Guidelines for posting -- discussions & reminders

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rjlittlefield
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Guidelines for posting -- discussions & reminders

Post by rjlittlefield »

Hi, folks! :D I just wanted to take a minute to mention several issues that have come up recently about guidelines for posting.

First off, a few of us have been having some philosophical discussions about the boundaries of photo editing & "digital enhancements" -- basically, when do you have to say "Oh yeah, I applied this unusual technique..." If you're interested, you can read those discussions here and here.

Second, please be aware that posting images in someone else's topic is considered welcome by some people but a bit rude by others. It varies from person to person, and even from case to case. The safest and often the most effective approach is to open a new topic with your own pictures, and link to it from the other topic. Otherwise, please check first with the topic owner by email or private message, to find out how they feel on the issue.

Finally, please be reminded that the forums are non-commercial and are focused on the topic photos. Signatures should be subdued -- no embedded images and nothing else sufficiently flashy to distract from the topic photos.

Sorry for sounding like a net-nanny, but having been an offender from time to time, I know how easy it is to forget these things in the excitement stimulated by all the great photos and ideas that you folks have been posting out.

This is a great place to spend time -- THANKS! :D

--Rik
Last edited by rjlittlefield on Sat Oct 10, 2009 3:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Danny
Posts: 725
Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2007 11:07 pm
Location: New Zealand

Post by Danny »

I totally agree. As long as its disclosed, there is no problem. Now what I've seen on other sites when it comes to this, is what exactly should we disclose. The arguments sometimes border on just going overboard. So no, no one expects anyone to have to mention they lightened the image or used contrast to boost it slightly. No need to mention that we sharpened the image. Seen all this before, so lets keep it to more than std applied modifications. If you are not sure exactly what those are, ask away and we can tell you :D :wink: and I'm sure we all know what they are.

All the best folks.

Danny.
Worry about the image that comes out of the box, rather than the box itself.

twebster
Posts: 442
Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:02 am
Location: Phoenix "Valley of the Sun", Arizona, USA

Post by twebster »

Hi y'all, :D

This whole subject of what digital manipulations should be disclosed and what shouldn't has been a matter of controversy since the eaqrly days of digital imaging. If you spend time on any of the nature photography forums you will see this same discussion brought up almost monthly. Here's my take on it:

No disclosure...I don't think it necessary to disclose the equivalent, common darkroom procedures ( dodging/burning/colorbalance, etc). I don't think it is necessary to even disclose sharpening. Many people don't realize that Photoshop's "Unsharp Masking Filter) has its origins in a traditional wet darkroom. If you have over-sharpened an image, we will see it. :wink: I don't even feel you have to disclose manipulations such as softening/smoothing a background or even removing a distracting item from the image. These are pretty simple manipulations that don't really alter the "naturalness" of the subject, IMHO.

Disclosure...Any added image elements overall or added alterations to the main subject should be disclosed. Adding a different background than the original background, cutting the main subject from one image and pasting it to another image, assembling the main subject from parts of different images (sort of a "Construct a Bug" :D ) should be disclosed. Image stacking should be disclosed, too. Image stacking provides a view of subjects as we would not normally encounter during normal observations and is definitely a big benefit of working digitally. I love these images but it should always be disclosed that image stacking was used.

These are pretty much common sense guidelines. Some of us are Photoshop bumblers (me, for example :wink: ) and some of us are Photo Impact masters (Danny! :D ) but we would like the naturalness of the subjects to speak for themselves and any unnatural effects to be spoken for by the image creators.

Best regards to all as always, :D
Tom Webster

Phoenix "The Valley of the Sun", Arizona, USA

The worst day photographing dragonflies is better than the best day working! :)

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