www.Photo.net vs the world

I know www.photo.net is the very best place to read great posts and post your

own post. But is it really the only place on the WWW of its kind. I mean I

know there are other photography forums. But doesn't it seem like photo.net

attracts the very best in the industry. Great knowlege and experience is in

here.

<p>so my question is, what other forums have you used that you think are even

close to photo.net. Just curious here...I have no need to use other forums

but I was talking to a friend and told him that photo.net is the only forum he

needs to know about and he said there are other good ones out there. funny he

couldn't name one.

Photo.net is certainly not the only forum. Phil Askey's dpreview.com has extremely thorough reviews inside the lab, but those reviews tend to lack actual usage info, and his forums have a lot more traffic than ours. However, quantity and quality are very different things. I bookmarked a link to dpreview to read posts by Thom Hogan exclusively. Otherwise, there are a lot of posts there that I don't care to read.

 

Some people who used to post frequently have set up their own filmlives.net. More Nikon specific, there are Nikonians and NikonCafe, etc.

NikonCafe is nice, but my favorites are the innumerable usergroups on Flickr, which can be very specific (I maintain a D200 group with thousands of members) or very broad, and the discussions tend to have much less angst then DPReview.

Example:

Nature related: http://www.naturescapes.net. I met the Technical Editor, E.J. Peiker, at

Arches NP. He was shooting a sunset at the Fiery Furnace next to me. We got to talking and

he told me of his site.

 

I visit, admire the many excellent portfolios, and read; however, I haven't joined the forums

yet. There is only so much time in the day for photo forums, (un?)fortunately.

I think photo.net is the best general photography forum, probably in large part due to the moderation. However, there are a lot of specialized forums that I think are better for the more limited range of topics they cover (e.g., largeformatphotography, naturescapes, photonews, etc).

 

I agree with Shun on dpreview. Almost completely noise but there are some very insightful posts by thom hogan on many topics relating to nikon and digital photography.

Since I consider Pnet more of a critique site I am not sure if your post is addressing critiques or Nikon information. So I will give my opinion on both.

 

It depends upon what you want. Having followed Pnet for a few years I regret to say that it has become the place to get admiration. Maybe that is what you mean by "great posts." I am not sure that is good, but if that is what you need, Pnet is the best. There is minimal negative feedback on Pnet.

 

However, if you want to advance your skills a more through critique, even if you might consider it "mean" is probably more productive. There are considerably better "critique" forums.

 

I guess, after reading hundreds of critiques like; "I like it, good job," which is not a critique in any sense of the word (please tell me what it is that you like, what did I do right to make you like it) and "this is beautiful," which probably applies more to the subject than the photographic technique, I'm a little disappointed in Pnet as a place to advance your skills.

 

I would like to see more of the expertise of the members applied to actually analyzing and critiquing the technique and meaning of the images. Okay, so that's an opinion.

 

If your ego will stand it www.photosig.com is the best for critiques. Just bare in mind, you cannot post an image without getting it critiqued--it's not a photo-sharing site. If your photo is good, it will get critiqued; if it is not it may get ignored and end up in the neglected file. Psig is not for the faint of heart or those that whine about getting a 3/3 on Pnet. But it will advance your skills or send you to needlepoint.

 

If you are an advanced Nikon shooter www.dpreview.com as previously mentioned. And although I read Thom's posts I find that he is not the only worthwhile contributor. A lot of user opinion and hands on expertise along with great Nikon images.

 

www.nikonians.org is another good site similar to dpreview with excellent information from end users.

 

For probably the best Nikon DSLR information I do recommend purchasing Thom Hogan's ebooks. They will either make an expert Nikon user out of you or you really should consider taking up needlepoint.

 

If you are a DSLR user, Ken Rockwell, www.kenrockwell.com, who is much maligned on dpreview is extremely good. Ken offers opinions but with experience. If you are a person that has your mind set and are unwilling to consider an alternative, you probably won't like Ken. He does not follow the mainstream hype, so prepare to open your mind or stay away.

 

 

I never make a Nikon lens purchase without first reading Bjorn Rorslett's subjective evaluations on www.naturfotograf.com. A lot of other good information there also.

 

Needless to say, I am a Pnet fan. I enjoy my time here. I just think that looking for more depth is not a bad idea.

Like DPReview, photocamel.com would be excellent save for the fascist admin.

http://www.sportsshooter.com/ has a lot of very knowledgable contributors. I think most popular forums have at least a few... but it's all about the signal-to-noise ratio.

There's also the excellent FredMiranda.com forums, and a few good mailing lists (Sadly, the Nikon lists are pretty dead, especially in comparison to the hyperactive Pentax-Discuss Mailing List).

Photo.net has changed over the years.

 

I browsed the site for over a year before registering as a member, and read all the past posts on the site before posting.

 

7 to 8 years ago, lots of knowlegeable pros were regular contributors to the forums. They still are. Mainstream photography switched from film to digital. The search function often won't lead you to most of the best answers on a topic.

 

Sometimes the easiest way to learn is find someone knowledgeable in your area, and scan ALL of the previous photo.net answers for ones which might be useful, or e-mail a photographer directly for a private response.

dpreview is by far my favorite, but I did learn a few things here at photonet when I first got started. -Greg-

Here in the store I probably tell ten people a day about photo.net. With individuals like Lex Jenkins, and many others, moderating it is the best site I've found.

Aw, shucks, John (blush-blush). ;>

 

Ditto nikonians.org, an excellent alternative for those interested in a brand-specific site. I've participated occasionally but because my photography interests tend to be generalized I spend more time on photo.net. Years ago it was CompuServe's photo forum, which served a similar role.

 

dpreview tends to consistently offer the most thorough and balanced camera reviews. But the forums don't appeal to me because, again, I'm seldom interested in such topic-specific forums. However, that's exactly what many folks prefer in order to minimize having to wade through the irrelevant stuff.

APUG (http://www.apug.org) is a great forum for those who are tired of the digital hype. If you shoot digital only, then you'll find it to be really boring. :)

 

http://www.lfphoto.info is a great forum for large format photography.

 

This site is pretty good. I've been using it a long time. I have to admit that I'm here a lot less frequently because of the preponderance of digital content (on the main page, film photography is even labelled as being nostalgic - I think that's a little excessive), but some of the forums are still of interest. I just skim this forum now; i used to read it pretty thoroughly.

 

We all have different interests, though. It'd be boring if everyone thought the same. I got an F5 really cheap because so many are going digital so it's not all bad. :)