FED UP WITH RAILPICTURES.NET

I know i've had my share of negative things to say, but have pretty much kept them to myself. But after taking this early this morning, posting and getting accepted, then getting 2 comments like these. I was just amazed.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=155666

Lets just say that You know how to take train photos properly. You have my vote too.


Eric

Anybody ever check out RailPictures.net's forums? There are literally hundreds of threads just like this one.

I have to disagree with the notion bandied about here that somehow un-retouched photos are more 'pure' than retouched photos. Yes, there should be a (somewhat arbitrary) limit on how you edit a photo, but to just say that all creativity stops after the shutter is released is nonsense. What I love most about digital photography is the ability to edit after the fact - something that was impossible to do with slides, unless you printed and/or created another photograph out of them.

Adjusting the lighting, contrast, sharpness, etc., however slight, is practically essential to creating a quality photo. Digitally dodging out annoying wires, poles, trash, etc. lets the viewer concentrate on the main subject instead of annoying distractions. And these techniques are quite simple to do with a decent photo editor. Also, these techniques are not new to photography - they've been around ever since the first photographs were taken. But now you don't have to be an expert to make these changes.

As for Railpictures.net, I personally think they are not strict enough - looking back on my own shots posted there, I wish they would have been a bit stricter on a few of them. The main point of the sight is not to post every freight you saw last Saturday coming through CP5 - it is to present to the world your best efforts - the dramatic lighting, the unusual lashup, the killer location, etc. These only happen every once in awhile - if you're lucky, you'll have maybe one or two during any given outing.

Also remember, the screening process is highly subjective, and, being run by mulitple humans, inconsistent - they have certain standards, and most of them have a particular type they like which might not necessarily mesh with your own. I've heard of many shots being rejected a couple of times, and then being accepted - it depends upon who screens you (and what mood they are in, time of day, etc.). Personally I've had a few rejected, but appealed the process, letting the screener know why I think the shot is worth posting. Almost every time they agreed, and accepted the photo. The ones they still rejected, although I disagreed with their point of view, I didn't bitch about it - I moved on.

I encourage anyone wishing to post shots there to spend a few hours browsing through the collection - take notice of what is accepted, which are most popular, the "screener's choice", etc. It's worth the time - there are many excellent photos posted from around the world. Also, they post a photo submission guideline at:

http://www.railpictures.net/addphotos/guidelines.php

And, if anyone cares, here's a link to my photos on Railpictures.net:

http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=811

And some more on my very rudimentary homepage:

http://home.comcast.net/~robben

Robert Benkovitz
Short Hills, NJ

Although I've had close to 200 photos accepted at Railpictures (mostly stuff from the 1970s and 1980s), I'm still batting only around .200 and haven't had anything accepted in over a year.

For the most part, their criticisms have been legit. However, their judgement is far from infallible. Essentially, they function like editors, trying to present a site that has quality and variety. That's why I visit it daily, even if I have nothing to post.

At a site that accepts everything submitted, you have to wade through a lot of junk to find a quality shot to look at. Also, I appreciate that they post 300 dpi images rather than 72 DPI, which is a standard for use on websites.

I believe it's tougher to get eastern photos posted; that's a function of the tight terrain we must work in, the orienation of most of our lines, i.e. the sun is often working against us and the mundane look of much of the equipment. Nevertheless, keep on trying. Quality and creativity will win out over time.

kilroy wrote:Irish Chieftain wrote:

And if the pics on there have been run through the Adobe Photoshop wringer, its credibility is kaput.

I can't say I really agree with that statement. While taking things out, like wires, etc., changes what was actually witnessed and does not reflect the real world, some adjustments are probably needed. Now that I am using a digital camera, I have found the image out of the camera is very flat and is not what I witnessed. I find I need to adjust the contrast some to bring the image up to what my eyes saw. Does it change the photo, yes, but the technology is not perfect in replicating reality so the change, at least in my mind, is needed.

Just my own opinion that everyone else may choose to disagree with.

I just wonder how the folks who see no problem with "touching up" pictures feel when newspapers do it... photos are already arbitrary enough simply by their nature of being "moments in time", nothing of what came before or after, but to take that further and put your "interpretation" (What you think you saw, or should have seen, instead of what was actually there) just seems to completely compromise any integrity the process had to start with.

LI Loco wrote:For the most part, their criticisms have been legit. However, their judgement is far from infallible. Essentially, they function like editors, trying to present a site that has quality and variety. That's why I visit it daily, even if I have nothing to post.

I wish they'd consider rarity of the location/equipment as well. I'd rather see a wide variety of photos from around the world than hundreds of photos of the same NS or BNSF Dash-9!

I agree, but a bad shot is a bad shot, even if it came from Tibet.

does anyone know if the forums on railpictures.net use the same log in info to access the site? I am logged in the site, but cannot access the forums.

you have to set up a seperate account for the forums

Has anyone noticed the large amount of similar pictures of those Chinese steam engines in Iowa on railpictures.net? I am sure that there are many great photos being rejected, but they seem to accept a lot f pictures of those steam engines. Then there was a picture of just about every piece of equipment at Steamtown. What is with that. ? It is not like the photographer is shooting anything new, the equipment was on display at a museum.

General wrote:Has anyone noticed the large amount of similar pictures of those Chinese steam engines in Iowa on railpictures.net? I am sure that there are many great photos being rejected, but they seem to accept a lot f pictures of those steam engines. Then there was a picture of just about every piece of equipment at Steamtown. What is with that. ? It is not like the photographer is shooting anything new, the equipment was on display at a museum.

Samething with whippany museum. Same pic of that steam loco. Great pic, but redundant.

Technical merit 1, subject matter 0

General wrote: Then there was a picture of just about every piece of equipment at Steamtown. What is with that. ? It is not like the photographer is shooting anything new, the equipment was on display at a museum.

If you understood who else is viewing the site, other than people from the U.S. or North America, you would know that just as many from other countries visit each day. Most of those people may never get a chance to visit the museum and believe it or not a lot are interested in North American railroading. Yes, I walked around taking roster shots of all the equipment, and that was the purpose!!! If you have ever taken the time to visit the Steamtown website you'll notice that some of the pictures aren't clear, well-lit and some don't even show the front of the locomotive. My goal was to shoot every steam locomotive in the collection and put them on RP together so that people everywhere can see whats there. That's what was "with that".

No one has heard from me yet, I just joined the web site because I wanted to get in on this topic. I have been posting to RRpictures for a year now and have had about 65 pictures accepted and many more denied. It has made me a better photographer and I have become more selective of what I post. I have to admit at times I have been very frustrated at RRpics, but I keep posting because it gets addicting and it challenges me to shot better photos. I don't agree with the screeners all the time, therefore, I made my own web site for all pictures I want to post for others to view. I have to admit RRP.net has made me more aware of the quality of pics I put on my own web site.
To see my work click on this.
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=10292
http://www.mattsrailphotos.smugmug.com/

Andrew Blaszczyk (2) wrote:If you understood who else is viewing the site, other than people from the U.S. or North America, you would know that just as many from other countries visit each day. Most of those people may never get a chance to visit the museum and believe it or not a lot are interested in North American railroading. Yes, I walked around taking roster shots of all the equipment, and that was the purpose!!! If you have ever taken the time to visit the Steamtown website you'll notice that some of the pictures aren't clear, well-lit and some don't even show the front of the locomotive. My goal was to shoot every steam locomotive in the collection and put them on RP together so that people everywhere can see whats there. That's what was "with that".

Andrew, I understand exactly who is viewing Railpictures.net. I used to contribute to railpictures.net as well and I removed my 400+ photographs from their site due to several infringments of my copyrighted material. There are more than enough pictures from Steamtown on the internet other than the lousy pictures on their site. Some of your pictures are poorly lit and low asthetic quailty. While looking at the rest of your photos, I noticed a large number of them were also poorly lit, for example, your photos of the Oil Creek Alco S2 (photos 156337 and 156416) both of which were by far the worst photographs of yours that I have seen and I can't see you trying to say it was a night shot and a glint shot. Many of your photographs have too many distracting shadows or were taken when the sun was too high and you have a lot of repetative shots that would be rejected had they been taken by anyone else for "Photo similar to photo already accepted". I also noticed that you seem to follow around others and submit similar material to other contributers. I am not saying that every one of your photographs are bad, all I am saying is that you do have a number of poor quality photographs on that site. Just my two cents.