Announcing Photo Critique Circles

[julietray]

This is such a good idea, especially helpful for beginners (like me) who might not otherwise get critiques of their work. I can't wait to start.

[michelle_cox]

[Maybe the beginners are intimidated because I haven't made it seem that the circles will welcome them. I hope we will get a few more beginners. ]

 

You hit it right on the head for me. I read this post and thought it was a wonderful idea but they wouldn't want a novice like me in there. If you want beginers, I'd love to join you. The only thing is the ratings part... I like to comment on photos, and do so quite a bit, but I've never gotten into the whole ratings idea. Is rating a requirement?

[carl smith]

well, my e-mail is off. we shall see if it bounces

[mottershead]

well carl, did it bounce? Because I don't have it in my in box.

[tom_morris1]

I do hate ratings rather a lot. What makes one photo better than another? Nothing. It's the camera club ideology. Let's TALK, not rate.

 

Still, these Circles seem like a good idea - photography is filled with niches such as landscapes, portraits, b&w, colour (as in rich use of colour William Eggleston / Martin Parr style), documentary, alternative processes etc.

 

Good idea. hope it works.

[sliu]

Brian, how do I know if my email went through? I haven't got

bounced message, does that mean you got my mail?

[sliu]

Thank you, Brian.

[andrew coulthard]

Brian

 

I replied early but have no way of knowing if you got my message to include me in the circles.

 

Drew Coulthard

[shawnc]

Same here, do you have any updates for us?

[mottershead]

Eighty-two people signed up, and I have created 6 circles: three "general" ones, one for "Landscapes", another for "Nature",

and one for "People". There are between 13 and 16 people in each one, and few more members may be added to the circles.

 

<p>Each circle is named after a "master photographer", more or less arbitrarily. This is so that the circles have easier-to-remember identifiers than just numbers.

 

<p>The list of circles and their members is <a href="/bboard/circle-members">here</a>. In a couple more hours, you should receive a message with joining instructions.

[bernhard]

Brian,

 

thanks for signing me up, but wasn't it Stieglitz not Steiglitz ?

[mottershead]

Oops

[scott bulger]

No group named after Adams?

[jennifer_ridgeway]

I just sent an email expressing my interest in joining one of the circles a bit ago. I think it is a great idea. I hope to hear from someone soon.

[rsminton]

Well, you have at least one more amateur to add balance to the Circles. My email is on the way. Should I expect some sort of confirmation?

[root]

Is there a limit to the number of critique requests we can post?

Are these requests in addition to the ones we might normally

make? I ask because I'm under the impression that we are

restricted to one per week normally and I had hoped to do as

many as one per day - keeping in mind that 'the gang', none of

whom signed up I notice, often has their images 'rated' at a

greater rate than what you're proposing. I had hoped that this

process could in part offset their upload rate. Increased

exposure of better images, as well as giving and accepting

critiques, should be seen as a good reason to participate in this

process. I notice that an image with a good score does not

show up on several searches unless there a few other images

within the time period that have received the minimum number of

ratings.

[mottershead]

Carl, that is a good point, and one we thought about quite a bit.

At present, the limit of critique requests is 1 per day, and no more than 4 every 7 days. It says 28 but that is wrong; I'm going to fix that eventually.

 

The one or two per week for the circle is not an enforced limit, in other words. Since we want people to write thoughtful critiques on most of the photos, and there are generally 15 or more people in the

circles, we don't want to exceed people's capacity and interest in writing critiques. We want to keep people's eagerness to submit somewhat in balance with their willingness to critique. We can adjust it people want to submit more, at the cost of critiquing more.

[fred_j._lord]

Count me in! I am bathing my already badly battered ego in psychic vinegar to toughen it. I hope I can help those who need it and gather the same from those who have it. As a simple journeyman shutterbug, I hope to find new inspiration within these virtual walls. If I say the wrong things, please forgive. If I say the right things, just wait, I'll make full circle back to wrong things soon. I think this is a wonderful opportunity and I can always shut the Mac off and sulk if I have to! I hope to start soon as business is slow right now!

[sliu]

I posted my first one and commented on the other two by other

people. Do I have to post "people photograph"?

 

I would only post one photo each week. I have to find our my best

four people shots for this circle. It is hard =8-(. I wish you give me

a "general" assignment next time ;-)

 

Thank you once again.<div></div>

[ocelote71]

Brian, I just noticed a bug upon submitting my first comments in the

Karl Blossfeldt circle. I got a server error page after hitting the

submit button. Interestingly enough, I re-entered my comments in the

normal pre-circles page and the process worked fine. I then refreshed

the page to see if my comments were added only to find that both

attempts made it through. To clarify, the system works as long as you

ignore the server error page that occurs upon entering the submit

button.

This is a great plan and it will work as long as there are enough of

us that make it work. Thank you for all your efforts!

[niranjn]

Brian,

 

I happened to post a couple of photos into the critique forum a day or two ago. Now, it looks like I cannot post them to my critique circle since you cannot repost a critique. That's a bummer really. It'll be good to delink the constraints of the Photocritique forum and the critique circles.

 

-Niranjan.

[akbar]

Brian/other admin/volunteers,

 

Is there any specific place we can post general questions regarding the circles?

 

For example like one of the earlier posters I was not able to include any of my already uploaded images for critique to the circles - the only available option was "not a cirle photo". However unlike the above poster, I have not requested critiques for any of my images. Can we only request critiques for newly uploaded images? or ones that have not been posted for critique requests? If there are restrictions - any chance you might consider relaxing them. There are several of my already uploaded images that I would love to get some serious critique on from circle members.

[gauthier]

I just reviewed the pictures of my fellow circle members, looked at the comments that are already there and it looks great. Just one detail: in theory, critiques written by fwellow circle members were supposed to be identified by a special icon. I don't see it anywhere.

[mottershead]

Philippe, I'm going to put the little circle icons in soon.

[mottershead]

Thirumale and Deepak: I am aware of that problem, but it is hard to fix since the circles piggyback on the rest of the Critique Requests system. We didn't want people to submit the same photo twice for a

critique request. Perhaps I can get find a way for you to delete the old critique request to clear the way to repost it to the circle.