What Level am I?

astroNikon · May 17, 2014

jewleeanne said:
... I understand the writing on lenses, ...

I have a Russian lens where everything is in russian. I can't read nor understand it.
But, does it really matter?

There's a point when you are a beginner and you wonder how you are progressing.
Using a yardstick would be good in an educational/ schooling aspect of it, per say.
But really, there are amateur/hobbyist and professionals (they get paid for their work).

Now you may have amateurs that are better photographers than professionals.
And of course you have a wide variance of "professionals"

In the end, it's about your work and how you progress. In order to progress you have to be critical of your own work and techniques, and you have to learn to understand and apply other people's critiques / identifications for improvements.

So, just shoot, learn and have fun.
When you get "there", you'll know.

But of course, I'm at a level Banana. One of the slippy-er-ist stages you can be in. If that is of any help.

nzmacro · May 17, 2014

You are as good as everyone else here

We are all on the same level.

Danny.

mmaria · May 17, 2014

nzmacro said:
You are as good as everyone else here We are all on the same level.

The best answer someone could give you!

PropilotBW · May 17, 2014

Post some pictures for critique. You'll find out quickly where you really are!

IronMaskDuval · May 17, 2014

I started at level one but took a secret hidden pipe on level three to get to a level with another pipe to get me to the final level. Sorry pal, I've already beaten the game. As for your level, you're still at the start menu.

astroNikon · May 17, 2014

nzmacro said:
You are as good as everyone else here We are all on the same level.

Danny.

Yeah but my Kingfisher BIF photos look like fuzzy sparrows compared to yours ??
Maybe you need to send me your camera and technique.

manaheim · May 17, 2014

Worrying about some sort of imaginary rank (there is none) marks you as an amateur. Don't worry about your rank. It's energy wasted that could be used on improving your craft.

jewleeanne · May 17, 2014

Everyone here makes some really good and valid points, thanks for everyone's input! I don't need to worry about my "level", I need to just keep working on what I can do. I just saw some blog posts and was wondering what these titles were, beginner, amateur, intermediate, or professional, things like that. Thanks again for your help!

Overread · May 17, 2014

If you mean in terms of the sections we have here, Beginners and Beyond the Basics then its only a very loose definition of the terms we use and its mostly defined by the nature of the question in itself that you've got rather than any attempt to classify users.

So if your question is basic like "what is aperture" or "how do I change my shutter speed" then its likely to sit in beginners - if your questions are moving beyond there and getting into more advanced topics then shift into beyond the basics.

Most of our regular users also surf viewing the site on "new posts" so many times the subsection you post in won't have a dramatic effect on possible replies you'll get.

nzmacro · May 17, 2014

astroNikon said:
nzmacro said:

You are as good as everyone else here We are all on the same level.

Danny.

Click to expand...

Yeah but my Kingfisher BIF photos look like fuzzy sparrows compared to yours ??
Maybe you need to send me your camera and technique.

Yeah but that's exactly it. There is no way on this planet I could take what you take and the level would drop to a minus level if I tried

No where near as versatile as a lot of you folks, I look and wonder how the heck you folks take what you do sometimes. I would be completely lost to be honest. So the levels are different for each and every one of us. There is so many variables to levels.

Better off just to enjoy it and not worry about what level we are. Very hard to give a title or number to a photographer and a lot of that comes down to who is looking and what they personally like.

All the best.

Danny.

photoguy99 · May 17, 2014

It's all very well to be amusing, but the bottom line is that people DO frequently talk about levels.

"You're not at that level yet"

"You are obviously at a higher/lower level than I am"

and it's natural to find this confusing. "Level" is generally just used to mean someone's better or worse than someone else. And roughly half the time, the speaker has the ordering wrong anyways.

It sounds like the OP has a firm grasp on technical principles. If I had to guess, the adherence to RAW and M mode, which are basically dogma, suggests a beginner who's been pretty careful about educating his or her self.

None of this matters all that much, though, because as other people have pointed out what matters is whether the photos are any good. What do you think of your pictures? Before answering, go look at some pictures in fashion magazines, in photography magazines, in monographs on photography. Really look for a while, and then go look at your own pictures. You can tell.