Hi, I’m a little confused about the guidance as it relates to people in photos. This nomination was nearly immediately rejected by the community.
I carefully reviewed the criteria before appealing, noting that the guidelines said people and body parts were not to be the subject of the main photo, and that it would be generally OK if it would be difficult to get a photo of the subject that did not include people.
So I was very surprised this was rejected on appeal for focusing on a group of people, when it’s clearly focused on a big indoor sign for the venue, and that I clearly avoided as much “people” as I could without completely ruining the composition of the photo (i.e. having the actual subject, the sign, fully in the bottom 1/3 of the photo)
Is “people” being the subject of a photo really meant to be interpreted that broadly?
Title: Midway Music Hall
Description: Live Music Venue
Supplemental:
This is a general admission concert venue. Great place to hang out with a few hundred other fans.
Appeal Note:
I believe the rejection reasons may be incorrect because the faces and body parts in the image are not the subject. I also made a clear effort to get as little of the people in the photo as possible in a venue that would be difficult to photograph without people in it. The rejection reason that the venue is meant for adult products and services is incorrect, as this nomination was submitted during an all-ages concert: CG5: Too Many Songs Canada Tour at Midway Music Hall — Edmonton.events
Reason for Rejection:
The submission photo or information provided focused on a person or a group of people instead of a specific object
I do agree and think your first photo has people identifiable in the photo. It should not include persons or animals in the first photo. Is there anyway to take a photo of the outside of the venue at all that recognizes it or access it when there are not people present?
Does identifiable people really mean that they’re identifiable as people? This is the backs of heads here…
FWIW I can’t resubmit the nomination at all because I don’t live anywhere near the venue. I really just thought the indoor sign was striking and thought it would be a great thing to have been able to save a postcard of TBH.
The composition would have been terrible if it were cropped and the venue was sold out and I couldn’t get any closer without taking the photo from a weird angle or having the performer on stage in the shot (hence all the people)
Trust me, I thought of these things.
Even outside would have been a non-starter with all the people milling around (I don’t live near there)
Edit:
I feel I should for being excessively defensive when you’re just trying to help though. Thanks.
For more clarity though, the challenge I had with this wasn’t that I didn’t think of cropping the photo it’s that it gets re-cropped as a square, so the resulting picture would have said “DW” in game/on the wayfarer screen instead of "MIDWAY”
Well i think people would struggle to approve such photo. Not all photo are showing the back , i can see face from side. Alternatively, you can try blur the face if you cant get there anymore.
It would be nice if we had some consistency/clarity though:
Rejection criteria (people okay if not the subject matter):
includes people, body parts, or live animals as the subject matter
Photo guidelines (“prominent” prompts a very subjective and therefore cautious interpretation of what it means):
Includes prominent people, body parts, or live animals
Rejection reason (back to what the “focus” of the image is):
The submission photo or information provided focused on a person or a group of people instead of a specific object.
If the somewhat blurry person not completely turned away from the camera is a concern for being too recognizable it’s be helpful to know for certain to 100% avoid it in the future too. My read on that particular one is that it looked like it kinda looks vaguely like numerous kids I’ve known over the years 3/4 from the back. Not really identifiable.
It’s easy to say “just don’t do X at all if it’s a grey area” but it’s frustrating to have to take worse pictures around those things.
I think this is Wayspot with some logistical challenges to get the right photo opportunity because of crowds. I am assuming you need to pay admission to get in and there’s always going to be crowds of people and it’s going to be a matter of timing to get a photo.
Safest way is no people at all. The rule is there to help wayfarer when encountering candidate which is impossible to be empty. But your photo should still possible to get better imho
Hi,
The bright nature of sign is eyecatching but there is almost the same amount of the photo taken up by “people” as sign.
As it is a screenshot I can’t tell if any of those would be identifiable.
For future….
You say you tried to frame it so the sign was in the bottom third.
Ideally for appearance in the Pokémon Go photo disc you want the sign in the middle if this was accepted the photo would have a focus on rafters.
You did a good job with getting nearly everyone facing away, but with that many people you are going to struggle with getting it accepted by reviewers, regardless of what the guidelines say.
As a general rule, you might be OK one or two people in the far distance who can only be identified as human-shaped-objects. Anything else will be a problem with reviewers. It matters more how people are reviewing than the precise wording of the guidelines.
A cropping like @elijustrying showed would be your best chance for submissions like this.
The issue I have with cropping it that way is that a blown out DW seems not at all representative of the subject of the photo (which was intended to be the whole word)
So it wasn’t that I wanted the sign to show up in the bottom third it’s that I wanted ideally for the whole word to appear, but I knew there was no way it was going to be accepted (due to most of the photo being taken up by people) if it were vertically centered.
In trying to find a middle ground I seem to have removed enough of the people to make nobody happy. Sigh.
Here’s the original image and a blow up of the only part anyone could be conceivably be called recognizable. I think it’d be a stretch to call those two with front lighting recognizable.
I think your best bet now is to crop it. It might looks bad in photo disc, but thats it. Make it as square as possible. Photo can be replaced anyway in future.
The frustration players get when the photo is close to being a perfect spin disc may challenge people to add better photos once the wayspot is established.
the guidelines say “as the subject matter” or “prominent” most places, so i recommend an accept if they are not recognizable and that was the only concern
it is very confusing to know when people are acceptable in the photo or not, imo. apparently the appeals reviewer went by that last guideline. but i would also hesitate to accept this photo with all the people in it. my eye goes straight to the people.
i did read this and won’t offer suggestions on how to resubmit. staff do keep up with the forums, and i hope they choose to comment on this.
If it was me, i would have waited until the concert was over and most of the people had left to try to get closer and get a photo of just the sign. Almost always when it comes to places where there are lots of people, the answer is “you just have to wait.” Patience is key in Wayfinder.
Sometimes if theres just 1 person you can politely ask them to move for “5 seconds while you take a quick photo.” But when there are many people (or cars) you have to wait.
