New forum proposal

[Matus Kalisky]

OK, this idea is bouncing in my head for some time already and was triggered by THIS (http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=22) post and especially by the contribution #19 by r.e. (http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/member.php?u=10087)

Please let me explain.

I have learned many things on this forum, I got answers to my questions and many interesting suggestion and found a lot of interesting links and would like to thank to all the moderatos and whole comunity for that. But one topic that might be very educative especially for beginners (like me :o ) would be a separate forum dedicated to photo-critique only.
Yes - I know there is a separate "On Photography" forum where one can find many threads oriented only to photo-postings (which I do enjoy a lot) but is differently oriented.

My idea is a little bit different. In the dedicated (let's call it "Critique") forum each thread would be started by a photograher who would submit one photo and would explain both technical (camera film, developement etc) and mental/spritual message he wanted to pass to the viewer. Then - whoever would feel like being able to express an opinion that would help the given photographer to improve his work in thecnical, aesthetic or other way to reply to this thread.

One could of course under such a policy submit a new thread in the "On Photography" forum but I personaly would prefere not to mix these two to keep it more transparent for the users.

Indeed one may imply some restrictions to keep number of posts reasonable - I would just propose that anybody should still only choose photos he consider good or interesting or at least worth improvements - but just can not find the way.

I would be interested to hear your opinions independent on wheter you consider yourself to be more "student" or "teacher".

Two bottom line comments:

- This kind of activity would of course by no means be a substitute for a real life workshop (that I would love to attend one day), but still might prove usefull.

- Yes - I know that there is number of websites where you can submit your photos and get comments or critques - I am also a member of one of them - but that is a no mans land - overloaded with number of submissions and it is very rare to get a valuable comment.

Thank you for your attention

[Sylvester Graham]

Sounds interesting.

First of all, I'm not sure your link to "This" post is working, or is the one you want. At least when I click on it, it just takes me to the community forum.

Would there be a problem with a gallery type thing? Where messages can be left for the photographer? Sometimes having just thread after thread of image posts gets really confusing. I'm sure there might be bandwidth problems though.

[seawolf66]

The critique-ing of foto's is all ways a welcome thought but I am a memeber at photosig dot com and some of the critique's I have wondered about those critiques after a time you get to know who is straight about giving you a good critique:

But here on LF Forum there appear's to be a great number of valued folks here that do help others out in their time of need , Oh yes there are times when One will chime in and make a discord note but it happens anywhere:

But BAndWidth is always a concern??

[Ralph Barker]

We discussed a "Critique" sub-forum when we switched forum software, but resisted the idea for several reasons. To avoid the pitfalls experienced by other photography forums in this area, both submitters and those offering critiques would need to follow fairly strict protocols - something that not everyone seems willing to do. Failure to follow the critique protocols would thus result in numerous post deletions and the associated angry members. Plus, as evidenced by the discussions of "art" and aesthetics, there isn't a lot of agreement on these topics, leaving the person requesting a critique to scratch their head.

So, not wishing to spend our limited time being The Critique Police, we opted not to include a Critique sub-forum. Great idea, but tough to implement well because of human nature.

[Ken Lee]

The link which Matus provided, takes us to the Community Forum, and shows the posts designated as "Introductions". In other words, he is pointing out that there is no location set aside, just for critiques.

[Brian Ellis]

You can get "critiques" at many places on the net. The ones I've seen have generally involved little more critiquing than "I like it, nice picture." But if you want to submit some of your work for others to critique you might check out the photo.net critique gallery.

[domenico Foschi]

I have never been a fan of critiques forums for one reason only:
This can attract people who approach the crical process in a flowed manner and that can distort the initial intention of the forum to a bitter and negative exchange of ideas.
Critique is a very important and useful to tool to improve ones work, but when is handled by people whose work you don't even know and that might actually be more "unripe" than yours and you don't know it, than it becomes detrimental to your growth as an artist.
I would seek critiques by people whose work you have in high regards even though that would entail to contact them privately.

[Greg Lockrey]

I used to be a member at photosig I noticed that many can not take critiques at all unless your critique is of the postitive in nature. Got to be too confrontational. Most you will find don't have a clue as to what they are talking about anyway.

[jnantz]

critique can be good,
but it unless the poster-of-image
posts the equiv. of "where they were coming from"
it is really hard to critique an image other than
composition and straightforward things like that.

i generally stay away from on-line critiques ...

[Bill_1856]

Nonononononononononononononononononono (can of worms).

[Duane Polcou]

Photo critiques can be useful if the photographer has a purpose in mind for the utilization of a body of work, or has a specific question regarding an image, and this work is then critiqued by someone knowledgeable and experienced in their respective genre with the intent of helping them achieve a look or goal.

Just slapping up a picture online asking for criticism without a stated purpose is useless.

[Greg Lockrey]

One of the best places to have your work critiqued is to take college courses in fine art photography. Sometimes you learn about yourself there as well.:)

[Ken Lee]

eMail some JPG's to me.

I'll give a critique.

The price is right: Zero.

[Matus Kalisky]

OK, I feel like I should reply at this point. I will try to address a few points.

First of all - I apologize for the wrong link - it was supposed to be linked to one of underlying threads called "Don't tell the wife". But I think it does not matter anymore.

- Ralph -

I perfectly understand and agree. Such a forum would need either "proper" users or too much effort on side of moderators. Should I have known that this was discussed in the past - I wouldn't have brought this topic up.

Concerning "other places on the net" - I am member of a photosig as well and get 4 critiques (non for my LF pictures yet) at best - out of which very few bring some interesting opinion. I have seen the critiques on photo.net as well.

You (means many of you) are probably right - one should ask for a critique a person whose work he/she likes and thinks that just the given person might have some advices. Well - I have not done this yet (have not thought of it).

- jenanian - & - Duane -

Indeed - as I mentioned at the start of this thread - the poster would have to include full (technical and artistical) information about the photo. I would hesitate to spend my time writing a critique to somebody who was not willing to spend a little bit of his time to explain what that THING is supposed to be. Also a good place for misunderstandings.

- Greg -

perfectly true. But many of us are in the position that for different reasons it is unfeasible to attend one.

- Ken -

you are very kind - but I would defenitely not like to give the impression that I am looking for a "free-of-charge" service instead of paying for a photography course. But still - I will send you a few.

To summarize: I was having in mind all the jung photographes here, not just myslef. It seems that I was looking in a wrong direction - excuse me for that.

Thank you for your answers.

[Ken Lee]

you are very kind - but I would defenitely not like to give the impression that I am looking for a "free-of-charge" service instead of paying for a photography course.

Don't worry...I don't think anyone got that impression.

I am just happy to share the little that I have learned - with you and anyone else that might be interested. Every teacher has something different to share. The same is true in music, and all the other fields of study.

We study freely with every photographer, whenever we see their photographs.

[Gary Tarbert]

Hi , I for one would like to see more image sharing (for critique or otherwise) on the large format forums , I find some forums a little too gear orientated.
And this is maybe the reason i post so infrequeantly i am gear ignorrant (for this reason i do appriciate the help i get from your very knowledgable members).
naturescapes is a excellent example of a succesfull mainly image sharing forum.
Cheers Gary