Pointers wanted

For my viewing point,I can say sometips..
For the first one on the bridge..
It's a very nice shot,but,a little bit overexposed,we can see it by the reflect on the locomotive,and it's need to be shrpened a little bit more,but it's a great picture..

For the second one,with the MTBA train,very good,but for Railpictures,it should need to see a few fore track ahead the train,cause that make like a roster shot,but the composition is good..
And there's a bit of noise in the picture,by looking the sky,we can see like a bit of work to do,but it's very good shot too..

henven by the third one,that very great for a night/dawn shot..event if the track are cutted in the fore ground,that could be accepted..but have to reduce the noise a little bit on the pic..

For the fourth one,it's very nice,that could be good to be accepted,but the hi-sun effect can make reject it,but my opinion is to make a try with picture number 3(at the dawn) and the 4th one

The Amtrak shot was hit b/c of bad angle, and obstructions.

I think the noise in the shot, might be digital articfacts, but RP does detect it like noise.

I was able to get my membership back for a short time, but then I was banned for MOST LIKELY submitting a shot, previously rejected for poor image quality, that I made some changes to.

In a week or two, I will see if I can, at least, send two shots, a day.

I'M also blocked at 2 pics a day on Railpuictures.I get only 3 accepted.
The thing on that,It's when I knowed this site,I though that was a "drop and show" site,but after,by realising that I was limited at 2 pics a day,I writed to the site owner,and he told me why and that the site accept only the very nice shots,but not every shots..

But,I can show few pic that was rejected,but on the "reason" the space was blank..
May be I'm close to the standard,but not in..






And their so not easy,when we get unique pictures to submit.
they rejected this one cause obstructing objects,the light pole are obstrucking to back of the locomotive..


but by doing video,when I submit one,they acept it most of the time.

Your goal of improving your photography skills is admirable, but remember - RP is not the end-all, be-all of railroad photography. Its standards are good for honing your general skills with lighting, focus, and really general rules of composition. The creativity expressed in a picture is your doing and if you feel you have something worthy of sharing, an RP rejection should not prompt you to re-do your composition to meet their criteria when you may like it as-is.

My advice? Go to RP, and get 10-15 pictures in. It takes a considerable amount of effort to get that many in, and by then you should have a basic idea on what to do and what to not do as far as getting a decent quality image out of your camera. Then find a back-up place to put your pictures - I use Flickr, some people use rrpicturearchives.net (if you can get an account), and there's photobucket too. When you take pictures from that point on, upload them to both accounts. Many of the images will undoubtedly be bounced from RP, but will be posted on the other site, where people can see them as YOU intended. Some of them (I know Flickr for sure) offer you the opportunity to "Geo-tag" your pictures so that they can be picked out geographically from a map on Flickr and Google Earth. Non-railfan picture databases are also nice because you can share your photos with people who aren't train enthusiasts, who might interpret them in a completely different way.

(Some people get frustrated at RP because it's hard to get your first images in and there's a lot of envy out there for contributors who have lots and lots of pictures. Many of those contributors are truly are at the top of their game and continually contribute images which are very creative and extremely well composed. But others are just okay photographers with a DSLR who have, over time, completely developed their style of photography around only what RP wants. Not much creativity there.)

Finally, when you get back from train-chasing, don't immediately go to the computer, fire up photoshop and start touching up the images. Let the photos sit for a day or two. It's my personal experience that I can pick the best pictures and do a better job of cropping/color-correcting/etc them with a clearer head a few days later. And stay humble - the railfan who goes out with only the intention of getting RP-accepted pictures is likely to become the disagreeable and neurotic guy with an SLR often seen on fantrips, yelling at people to get out of his frame, getting in everyone else's frames, and venturing where it might be dangerous just to "get the shot." Don't be that guy.

I like that first image.

The second, you were shooting the shaded side of the train. That never works out right, but I have seen images as such on RP.net.

I have seen alot of good images on RP.net. Hell, at one time, some of them were mine. And I have seen some real pieces of crap, some of them from the screeners. Most from RPElite members.

Railpictures.net is "not" the standard of good photography of the railroad. The screeners are human and very often cannot keep their personal preferences out of what a "good" image is.

After awhile, you'll learn that RP.net is a little boys club of a select few who can get most anything they want on RP.net, because they know how to get cuddly with a screener. The ol' Its not what you know, its who you b**w type of deal.

Trainorders went through the same fate. TO is a shell of what it once was. Its called a "clique". Todd Clark allied himself with a select few and it destroyed TO.

The owners and the screeners have their "cliques". If your not in one of these little behind-the-scene boys clubs, your image will have to be damn perfect in all sense of the word "perfect".

If you question a screeners ability to properly screen an image correctly, your done with that screener. He sees your name, your image is "rejected". This is where those nonsense rejections come from.

Personally, I got tired of the kindergarten class mentality that rules RP.net.

I know how good my work is. But because of one or two screeners (owners) piss-poor attitudes, I left, telling them to stick it. I then became the number one topic on the RP.net forums. That alone shows the mentality that rules RP.net. The posters that were degrading me are the same names that have some of the worst images on RP.net, and the same individuals who are members of the "cliques".

RP.net is a business. The ultimate goal of any business is to do what??? MAKE MONEY!

So if RP.net wanted money out of me to join RPElite, I wanted them to screen my images fairly, by photogenic standards, and not their own personal prefrences. They could not do this. I am not going to kiss anyones ass to get an image on any website.

Until enough good photographers tell them to stick it, and have the nuts to yank their images, the boyz club behaviour will continue.

To date, RP.net has over 30,000 dead links. What are the stories behind those? Just how many people has RP.net pissed off?

Your both just telled the right reason..
I get 3 pic on railpictures,but sometime,when I get one look great,I take a chance,that cost nothing..

I get a fotopic gallerie,where I put some trains pics and some buses pics too

For video,I send sometime to Rail-video and I get around 48 or 49 videos in all in the database...
But I know what they accept or not and it's more easy..
Most of the time,I can know when a video are good or not,and also for the picture,but I photograph with Bridge camera..May be that's why they reject lots of pics...

For railroad picture and video,most of the train's man know me when they seeing me,I event get my own locomotive key and my trainman lamp.

Sometime,I do some ride and taking videos,I like this way to railfanning,because each time,it's different,and that make change to just stay beside a track..

And for trains and speciality,I'm on a good spot,near a place where that passing by,around 30 trains a day..
shots with 2 trains are regular,sometime whit 3 trains on the same video..

Just yesterday,I made a ride and grab some good image...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS5smor0bpM

But while doing video and pictures,My first goal is to get a picture or a video,that I will like it,It's my principal occupation to chasing the train,,
I not in health to do work and get always compress and I can't lift heavy charges,but to keep my time running,I go for watchng trains every days..
Like a railfan dream to live for the trains..

I hope you will enjoy the video..

How are these shots of mine?

How do these shots look. One is a different version of a same train, but the frame is vertical.[attachment=2]DSC_0724.JPG[/attachment]

For some reason I generally like these shots better than your other ones of the Downeaster and MBTA. Maybe the light is better in these or something. I also think they portray the trains a little more dynamically, and with more depth. Don't ask me to explain that...it's just my gut reaction. You can see the trains in their entirety more easily than your other pictures, which I like. Not many obstructions or distracting foreground objects.

I kind of like the "landscape" orientation of the Metro North photo because it shows the nice brick station building in the background. But in both cases, could you crop less closely? It seems there are some more interesting structures in the background as well. Similarly, could you crop a little less closely on the Amtrak photo with the person waving on the right side? It would be cool to have that "human element" in it, if you could see the whole person waving.

The shot of the far-off Amtrak train is cool. There's sort of a lot of random space in the foreground and left, and it's too bad there's a building blocking part of the train. If you're thinking Railpictures, I suspect they'd object to those things. But in general it seems like a cool vantage point and maybe some more experimentation would yield an even more interesting shot.

Thank you, Finch.

The Amtrak shot taken from the bridge is MOST LIKELY not going to get in to RP.

How does this shot of the Downeaster look? Should I submit it to RP?

I'm concerned about the pole shadow on the top of the engine, but it's not covering the majority of the nose.

The bigger issue might actually be the shadows on the coaches farther back on the train. Railpictures seems to like the whole side of the train illuminated. I know I would prefer that anyways, though some of my good pictures certainly break that rule. But I really haven't tried to submit much to RP, so don't take my word for it. Maybe someone else has a more informed opinion.

Was that shot taken at West Medford?

Yes, the shot was taken in W. Medford. I might submit this to RP. I think it all depends which angle you are shooting the train. For example, if you shoot a wedge shot like this one, and you see tree shadows, too many wire shadows, or box shadows, keep the shot for your personal collection.

I need some input on this shot attached below. I fear the color of the sky might not be natural.

RP would reject that last one due for digital noise, and the people on the platform would be "foreground clutter."

The Downeaster shot looks pretty good, except for the shadows on the loco. How good are you with cloning, lol? I really don't think the shadows on back the train would be an issue though.

As far as the Meto-North, I usually can't see noise, but it does seem to be pretty bad in the blue of the nose. What ISO were you shooting? There looks to be plenty of light, so you should have been at a max of 200. Always shoot as low of ISO as you can considering the conditions. Compensate with you shutter speed and aperture first. As far as the ppl, I don't think they would be clutter. There are ppl shots all of the time, however I would like to see the whole person, at least width-wise here. Your cropping off of their legs seems to work OK in this instance, at least for my opinion. I've never used a noise redection program, but a pass through something like Noise Ninja might work.