TPF Post of the Week

[dascrow12]

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We’ve added a new feature to the forum: Post of the Week

Each week, the system automatically highlights the Top 15 posts across the community based on engagement and activity.

There are a lot of great posts, detailed write-ups, helpful replies, photos, and discussions that can easily get buried as new threads are created. This makes it much easier to quickly catch up on the best content from the past week all in one place.

You can check it out here:

Posts of the Week

The most-reacted posts on The Photography Forum each week — the community's best photos, builds and discussions, ranked by reactions.

www.thephotoforum.com

Still working through a few small bugs and tweaks, but we wanted to get it live so everyone could start using it.

 

[cgw142 167]

I see lotsa flowers, birds, critters and landscapes...Preaching to the choir and little else.

 

[denum142 168]

I see lotsa flowers, birds, critters and landscapes...Preaching to the choir and little else.

I feel your pain. While I do appreciate a good squirrel shot, or a bird-in-flight shot (which I have yet to produce), or shots in any of the other genres you just mentioned, I do feel we are missing something here at TPF. I recently bought, and read, a book by Peter Fetterman, a gallery owner in Santa Monica, CA. The book is titled The Power of Photography, and it is a collection of great photos by well known photographers. Each photo is accompanied by a description of the relationship between it's creator and Peter Fetterman, and many times a short story detailing what went into creating the shot. Many of these great shots were not acheived by superior understanding of f/stops and other fundementals of photography but rather through knowing the correct people, and by that having access to great venues and events. Many of these famous photographers worked for publications like Life magazine, or Vogue magazine, which gave them opportunities we mere mortals will never be able to enjoy.
When I came to TPF I was hoping for an environment where there would be more of an instructive emphasis, versus the contest based environment we have here. I know, we can post in the C&C gallery and receive all the instructive feedback we could ever want, but I would prefer a scenario where we would receive feedback on our shots everytime we posted...whether it good or bad. That is how you grow into that photographer you wish to be. I am not a fan of participation trophies for losing teams, and I believe that replying with 'nice shot' to a mediocre effort is akin to giving out participation trophies. It does little to encourage the poster to better themselves and create more appealing photographs.
Many of the great photographers of the past didn't rely on flying birds, sunsets, squirrels, and flowers for their success, but rather chose subjects, that quite frankly, many of us newbies would disregard in favor of the aforementioned. They concentrated on the emotion of photography, the envoking of emotion from the viewer. This is where I tend to fail the most. I have leaned greatly toward shooting landscapes and the like, and have not ventured much into 'people' based shots, which many times is where the emotion is at. I hope to get better at including people in my photography as time goes on.
The last thing I believe this forum needs is yet another contest, but rather a more 'coach and student' feel. Some folks here do reply with some level of critique and to those I say Thank You!
Sorry for the long rant.

Edited for spelling

 

[snowbear142 73]

At least it's not a daily Leaderboard.

We only have two and a partial contests: both POTMs, and the two week long POTY. The monthly challenge died some time ago. If someone would like to set up and maintain some type of tutorial, feel free to DM @terri and I.

 

[snowbear142 73]

I see lotsa flowers, birds, critters and landscapes...Preaching to the choir and little else.

And a few portraits.

 

[cgw142 167]

Moving to the exit, I'm seeing new/different images ignored via zero comments-likes-critique. Drive-bys and photo-dumpers typically skip response comments like most blatant like-fishers do.
It's getting cringe-worthy. Been here since 2013 but not forever unless efforts at boosting engagement become obvious and sustained.

 

[terri59]

The last thing I believe this forum needs is yet another contest, but rather a more 'coach and student' feel. Some folks here do reply with some level of critique and to those I say Thank You!
Sorry for the long rant.

No need to apologize! We appreciate all the feedback here. I like the idea of the "coach and student" feel here.

I can't say why not everyone offers up more sustenance to their comments on shots. This is a pretty open platform; people just don't seem willing to take the time necessary to give more fleshed out comments.

We all know there's a lot of talent here. But it remains a head-scratcher to me about the fly-by posters or photo dumping without any effort to engage with the community here. We do have several regulars who offer support and encouragement, but also those who seem too busy to take the time needed to craft useful responses.

If more folks would step up their individual efforts the forum would be richer for it. It’s a photographic community; we always like involvement!

 

[denum142 168]

At least it's not a daily Leaderboard.

We only have two and a partial contests: both POTMs, and the two week long POTY. The monthly challenge died some time ago. If someone would like to set up and maintain some type of tutorial, feel free to DM @terri and I.

Understood. I was also including the A to Z game, and The Next Shot Is thread. In my mind these are both contests that are great for those who want to participate in that kind of thing, but do very little to bolster ones chops in photographic art, which is what I think member cgw often times opines about. When I think of a forum I envision an environment that includes voluntary mentoring along with the understanding that when one signs up to this forum that they would not let their feelings get hurt when this mentoring might be a bit on the negative side. I have given advice in the past only for it to be ignored, which is contrary to how I feel a forum should operate. I personally love it when someone lets me know what I am doing wrong.

I believe that digital photography, whether it be by smart phone or more traditional cameras with replaceable lenses, has done great harm to the artistry of photography. It has ushered in this notion of shoot-post, shoot-post, shoot-post mentality where the emphasis is not about art or quality, but rather about quantity of posts. I fear that this forum has fallen victim to this and turning it around is really indeed quite perplexing. It is unfortunate that I feel this forum has morphed into a social media entree with a side order of photography, and an even smaller portion of artistic expression. Once again, I am at fault for this too.

If I were to start a photo forum, after being here for a couple years and seeing how it operates, I would put forth some initial rules, one of which would be the banning of posts less than ten words. This would encourage dialog between members. If someone responds to my post with 'nice shot' about all I can reply to them with is 'thanks'. However, if they reply with 'hey dude, love the DOF and perspective on this shot', that would not only tell me something they liked about my shot, but would also encourage me to perhaps respond with more dialog.

With AI being what it is I would imagine that the software this forum runs on could, if not now perhaps in the near future, be able to pull out of the responses given by all members some winners for 'posts with the best critique given' or something along those lines.

I have thought before that perhaps some folks don't like the idea of being critiqued on their posts. Maybe we could have a poll to inquire as to where people stand on this issue. In my mind a forum without universal critique leaves you witrh nothing but a social media sight, which is not why I am a member here. If you remove critique from a forum you remove most of the dialog, and when you remove the dialog from a forum you are left with Tik Tok.

I am a member of a gold refining forum, known as goldrefiningforum.com. If a newbie refiner posts something that has some cause for concern, many times a safety issue, the other more knowledgeable members will immediately chime in with 'stop what you are doing now and store your materials in a safe space. Read these materials - a list of documents related to safety first, and then perhaps other documents regarding yield expectations etc - then get back to us and we will guide you out of this mess you have gotten yourself into'. This forum is wonderful at this and probably has saved some lives and maybe some environmental catastrophies. I realize that photography does not have the inherent concerns with dangerous fumes, and dissolved metals laden liquids which are very toxic and when handled incorrectly will result in immediate advice from others, but I do believe we would benefit greatly from a system where those with the knowledge would more quickly be willing to divulge it, without being asked for it.

Just my dos centavos. Hopefully I haven't stepped on any toes here.

 

[snowbear142 73]

But it remains a head-scratcher to me about the fly-by posters or photo dumping without any effort to engage with the community here.

Like I often see in FB and IG - just a monologue; sharing photos and not looking for real feedback or conversation.

 

[snowbear142 73]

The other site I used to be involved with had a free tutorial. There was a series of lessons (ten, IIRC), and participants would post their "assignments" to get feedback. We could try something like that. We'd just need writer(s) to set up the lessons and decent example shots. Creating the forums is the easy part (one closed for the tutorial content, one open for the "students.")

Anyone interetsed in helping to get something like this off the ground, give me a DM and let's see whaere it goes.

 

[terri59]

Hopefully I haven't stepped on any toes here.

Not a bit!

As @snowbear is saying, we're open to setting up just about anything. We appreciate TPF members caring enough to suggest things - this is basically a member-driven forum. Sometimes things take off and sometimes interest fades.

The internet, forums, and photography writ large have all changed profoundly since TPF opened in 2003. It's hard to know what's going to stick around (for better or worse) and what turns out to have been a passing fad.

We've made recent changes to the monthly contests, started a couple of new games, and try to keep up with the volume of posts.

With AI being what it is I would imagine that the software this forum runs on could, if not now perhaps in the near future, be able to pull out of the responses given by all members some winners for 'posts with the best critique given' or something along those lines.

The software is Xenforo, a very common and robust forum platform - but I sincerely hope its little AI gremlins aren't trying to read all our posts and tell us what it thinks is best.

That said, would we gin up some interest in offering C&C if there were some kind of competitive edge? It's an interesting suggestion.

Please - (and this is directed to anyone reading this) shoot us via DM any and all suggestions for adding tutorials as @snowbear mentioned above, or critique suggestions - you name it!

Can't stress it enough - this is a member-driven forum. Your ideas are more than welcome.

 

[cgw142 167]

Why so desperate? Need to foster a dive bar atmosphere here--seriously. Like it or not, there is a critical mass of longtime members who post and comment regularly. Problem, though, is that the barflys talk more to each other than to newbs who are likely spooked by that vibe. Mild, low-impact critiques of new work followed up with, say, questions about their gear or how they chose a subject can start the sort of dialogue that many welcome--and the site needs.

 

[terri59]

No one's "desperate." An odd choice of words to describe responding to member input.

Mild, low-impact critiques of new work followed up with, say, questions about their gear or how they chose a subject can start the sort of dialogue that many welcome--and the site needs.

Exactly! It's not earth-shattering. I welcome seeing your contributions in particular.

 

[cgw142 167]

No one's "desperate." An odd choice of words to describe responding to member input.



Exactly! It's not earth-shattering. I welcome seeing your contributions in particular.

It's a smoldering problem that's obviously producing more that just smoke. Site traffic?
Recall seeing way more. Don't have your investment in TPF but do care about its survival.
Drive-bys and needy photo dumpers seem antithetical to what I like about TPF--criticism I've leveled and caught $hit for. Over to you...

 

[denum142 168]

Mild, low-impact critiques of new work followed up with, say, questions about their gear or how they chose a subject can start the sort of dialogue that many welcome--and the site needs.

You read my mind. My sentiments precisely.