jkilgo

<p>oh...sorry...ahh humm...I choose not to rate photos...though I did in the past...because I can't see that it communicates any useful information to the photographer...I'd much rather get or provide a verbal critique which would seem to be a better way to communicate what you think about a specific image. </p>

<p>In my opinion ratings mean absolutely nothing...and in many cases appear to be not much more than a popularity vote...PN's most under appreciated value is the Critique Forum...which surprisingly most members rarely take advantage of. I would much rather receive a constructive critique of one of my images that would help me improve as a photographer vs. a rating number which tells me nothing. Conversely it does not take much effort to provide someone a helpful critique...I just wish more people would do so. </p>

<p>Lemme know when the next 5D Mark II is released...maybe then I can pick up one of the older versions on the cheap ;-)</p>

<p>I have seen PN evolve greatly since I first joined in 2006...initially it seemed to be a forum for professionals and or advanced amatures. I was intimidated at first to post any of my work for fear of scorn and ridicule. Fortunately for me this was not the case...of the people who expressed interest in the stuff I posted by and large the critiques were contructive and positive. I have since established lasting connections to a number of photogs and look forward to each opportunity to connect with them...to some extent I think PN was the original social network site. I can honestly say that my pictures have improved as a result of these many connections...and hopefully some of the advice I've given has helped others as they also endeaver to become better photogs. I guess with anything when the exposure increases there is a requisite watering down of the talent pool...and I think it would be snobbish to assume only good photogs should post on PN...I agree with the original poster that some questionable images make it to the "top photo" category, but I think this may be to some degree people learning from the good, the bad, & the ugly. I love to post critiques, but due to the shear volume of images I typically only view those that interest me...typically by genre, photog, personal preference, etc.. I really enjoy viewing images on PN and enough talented photogs come and go to keep my interest engaged. </p>

Great info....thanks all.

Sounds like a step in the right direction....I just wish there was some way to convince PNers to rate and critique more images. It is stunning when you view the portfolios of many of the top photogs on PN and compare the number of critique requests vs. the number of ratings/critiques. Thanks Josh, et al, for the caring enough to keep improving the forum...I encourage everyone to take 15 minutes at the beginning of every PN session and critique a few images.

Jeffrey, just when I thought this thread had finally died, I come back and see your June post...thanks for the feedback, your comments/critiques are always helpful and appreciated. I think the old saying "that which doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" is indeed true. When I started this discussion back in May I had no idea I was touching a nerve for some people. The bottom line though is that I accomplished what I set out to do when I asked the original question...I've definitely generated more traffic to my site and along the way I've established numerous "Cyber Friendships" that are very valuable to me....oh yeah, and I do listen to feedback and I like to think that my work has improved as a result. In terms of results, when I started this thread, I had a couple hundred visits to my portfolio and after employing most of the recommendations listed above, I'm up over 2000 now and have received a couple hundred ratings and comments. It has been a lot of work, but I think it has been well worth it. Thanks to everyone who chimed in...Jeff.

This is a very good thread...very informative...thanks to Charles and A Glogower for the tips.

I've also had good luck with Profeel...their prices seem to be competitive and they don't hassle you with add-ons. So far I've received everything I've ordered from them in without issue.

I've never used Broadway, but I have used Adorama and have been completely satisfied. Take the advice of Don and check out each vendor using the resellerratings web site...this is a very valuable site. Also beware of substantially cheaper prices...there are often bait and switch routines that many of these sites employ...if it looks to good to be true it probably is. Another good site that will give you a good range of comparative prices and reviews is Amazon.com. Do the research before you spend the money.

Very cool...thanks for sharing.

This may be old news by now, but I stumbled on a great article in Time Magazine Online about a couple of Ex-Ad

Agency guys who invented a fictional character who creates seemingly legitimate Photoshop tutorials...which always

seem to devolve into a rant about his apparently unfaithful wife. The episodes are web casts and are called "You

Suck at Photoshop". It is very edgy and irreverant stuff and I would not recommend it to everyone, but the three

episodes I viewed were pretty funny. The article is at this website

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1736726,00.html which will further direct you to the website called

My Damn Channel http://www.mydamnchannel.com/ Anyway, if you haven't seen these let me know what you think.

The PS disasters blog is indeed funny...I didn't even know you could do some of these things. Tiffany, I'm like you, PS, for the most part, is my digital darkroom. I can't count the number of hours I spent years ago trying to get the perfect print. With PS a few clicks of the mouse and your done. I love to play around with special effects but I'm not sure about the caucasifying...just weird stuff.

Thanks Steve

Thanks Ronald...I'll check it out.

Thanks Ken...I'll research this model and see what I come up with...I've viewed your work in the past...I remember the two deer eating at the haystack. Thanks. Jeff.

I am in the market for a new scanner and was hoping for some recommendations.

I've done a lot of research on the Internet but can't seem to settle on any single

candidate. My criteria are; Price $400-$500, must scan at least 8x10 pictures,

and possibly up to 4x5 film negatives. I'll use it mostly to archive old family pics

and negatives, but I would also like enough quality to use the scans for Photoshop

processing later. Any thoughts?

Lex, you make some interesting/valid comments in your last post. For me I try to strike a balance with my photo comments between my appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of the image, i.e., "wonderful photo", and the images technical qualities. I agree with some of the earlier posters that depending on the level of the photographer, he/she is seeking something...anything to justify the validity of what they are producing and seeking guidance on how to improve. Amazingly, one of the earlier posters suggested to me that my critiques were gratuitous and when I review his posts a good portion were the "atta boy/girl" comments you discussed in your comment. I still think, after all this back-and-forth, photo.net needs to focus on a way to improve the number of comments/ratings...if a photo gets 8 to 10 ratings/comments then of these surely 2 or 3 will be substantive and will provide useful feedback to the photographer. Any thoughts on my earlier recommendation about having to earn credit for posting images by making comments?

I think I sent Jiri a comment on one of his photos and at the end asked him to consider sharing his talent by commenting in the critique forum....guess it didn't work.

 

Also would it be possible to generate a system that requires you to submit a rating or two...or whatever, before you get credit to submit a photo for review? This seems like a reasonable solution, but I'm not a techno geek so I'm not sure how hard it would be to make this happen.

Thanks everyone for all the recommendations.

Josh, that is interesting about the thumbnail view...but I would submit that not withstanding this fact, that many more people tended to make comments/critiques on photos several years back than do now. I understand that there are many more members of photo.net now, but I would think that with education to the general photo.net population, that one should expect more feedback now than ever before...just a thought.

Christal, thanks for the recommendation...I will apply some of the techniques you suggest and see how it goes...by the way, I can see why your portfolio generates so much interest...you have many beautiful images...your perspective is interesting.

Monte, Thanks for the response...interesting comments. I guess I'm sorta naive to the ways of photo.net. Now that you mention it, I have observed several instances of photographers using multiple accounts with different names...never thought much about it before. I'm still convinced though that there is a core group of photo.net members who just enjoy looking at pictures and want to learn how to improve their technique...I see myself clearly in this category. I don't really care about the ratings system because I don't care how good or bad (or interesting) my pictures are compared to similar images. I do care about what emotions are evoked by my pictures...and how I can improve them and this can only be ascertained by comments. Ah...the joys of photo.net...I'll crack the code someday.

Tim, thanks for taking time to respond to my question...I'm not sure though that your comments are very helpful...exactly what is interesting...and what constitutes a good photo/photographer...are you in this category? I have indeed learned much from the thousands of images I've viewed on photo.net, but I stick to my original assertion that if you don't attract viewers to your portfolio then you aren't going to benefit from the experience of others...that is the gist of my concern, not whether or not pictures of my kids are interesting or not.

By the way...in case anyone is interested in the results of my experiment...as of this morning I have posted 87 comments/critiques (since Friday), which has generated 53 visits to my portfolio and 3 comments/critiques on portfolio images...I guess not all is lost.