New Years Resolutions for the forum and members??

[Hamish Gill]

We are becoming a very nice little community here, the thing that strikes me the most is that all the people that come and stay as posting members all share a huge enjoyment of taking and sharing images!
We have become, to my mind a true Photography forum

What i mean by this is that although we all, in varying degrees have an appreciation of the kit and the technical side of things this is not the focus of this forum!

That I think is a wonderful thing!

So ...

Collectively I think we should expend on this!
I don't expect require or even hope that everyone should be involved in the following, but i have some thoughts on progressing our little community in ways that i hope would make the place more enjoyable for all the members as well as hopefully increasing all of our abilities as photographers

First off i think that we should look at some of the fundamentals of how we shoot and what we shoot ...

things like observation spring to mind ... with this in mind i have started this theme
http://www.realphotographersforum.com/competitions-themes/3605-alphabet-theme-january-b.html

If you have any other ideas I would love to hear them


As well as this, I think it might be nice to spend some time, somehow, im not sure quite how yet, looking at what it is we like in images ... and indeed what it is we dont

along these lines, compositional "quality" springs to mind ...
I quite frequently find my self looking at other peoples images and thinking a different composition might look better...
this obviously happens for other people as it has almost become a joke how much Pete likes square crops and Chris likes panoramas ...
I think it might be interesting to find out why ...
Im not suggesting we all start bombarding Chris and Pete with silly questions specifically, but more we think more about what we like ... and more importantly WHY?

so, yeah ... what do people think?
any ideas how we can look at the above?
any other ideas on ways collectively we can work together to improve all of our photography?

We are a community, arguably one of the nicest photography communities on the tweb ... Communities work together ... lets do that to help us all is what im trying to get at ...

(you can tell I have lefty ideals cant you )

 

[adrian jordin]

We could try mini-challenges on fairly specific topics.
There's always a problem comparing a still-life to a landscape shot for example, so choose a subject like 'street signs' (ie the ones naming streets). There's only so much natural variation in the subject so the rest is down to personal interpretation...B&W, colour, SOOC, PP'ed, framing, close-up details, etc.

 

[Darren Turner]

Personally i think people can get all to hung up commenting on people photos and in many case and yet again going on about how about a sqaure crop or how about a converting this photo into BW. Yes i agree the perosn who is commenting has there opinions and prefrence on how they would have appraoched a certain scene and how they would have edited or cropped the image. But if the person who took the photo in the firts place wanted to convert it into BW or would have wanted a different crop then surley they would have done this with the photo before showing on RPF Flickr or elsehwere.

This does get pretty boring, pointless and repetitive when this is all people have to say for almost every image they comment on.

I do howevere know that me especialy doesnt crop much unless there is a certain part to the phtoto i dont like, maybe there is to much sky or to much foreground in maybe a street scene or landscape or sometimes someone just walks into a an image at the wrong time so needs cropping the edge off an image to remove them. I also don't see the point, and again this in my preference and not necessarily yours, Photos should be landscape or portrait or square, anything else just looks odd, i don't see how a certain unusual crop can enhance an image, this is i guess what makes us all different in our likes and dislikes in photography which i thing again is a good thing. Also when it comes to printing, mounting and framing images unusual crops cause issues and make thing slightly harder.


I do agree with we should all try a little harder when commenting on photo to mention as to what parts of the photo we like and which parts don't, not really to upset the photographer just giving your opinions and reason behind them. This doesn't mean we all need to write and essay on each photo. Something a little more than "o nice shot" or "wow i like this" would really be awesome


I love this idea of the alphabet theme, it should make us look at our surroundings more and in a very different way.

We are a community, arguably one of the nicest photography communities on the tweb

not arguably one of the nicest, WE ARE THE NICEST thanks to you hamish for starting it all off and for putting some much time and effort into it


"And Breath"

 

[Hamish Gill]

Personally i think people can get all to hung up commenting on people photos and in many case and yet again going on about how about a sqaure crop or how about a converting this photo into BW. Yes i agree the perosn who is commenting has there opinions and prefrence on how they would have appraoched a certain scene and how they would have edited or cropped the image.

It depends how its worded ...
and I think this is why i'm mentioning this ... I have had a penchant for b&w photography recently ...
i quite often see a potential in an image as a black and white image
i mention it because i can only assume the other person hasnt thought of it
surely that is the purpose of making a constructive comment?

But if the person who took the photo in the firts place wanted to convert it into BW or would have wanted a different crop then surley they would have done this with the photo before showing on RPF Flickr or elsehwere.

But they might not have thought of what we might want to suggest to them ... again, constructive comment

This does get pretty boring, pointless and repetitive when this is all people have to say for almost every image they comment on.

as i said though, taking me as an example of someone who has wanted to see everything in black and white for a while ...
Im not just going to not say it because i have said it before ... that would probably lead to me eventually saying very little

I do howevere know that me especialy doesnt crop much unless there is a certain part to the phtoto i dont like, maybe there is to much sky or to much foreground in maybe a street scene or landscape or sometimes someone just walks into a an image at the wrong time so needs cropping the edge off an image to remove them. I also don't see the point, and again this in my preference and not necessarily yours, Photos should be landscape or portrait or square, anything else just looks odd, i don't see how a certain unusual crop can enhance an image, this is i guess what makes us all different in our likes and dislikes in photography which i thing again is a good thing. Also when it comes to printing, mounting and framing images unusual crops cause issues and make thing slightly harder.

Well that is an opinion that you have and maybe you should be sharing with more people ...
landscape can include 16x9 ... and wider ... 6x4 is a regular and popular format, thanks mainly to Oskar Barnack

tell Peter Lik you dont like wide format shots... he would probably beat you to death with a hasselblad x-pan
Hasselblad XPan

Do you even know why you like 6x4 ... have you ever thought about it more than just because it fits into a frame ...
are you aware of the fact that the golden ratio fits very well into the format?

maybe you are aware... but what I am suggesting in the OP is that we should explore these ideas more!

Why does Pete like square format so much? what is it about it that steered me toward spending significantly more on a hasselblad (which was largely to get square format) ...

I think we should look at these whys more!
Perhaps that would stop you getting so fed up with reading the same "convert it to square" or "make it balc and white" if you actually understood why people feel like that ... and more over, understanding those emotional responses to images might in fact make you more likely to try some of these things more your self ... and that is a very important factor in this thread!

I do agree with we should all try a little harder when commenting on photo to mention as to what parts of the photo we like and which parts don't, not really to upset the photographer just giving your opinions and reason behind them. This doesn't mean we all need to write and essay on each photo. Something a little more than "o nice shot" or "wow i like this" would really be awesome

Agreed, although, isnt that slightly contradictory to your above comments?
how would you differentiate between a repeated "id like to see this b&w" and a once off "this might work in sepia"??
the repeated comments usually stem from the same people who have a very solid feeling toward a certain format ... as i said before, would it not be interesting to find out why they feel like that...

what is it about certain compositional methods that make images work to certain peoples eyes and not others ...

understand these things about each other and it will enrich our community and further our skills...

how we do that i dont know...
but as you say, maybe it is about (those of us who are up for it) spending a little more time actually thinking and articulating what it is we like about other peoples images!

I love this idea of the alphabet theme, it should make us look at our surroundings more and in a very different way.

not arguably one of the nicest, WE ARE THE NICEST thanks to you hamish for starting it all off and for putting some much time and effort into it

Just in time for me to pick a fight with you on this thread
seriously though ... my comments here are not meant to sound abrasive im just trying to open up this discussion a little more!