ifti

I am new and am trying to understand the culture here. I tried to say thanks but the only option I found was to click critique again and add thanks or answer but then it is at the bottom of all the critiques. May be software could be more inductive giving the readers choice to click 'agree' or click 'reply' to give reply directly below the critique one is responding in question. I really miss the feed back from the photog. Regards ifti

I am not a pro. In your lenses your 17-40 looks a good range it is wider than 24 but slightly shorter than 50 mm. You should be able to get good wide angle groups and reasonable close ups if you can be close enough. Father of groom cant be changing lenses for different groupings. I would use a zoom with bounce flash. I wish you had or borrow and little bit more zoom some thing close to 85-90mm on tele side. Use a smaller aperture <8 and you will get sharp pictures Your job will be to compose, mingle, enjoy and casually shoot.

 

Relax, have fun. Regards ifti

Perceptions at times are different from the facts. Reality check shows: You have posted 197 pictures and received 847 ratings that comes to roughly 4 rating for each of your post.

 

While you rated 327 photos and that means you gave 1.6 rating for each of your posts.

 

Regards ifti

Thanks for the info You are great help. Regards ifti

A simple qustion that I dont know the answer.

 

I have only 4 photos and there are three nice Photographers who left three

encouraging notes for me on them. Thanks for the encouragement. At the end of

their name is (disapprove). What is this? Cant find the answer and I decided not

to click on it unless I know what am I supposed to do? Regards ifti

I just wrote about my experience with photo books. Here is a copy of it. Hope it will be helpful:

 

Few years ago I got a book from iBook and was not so thrilled. Probably my pictures were not that good either but did not have a lasting impression. Last year I got tree photo books printed as gifts. One was a friend's wedding, other was a birthday party and the third was a special honor party of a friend. I enjoyed making them and had more compliments from recipients than ever. They were all made at Snap Fish. I liked the quality and price was reasonable. I decided to try some other photo book makers to see if I could get any better books. So I ordered four more books from Snap Fish, Mpix, My Publisher and Blurb. Sent them at the same time and they were all at my desk in 10-14 days fastest being the Snap Fish. For a real good test I should have sent the same book to each but personal desire to have four sets of my picture over ruled the need for scientific accuracy. They all turned out to be impressive and good quality books. They were all printed in landscape at similar size. Here are the details and minor differences:

 

1: Snap Fish (snapfish.com)

 

size: 8X11 inches. Price: $19.95 first 20 pages, $1.99 for each 2 additional pages, Max pages: 100, Hard cover linen, Leather available at extra Upload pictures and make the book at their site.

 

Fast return, Good Quality, No dust cover option.

 

2 Mpix (mpix.com)

 

Size: 8.5x11 inches, Price: $30.00 first 20 pages, $0.50 per additional page, max pages 50, hard cover paper, Foil Stamping additional $7.00. Upload pictures and make book at their site.

 

Print quality and paper are best of the lot, (Paper choices: print, pearl and Linen) Hard cover paper not linen and no dust cover option.

 

3: My Publisher (mypublisher.com) Size: 8.75x11.25?, Price: $29.80 for first 20 pages. $0.99 per additional page, max pages 100. Hard cover linen or window cut. Dust cover is optional at $4.95. Down load software, make book at your own computer upload after you are satisfied.

 

Good print quality, Good hard cover and good dust cover.

 

Blurb Publisher (blurb.com) size 8x10 inches Price: first 20-40 pages $29.95 and next 41-80 page total price $34.95. It increases in 20 page increments instead of per page and max pages 440. Download software and make the book on your computer when final upload.

 

Good print quality and paper, nice binding and excellent dust cover included in price.

 

Paper and print quality: equal in all except MPIX is better with richer color and choice of paper but has a 'not' so good cover.

 

Size: small variation My publisher is the largest and Blurb smallest of the four

 

Dust cover: Blurb included in price and My Publisher extra cost. Both are good quality.

 

Cost per page: Blurb is cheapest per page cost and larger the book more the savings while rest are about the same.

 

Softwares: are easy to use, are intuitive and gobs of templates and BGs, and fonts. So are the online book making. All four are well run. They keep you posted about the progress of your order and turnaround time is not bad, fastest was Snap Fish.

 

My publisher has neat way to showcase your finished book but you can?t edit at this stage. It is only to look and send to friend who might like to order their copy. LINK did not work here the address:

 

http://www.mypublisher.com/bookstore/book_viewer.py?d=tq%3Ey-cppl%60je%3E3244311

 

Link it did not work, use the above address to see the book.

 

CONCLUSION: I like them all well. Blurb looks very professional with its dust cover and slick packing. My Publisher is a close second. Paper quality is best with Mpix and colors are richer. They all offer larger size coffee table books except MPIX. This is my experiment with Photo Books share your. Regards ifti.

Facts are there are photos posted on site that range from 1-7 they are not all above 4. Best example is your own rating history that?s on your page. <P>

 

Originality: 6-57-240-530-483-377- 18

Aesthetics: 6-58-249-482-458-439- 19

 

In your own evaluation all grades exists and are justified by you. What is 4 to you may look 5 to some and 3 to others as rating is based on perception and is not a mathematical calculation that every one adding correctly will come to same ?correct? answer.. The rating should simply be looked at as to how others perceive your post and not the quality of your work. (Things that sell well may not be quality at all). For that we need Critiques and I had a forum question about it earlier.

Rating to me is simply a index, poll or what ever you like to call it. It answers only one question " over all did the viewer like it or disliked it from 7-1' The viewer does not say what he like etc.

<P> A critique on the other hand tells what is good what is bad and why and a good critique may go one more step and tell some remedy.

There is no way a site can screen the level of expertise of the rater but you can on named rater look at their portfolio and in your own mind can assign a weight to there rating.

 

<P> There care sites that have to rating you just showcase your photos, and sites where join a group to admire each others work

<P>

OneExposure.net will use their judgement to allow or disallow posting a picture and then there is no rating but accolades. <P> Photo|Sig your rating has to be accompanied with a minimum of 15 word critique or you cant rate and it not anonymous

1: Firstly they are not strangers We have a common bond of liking enjoying and some to make living with photography with varied expertise.

2: Rating is simply a poll of how the other photogs perceive our pictures. Thats exactly what it is. Look at details of rating and you see range of ratings on same photo varying from low to high as perception is very personal and not precisely mathematical.

3: The numbers does not not make me a better photog but gives me an idea how my effort is perceived out there.

4: What I miss in a number is a lack of critique value as the number does not tell me as to what I can do to improve.

I looked at the site It is nicely designed and overall pictures are good. Looked at their critiques they are simply 'accolades' If goal is to show off your best pictures then it is a good site. If one wants to learn and have critiques on one's mistakes then they will get only one feed back that it is not posted.

 

I prefer someone telling me whats wrong and hopefully what can I do to improve it.

 

If you just want to showcase your pictures then SmugMug and PBase and likes are easy and less stressful. Regards ifti

Download Picasa. Google search same words and it will take you to download site. It is free and will catalog your pictures. Select the pictures you want to resize. Click export choose the size you want to and save it on desk top then post it. Regards ifti

I carry a 5MP Casio on my belt all the time. It takes decent pictures and goos for snaps any time.

 

I have my SLR with one zoom lens and a flash in my car about 1/2 the times.

I went to Flicker few times. I want to see good pictures and good critiques and I found too much noise and very little substance. It is just not for me. Photonet has better pictures and sometimes great critique. PBase and SmugMug are basic galleries to showcase you portfolio that people may comment. Photo|Sig is for getting critiques on your photos and you get feed back on the critiques you give. Still you have to paticipate to get critiques.

 

I wonder what is the advantage you see to join Flicker? Am I missing something?

If you are serious to learn and enjoy photography then buy an SLR with a kit lens you can easily afford. Then shoot and shoot, Look at picture sites and get ideas. As you discover what type of pictures you like to take and enjoy then you will intelligently buy the enhancements to fit your goals and budget.

 

If however you want to be pro you need to learn from an institution and get programmed then develop your own niche. Regards ifti

I have looked at your portfolio. There are three picture that IMHO rate lowest on your portfolio and they are:

1: Angel's decent not a complete picture, i.e foreground-mid ground-and BG. Although there can be exceptions .

2: Remember the dead.. tilted camera and poor exposure..

3: Goosey Gander bad exposure on head and bill.

 

Regards ifti

If the sky picture is clear particularly on a small aperture <11 then it most likely is not sensor. Make sure your lens is clean and if you use a UV filter and I hope you do then make sure thats clean.

HOW TO CRITIQUE A PICTURE?

Photography is a purely hobby and I am learning it by taking pictures. On and

off I have visited the site since April 2006. Initially I looked at the top

photos and they are so good that I was intimidated to post here ,?I don?t belong

here?, was the reaction.

 

Then I started looking at the section of critique requested photos and found all

levels of expertise. Have rated >400 and critiqued 66. There is no feedback on

them as to if am I doing it right or wrong?

 

Went back and looked at FAQ there are 17 topics one for how to request a

critique none on how to critique? Searched did not find any discussion in the forum.

 

Your rating system is well defined maybe that?s a subtle way to critique. There

is however no way to suggest how to improve.

 

Most of the Critiques I see are few words some time just one of accolades and

rarely if ever any suggestion to improve.

 

Only one of critique (1/66) the photographer replied to my critique agreeing

with my suggestion.

 

If I see a poor picture should I just rate it poor and move on or should a

critique tell were the flaw is what one should try next time to better it?

 

Today I saw two very bad photos by one person neither with no composition, poor

exposure or nothing of interest in them. Then there was one totally over exposed

and camera was tilted. They were bad and I was going say so then I looked at

their portfolio one has a large number of pictures and lots are class acts. The

other was all mediocre. .

 

So I did not write a critique. Will someone help me understand the culture here

as I for one definitely don?t want to step on any ones toes.

 

Regards ifti

Thanks Safak for the help. Regards ifti

Two questions:

 

1: I have done few critiques. How do I find which picture did I critique? and

was there a response?

 

2: How do I find EXIF data on a posted picture?

 

Thanks, Regards ifti

There are two feedback mechanisms on the posts by a photographer at the Photo.net

 

1: Ratings on aesthetics and originality. This number conveys the feelings of viewers on a scale of good to bad. It tells how your post is perceived but gives no clue as to proper corrective action to improve one?s skill.

 

2: Critique fills this gap of rating feedback and tells what is so good and what is bad in it and suggests actions to improve based upon the knowledge and experience of the critic.

 

A good critique requires time and should be respected by the recipient for its inherent time value. It should address technical issues of focus, color, composition and crop. It should acknowledge the strengths of the picture and then point to specific areas that need improvement.

 

One word critiques ?wonderful? , ?charming?, ?awesome? ? are no better that rating number and other than ego booster have no redeeming value.

 

To get a good critique the poster has to provide good data as to how the picture was made.

 

I discovered that EXIF data is striped as I posted a picture, Luckily I had put the data in the column.