If you have any suggestions for improvements...

[eob]

As you all probably have figured it out by now, this site is run by a couple of nuts from two different continents (that's the sorry status for the time being), who have no financial support from any sponsor whatsoever. Our work is 100% voluntary and uncompensated in any form.

Roland and I (mostly Roland) are doing our best to make use of our very limited time resources to make this forum as informative and friendly for all fellow photography-nuts as possible. I am sure that Roland will - as I certainly will - appreciate any help in running this thing as smoothly as possible. That includes three crucial elements of activity expected from every one of us:

• Active participation of all existing members in discussions and submitting their photographic work for discussions. We are far from putting a pressure on the participants, but we do appreciate the regularity;
• Ongoing creative thinking about how to improve  our fora - so, feel free to post your suggestions;
• Recruitment of new prospective members for our photographic community, keeping in mind that what we need is a continuing active participation rather than any specific level of the photographic achievement - we need members who are likely to log-in more than once and participate regularly, no matter what is their status as photographers (of course, the more interesting their work, the better ).

If you have any suggestions for improvements to the functionality, educational value and/or enjoyment of our community, please, feel free to share them with us. That also pertains to the way we acquire new members. We can't guarantee that your suggestions will be implemented in the form you envisioned them (or, in any form, for that matter), but each and every suggestion will be taken under consideration.

And finally, above all, remember that we still prefer quality rather than quantity...

Thank you!

[Theo]

first I think your doing a great job
would you consider a cat for photography business side?? i know that not the drift of this site but i for one would love to pick the brain of you all on that side of photography.

the only other thing is sometimes i have a hard time just choosing where to put my photo's I almost always take all my photo's into photoshop but sometimes i'm really not sure if processioning is the correct area seeing that all i did was darkroom type corrections.


other than that love the site and have grown since i've been here!

[eob]

Theo, thanks for kind words.

If I understand you correctly, you got two suggestions: creating a photo business category in our forum and expanding - or rather more precise descriptions - of other categories. Is that right?

Well, there would be nothing wrong with having a business category. The problem is that, so far, we all are amateurs (meaning: we don't make a living from photography). I would imagine that if we had at least a couple of professionals among us, the natural thing to do would be creating a business category. Until then, feel free to share your experiences in the GENERAL CHAT category.

Now, I think that processing images in Photoshop is a perfectly normal way of creating presentable photographs for any kind of publication, including our forum. So, as long as you are not using some special effects that are supposed to be purely formal treatments inherent to the 'digital darkroom', you can disregard our POST-PROCESSING category. The EXPERIMENTAL / ART category is, basically, for photos that may include special effects inherent to the concept and/or shooting techniques. Finally, CLASSIC is for all straight photography, both color and b&w, with basic post-processing (color-correction/enhancement, cropping, simple global effects like sepia-toning). That said, I think this categorization is not too important to begin with, because you can decide, for example, that your effects achieved on the computer are less important than the classic kind of an idea contained in the overall composition.

However, if you would like to see any specific new category (besides the business category), let us know and we'll take it under consideration.

Thanks again!

[habakuk]

I'd second the thought of keeping the discussions about business matters in the general section for the moment. If we come up with some conclusive points, we might make them into an article and pin that in the Article forum for later reference?

cheers
®

[Athena]

Would it be possible to allow for "quick reply" at the bottom of a thread rather than opening to a new window to reply?  I am far less language orientated than visually orientated and it helps me drag the words out if I can glance back at the image whilst typing.

If this option is already here and I have simply over looked it (not unlikely), then please just administer the appropriate smack for being unobservant and point me to the solution. 

~A

[eob]

Hi, Athena,

It's nice to have another woman among us (a rarity)! I hope you'll like this tiny circle of photo-maniacs and you'll stay with us, posting your comments and your photos.

We do have a 'quick reply' option. You can activate it in your preferences. First, click on the PROFILE tag, then, under MODIFY PROFILE header click on LOOK AND LAYOUT PREFERENCES. In second line from the bottom, choose 'show, on by default'. That's it.

[habakuk]

Thanks for asking, Athena. I just learned something new myself. And thanks for the help, eob!

cheers
®

[Athena]

brilliant - thank you.

~A

[Theo]

it would be nice to see some more images in the gallery. Maybe we could suggest pictures for it ??
Just a thought

[habakuk]

Thanks, Theo. Well, we stopped in the process of dealing with the gallery... we started to fill it and wanted to have a proper election process, so the gallery is becoming a "Best of".

This "tough" selection process is a very good way of learning from and thinking about pictures, as it will help us to look carefully and compare those shots that are already in the gallery with the new ones.

We expect most if not all of the users here to have their own gallery, as we don't provide any direct upload option anyway. So, we really wanted to have the gallery as a kind of a "reward" for outstanding shots, not a collection of all shots we have seen here so far.

We will pick that process up again and come back to you all with suggestions on how to go on with the gallery. Thank you for poking me in this matter.

cheers
®

[Theo]

I figured that is what the gallery was for don't worry i'll keep at you dude.