Pentax Galleries Question - Page 2

*straightshooter* · 08-03-2008, 11:16 AM

Or people that have their equipment supplied to them by Pentax?

After all, read some of the biographies of the people with the most pics in the premiere gallery.

CW

*rparmar* · 08-03-2008, 01:32 PM

It is a gallery after all. Gallery owners are inscrutable and make choices based on their own criteria. I have just started submitting and have had two excellent images rejected. And, yes, as a curator, theorist and media artist I think I do have a fair idea what constitutes "excellent". But I put this down to not satisfying the (fairly unknown) desires of the gallery curators.

What I dislike is the voting aspect. That in fact renders it less pure. Judging an image on a tiny thumbnail is totally flawed.

And I do think we should have some reason for the rejection, but I can see why it is not done that way.

*straightshooter* · 08-03-2008, 08:26 PM

I have to agree with Robin regarding some reason for rejection. They say they don't have time to give feedback? No time is needed, it's just a matter of a simple program that would give the voting of the members and the judges. I've had two rejected, one which took about a week and half. The other took less than two days to be rejected...and it wasn't that bad. Not great but not that bad either.

CW

jmdeegan · 08-03-2008, 08:27 PM

im thinking im going the way of others here...would i love some of my work to make it up there? sure. its nice to recieve the recognition from your peers.

at the same time, i've had a couple rejected which i feel were worthy, especially when compared to some others. so i guess its a matter of getting the right voters on the right days. im sure there are some who vote religiously, and some who do not. i don't vote every week, or sometimes even every month.....

but i think for the gallery to be really credible, they need to change it up somehow.
1-perhaps re-review existing images. i think there were/are some in the existing gallery which are not worthy, as others have pointed out
2-clarify/refine the approval process. i think the number of peer approvals should be a known figure and easily seen. i think if its known, its buried now.
3-since with any hobby, its good to have feedback from respected mentors, perhaps one responsibility of some gallery members should be to review rejects and offer some feedback if possible. i know this might be monumental, but its nice in theory.

i also think it could benefit from some classifications. for example, by age and/or level of experience.

but thats sorta off topic

jmdeegan · 08-03-2008, 08:32 PM

and actually, to further build on the feedback idea, i think that perhaps the first step would be during initial voting-dont just have it be yes or no-either a 1-10 scale, or yes/no and why. and if you don't enter an explanation, the vote doesn't count. not that i would say folks rifle through hundreds at a time, but i think if they had to provide feedback it would make them think about the entries more and perhaps allow the image to sink in.

*LaRee* · 08-03-2008, 10:28 PM

All I can say here Ben is that I saw your images when I went through a long process of voting on ppg images the other day. It is a long process for me because I feel like I have to vote on ALL the images submitted. I also feel I have to open up each image in order to judge it worthy or not. That is extremely time consuming the way they have the voting set up. So unless I have a lot of time to kill (very rare) I don't often go there to vote.
For what it is worth, I gave your images the thumbs up. They met the criteria to me, which in Pentax's own directives is "gallery quality". Your work is definitely gallery quality. I think you know that, which is why I think you asked your question. I'd be a bit suspect if I were you too.

*rparmar* · 08-04-2008, 03:09 AM

What they have to do is get rid of popular voting, tell us who the curators are, and perhaps provide us a little flag with a general idea of why an image got rejected: technical, composition, missing EXIF, etc. I would not expect a rating or details -- that takes too much time. As it stands there is not much motivation for entering, especially as a bug in their software means it cannot read the EXIF in my files.

ManuH · 08-04-2008, 04:33 PM

Originally Posted by rparmar

What they have to do is get rid of popular voting, tell us who the curators are, and perhaps provide us a little flag with a general idea of why an image got rejected: technical, composition, missing EXIF, etc.

That would be a good idea. I've seen some shots lastly that were good but badly oversaturated (I guess it's because of a badly calibrated screen).

BTW, I see some shots by Ben have now been accepted in the PPG.

I'm also wondering how the selection process works. I can see that when popular votes are negatives, your pictures can get rejected quite fast. But sometimes, the pictures last until the last day when all pictures get rejected/accepted by the PPG judges. It's always a bit disapointing when you feel you had the popular vote but somehow the judges decided against your pictures.

And it's always puzzling when you feel that the shots you think are the best are rejected while the lesser ones are accepted. But it's probably normal, we cannot ask people to have the same connection as we have we our own pictures.

*rparmar* · 08-04-2008, 05:01 PM

Originally Posted by ManuH

And it's always puzzling when you feel that the shots you think are the best are rejected while the lesser ones are accepted. But it's probably normal, we cannot ask people to have the same connection as we have we our own pictures.

Yes, I know where you are coming from. But I can now see it from both sides since one of mine was accepted just today!

But before that two others I thought distinctive were not.

*straightshooter* · 08-04-2008, 08:23 PM

Originally Posted by rparmar

But I can now see it from both sides since one of mine was accepted just today!

I just saw your Shrine Co. Clare photo in the gallery. That is one beautiful picture.

CW

*rparmar* · 08-05-2008, 05:33 AM

Originally Posted by straightshooter

I just saw your Shrine Co. Clare photo in the gallery. That is one beautiful picture.

Thank you. What makes me specially happy is that it was shot on Pentaxium. I made a trip to County Clare to discover new places to shoot, and ended up taking many shots in the final three hours of light. I remember the feeling I had on finding the shrine, which seemed like a secret waiting only for me. I tried to get this across in the picture.

*Lance B* · 08-05-2008, 06:13 AM

Originally Posted by straightshooter

Or people that have their equipment supplied to them by Pentax? After all, read some of the biographies of the people with the most pics in the premiere gallery.

CW

I'm not so sure there is a conspiracy here. I have had a K20D camera and the DA*300 f4 given to me as an award for being the Pentaxian of 2008 for my LBA slogan that Pentax used.

I do not have *any* photos in the premier collection on PPG, and of late, nearly *all* my photos have been rejected.

ftpaddict · 08-05-2008, 06:24 AM

Originally Posted by roentarre

Maybe it is the nephews and distant relatives of the judges getting accepted in the premiere section of the gallery...

Originally Posted by roentarre

or lovers, boyfriends or girlfriends...

... Or senior product managers

PENTAX Photo Gallery

TaoMaas · 08-05-2008, 07:06 AM

My theory is that things got screwed up when they let all of us start voting (no offense intended). What do you expect from folks that will ask questions like, "Was Ansel Adams or Yosef Karsh over-rated?".

There's a guy in my photography club who had been doing pretty well in our competitions. One night, his pics didn't fare so well, but a shot of a peacock took first place. Man, was he ever upset! He was very vocal about the quality of judging and what we should do to correct things. However, this last competition, he entered a peacock shot of his own (nearly identical to the peacock picture he'd complained so loudly about) and scored really well. Suddenly, the judges were geniuses! Heck, he didn't even realize the picture was that good, he told me. LOL LOL So....take it all with a grain of salt, IMHO.

ManuH · 08-05-2008, 09:39 AM

Originally Posted by Lance B

I'm not so sure there is a conspiracy here. I have had a K20D camera and the DA*300 f4 given to me as an award for being the Pentaxian of 2008 for my LBA slogan that Pentax used.

I do not have *any* photos in the premier collection on PPG, and of late, nearly *all* my photos have been rejected.

It's fun to read all the theories about this or that to be in the gallery, like for example having this or that lens or that camera. Nothing is true, I just think you cannot expect the taste of the judges to be exactly the same as ours. There are maybe some people who get a special treatment in the gallery (the "featured" people like Quarry or DiGiorgi) but I think anybody else is treated the same, even Mr. LBA or Benjikan.

Anyway any gallery or contest will, from time to time, refuse our masterpieces