Do You Suffer From A Lot Of Rejected Photos? Options

[Wallace]

This post was originally posted on the Full Members part of the Forum and I am now opening it up for everyone to read.



I thought that I would try and analyse the rejection statistics to see if there were any common themes. I took a sample of 100 rejections, copied the name and rejection reason then simplified the reason into a simple category. These categories are my own definitions although the meaning should be evident from the screeners comments. One thing that I did do was give the member some degree of anonymity by allocating them a number, I thought this only fair.

The table did not come out all that well, so I hope you get the drift if only you skip it and go to the summaries at the end. However the largest reason was sharpness, which includes Blurry and Focus and that was 40% of the 141 reasons for rejection. (I accidentally deleted the spreadsheet.)

The raw data
Member / Reason / Fault
1 The Runway seems to be running uphill a bit here. From memory there is a slight downslope here. Straighten and resubmitt please. LEVEL
1 Overexposed parts of fuselage. EXPOSURE
1 Also over-saturated. The overall contrast is unnatural - result of over-processing? SATURATION, CONTRAST
1 Colours are over-saturated. Also a touch soft. SATURATION, SHARPNESS
2 Slightly soft and a failly standard skyshot of this well photographed aircraft. SHARPNESS, SKYSHOT, COMMON
3 Sorry to say that it's soft. SHARPNESS
4 Chris, I`m afraid this shot is not of sufficient quality for the database. Please keep trying though. QUALITY
4 Too distant and a green colour cast. Looks like it has been taken through a window. COLOUR
4 Too distant and not level. The buildings are leaning to the right. DISTANCE, LEVEL
4 Not sharp and overall a blue colour cast. SHARPNESS, COLOUR
4 Although sharp, the photo has strange greenish tint. SHARPNESS, COLOUR
4 Although looks nice with the sea/island in the background the aircraft is not sharp. SHARPNESS
5 Showing some jagged lines from sharpening and a white line bottom right from croping. Please upload again if you can improve it. SHARPNESS, BORDER
5 Poorly lit and slightly soft skyshot EXPOSURE, SHARPNESS, SKYSHOT
6 Heat haze damaged the sharpness. Slightly overexposed. SHARPNESS, EXPOSURE
7 It's showing a few flaws from editing. Not lease a halo around the girl at the top of the image. SHARPNESS
7 Sadly slightly soft. Please upload it again if you can improve it. SHARPNESS
8 appears to require an extra kick of sharpness ...2nd op Thanks for the remarks but the depth of field seems to be so narrow that only the Leiderhosen picture is in focus, the green heart screams unfocussed image, that is why I asked you to crop it out. It may be better re-shooting this image with a better aperture. SHARPNESS
9 Sharpening. SHARPNESS
10 I see what you are trying to show but the image is to low in the frame. MOTIVE, COMPOSITION
10 Needs a CW rotation. Everything is leaning to the left. LEVEL
10 The white on the fuselage is over-exposed. EXPOSURE
10 A bit low in frame and has a halo caused from sharpening. We require skyshots like this to be top quality. COMPOSITION, SHARPNESS, SKYSHOT
10 The writings on the tail are over-sharpened. SHARPNESS
10 I'm sorry but this is not sharp and also not the best of angles. SHARPNESS, ANGLE
10 Still has a soft appearance. This image is only 290kb. A larger will will give you a better change of getting a higher quality image. SHARPNESS, QUALITY
10 Not sharp SHARPNESS
10 I am sorry the horizon is not level - please check the verticals and also the horizon itself.... The white on the fuselage seems to have a pink cast in places, could be a result of playing with levels/curves... Please re-edit and re-upload, namely the horizon makes the photo not acceptable. Thanks! LEVEL, COLOUR
11 You have selected the B767 as your subject but it is an uncomplementary angle so there must have been a reason for this photo. My guess is the collection of airliners in the background, which seem to be better focused than the subject. The B767 could do with more sharpening. When you re-load add some text about the stuff in the background and make that your subject. ANGLE, SHARPENING
11 again the fencing and bardwire is very off putting on the photo ....2nd op OBJECTS
11 sorry but the fencing at the bottom is very off putting ....and distracting .....sorry OBJECTS
12 Sh*# - looked for spots using hard-contrast. Will rework and reupload. Thx DUST SPOT
13 your horizon is way off ... needs a lot of CCW to level the image as it appears you are in a climb also if possible we need the reg as you must have it as you were on the flight .... LEVEL
14 Nice study but it needs sharpening. Personal comment - I would have cloned out the top of the crane that is sticking ut from the cockpit windows, it spoils the clean lines of your pictire. SHARPNESS
15 The trees don't seem to fit the composition well. They are rather distracting. COMPOSITION, OBJECTS
16 What a great view. Sadly it's not sharp though. SHARPNESS
16 The overall appearance is soft/blurred. Personally, I don't think this composition works, the prop is too low in the frame. SHARPNESS
16 Needs more sharpening Kev, the Thomas Cook titles have a soft appearance to them. SHARPENING
17 Kevin, the branches in the right bottom. Response “Are supposed to be there” OBJECTS
17 Not sharp SHARPENING
17 Blurred a bit. SHARPENING
18 Not sharp SHARPENING
18 Could you give this a kick of sharpness and upload again please. SHARPENING
18 Slightly soft and there's a dark shadow top left that should be cloned out. Please fix and upload again. SHARPENING, OBJECTS
18 Could you clone out the spot from the sky and upload again. Thanks. DUST SPOT
18 It's too dark. Lighten it using layers and upload again. EXPOSURE
18 Unfortunately the grass and the sky overpower the subject. COMPOSITION
19 Please add airport details and reg of aircraft please. DETAILS
20 Not sharp. The unsharp mask setting was not correct. SHARPNESS
20 “Picture noe sharpend”Not sharp. SHARPNESS
20 Also not sharp. Was the photo before postprocessing sharp? There is a halo around black/white border, which would mean that the unsharp mask setting was not correct. SHARPNESS
20 Not sharp. (Strange vignette effect WS) SHARPNESS
20 Interesting, but not sharp. SHARPNESS
21 Distant and a bit soft. DISTANCE/COMPOSITION, SHARPNESS
21 I would accept it as it's an airside terminal shot. The loaded bus is a typical airport scene and could have been commented. However...the image is not level. It needs about 0.4 CCW rotation. Use the horizontals first and then check verticals to get it right. MOTIVE, LEVEL
21 Oversharpened - there is a white halo around the black/white borders. SHARPNESS
21 The image is generally lacking in contrast and is backlit. CONTRAST, EXPOSURE
22 This one seems to be unfortunately not that sharp / makes even a slightly blurry impression. Also could do with slightly less contrast... 2nd opinion please.Agreed. Also there seems to be some sort of shadow down the right hand side, perhaps a reflection in the glass. SHARPNESS, CONTRAST, OBJECT
23 Too dark. EXPOSURE
24 Could be cropped closer COMPOSITION
24 Skyshot and common airline/type SKY SHOT, COMMON
24 Skyshot and common airline/type. SKY SHOT, COMMON
25 Out of focus. It looks like your camera focused on something in the foreground. SHARPNESS
25 Soft SHARPNESS
25 there is a black spot in the sky above the tree line ... above the '' cargo '' on the aircraft ..... re-edit and re-upload DUST SPOT
26 Interesting! Here the trees work much better ;-) I'd maybe even try to clone out the branch touching the wing - but would be a lot of fiddling with the reality and the result would be uncertain ... Nice attempt, certainly worth screening, thanks!Nearly acceptable, if only you were stood a little more to the right and took the shot slightly earlier to avoid the branch. COMPOSITION, OBJECT
26 Nice light, but there is a dust spot which screams for cloning out (the sky @ top left quarter)... Maybe the overall appearance could be a bit lighter... The main reason for rejection is the dust spot, though. Please could you re-edit and re-upload? Thanks. DUST SPOT, EXPOSURE
26 Thanks for trying! :-) As you said already, could be a bit "off".... well, to me the tree is distracting a bit too much, but will pass the shot for a 2nd opinion... OBJECTS
27 Not sharp SHARPNESS
28 Needs to be a bit sharper. SHARPNESS
28 The nose area, forward of the door, is soft / blurry. Not sure if this fixable but please try. SHARPNESS
29 The subject is off to the left. It might look better if it was centered using the tips of each propeller at the edge of the frame - leave a bit of space though. This will centre the aircraft better. Remember we will accept a square crop at A-P. COMPOSITION
30 A bit dark and not a great angle for a skyshot EXPOSURE, ANGLE, SKY SHOT
30 Interesting scene but not sharp. SHARPNESS
30 Needs a CW rotation. LEVEL
30 Soft and needs a CW rotation. SHARPNESS, LEVEL
30 Over-exposed and not sharp. EXPOSURE, SHARPNESS
30 Out of focus. SHARPNESS
31 Not so dark but still a touch soft and the fence is a distraction. EXPOSURE, SHARPNESS, OBJECTS
31 Similar to one on db SIMILAR
31 Too much contrast and fuselage too dark. CONTRAST, EXPOSURE
31 Unsharp and bad light. SHARPNESS, EXPOSURE
32 Although the airline is quite rare I don't think the composition works - the aircraft are quite distant. Looks like a photo you can take loads of every day. COMPOSITION, DISTANCE
32 image requires a touch of CCW to level the image .... the fuel tanks need about 0.5 - 0.7 CCW to level them ... redit and re-upload LEVEL
33 Similar to one on db SIMILAR
33 The crop looks too close. COMPOSITION
33 Second opinion on sharpness and exposure. For me the main detail is in too much shadow. There is already a cockpit shot of this frame in the database. SHARPNESS, EXPOSURE, SIMILAR
33 In my opinion there is fuzziness down the right hand side and the object to the left is distracting. Second opinion please.Agreed, also the aircraft itself could be sharper. SHARPNESS, OBJECTS
34 Over-sharpened. SHARPNESS
34 Spoiled by the fence in the foreground. OBJECTS
34 Backlit and very over-sharpened. EXPOSURE, SHARPNESS
35 Also heat haze. Not much can be done in such conditions. SHARPNESS
35 Heat haze. SHARPNESS
35 Tony, common airline, there are two photos of the same aircraft taken in the similar angle. SIMILAR
35 Soft/blurred. SHARPNESS
35 appears a touch soft .....2nd op SHARPNESS
36 There are a lot of shots of this aircraft already in the DB. This angle/light is not up to the standard. COMMON, ANGLE, EXPOSURE
36 Looks a touch soft and the shadow on the fuselage spoils it for me. SHARPNESS, OBJECT
37 Unsharp. SHARPNESS
37 Lacking contrast and too light. CONTRAST, EXPOSURE

Reason Frequency
Angle 4
Border 1
Colour 4
Common 4
Composition 11
Contrast 2
Details 1
Distance 2
Dust Spot 4
Exposure 15
Level 9
Motive 2
Objects 12
Quality 2
Saturation 2
Sharpness 56
Similar 4
Sky Shot 6

Reason Frequency
Border 1
Details 1
Contrast 2
Distance 2
Motive 2
Quality 2
Saturation 2
Angle 4
Colour 4
Common 4
Dust Spot 4
Similar 4
Sky Shot 6
Level 9
Composition 11
Objects 12
Exposure 15
Sharpness 56


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I can not stress how important it is to have your photos properly sharpened. Sharpening is the first thing that I look for when screening a picture, it is so hard to ignore as the eye is automatically drawn to writing and it become very apparent that when the writing is difficult to read, it must need sharpening.... either that or I need to put on my glasses

If you suffer from a high rate of rejections then perhaps this will help you address your problem. We do not penalise members for a high rate of rejections like other sites but you do waste your own daily allowance and regrettably some members for one reason or another do not learn from the screeners comments and repeatably post the same picture for screening, wasting their five and increasing the time it takes to get through the screening queue.

[Ray Abela]

Wallace thanks for posting this here... it is of great interest and importance... and should also help more the members (including my self).

Looks like sharpening is one of the major problem.... You will still have this for sure.... As sometimes it depends on what monitor is the contributor and the screener is using .... Say if the monitor of the contributor is a bit soft for the screener the image might be a bit over sharpen...
Although there will be obvious cases when the image will be blurred and someone force to over-sharp it (that is really Bad). The question will always remain (how much sharp and how much soft).

I can say that i have learned much much more from the Screeners on A-P.... the way how they screen and comment on rejections with full help and support makes A-P special ... Keep up the good work while i thank all our screeners on A-P for there time and support.

Regards



This post has been edited by Ray Abela: Sep 4 2009, 03:34 PM