PPG... how does it work?

Howdy All

Does anyone know how photos get 'approved' for the Pentax Photo Gallery?

OK - so those with photos already in the gallery get to vote - but is acceptance based on some sort of approval %, or a fixed number of folk who give it the thumbs up, or what?

Without wanting to diss the Gallery - I do appreciate it as an means to display images I'm pleased with in 'large' format - I wonder exactly how strict the criteria are for images sneaking through. You may have gathered this from my signature

It's quite simple, upload virtually anything and it will get approved. Be wary though, a vertical horizon might possibly just get spotted. If you like bird shots then any fuzzy vaguely bird like shape will do. And don't forget to include a large series of almost identical portraits.

I've never submitted to PPG... I just figured my images would not be up to scratch... Thought it was supposed to be the best images from the best Pentax photographers - for a while I thought it was by invitation only...

I found out by accident the other the other day that you don't have to submit or get a photo approved by PPG to vote on other peoples work, I was just curious as to how the process worked and signed up, username, password etc and I was just browsing around the gallery and then I clicked on something like "Vote on photos " and there they where I was given the choice to vote on them
So then I quickly logged out ,I don't feel I am qualified to judge other folks work . It's an odd site it looks like someone sent a lot of time and money to try and make it non intuitive ..jeff...

The rebuilding of the site was outsourced to a consultancy who did a terrible job. The launch version was abysmally thought out. My favourite part was the categories. When you upload a shot you choose a single category of shot by genre, landscape, portrait, etc. In response to complaints that there was no longer a 'recently added' category to browse all the newest approvals, they added a genre called 'recently added'. So you had to choose whether your landscape was best categorised as 'landscape' or 'recently added'.

I think once you get into the gallery it actually looks pretty good now, but the front page lets it down. They choose a featured artist to appear on the front page, a decent idea, but he last one stayed there for months on end.

I have my doubts about how the voting system operates. The original system design was chock full of bugs and design flaws. Users reported the ones that were obvious, but there is no way of spotting any in the voting system. It seems to be time based as a simultaneous decision is reached on all photos uploaded at more or less the same time. I have a feeling that the old system was part judged and this one fully automated and therefore at the mercy of the incompetent programmers.

There are definitely acceptances that would have been rejected under the old system so the quality has gone down. There are still lots of great images accepted but they are diluted by some absolute rubbish and the bar is too low so the average standard is not good enough. However, the individual artist galleries I think look good and it is up to the individual to set the standard of their own gallery.

I found it a bit tiresome after a while, but would have been much happier if the required image size had been the same as EPZ (1000 pixels) rather than 900 pixels. By the time I've made a full size image, a 1000 pixel one for EPZ and an 800 pixel one for a forum, I'm getting bored.....

Of course this is also because I resize all images to the correct size for a destination, wherever possible.

So am I alone in thinking it odd that anyone can sign in and vote for or against photos .... I had always assumed that only people that had work in the gallery could vote .... jeff

If you have an account you can vote. I don't see why you don't consider yourself qualified, if you like a photo yea if you don't nay.

I don't really see why one has to vote for the best photo. It is so very
subjective. I think the best part when submitting a photo is to receive comments from other members.

Of course all my entries deserveto be voted No1, but somehow it doesnt seem to happen.

Regards, Horst

That seems to be the case, at least for me. I recently uploaded 5 photos and yesterday I saw them all approved in the gallery and all at the same time....
Definitely less stringent than in the past, and maybe the idea is that this is more to make Pentax users feel good about their photography and positive about the brand. The Premiere gallery is still difficult to get into.

Of course you are Anyone who has a varied emotional response to a varied selection of artistry presented to them is qualified to judge.

An example of something not qualified to judge: Housebrick

Yes I agree Smegg , I don't have a problem expressing an opinion about any art form.
But the PPG thing is about the technical mastery of a Camera and software is'nt it ? Something that I am not predominately interested in or good at
Also the actual voting method is a bit odd just thumbs up or thumbs down,not really up to" a varied emotional response " as you put it . Unless one was voting for or against well .. a housebrick ..... jeff....

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Much appreciated

But no intelligence yet on exactly how voting leads to acceptance. I assume, like DrO says, that it's automated in some way...but just wondered if we had any clues on the algorithm used (i.e. it needs to achieve a % of likes after a fixed number of votes, or whatever).


To look at this from another direction... has anyone had submissions rejected, and did this take longer to confirm than 'acceptances'? I'm quite tempted to try submitting 'sub-par' material just to see (no jokes about the fact I've been doing that all along, please :wink.

It must be time based. The old PPG didn't seem to be. From the same batch of uploads one picture could be accepted very quickly, whereas another could take a long time to be rejected. Also, decisions were made during what appeared to be working hours in the US. Images were accepted directly into the Premiere Collection, these approvals could take a long time. All that suggests to me a degree of manual intervention, probably a judging panel.

With the new system if I upload a batch of five photos then a decision is reached on all at the same time and that is at any time of day or night, weekends and holidays. It is highly unlikely that all my photos always receive the same number of votes. Therefore my guess is that after a period of time if a certain positive/negative ratio is reached then the photo is accepted. possibly also depending on a certain minimum number of votes cast. It would be good if the criteria were explained, I don't think they are stringent enough. It would be good if the system were audited too, I have my doubts that is working as intended.

The Premiere Collection I am certain is judgemental, images are batch processed sporadically and there are some that would certainly not have gained more votes (or a higher approve/decline ratio) than others not making it. Whilst there are some outstanding Collection images, there are others whose presence cannot be justified by photographic merit.

Thanks Adrian. That's a pretty comprehensive analysis...