Light on nose - Shame on Railpictures

[J-M Frybourg]

Rejected

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

[J-M Frybourg]

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

[J-M Frybourg]

Accepted - with no light on nose:

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

[J-M Frybourg]

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!

[J-M Frybourg]

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.

[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.

[Noct Foamer]

Originally Posted by J-M Frybourg

I consider more and more seriously going to Flickr.

Here you go:

https://www.flickr.com/groups/railphoto/


If you do open a Flickr account, send me a link. I mostly do the Flickr thing because I just don't need the drama. My photography is more about my own self expression and not so much about "getting accepted" by some arbitrary panel. I assume that the majority of people will not like my images, and I'm OK with that.

The downside to Flickr is the "Discussion" section on the various groups are very weak. RPnet does have the best forum going. Maybe the tag line should be changed to, "Best RR photography forum on the net!"?



Kent in SD

[DaveJ]

Of course,there's also the "enough light on the nose BUT ....." rejection -

http://www.railpictures.net/viewreje...60&key=6589538

Some you win ..... etc etc.

[John West]

Originally Posted by J-M Frybourg

I consider more and more seriously going to Flickr.

Flickr is not a substitute for RP, just different. I use both, plus my own website. All have their pluses and minus, and can serve different purposes.

[troy12n]

Originally Posted by John West

Flickr is not a substitute for RP, just different. I use both, plus my own website. All have their pluses and minus, and can serve different purposes.

I am questioning the purposes RP serves anymore. Views are WAY, WAY down. I'm getting around 200 views on the first day of posting stuff, which is nuts. After that drops to a trickle.

Unless you link the shit out of your photos and whore them all over facebook and yahoo groups

[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

[John Russell - NZ]

I've had photos rejected for being back-lit with grab iron shadow on the nose so I guess the nose of lead locomotive almost needs to glow if on an overseas railroad! I guess that's a point that Jean-Marc is trying to make here but with poor examples.

[John Russell - NZ]

Test message for signature which I was going to delete but can't work out how! And I'd like to know about the different classes of membership in RPN as displayed in forum posts if anybody knows. I'm guessing it's number of posts or years registered. I feel younger being a junior member! Apparently there is also a new Elite Premium membership which I have never found any access to so am curious about that too.

[JRMDC]

Originally Posted by John Russell - NZ

Test message for signature which I was going to delete but can't work out how! And I'd like to know about the different classes of membership in RPN as displayed in forum posts if anybody knows. I'm guessing it's number of posts or years registered. I feel younger being a junior member! Apparently there is also a new Elite Premium membership which I have never found any access to so am curious about that too.

Classes of forum membership: I believe the "junior member" etc. are auto-generated based on # of forum posts.

Elite: its been around for years, I don't know of anyone who is a member and haven't seen anyone with membership in a long time. Maybe never, I no longer remember for sure. It may be a vestige of RP from many, many years ago, an attempt to monetize the site, that is still around.

[J-M Frybourg]

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.

[J-M Frybourg]

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...

[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

[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.

[Noct Foamer]

Originally Posted by troy12n

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

Should have been shot as a vertical. Half the shot was cut off.


Kent in SD

[JRMDC]

Originally Posted by troy12n

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

Troy, for RP, don't enter "N&W 611", RP can't handle the ampersand. Irritating but true - click on "N&W 611" in your rejection screen and see how many photos are shown. Put in "NW 611". Or BO for B&O, CO for C&O, etc.

[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.

[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.

[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