Invigorate the Photography Forum?

[Tom Mann]

A couple of weeks ago, one of mods lamented the lack of activity in the photography forum of PSG.

To liven things up, how about a regular "Photo of the Week" thread and see how much participation it pulls in.

Although the rules could be anything we make up, I think a weekly thread with a strict limit of 1 photo per person per week would be a good model. This would prevent the regular thread from becoming a dumping ground for mediocre photos.

Bonus points if you 'shopped it and give both photographic and photoshop technical details. We could break it down into street, portraits, weddings, landscapes, holidays, sports, architecture, pets, performance, humor, macro, HDR, B&W, and all the other usual categories. We could even have non-traditional themes such as "Unusual Viewpoints".

Each week, one of the mods could close the old thread and start a new one with a different category.

Thoughts?

Tom

PS - For the heck of it, here's a start for an architecture theme... Smithsonian American Art Museum (formerly, the NCFA), Washington, DC

PPS - For a variety of reasons, obviously participants can only post photos that they took. This would not be the place to show how you 'shopped someone else's photo.

 

[RTContent]

As a Photographer myself, I think this would be a great idea. Also it would give me an excuse to take photos on those weeks that I perhaps don't have ideas for myself. It's always good to share and compare, so you have my vote!

 

[ibclare]

I agree. It is a good idea.

I don't have a decent camera right now or I'd be glad to participate. Of course, if I make multiple post processing adjustments, they aren't bad. I wouldn't mind being the loser

 

[RTContent]

I agree. It is a good idea.

I don't have a decent camera right now or I'd be glad to participate. Of course, if I make multiple post processing adjustments, they aren't bad. I wouldn't mind being the loser

Who says you'll need a good camera? Just Ps the crap out of it!!

 

[ibclare]

Exactly, lol. But it would be nice to have a decent one. One of these days . . . :mrgreen:

 

[Steve]

It was me that commented on our anemic photography section, and I love your idea.

Give me some specifics about how you would do this.
What kind of rules did you have in mind.

Bonus points if you 'shopped it and give both photographic and photoshop technical details

There's no user reputation or point system we can use in the forum and I think having a poll and inviting voting weekly on images may be disappointing at least initially, but I'd love to see this work.

 

[Paul]

Great idea Tom, how about having things like a photo gallery and then have members Photoshop members images, chop multiple member entry photos into one mega chop.

 

[MikeMc]

Sounds great.....This was shot through glass in Atlanta

and has been shopped

 

[Paul]

That's what i am talking about, very cool mate.

 

[MikeMc]

Not the original....

 

[Paul]

Yeah i heard you mate, you shopped it.

 

[egosbar]

Exactly, lol. But it would be nice to have a decent one. One of these days . . . :mrgreen:

thinking about the new fuji bridge camera hs50 , need to see some decent review pictures but it looks pretty good for the price

 

[Steve]

Exactly, lol. But it would be nice to have a decent one. One of these days . . . :mrgreen:

99% of the cameras on the market are better than 99% of the amateur photographers abilities to use them.

You'd be surprised how much a photographers skills in subject matter, composition, exposure and exposure compensation, depth of field, and more, can more than compensate for less than professional gear.

Good gear sure makes it easier, and makes available lots of options you won't have with an inexpensive P&S cameras but it's the photographer, not the camera that matters.

 

[chrisix]

challenge accepted

 

[Tom Mann]

Thanks for all the positive comments. I didn't realize the idea would be this well received. Anyway, here are individual responses to some of your comments...


Clare: "I don't have a decent camera right now or I'd be glad to participate..."

This is a very important comment. Photography has changed dramatically over the past few years. With the introduction of high quality point and shoot cameras, P&S quality cameras built into cell phones, instant posting to Facebook, Flickr, Instagram & similar places, orders of magnitude more folks are taking pictures on a daily basis, AND there has been a huge increase in the number of these pictures almost instantly accessible to anyone with a web connection.

If we restrict participation to "serious" photographers (ie, arbitrarily defined as those with big, expensive DSLRs or $30K digital medium format systems), we'll be swimming against the tide and might as well not even bother to go in this direction.

My proposal is that these threads be open to anyone who wants to post, independent of their equipment. Because of the limitation of 1 image per person per week, we won't be overwhelmed with trivial or non-serious submissions - we can just ignore them.
----------------

Steve: "What kind of rules did you have in mind..."

Let me think seriously about this and get back to you during the day, tomorrow.


Steve, re my comment about "bonus points", that was purely tongue-in-cheek. I was definitely NOT thinking of a rating or voting system any more extensive than the "Like" and "Thanks" options already available for forum posts. My comment should have been less silly, eg, "Entries that have been 'shopped, or have accompanying photographic and photoshop technical details / discussion are strongly encouraged"
----------------

Paul: "...how about having things like a photo gallery and then have members Photoshop members images, chop multiple member entry photos into one mega chop...."

We can certainly do either of these things (ie, a photo gallery and working on each others submissions). However, I would suggest that we first see if there are a reasonable number of participants. For example, the simplest way to test out this concept could be to have an occasional week where the thread title is: "Your weekly photo thread: The Mega-Chop edition". I would suggest that the weekly limit of 1 image per week be temporarily raised for these threads."

To be honest, I wouldn't suggest immediately setting up our own photo gallery -- there are so, so many places on the web that can host one's images, most good photographers would see almost no benefit to posting their images on a site like this that currently does not attract a big photographer audience. In addition, the user interface for posting on such a gallery would have to be a lot less clunky than the current one used to add images to forum postings. This would likely take appreciable resources. ... Maybe later.

----------------

MikeMc: Great image!

----------------

Steve: "... You'd be surprised how much a photographers skills in subject matter, composition, exposure and exposure compensation, depth of field, and more, can more than compensate for less than professional gear. ..."

(yes, I'm shouting ;-) ) Man, I COULDN'T AGREE MORE. See my previous comment about equipment.


----------------


Thanks again for the enthusiastic reception. I'll put together a proposal / description and post it later today. There are so many possibilities that have to be considered, it's a bit daunting, but anyone who has suggestions for rules please post them here. For example, to prevent the thread from degenerating into lengthy side discussions of minute details, perhaps we should limit everyone to a single reply to any particular image.

Another possibility (which is very popular elsewhere on the web) is occasionally having an "Absolutely No Words" thread. The beauty of this is that all the interchanges are purely visual in nature. For example, someone starts an "Absolutely No Words" thread by posting a photo of a seal in the arctic. Other people respond with their pix of seals. Then some smart-a**, having fun with the words, posts a beautiful macro of the wax seal under their toilet. Humor then rules until someone brings it back a bit on track and posts a photo they shot of a starving seal pup (or worse). The thread then moves into the environmental area for a while, etc. etc. All of this is done without a single word in the thread -- purely visual cues.

Gotta run,

Back to ya'll later today.

Tom

 

[ibclare]

Tom, it almost sounds like you're talking about 3 different ideas, if I'm reading you right. We should start with one IMO.

Type of Photo Thread

I like "no talk" with likes and thanks only. I don't think the idea of post an image then everyone posts their images of the same subject. I can see it being restricted to a category though. This would make it more visually ordered. Reminds me of photography classes. "This week's assignment will be to photograph light," etc. So that could be, week 1, portraits, week 2, animals, week 3, environmental consciousness, week 4, humor, and so on.

But I agree that the no talk should not be every week. To mix it up keeps it more lively. I believe that to add a weekly winner also attracts more interest. Whether this should be weekly, twice a month, or monthly deserves some consideration.

Gallery Idea

We are supposed to have a PSG Gallery, though not exclusively for photography but that would definitely merit its own, and it is "my bad" that we don't have the gallery yet. It is more work than I initially thought and I have let it drop to the back of my mind (the back of which gets very foggy and things get lost . . . imagine that). It is not impossible, just one of those ideas I haven't gotten serious about yet. You know, a good idea whose time has come but whose originator has gone south . . .

Anyway, to make PSG Official Albums for images whether photography or not is an idea I like. I know this is slightly off-topic, but related. If we were to somehow choose a photo winner each week, that photo could go into the Photo of the Week Album. Another album/gallery can be for member submissions of their work which was my original idea to help freelancers. Another could be for the winners of our Challenges. Just throwing this out.

Post Processing (or not)

Like with the challenges where people post their manipulations, then post the source pics, I like the idea of seeing the final product followed by the starting image (if there is any shopping done) and some short explanation of what process was used to create the final image. I don't know if people are going to care about the technical aspects of what camera, what lens, etc. were used. I think that might get into a war of who has the most sophisticated equipment which would just kill the fun for me . . . even if I had the best equipment available. I have as much respect for people who can work with adversity as I do for someone who takes gorgeous photos with the help of technology's latest advancements. Anyway, what eye is behind the lens is more important than if the person used a great point and shoot or a pinhole camera.

Enough out of me! Thanks for the idea and the time you're spending on it.

 

[smoke]

my go: Early morning fiords of Norway


how it looked originaly


I like the idea a lot as i like both: Raw photography and PhotoWORkshop (as enthusiast hobbyst)
I think rules should be simple: picture with basic edits (sat, blur, exposure, vibrance) not like manipulating (chopping, hard editing) (healing brush should be allowed but for less than 5% changes such as post wires, tree far away, rubbish removal,ect )
my idea would be to show that any good shot could be improved with ps but shot is more important as this tread is about photography
My idea..

 

[iDad]

I'm not a camera buff but what I would like to see is high res free photos forum....... Just sayin

 

[smoke]

I'm not a camera buff but what I would like to see is high res free photos forum....... Just sayin

so where's the 'push' of photography to attract users to go shoot/edit? maybe my foreign translation dont get implication iBuddy

 

[chrisix]

....too bad the only camera I own, is my laptop's webcam
I know you don't need a pro camera to get a good shot
but this is just a bit too impractical.

So even though I will not be able to contribute to this section.
I remember something some other people did (on a forum far far away, long ago, where planes are still pulled by horses)

Instead of a competition, make it more of a game.

One person starts with a photo,
the next person makes a photo with an element of the first photo in it.

So like:
rainbow
bowl of skittles
distortion through glass bottles
water rimples
lake
etc etc etc

just a photo with a recognizable element from the previous one