absinthe

Perhaps you'll get a funky desired side effect on a frame or two? You'll never know until you send it to be processed.

First off, I'd like to say hi because I will be posting here since I

am now the proud owner of an Elan 7. I am previously a Pentax Super

Program user. I was just getting to the point where I was comfy in

knowing what was good glass for my pentax & now I have to sort of

start over again with glass for the EF mount which I know nothing

about.

 

I have one lens at the moment, the Canon 28-105 which is good enough

for what I will use it for. I will be getting the 50 mm 1.8 prime

just because its good, cheap & fast. But what I really want though

is a fast superwide zoom since I tend to like wideangle best. I have

been eyeing the 16-35mm f/2.8. Mind you I am coming from a system

where I never paid more than 75 bucks for my good lenses so the

sticker price has me sort of in shock. What I would like to know is

if there is a 3rd party equivalent that is just as good or rather

close enough with a significant price decrease, and if not... I will

have to use the loose change in the coffee can method of saving up

for it but am wanting a superwide alternative that is perhapse not as

fast & hella cheaper to use in the interim. I feel so clueless.

my god... I revertd back to the 2nd grade there with the grammar. Ick!

I believe requireing a comment was already tried & resulted in a lot o "this sucks" & "wow" type comments... if you require a certain length, then your bound to get things like "Wowee wow wow wow" or "I realy love this image, it just wowed me".

 

I don't think the system will ever be an accurate way to judge an individual's work. I have stopped numerical rating & no longer care whether or I get rated. I souly focus on the comments. I ignore the obviously trollish ones & accept all others graciously whether they be negative or pocitive as long as they are constructive.

 

While I do hold photo.net as an invaluable tool, I also understand that this is the internet & when you have a system open to comments & opinions such as this, you have to take what is said with certain internal filters... these being the B&W Thick Skin filter, the HOYA Grain of Salt filter & the COKIN God Complex filter.

Ahem...

 

My exact complaint was far more specific :-Þ

 

It was specifically about low key images of old men with white beards :-) Happy color images of Santa Clause are perfectly acceptable.

Umm. Nope, still doesn't answer my question like I thought it did :-( To be more specific...<p>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=1481">http://www.photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=1481</a> is the page that shows the newest critique requests in a table with two colums containing the 16 most recently submitted critique requests. Pending on the current activity, images cycle throught this list fairly quitckly. This photo...<br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=005Zoc&photo_id=1420454&photo_sel_index=0">http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=005Zoc&photo_id=1420454&photo_sel_index=0</a> <br>has been on this list at least once a day (sometimes twice & three times) for well over a week now. There are a few more by this person & some others (5-10) which also appear at least once a day, sometimes more. <br> <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=005ZoJ&photo_id=1631030&photo_sel_index=0">http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=005ZoJ&photo_id=1631030&photo_sel_index=0</a><br> was on that list no less than 10 times yesterday & it is back there today.<p>

I utilize this page quite a bit and do not care for the other, one image at a time rate & critique page because I get to see images that are being submitted for critique for the first time or since recently altered for improvement. It gives me a chance to look at images that I haven't yet seen and from people who I haven't looked at yet. Lately it has turned into a showcase for Ehsan Khoshrou, he who takes low key pictures of old men with white beards. To tell you the truth, I really liked his work when I first saw it... now its like a commercial that you can no longer stand because it is in heavy rotation.

OK, I knew something was different. It all makes more sense now. Thanks Brian!

I was under the belief that the critique request forum ordered the

initial page images by time of submission and that once your image

was rotated off the initial page, you relied on people seeking

something more specific out to critique like street photography.

 

Lately I have noticed the same images popping up on this initial page

over & over again. An example would be <a

href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?

topic_id=1481&msg_id=005ZPB&photo_id=1631030&photo_sel_index=0">

Sergio Velho's picture</a>. I have seen this picture at the top of

the critique request page 4 times already today & several times days

previously. Another person who seems to have half of his images

popping up in the Critique Request forum at least once a day is <a

href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=260345">Ehsan

Khoshrou</a>.

<p>

While I am not much for the whole ratings game, I do hope to gain

constructive critiques for my images & find that I can only submit 1

image a day & no more than 4 every 4 weeks. I submitted 2 since

yesterday so now I am halfway through my quota. It doesn't seem

right that I have to look at the same 5-10 images cycle endlessly

through the initial Critiqe Request homepage while mine & others

swiftly pass through. I am not going to lie... I am also sick of

looking at B&W low key portraits of old men with beards & balls of

lightning. I like to comment when I have the time, but not on images

I commented on yesterday or the day before. I am not talking about

the Rate Recent Photos section, but specifically the Critique Request

section. Am I missing something? Is the critique request section

now also weighted by ratings?

<i>I like this picture particularly because it reminds me of my beloved mom. Thank you for keeping your eyes on me all the time. WC </i>

<p>

BWAA HAA HAA!!!

 

Oh, I hope this photo critique is never ever removed! Priceless satire. Brilliant.

Personally, I can care less about the ratings, but I value any constructive comment I get, be it negative or positive. And...there is a difference between negative constructive critisism & just being nasty or rude. I also stopped rating photos & now only comment. I try to be polite & honest & I try to buffer with poor attempts at humor.

<p>

Speaking for myself, sometimes I feel that my lack of experience & curret skill somehow makes my comments less valued & I get intimidated by my lack of experience. I have also left negative critisism (buffered with bad humor) & then noticed that the person deleted the photo. Was it the humor or the critique, I don't know, but I, being self absorbed, assumed I chased them off. Sometimes I look at an image & know in my head how I feel about it & in some unconcious way know why, but I can't bring it to the surface enough to put it into words.

<p>

As far as your stuff is concerned... overall it needs improvement, but is a step in the right direction. There was thought behind a lot of your images. As far as your landscapes are concerned, you suffer the same thing I do... you have no sense of drama& scale & lots of times your focal points are swallowed up by its surroundings. Your moons, for instance, are so small & just kind of hanging there. I think you (and I, for that matter) should spend a little more time composing your photos... take time to get the horizon straight. Make sure you have forground. Your one balloon photo with the reflection... the bridge bisects the baloon. A few more seconds of patience & you would have had a better photo. Your ideas for what could be nice is good & that, i think, is less skill & more talent oriented. All you need to do is get the skill level to complement it.

 

Mind me spelling, I am in lazy mode :-)

<p>

yup, I too say Flatiron. Here's a plus... they are open normal hours (late even) on a Friday. Nice for a reliable photo related shop in NYC :-)

Nikos, Try using the critique requests instead of the rate recent photos section. people are limitied to 1 request a day & I believe 4 in a 28 day period. . This section also contains people who want you to critique their image & not a bunch of vacation photos & such.

I just received the BenQ Scanwit 2740s scanner. I'm no expert on these things, but once I get it hooked up (sprained ankle & need different SCSI cable for it :-< ), I'll post my opinion on it. the 2740 has digital ICE

OK, I took your guys advice & working off my Dad's shirt helped a great deal with visualizing the proper colors. I was then able to see what was what. I have warm, tungsten light overall & predominantly on the left side of the mantle, but the right side of the mantle is cool daylight (window is north facing too) so I looked to the visible left side window frame which I figured was far enough from both light sources to be the closest to white. Thanks so much for the info! My previous photoshop usage was more as a graphics tool than a photo tool. I was messing around with hues & whatnot... totally getting nowhere except for some psychedelic looking family. I can improve on this, but this is a good start.

 

As for the banana room color, it all depends on the light & time of day :-) The minute you turn on a lamp in there, it is über yellow. I had my camera in manual mode & forgot ;-). I realized it two shots later.

 

Thanks all of you again! I am sure I'll be bugging y'all some more at one point or another<div></div>

As you can see, I messed up on the white balance on my Canon A40...

at least I think I did. Its hard to tell because the room is so

yellow anyways.

<p>

I have futzed around in PS 6.0 and cannot get rid of the warm cast on

my subjects without making them look uber pink or too pasty. I have

searched for some auto actions but am a bit overwhelmed. Is there

any auto actions that would emulate a filter for tungsten lighing

that I can try that is reccomended?<div></div>

I thought that the DB here wasn't just for technically & aesthetically perfect images, but also a place where people can learn. How else is one to get critiqued constructively if one doesn't place thier non-perfect attempts up on the db for all to see, out of focus & all? Is this db only to be used as eye candy?

I have a problem of ratings with no comments even when I respectfully ask for comments. I don't mind it, but it makes me wonder if people read my request at all or if they are rating via the recent photos venue rather than the critique requests.

<p>

I know my photos stink, I am still learning & do not have any of my slides yet scanned (just got my scanner today) so I assume my ratings which are on the low end are accurate or a little too high, if anything. While I do not mind the numerical rating on my photos, I value constructive critisism far more & I seem to have to almost pull teeth in order to get it eventhough I make if quite clear in my request that its what I want.

<p>

I know a lot of this has to do with my stinky photos & I can't blaim people for not wanting to look at stinky photos, but I am in this new hobby alone & how wlse am I supposed to grow if I do't knwo what I can do to improve?

<p>

Eh, I am venting more than critisizing here. Busy site & I am jsut a microbe floating around in the masses.

OK, I think any experimental test on the ratings is a good thing. If it doesn't work, try something else. hell, I really don't rate or care about my ratings anyways... I am more interested in comments & this is where I have a small issue with your proposal:

 

The length of comments. Once can say everything they need to say with one word. I have left 1 word comments.... one particuar image was very green. Thats all that came into my mind when I looked at it. Green. I liked the image, but all I really had to say was GREEN. Thats it. While I admit, you will open the door for lots of people leaving such things as This Sucks or Brillian or my all time favorite one word comment... SNAPSHOT or better yet... MERE SNAPSHOT for more emphasis, overall you'll free up people's ability to express themselves freely. believe that in this world, you have to take the good with the bad & this msot definately applies to open forums and public Comment & Sugestions boards.