Photography Chat - 2011-08-23 (page 1 of 2)

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12:51 AM

@rfusca An interesting idea. I have generally approached voting on a weekly picture more as a design decision, i.e., "what would look good as a part of the site banner?" and I think others may have taken a similar approach at times. Adding a theme to the contest could help to emphasis the photography aspect of the images.

^ That should probably have been a comment in meta. :-/ Heads over to re-post.

@Sean and as a photography site, that's what i'd love to see happen. Us encourage our people (myself included) to stretch themselves photographically.

make sure you vote on whether or not to do it appropriately

voted +1

okie dokie

1:06 AM

@Sean Added some examples of themes and commentary.

And I just noticed my comment's typo... grrr. Too late to edit. More relevant, I was reading through the Twitter dailyshoot ideas and a lot of those could work for a theme. They have things like, 'green,' 'childhood wonder,' 'reflections,' 'rule of thirds,' 'smooth,' 'freeze motion or blur,' etc. All of those could apply to a wide range of photography styles.

lol

ya, along that concept - this isn't a 'new' idea by any stretch. just new to us

1:56 AM

@Francesco practice makes perfect

I'm still curious if we absolutely MUST have the photo poll on StackExchange.

@jrista @Laura 's probably the person to talk about that, but i know if i was them, i'd want to keep it on the site

@jrista hows it going

eh

was supposed to be on vacation

but?

but my grandmother is not going to be back in town for a while, so I'm stuck watching her cat

and I haven't slept in 3 days, so it seems it will be a sleepless vacation

I'm thinking I'm just going to shelve my photography for a while

Its just getting more and more frustrating, never being able to actually get out in nature when the light is good

that stinks

2:11 AM

and be able to stay in nature for a while to get some of those perfect moments that actually make a great photograph

ya

and since I never sleep, I can't ever get up early enough to photograph sunrise, and I NEVER have energy to do any worthwhile hiking to find any amazing secluded spots

so I am thinking I'll just shelve my photography until Canon releases the 5D III

and get back in at that point

and all my vacations until then will basically be working on figuring out the specifics of my sleeping problems

I was figuring it out a little while ago, but I'm off on the dosage of one or more of my supplements

I need to figure out the right mix again

ya

well new eq won't create new time

?

oh, I think I get it

I know that...thats just a decent marker to get back into photography

ah, ic

2:15 AM

the more time would come from me figuring out my sleep problem, so I don't have to spend all of my weekends in bed trying to get some rest

I would be able to go off every weekend and do some kind of photography

ic

and hopefully have the energy to actually hike around and find something worth shooting

ya, that'd be good

well, I'm off to go stock up on more supplements

before I go

do you think were going to just be stuck with standard Q&A topics for our PotW?

ciao

@jrista yup, for the foreseeable future

2:23 AM

because I was thinking we could still do the pre-load weeks

and just ignore any voting that goes on those weeks

how do we 'ignore'?

then, have a mod recreate the voting thread with the same images, and include the submitters name in the body of each answer

that way, at least, there is more fairness in the ultimate votes

interesting

hmm'

so, a closed thread is still valid for voting, right?

ya

2:25 AM

only locked threads are ineligible for further voting?

yeah...I think that might be one way of improving the contest to be more fair

do we have a problem with fairness?

and people could vote all they want on the pre-loading thread, the votes just wouldn't mean anything

well, sorta

anyone who submits a photo late in the game really doesn't stand a chance

the people who submit in the first couple days are usually the only ones that matter in the long run

as they have more time to gather votes

and 99% submit in the first few days because of that

I wouldn't say 99%

maybe 65-70%

and others trickle in

way more than that

2:27 AM

soemtimes really good ones

its not like they don't know that voting is about to end...

they're just impatient

this week, 75% were submitted in the first two days

the other 25% were submitted later

right but if you extend that to 3 days...they were ALL submitted in 3 days...except for a wierd one that submitted after the deadline

and the one that submitted 3 days, ended up submitting this week, so its no big deal

perhaps

3 days is almost half the contest

either way

sure

well i don't think its a problem, personally. But making a thread for submissions and a seperate thread thats fully mod recreated for voting isn't a bad idea

i'm not sure i know of a week where it really would have made a difference in the result

1 hour later…

3:44 AM

Does Gimp do RAW processing? Otherwise, that could be a major factor in favor of Adobe over the other programs. photo.stackexchange.com/q/15101/1480

Though, Lightroom has that covered, I suppose.

ya, they need to use LR

so its really LR + whatever else

For portraits, I'd think photoshop's only real advantage is the liquify tool. No better method to shave a few digital pounds off.

Yeah, I would not want to go back to before Lightroom. Picasa is nice, but I really miss the advanced features of Lightroom. It just makes my images look that much better.

Ya, its a no brainer once you use Lightroom.

The one thing I keep Picasa around for is face detection.

@Sean i did that too for awhile, but it became cumbersome

3:59 AM

Really? It's pretty much automatic.

Well, i think that was before I figured out picasa could read the raws. I had assumed it wouldn't for awhile and was exporting jpgs to picasa.

but i don't use picasa online anymore..so, eh

no PotW downvotes yet

@DiAlex - btw, are you intending to buy a D3100?

4:45 AM

@rfusca I wasn't really saying their is a problem...just that we can improve things. However I don't think its really worth the effort in the end.

@jrista oh, sure

sometimes its difficult to tell online, 'tone' like that...ya know?

so we haven't bought bread from the store in almost a month - everything homemade - its AWESOME

2 hours later…

6:45 AM

hello

hey

@rfusca have you tried to add something to the bread? like walnuts, sesame seeds, chocolate bits?

I lose homemade bread, the aroma which pervades the house... :-)

@Francesco oh ya, we do all kinds of different things

lose -> love

obviously :)

lol ya

6:57 AM

I've found some minor glitch in LR

for instance: why you cannot zoom while cropping/rotating?

hmmm hadnt noticed

and in the same tool the interface, which otherwise is smooth and well designed, is making me lose a bit of time because it's very easy to rotate the cropped region by mistake and things like that. It's a small nuisance, but it's a nuisance

lol

ya

7:48 AM

have to go now, bye :)

6 hours later…

2:08 PM

i'm surprised its all evened out on :

4

Q: Picture of the Week themes

Its been brought up that it might be interesting to devote the occasional picture of the week contest to a theme. I'm envisioning announcing a theme 3-4 weeks ahead and then accepting entries around that theme. (We could also publish a full list of themes far in advance.) Pictures wouldn't nee...

2:27 PM

hey @rfusca

hey jam

i voted it up

seems a good idea to me

those that the theme doesn't fall into their niche could take on the challenge and try taking something out of their comfort zone specifically for the contest

@JamWheel ya, and the themes are going to broad enough you shouldn't even have to stretch THAT much if it really bothers ya, ya know?

@JamWheel i hope it works out, it wouldn't be every time and the PotW feels stuck in a rut to me. The majority of the contestants seem to be the same week to week and I'm hoping this could encourage a few new people to try.

@rfusca hopefully - not sure I will though lol

lol :P

2:35 PM

i discovered 500px.com today

lol discovered

its a neat site

well, it was previously unknown to me, so yes I discovered it for myself :)

it seems to be a nicer version of Flickr

you musta missed the 500 times it was brought up in here lol

lol, 500

ya, right now their quality seems to be pretty high - but there doesn't seem to be any particular method to keep it as such

2:37 PM

what do you mean? the standard of the photographers using it is high?

on a side note, i was browsing it earlier and came across this... WOW:

500px.com/photo/1685298

the picture quality seems pretty high

yeh

i think that is probably artificially elevated though - their front page stuff seems to be hand picked and popular stuff... the popular stuff will have to be good to get all the votes - as will the stuff in the editor's choice

@JamWheel "146 pictures stacked for this one (0.01mm steps +-) " WOW

indeed

yup

i just degraded the quality a whole lot by joining :D

damn, now its all gone to sh!t ;)

2:40 PM

indeed

they are subsequently doomed

i really like it

i have chucked a bunch of stuff up there to try it out for a while

see how I feel about it in a while

might start using it in favour of Flickr

what have you been up to today?

just working

from home today

me too

well

mostly

lol

not feeling so great today for some reason

that sucks man

2:47 PM

meh, i still have all my arms and legs

ain't all that bad

if you only get concerned when limbs fall off...thats scary

"other people are much worse off" is what I am generally thinking

lol

indeed

a few months ago, a friend of mine was taking a nap in the car and woke up a mute quadriplegic :(

were they driving at the time?

got in a car accident and because she was asleep with her seat tilted back slightly, the seat belt pretty much snapped her neck

ya

2:50 PM

assume she wasn't the one at the wheel then

yeh - seat belts only work if you're sat up properly...

her bf of the time was weaving in and out of taffic and slammed into the back of a semi

indeed

he walked away with a few minor cuts

i was about to say, I assume he walked away fine

scumbag

ya :(

i don't think theyve even seen him since

he'll get his one day - all comes around in the end

indeed

they say she may heal somewhat

2:53 PM

hope so

i suppose it is a little bit easier to accept if it was your own stupid fault

but they said for up to a year afterwards, movement doesn't really mean anything...you could be able to move your hands one day and then wake up the next day and not be able to and never get it back

but if you were just sleeping

ya :(

hmm, yeh - this 500px seems to be between smugmug and Flickr - bridges the gap quite nicely - Smugmug's community side is non existant and Flickr doesn't let you sell stuff - this sits in the middle it seems

indeed

2:58 PM

500px.com/photo/1658916?from=popular

nice

some great stuff in here

yup

the main thing I like about smugmug is how nicely it integrates into LR

i hadn't integrated it with LR at all

i don't like LR's export / publishing thing

and Smugmug's pricing UI is a disaster

well, i like. I just drag some stuff, push and button and boom on smugmug

hey @Vian

hey @pauestalella

what he said ^^

Vian Esterhuizen

hey guys

what's the 500px/smug mug discussion about?

3:13 PM

the merits of each

why to use one or the other

and the fact that Jam is easily swayed and just ruined 500px ;)

Vian Esterhuizen

Ruined 500px? haha

I used to be active on Photo.net but I haven't been on any community site for quite some time. Really liking the photos on 1x lately though

ya, 1x is like a whole other thing though

what is 1x?

Vian Esterhuizen

yeah yeah, I know. Just saying really. Love the photos there.

The other two are more community based too I assume?

@JamWheel do you live under a rock? does your internet only go to this site?!

3:17 PM

@rfusca i'm not necessarily easily swayed lol - the smugmug thing is kind of what I am after but not quite, Flickr is the other end of what I want but not it either, 500px seems to span the 2 quite well. Still, will see how I get on

@rfusca yes and no, i use it for pron too :P

@VianEsterhuizen 500px is like a flicker on steriods, smugmug is more geared towards pros trying to sell stuff

well, 500px supports selling stuff in much the same way as smugmug as far as I can see

@JamWheel 1x is a site but it requires that they actually review and accept your work to join

right

Vian Esterhuizen

Ahh. Gotcha. I've heard of both but never really bothered to look into them too much. You on any @rfusca?

3:19 PM

HOPEFULLY - this shot was taken using a remote camera: 1x.com/artist/marselvanoosten

Vian Esterhuizen

I actually have a photo being reviewed at 1x right now.

@VianEsterhuizen i have a flickr account, and used it for a bit - but found it a PITA to use. Most of my stuff these days is family related stuff on Smugmug in pw protected albums

i generally don't care that much about the social sharing aspect

buy my family is spread out, so I post to spread the love ;)

@VianEsterhuizen what photo, can you post?

@VianEsterhuizen most of my stuff is portraits

Vian Esterhuizen

@jamwheel haha, let's hope so. That's an amazing shot though.

it is a good shot

i always wonder about shots like that though - they must have been doing something to get it to react like that... seems a little unfair to do for a photo op

Vian Esterhuizen

It's actually the same as POTW but a little more effort in post.
http://1x.com/queue/r465402-fullsize.jpg

That link should work.

3:25 PM

do you send a body of work at once to them for review or an image at a time?

nice

and what are the credentials of the people doing the reviewing?

Vian Esterhuizen

@jamwheel That's actually a pretty young lion, and it may have been mating season. Which, judging by the brush in the background, it's quite dry and I think that's around the right time. Anyway, mating season. SUPER AGGRESSIVE. Really don't have to do much other than be near them.

Not sure on the credentials, but the work on there is really good, so they don't let just anything through.

@VianEsterhuizen that would be my downfall then. lol

@JamWheel 1x.com/artist/1x/faq and go to 'selection process'

Vian Esterhuizen

3:28 PM

On 1x you can also submit photos for critique and review, without being "selected" to be published on their site.

@rfusca cheers, will take a look

@rfusca well, that all sounds like a pain in the ass lol

certainly little of my sort of photos would be accepted there

Vian Esterhuizen

How's this for dedicated: http://1x.com/photo/43149/album/39883

And I would love to have this as giant print: http://1x.com/photo/43734/album/39883

lol

@VianEsterhuizen battery life - 23 seconds...

Vian Esterhuizen

haha. Very true. When I first saw that I thought he had some sort of wrap for his camera but it doesn't look like it.

3:36 PM

@JamWheel maybe for a Canon ;)

lol

Nikon batteries are made of magic?

yup, sure are

shame they made the rest of them of fail then :D

Vian Esterhuizen

POTW seems to be a sure way for me to get my confidence crushed

lol

thats not good

Vian Esterhuizen

3:43 PM

haha

@rfusca hey

how goes it

Vian Esterhuizen

by the way. Is there a policy on models being used in POTW? Does the community just assume the photograph has the proper model releases?

amazon is certainly not the cheapest place to buy equipment :)

@pauestalella it often times is very competitively priced...it was cheaper for the 7d price you posted

A 5d II is definitely the better choice, but its a non trivial price difference to most people. Depending on prices and stuff, its a 60-75% increase in price over the 7D

3:53 PM

It's just that I'm amazed that people consider the 7D for portrait. It's a fantastic camera for sports and wildlife, when fast, precise focusing and high frame rate are desirable

@pauestalella ya, me too, i think its an odd choice for portrait

If cost is an issue, they should go for cheaper solutions (60D?)

because they are paying a lot for features they are not going to need

@pauestalella ya, you can see how the whole thing came up here: photo.stackexchange.com/questions/15018/…

they were talking about a 7d and I was was wondering the exact thing you were - so it became the 60D vs 7D q

7D has micro adjust which could be v useful for portraiture

getting your lenses spot on their focus

that seems to be the only real advantage I can see - that and 5% in the viewfinder

3:57 PM

if you have the money for a 7D, I don't see why you wouldn't go for a 5dmkII

not a great deal more pricey

@JamWheel you people must be loaded...

depending on where you buy, there's a 700-900 dollar diff

if you were doing shoots on a beach or in a moist environment the 7D might be preferable because it has some weather sealing

aaah, I see

its like an extra 60-75% on top of the 7D

so you go for the 700 dollar difference and think, if I am prepared to spend [price of 7D] i might as well spring the extra and get the right tool for the job

and save

.. lol

3:58 PM

then go for the 60D and a good lens (70-200 f2.8

there is that

i'm confused where the 'and save' happened lol

save your money to get the extra - might take a little longer befor eyou get the camera

ya, thats what i'd do, go for the 60D with a better lens...esp considering they were thinking a 7D and a kit lens

the kit lens on the 7D is the 24-105 though to be fair

3:59 PM

it is usually a good idea to the the good and expensive first, even if you have to wait a little, than first pay for the cheap ones, and then realize you really need the good one

although

investing your money in glass first is probably a good thing too

bodies will come and go

the glass will last

the 24-105 is in no realm a portrait lens

you could use it for one to get by with

not ideal, i'll grant you

@JamWheel in very, very ideal, contrived situations

24-70 would be better

4:01 PM

ya, i'd recommended a 24-70 and a 70-200

that depends on your portraiture, for some people it is only done in contrived situations

i guess

leaving

see you

@pauestalella ciao

see you

4:04 PM

hey @Sean

bloody dogs

uhh ok

charging round after each other making a racket

this TV advert makes me wish I was allowed a machine gun:

come to america ;)

yes, but then these idiots would be too far away to shoot with a machine gun

4:10 PM

ya, but then that'd be far enough away you wouldn't have to

i would know they are there

lol

heh, I have been there 500px.com/photo/1696604?from=popular

actually on the little beach

i hate beaches

Vian Esterhuizen

that video is amazing!

@VianEsterhuizen the one that makes me stabby?

Vian Esterhuizen

4:17 PM

Marketing genius

possibly so

lol

Vian Esterhuizen

Oh boy. I see why it makes you stabby

but how will they live with themselves when the actors have all been consumed by self loathing and have hung themselves

wow, ouch lol

Vian Esterhuizen

4:19 PM

The hatred in the comments is entertaining

yes

i don't know if you have noticed though

all the comments on youtube seem to end up full of hatred - regardless of the content of the video

lol

it could be a picture of some baby rabbits and at some point the comment stream would descend into racist remarks

Vian Esterhuizen

very true

5:15 PM

haha, just going through some photos again, just noticed the tail gunner on the BBMF lanc sticking his arm out the turret to give a thumbs up

5:37 PM

It's interesting that the "Let's do it!" answer for themed contests is exactly zero. Can someone with enough rep tell how many up- and down-votes there have been?

Even I look like I have a split opinion on the subject ;-)

I voted it up 1 earlier and it was registering +1

so it has been downed since

strange for the opinion to be so precisely split

Vian Esterhuizen

I also put a +1 on it

+4 and -4 votes

click on the 0 between the arrows

@JamWheel I can't believe I had that power and didn't realize it!

heh

did you vote for it @Sean?

Vian Esterhuizen

5:45 PM

I can't click on the 0 :(

really?

probably a min rep thing

@JamWheel I did. My +1 has been counted. But probably countered by other-Sean.

lol

Vian Esterhuizen

lol

Yeah, just tested in Chrome too. Must be a rep thing

photo.stackexchange.com/privileges/view-vote-counts

5:47 PM

gonna re-post this, it is so wonderful

500px.com/photo/1685298

am I right in saying downvoting doesn't cost any rep here?

Vian Esterhuizen

Woah, I wouldn't even know where to start ... Intense picture

@JamWheel There was a recent change to that... let me see if I can find it.

@VianEsterhuizen isn't it incredible?

146 images stacked apparently

0.01mm steps ><

Vian Esterhuizen

1000 rep ... to view how many up and down. Seems odd

3

it does

so i starred your remark

maybe someone will see it and agree :)

@VianEsterhuizen what rep do you have currently? is it photo specific rep?

5:52 PM

Stack Overflow Blog: Optimizing For Pearls, Not Sand

Posted by Jeff Atwood on June 13th, 2011

In March 2010, we rebalanced our reputation system to favor answers.

While we value good questions (and asking a great question is absolutely an art), we want to explicitly encourage people to provide the best possible answers. Without people interested in providing good answers, the questions are moot. We know that answers have more intrinsic value than questions, and the reputation balance should reflect that.

The question asker already enjoys a substantial benefit beyond reputation gain from upvotes on their question — namely, they get great answers to their question! Thus, the asker shouldn’t need as much reputation gain. …

"Downvotes on questions no longer cost the casting user 1 reputation, so they are effectively “free”."

their help topic on voting needs updating then (the one you posted before) as it says it costs you still

It is possible that voting on answers in non-meta still costs rep. I don't know.

hmm

i don't think it does

good god, is it me or does this dog look... well, dead: 500px.com/photo/1228192

Vian Esterhuizen

6:13 PM

Little darker background and I would think it was just a head on a table ...

lol

@Sean I thought this was true from the beginning...answers always got 10 rep, while questions got 2, right?

@jrista I don't know for sure, but that sounds right. The only change I was aware of had something to do with down-voting, but I don't recall exactly what changed with regard to that.

looks like they also limit the number of questions asked per user per day and month

ya, i'm rather surprised there are a number of people against it like that, but hey...thats why you ask (the theme idea)

6:38 PM

@Sean the recent change regarding downvoting was that downvoting questions (just questions, not answers) is free

6:52 PM

@Sean it does

I just looked at my user page, and apparently I have never cast a down-vote. huh.

interviewing Itai right now, he's a travel tog and runs neocamera - if you got any questions, holler

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