3 Suggestions to improve photo.net

To The Moderators and Contributing members,<br>

I have a few suggestions..maybe they make sense.<br><br>

1. When I click on an interesting photo to view it, currently, I am

unable to enter ratings and comments directly. It takes me two

clicks and two page accesses to rate and comment. why can't we have

access to these on the same page as when the photo is displayed.

Also we can designate the "Comment" as a "mandatory field" if one

wishes to rate the photo. that way, it would require just one page

load and one click to process both the rating and the comments.

fewer calls to the database, faster access, reduced network

traffic ????<br><br>

2. As a beginner, I mainly visit the site to study the photographs.

So I would like to study in a structured way. Can there not be

genres assigned to the photographs the members upload ???

At the page where the members upload their photos for critique, we

could add a few fields :<br>

Genre : varchar2(20)<br><br>

This could be a listbox with values such

ss "Portrait" , "Landscape" , "Abstract", "Still

Life", "Candid", "Nudes", "Nature", "Flowers", "Wild

Life", "Macro", "Black and White","Digital Art" for eg.<br><br>

Aperture : varchar2(4)<br>

Here the uploading members states the aperture at which the photo was

taken.<br><br>

Shutter Speed : varchar2(4)<br>

Obvious<br><br>

Focal Length : varchar2(5)<br>

Obvious<br><br>

Population of the above fields would require the members uploading

the photograph to spend a minute more.<br><br>

But if these fields were populated and a search feature on the same

incorporated, we could perform a query on the above fields. it

would be an invaluable tool to beginners like me who can "learn" from

it. Also ppl with only a 50mm lens, could search for only 50mm

photographs to learn what kind of photographs can be taken with a

50mm lens.<br><br>

For eg. I could search for Black and White photographs taken at 50mm.

or if i am interested only in portraits, i can submit a search

for "Portraits" in the Genres field.<br><br>

The aperture and shutter speed would explain a lot if

provided.<br><br>

3. When we search by ratings, sometimes there are few photographs

which keep coming up again and again. We have already seen these

photos and commented and rated them. Now we do not wish to see them

again. We need to see new photographs(rather those we haven't seen)

so we could include a checkbox adjacent to each photograph with a

caption "Do not list this on future searches". So if a member checks

that on, in his future searches, that photo does not get called up.

But this, i believe, will be difficult to incorporate on account of

database design considerations. But if a work around could be found,

nothing like it.<br><br>

Thanks and Regards<br>

Venkat

I like this idea. Recently I've been searching another site, by using (for example - film type) SVEMA film; I was then presented with examples of such. Since that database is pretty comprehensive, I noticed some anomalies. If you search for images created by a "Minolta X-700", you may find that its under different headings; X-700, X700, Minolta 700, Minolta X-700, minolta x700, etc etc. So, photo.net would have to have a prescibed set of options, so as to defeat repitition.

The present images would then have to be re-edited by the authors, to provide the extra information.It could take a month (max?) to get everyone to update their pages.

I really hope photo.net can implement this. It would be such a useful tool.

I absolutely agree about your points 1 & 2 - would be a great improvement.

<p>

I have no objection to your point 3 either, but I suspect that it could be difficult to implement. If it is too difficult, I have another simple idea - which is not as good as yours, but still better than nothing and useful for other reasons as well. What about adding page numbers as links on each page of the search system ?

<p>

For example, if there are 300 photos listed in this month's top-rated "Aesthetics", by clicking on the "2" button, I would see the pictures ranked 41 to 60. By clicking on "15" or "Last", I would get to the last page - where there might be many pictures I haven't seen yet...

<p>

If there would be such buttons, I would always start my search from the end and go towards the top page... Why ? Because many pictures get forgotten, which are truly good pictures, whereas the top pages don't necessarily show what I happen to find "the best" at all.

<p>

Right now, to dig out a good forgotten shot on the last page, I'd need to go through all these pictures I have already seen. Not very good imo.

yes marc...that one is spot on.<br><br>

you definitely know that the photo you want to see is somewhere in the later pages. One <b>has</b> to go through all the preceding pages. Too much overhead.<br><br>

and ashley, that is why I suggested something similar should be done at the time of uploading itself. The film used can be selected when you put together your equipment. But there is no search built around that field.<br><br>

I have another suggestion. I have felt the need for this particular feature many times.<br><br>

In the Gallery Filter criterion for the "Period" we have the following options :<br>

Last 2 days<br>

Last Week<br>

Last Month<br>

Last 3 Months<br>

Last 6 Months<br>

Last Year<br>

All<br><br>

How about a date-range search. Anyways, the date a photograph is uploaded is stored in the database. It should be relatively easy to implement this one, isn't it ?? For eg., search for all photographs between 17-June-2002 to 12-Sep-2002.<br><br>

Why would one need this ???<br>

Supposing I have been away for some time. I want to go through the uploads made during this period. This will be handy.<br><br>

Also say I want to look for photos period by period. I want to see all the photos on the site. So I can start with Jan 2001 in a session. Next Feb 2001 and so on. That way I won't miss any of the photos. Now all I can use is the "ALL" criterion and that doesn't really help me. The reason being when you search using "ALL" or "Last Year", a lot of photographs never get seen.<br><br>

I hope photo.net gives it a look. If its feasible it should be implemented. There have been a lot of positive changes at photo.net over the recent past. No reason to think why some of these won't be implemented.<br><br>

Best Regards,<br>

Venkat