in the near future!

Also remember there are many more sites than RP, there's rrpicturearchives.net, locophotos.net, flickr.com, pbase.com, etc...
T.J. Mahan
Green Cove Springs, FL
www.facebook.com/tjm6515

Offline lwjabo

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Re: My rejects
« Reply #7 on: September 22, 2011, 03:47:17 PM »
Now pro camera people taking pictures of things they do ever day make hundreds of pictures to only pick out one or two. Even those top models in playboy or Sports Illustrated. So if you take a few dozen where you can't control the light or the subject why complain. They have perfect sets. Equipment in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and they only get one or two pictures out of thousands. If you and someone in here or a friendlike it you got what you wanted.