giuseppe_miriello1

thank you for your kind answer.... according to what you stated and to the terms of use - i have been reading throught - i have no more doubts on keeping myself here on pn. Hope all your redesign work works smooth and quick.

Thanks for your kind answer philip. Of course in italy we have all the items you listed... i was worried that there was less chance of controlling something outside u.s.a. for your team. I am not expert enough to know wether you are able to really confirm my telephone number or address are really what i claim them to be... not that i have intention to lie, but i though your checking methods could work better for your "local" population and far less better for foreign... Provided they work, it is all ok to me.

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but then... how will we be able to access / modify informations whenever they *need* to be - example: i buy a new house at another address, and obviously i am forced to change telephone.... to me the only constants here are: 1. my credit card number 2. my name - associated to credit card number.

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a final question... will credit card number be stored on your server or you will never see them?

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thanks for the time you are putting into these answers. i appreciate.

I have been pointed to a thread, now deleted, where philip stated realnames are

going to be implemented. Fortunately i can quote part of philip's statement.

<br><br>

QUOTE: "Using a combination of listed phone numbers, verification by existing

verified users, and credit card processing of $1 charges, we will try to build a

community of people who stand behind what they say. Your street address and

phone number will remain confidential, but you will be identified by your real

name and city of residence, e.g., "Philip Greenspun, Cambridge, MA". ENDOFQUOTE.

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this seems ok to me, but i would have reassurances that member living outside

U.S.A. can be validated as well... i woulnd't like to wake up tomorrow and

discover myself an unverified john doe, even if i really wanted to tell my name.

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On the other side... how are you going to manage reserved informations you

receive from us? How can we be sure that these well be accessible to us for

modify / deletion (through a formal amministrative procedure or whatever) should

these information need to be changed e/o deleted?. How can be sure these

information will *never* be communicated or sold in the *unlikely* but *still

possible* case photo.net is sold or acquired by third parties? Could you summon

up your privacy policies and put into the site into static html so they can be

always accessible?

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this is not a critique to site administrators, but just a necessary request for

informations from a *worried* member.

for users:

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more visibility into photo.net for presentations, eventually with a possibility to rate a presentation.

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use some wysiwyg html editor like FCKEDITOR or TINYHTML integrate both with IBROWSER to allow us to easily load our images into html

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add to TRP the possibility to track "more intresting" photographers by picking them from those who have been added (n-times) to members' "favourite" lists (daily - weekly - monthly - etc)... at this proposal is useless to track those who are favourite by the most, but is better to track those who have been added/removed into a convenient span of time, so to give visibility to those that *REALLY* apport something to the forum.

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create a better and more compact view for the critique forum, so that we don't have to scroll down to the center of the earth searching for older posts manually.

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for administrators:

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create a ban system that stops users that not comply to forums guidelines from posting on specific forums

You are welcome Lucius...<br><br>

here is the <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4880672"> public page of the initiative </a> where you can post a link to the portfolios you comment on (if you want to, it is not mandatory)... see you there... and i am adding you to the list tonight.

You are welcome Lucius...<br><br>

here is the <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4880672"> public page of the initiative </a> where you can post a link to the portfolios you comment on (if you want to, it is not mandatory)... see you there... and i am adding you to the list tonight.

there are several extremely good points in your evaluation of the situation.

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first of all rates say something: they might be skewed, they might be strange and still you might want to reason on them becouse they tell the story of how an image is understood by a vast heterogenous group of people.

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did anyone notice that top photos are easier to comprehend, besides being graphically appealing to a variegated public? if an image is too conceptual, over a certain treshold, people are no longer interested on "reading" it: reading is too difficult? image dismissed.

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Or either if the image is on a popular subject (flowers, trees, *kids*), it is considered too elementary and simple despite the fact it might have been a *good* example of a kind of photography, possibly the *first* of one genre... who doesn't know just dismiss the image. The more vast and heterogenous is the viewers group, the simplier is for an image to be misunderstood... after all not all images are all-seasons.

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And did anyone notice that browsing the trp "for category" in a 1-3 months timeframe is a more efficient way to find good images that - say - browsing it "all categories - rate recent average - all times best"? The latter is crowded of 6.5 averages, but yet we may say it doesnt change too much, it tells - at the very list - who made highest scores, but doesn't tell you where actual community is, where it aims to, which are actual trends. All you will find there are images that yeld a great emotional component, images that compelled many to hit 7/7, but does top trp tell you all? did the trp image had a context? did the photographer made it part of a serie? where the remaining part of the serie is? etc etc.

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I think it is much better to browse photographer's portfolios - how do you select portfolio to browse, this i leave it to you, i just pick up from TRP weelky images, consider the average, on a specific category.

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Learning from a portfolio instead than from trp directly is something i promote strongly (see my community page): it is better to search for common keys in a work, for a photographer's style, for a background in which all images are immersed, rather thank picking up top trp pictures blindly.

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After all, it is true there are images that stand alone, but provided an image alone can tell you much, this doesn't necessarily mean it tells it all.

You are right, i too would like to see photos "critique only" to show up more often - expecially considering there are *many* of great merit... however i know there is a strong technical reason that help programmers to privilege rated images: they can be ordered. Critique only image, instead, would be necessarily picked up at random by the sistem, there is no way to tell wich is more worth than anoter, or they could be picked up by number of comments (but wouldn't this sparkle out mate comments?), or - my favourite choice - there could be humans picking up pictures out of the rating sistem, following a monthly theme to which willing photographers have to apply and file images.

and one more thing.... give a look to this initiative:

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http://www.photo.net/shared/community-member?user_id=617763

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wouldn't be nice if it was photo.net to provide a framework to organize monthly contests on a theme? and a number (1-3) pics a month from the contest being published in home page, or in ad-hoc - good visibility - page? people that complain that photo.net is skewed too much toward trp would be more than happy to prove themselves on a contest, on a closed theme, with real judges that give motivations to their choices instead that johndoe raters....

well.. not necessarily only travel... i mean search a picture that has a caption into a specific category, or "select * from pictures where category = nameofcategory" or whatever you sql semi-gods have in mind for us.

Hi philip, Adding a mosaic to the "caption search" is nice becouse adds some more visibility to photos that did not make it to home page, but still i guess the situation is confusing.

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I would divide the mosaic into categories (nature, travel, flowers, landscape), so at least it is a bit more simple to pick up an argument... and then clicking on the image goes to the image, and clicking the category goes to the trp for that category, one month average - i would say 1m average becouse it is intresting, it has many good images, without having the first trp page crowded with 6.50 averages, more difficult to change in time.

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also it could be nice to do a search for caption where category="travel" - for example. filtering for category could straighten results a little.

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welcome alexandre, 2 portfolios a month are already good exercise.

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whenever you want to comment a portfolio, if you are willing to let us know, you can post your ideas <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4880672"> here </a>, Megan, that has just joined us, has already done so, and i will be doing so in the future....

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so.... anyone else willing to try? everyone counts!

this is another example:

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<ul><li>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4683942">pick one</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/2313837">pick two (warning - it may be disturbing) </a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4729434">pick three</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=888636&include=all#portfolio"> Final Statement</a></li>

</ul>

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Overally it took me 20 minutes to scroll the portfolio and make 3 representative picks, and consider this is a HUGE portfolio from a professional... so anyone willing to try can expect not to exceed this time.

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<b>doing this excercise is simple and takes relatively few time, but gives you the opportunity to study deeply other people's work and learn and find also new friends</b>

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give this inititative a try.

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4880672">here</a> is a link to a discussion page we can use as reference for all those who are willing to partecipate to this experiment.

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we are still short of 2 partecipants... anyone willing to try?

That would be an excellent idea Misha, like i did abouve with the example selection, anyone could leave a link to the 3 images and to the portfolio statement so that anyone interested can read it.

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i am preparing by the way a separate page like Ben did for five to have a common place where we can find each other... will post the link.

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but we are still 8 (with me)... anyone else willing to join?

by the way....

 

Ben, Megan, M.H., Yann, Pulok, Robert, John... welcome all on board.

and 8 with me.... we need 2 more to go... any volounteers? C'mon guys, this is a nice idea, give it a spin, dont stay on your own.

so can we count you in? later i will create a page in which everyone that agrees to the commitment is listed.

ok then... we are in 2.. and to all the others, c'mon commit yourself at least once a week, it is a painless 10 miniutes work, but it pays off. :-)

Yann... your objection sounds reasonable... so i will count into the initiative anyone that commits himself once a week - and hope this is not too much consuming for you and many others. I also hope to be able to count you into as first guest with this adjustment.

Thanks to <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4062848"> Ben S.

Initiative (Five) </a>, I have been lately browsing more and more portfolios and

realized there are *thousands* of extremely valuable images that we just don't

see becouse posted months ago and never got to trp: <i>Images so fine that can

define photographer's style and approach to photography</i>

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here is the idea: why dont we all commit ourselves <b>to comment 3 valuable

images of a portfolio - plus a brief resume on the portfolio itself</b> each

time we log in. I have been doing this exercise from some time now, i have

<b>found new friends</b> thanks of it and i <b>have learnt more than my initial

expectations</b>.

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Here is an example of 3 picks on a portfolio plus a final statement:

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<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4750149">Pick One</a>

<br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4756155">Pick Two</a>

<br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4759271">Pick Three</a>

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<a

href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=2135378&include=all#portfolio">Final

Statement</a>

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For what above, i commit over the next to month to select 3 valuable images on

other people's portfolio every time I log in the site - if 10 people will follow

the same commitment here.

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<b>JOIN ME!</b>

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sidenote: this is Ben S. Five's idea with a twist: finding a common liasion into

people's portfolios - so credit to Ben for Starting it all.

Robert gave you the right address where you also find the official photo.net explanation... but if you look closely these portfolios have been tailor-made to stick at those criterias, photographer - despite having really aestethical images there - have been forced to cut down any low rate picture, that means few variety and sometimes just 3 pictures just to be there with the minimum requirements.

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Ben S. instead, omitted he is promoter of a *very* interesting initiative that allows us to exchange thoughful comments with each other... go <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4062848"> here </a> take a look, and hopefully you too will be joining five and enjoing exchanging the most precious thing of all: your thoughs.

That's a great idea, and the standard deviation could be the logical statistic solutions, since it tell us how "far" are the rates (considered individually) from the average, the index would work equally well for low and high rated images, and this is good becouse also trp images could be "controversial".

Hi biliana... i understand the difficulty of creating new and original images, i share with you the same difficulties. Here are some points that helped me to sort out the subject "portraiture" at least a little.

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1. you need a story: a face without a story is just a face, even if the face is extremely well portraited and intresting per-se: it might be a perfect portrait aesthetically and technically but you can shoot only few of this kind of images, otherwise the result will be *always* a repetition on the same subject. Try to imagine a guy that makes **amazing** pictures but only of old people with wrinkes: at the 30th picture i guess he/she will get bored too...

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2. you need an everchanging context (meant as a city, a situation, a country, a staged set if you want to)... no set no story, no chance to play with intresting views, angles, no possibility to change background according to the mood of your images or the subject you are photographing. I probably made more headshots than ambience portraiture becouse it is difficult to get to a location, find its pro-cons, and exploit all of them, but sometimes the effort pays off. <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/member-photos?include=all&user_id=628662" target="new">Tim Holte</a> has a vast portfolio with many ambience portraits.

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2 (bis). alternatively you need a great dose of humor and a strong message to deliver... i find intresting all pictures from <a href="http://www.photo.net/shared/community-member?user_id=535382" target="new">dave nitsche</a>, these are not portraits at all, but he is master in yelding strong messages with simple minimalist images, probably you could find his approach ispiring also for portraits.

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3. you need to break rules, visually and ethically (a thing i have never been able to do very well with portraiture, but there is still time)... actually i like very much <a href="http://www.photo.net/shared/community-member?user_id=1134864" target="new">M.H</a> Portfolio, he (unfortunately for you) doesnt represent children but has a very good idea of what a professional-style image should be made, has original ideas, uses original locations, he breaks the rules well and often, he goes from fashion to soft glamour, he also has some nudes but i guess they are intresting if you put them into their context.

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and this is just some starting point... generally when i have no clues from where to start, i search for things that are different from my needs to see if they have some parallel meanings or can be approached in original and different ways.

I generaly use a window to get lateral light - better if it has white tents - and a passive reflector to fill in the shadows... i also use on-camera flash at -2.0 ev (or sometime the passive reflector itself) to provide catchlights in eyes. <br><br>

Passive reflectors are a transportable and affordable way to shoot with natural light indoors and outdoors, their skin is interchangeable so you can get white, golden, silvered (bluish cast) skins to change light quality... in the case you are interested to them go to www.lastolite.com and make your pick...