Reading A Photograph

[Dagwood56]

I thought this article might be of some help to all members, new and old to aid in giving C&C to photos. I tried posting this on the article forum, but was denied access -guess you have to be a subscriber to post there.

Basic Strategies in Reading Photographs

 

[tirediron]

Excellent link; thanks for posting!

 

[leighthal]

Thanks for the link. Very informative.

 

[Kerplunq]

Good link. Lots of good info there!

 

[Sherman Banks]

Great link! It's hard to improve on a photo when it simply "does nothing" for a viewer. Maybe these will help people better explain their opinions of a photograph.

On another note, why doesn't the forum have some sort of conduct for people posting photos for critique? We see so many threads started every day where a person just throws up a number of pictures and says "what do you think". It would be good etiquette for the person posting to explain the concept behind their photos, a brief explanation of the methods they used, what elements they feel are strong/weak, and anything else the viewer can relate to when providing a critique. It would be great practice for anyone trying to improve their photography to first critically analyze the photo themselves and then see what others think. Maybe then we wouldn't see so many threads started with random photos with no thought put into them. Or at least when a photo looks that way, we can know what the photographer was trying to achieve, and provide more sound advice for improving the photo.

Sorry to threadjack, and I know I haven't been a long time member here, but I feel this would greatly improve the quality of work and would help everyone develop a more critical eye in they way they view photographs.

 

[rfosness88]

great link, brings me back to my college art class days.... which was Thursday lol

 

[Overread]

Dagwood - for the articles section you have to pm one of the mods (terri is normaly the one I think in charge of that section) with the article, though from what I recall its only ones written by yourself rather than linked ones, but you never know. The mods then review it to make sure that the info is correct and not misleading and then it gets posted by the mods. That way they help to keep out poor information for that section.

Sherman - nobody reads stickies or rules first
they are read after someone breaks a rule and gets a slap on the wrist and shown the link - otherwise most surfers are blind to them - so any pre-emptive rules on posting can get voided unless the mods are willing to be very strict with allowing new threads to be posted - which puts a lot of pressure on the mods (considering how popular TPF is and how many new threads we get).

However an article like hte one Dagwood linked to is a good resourse to point to newer members when they make the mistake