Categories

[pgavalis]

Does anyone else feel there should be updated/new categories added to the Critique Forum? Photography is

extremely vast and I am sure PN has studied the most frequently used categories but the categories listed seem

VERY general. Don't misunderstand what I am getting at...I love this site and how they manage it and have no gripes

with anyone. I just think the categories could be expanded to include many more 'sub' categories, whether it be

Flash Photography, Natural Lighting, Modified Equipment, Video Stills, etc. I'm sure many of you have other ideas

and I think we all would like to hear them. I feel this may increase everyones participation in many more forums and

will give us all a boost in surpassing any 'peaks' we think we have achieved and give PN (and the rest of us) a push

into the next generation of photography.

[Norma Desmond]

Pete-- In my opinion we need increased participation not on the submission side of the critique forums, but on the critiquing

side. We have more than enough photos and those posting photos are often not doing their fair share of giving while they

get, giving critiques that is even though they expect critiques from others. I've tried to encourage the admins to address

this failure of the critique system before addressing other matters about critiquing. We'll see. All that having been said, your

idea is an interesting one, but there's been understandable resistance to starting more technical subcategories (such as

flash, digital manip., etc.). Sometimes too much choice is simply unwieldy.

[joshroot]

The last the thing the critique forum needs is more submissions. There are already 1000+ images a day going

through there and the biggest complaint is the fact that there are not enough ratings/critiques to go around.

 

As far as the categories go, the thinking has always been to keep them broad so that there aren't 100 categories

with 5 images in each. After all once you start getting more and more specific, where do you stop? If there is a

"dogs" category, why not a "cats" category? Well what about a "birds" category? Or a "goldfish" category. And so

on and on.

[pgavalis]

I didn't realize the biggest complaint was too many images and not enough critiques. I thought the biggest complaint was the rating system which seems to be unrelated to the quantity of images. And I completely disagree. The year 2008 and there is a desire for generalization on the web? If I was a new visitor/member and wanted to scan through some photos to check out some new ideas on how to photograph a fish, I certainly would not want to have to fumble through 1,000's of other bird and cat photo's. Seems pretty simple that sub-categories, or a sub-category dropdown-box could be included in the 'general' heading to allow for more specified photography. It's not about MORE submissions, it's about streamlining or organizing the images already here and those to be posted, which for the more specialized photographer, would undoubtedly attract even more critiques...IF that is the concern.

[michael_dimarzio]

Pete, now you have made a decent suggestion.

 

Josh, how about a way to add tags for photo searches? fish>trout>fried (must be lunch time).

[joshroot]

The "image tagging" concept is something that I have been pushing for over a year now. We just have to figure out a way to program it properly.