Originally posted by mhsp1948 I am going to work on my processing before I enter another one.
There is always room for improvement, but don't forget that even your post-processing is judged according to the aesthetic preferences of the judges, which is very subjective and as others have said, tends to favour certain "looks." To make it even tougher, figuring out what those "looks" are isn't enough, your submitted photo has to grab the judges attention and it has to make a favourable enough impression for a majority of the judges to pick your photo as one of the top 3-5 photos they've looked at in the last 12 months. I've only made a single submission to the Exclusive Gallery and while none of the judges' remarks about it were as pointed as the one you posted, it was made quite clear that it wasn't difficult for them to judge my photo as not being good enough for the gallery.
My rejection stung a bit, but I took some consolation from realizing that most of the judges simply didn't see what I was trying to capture, which is fine. My submission was, in my personal opinion, the best photograph I have ever taken and it wasn't an accident, I was very deliberate about where and when I took it, the composition and the post-processing. What I like in a photograph is not appealing to
somemany people, which is also fine. I do very much appreciate being able to post my photos elsewhere on Pentaxforums, knowing that a decent number of people who aren't related to me will take the time to look at those photos and sometimes even comment. I can't get that anywhere else.
So, lift your chin a bit, look at the camera and smile.