Post Your Recent REJECTIONS!

[gonzalu]

Both are fixable and the rejections I believe were warranted in both instances... great shots though :-)

The first one, I see your motive but it may not be strong enough for the screener. I say you could still show the effect and tighten the crop a bit... maybe there is a happy medium?

Second one, well, it is very obvious to me it needs a lot of CW. Easy fixes I believe

[gonzalu]

Sergio, the JP.net dark category is definitely an odd one... I argued it once and they really were serious about it being just before actual sunset (which is technically NOT dark) and that they should use the rule at least as within Twilight and Dusk ... but no, I was told it has to be any long shadows, dark category... Kaz should be the expert by now on exactly when is the cutoff time for Dark or not :-)

[gonzalu]

Thanks Manny,

It is indeed a cheap lens, and it shows in my aviation photography. Which is why I stopped this activity for a while because each picture is a battle. HOWEVER, it does perform much better in other situations. I have nice results every year at the US Open for instance, it is sharp in spite of the moving "objects" :P

But yes, aviation photography with my current equipment is EXTREMELY frustrating. Oh sure, you'll make it to anet once in a while, but even when I do, I look back at the picture and think that the screener was probably wasted ;) I have compared my photos to those of other folks using the exact same equipment on JP and anet (D60 + 55-200-cheapster), and I could not honestly see any major differences quality-wise. I feel that I am reaching the limit of what my current setup can offer, at least in the aviation photography field.

And of course, there is the KNOWLEDGE, which I am seriously lacking.

Rom, you are SERIOUSLY being too hard on yourself. You do know that much lower end equipment is used all the time. Marseno Bremmer of SXM fame uses a Panasonic Bridge camera and he gets great results.

I think the conditions you are shooting in may be at play.

For example, my rule for resizign a photo to 1200px wide is that the final BEFORE cropping... once I am done with all the editing etc. and cropping, has to be 3000px wide... only then do I reduce to 1200... if it is 2800px and it is SUPER SHARP original, I may reduce it to 1024px wide and see if it works.

If you're resizing from anythign less than 3000px you are really gong into maybe territory. In my experience, anything less is hard to edit correctly down to 1200px ...

On the contrary, a 7000+ px wide frame from my camera with a really poor quality consumer lens such as a 55-200mm with heavy CA and Fringing etc. can be somewhat easily reduced to 1200px and cover up all the flaws and look like a terrific shot at 1200px wide.

Let's chat more next time we are together. Perhaps some of my techniques or editing can help you feel better about your photos.

And don't let anyone kid you here... it is NOT that easy to get a clean shot of a moving object... sure it is made to look easy by Mark and Cary and Kaz and Eric, but those guys have been shooting planes since like 1990 or even before!!!! :)

[deltaA330]

Thanks Manny, I still feel my motive was appropriate. Should I appeal?

[Roush6NY]

ust before actual sunset (which is technically NOT dark), Kaz should be the expert by now on exactly when is the cutoff time for Dark or not :-)

Thanks Manny, took a few rejections to get them right :) Here is how I go about it, pretty much if there a tint of yellow from dawn or dusk lighting, I go with the night shot, just to be safe.

This is where it is starting to get to that point:




This is pretty much a must at this point:

[eric8669]

Rom,

While I do clean my own sensors, I would suggest just taking it somewhere that does it. Eric knows a great place in NYC that can do it while you wait... (I always forget the place)

Photo Tech Repair Services Inc

110 E 13th St, New York, NY
(212) 673-8400 ‎ · phototech.com

[Cary]

For example, my rule for resizign a photo to 1200px wide is that the final BEFORE cropping... once I am done with all the editing etc. and cropping, has to be 3000px wide... only then do I reduce to 1200... if it is 2800px and it is SUPER SHARP original, I may reduce it to 1024px wide and see if it works.

If you're resizing from anythign less than 3000px you are really gong into maybe territory. In my experience, anything less is hard to edit correctly down to 1200px ...

Agreed 110%. A lot of people think there's some magical post-processing that makes photos better, and while there are some techniques that help, the key is to start off with a tack sharp, well-exposed photo, with the plane covering as much of the sensor as possible. I still kick myself for only filling < 75-80% of the frame on shots...and that yields about 4,000+px width on the 5DmIII as a starting point.

As for the JP.net "Night shot", I have asked them repeatedly to change their description, or the criteria. It still reads: "Night Shot: Depict an aircraft in night/dusk/dawn lighting?" Dawn is before sunrise, dusk is after sunset...so sunrise/sunset shots shouldn't be classified as Night Shot according to that. Let alone post-sunrise and pre-sunset

[RomNYC]

Photo Tech Repair Services Inc

110 E 13th St, New York, NY
(212) 673-8400 ‎ · phototech.com

Excellent, thanks Eric.

[JDANDO]

I'm not sure why these two photos got rejected? Worth an appeal?
This one, subject to far away, but I thought I had motive for doing so.
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewreject_b.php?id=4134509
This one they claim is not level, although it looks pretty dang level to me.
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewreject_b.php?id=4134500

Should I appeal?? Thanks guys!

The first one is a toss up. It is a good shot, tells a story and has an aviation theme......but for jp/anet it is sometimes more about cataloging than aviation.

Second one looks pretty good to me also, perhaps .3 degree ccw. Take it with a grain of salt, I had 4 horizon rejects in the last week!

Not sure I would appeal.

jeremy

[deltaA330]

This is getting frustrating. Rejection number 4 for this photo, all for the same reason! Horizon unlevel yet again...
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewreject_b.php?id=4140971

Again this one too, after two motive rejections now rejected for being soft.
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewreject_b.php?id=4140978

Not sure what do now. It seems like some of my photos of airliners get accepted even though they are far less quality than these and other photos I have of general aviation aircraft. Does jetphotos sometimes reject just because the subject of the photograph isn't an airliner? It sure seems that way to me...

Alex

[gonzalu]

Sergio, the helo crop now does look soft/distance... looks like you cropped a lot to get the tighter shot... there aren't rnough details in the original to get a good sharp result...

The first one is obviously CCW... just use the GUIDES in PS and make sure that very prominent building is STRAIGHT as a soldier! ;-)

[deltaA330]

Manny,

You may be confused because me and Sergio have similar user names, but I am not him. I believe he is Delta777LR, I'm deltaA330. Ya I've tried rotating both ways a little but no dice so far. Do you think the helicopter has a chance I add some USM?

Alex

[gonzalu]

Apologies Alex... yes, there ought to be a rule that screen names MUST be very different

Anyway, what do you mean you tried?



I assume you shot from the Observation Park... if you look at the position of the terminal relative to your position, it is at almost 45 degrees to you..



This means the horizontal lines in those buildings SHOULD drop down and to the right as viewed, but your VERTICAL lines should still be vertical as long as your camera sensor is also perfectly vertical... the lines will begin to skew if you move your sensor up or down vertically (pitch?) otherwise the tower should be straight... and from the looks of it the aircraft is straight ahead from your position, not too far up or down... hope this BS makes sense

The helicopter is DISTANT and SOFT which means it will be VERY HARD to save unless the original is VERY VERY sharp... even then, if your resulting crop is less than 3,000px wide BEFORE reducing, I personally will not bother... but yours may be of higher quality. Feel free to PM me with the originals if you;d like me to give it a go :-)

[deltaA330]

I think I will send you them. I actually have a bunch of the helicopter but I felt that one was the best with the snow. But maybe I'll see what else I have regarding that. I will send you later today. Thanks very much!

Alex

[deltaA330]

Got 4 more for ya (ugghhh!!)
Soft again (even with 800% USM!)
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewreject_b.php?id=4141885
Over sharpen and similar photo (which makes no sense because I don't have any pics of this plane yet)
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewreject_b.php?id=4141888
Over sharpen
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewreject_b.php?id=4141891
Blurry
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewreject_b.php?id=4141898