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Thank you Keith,
I will hold my hand up and admit i'm not the greatest photographer lol, but i'm learning and experimenting and having fun along the way! My shots are in focus and carefully composed to the best of my ability. I'm not up my own A*** just because my click/comments have gone up, and some people don't think there justified, i've worked hard over the last couple of weeks, its not just about whacking some filters on..and i have plenty of straight shots in my portfolio.
And i have uploaded the original photo when i have been asked....I have nothing to hide and no illusions of greatness..i'm just trying to learn in my own way in my own time.
I pulled an image last night because I'd played with it in PS, gave it one of those 'painterly effects' but felt guilty because it wasnt a straight shot. Like Annaliese I do have some straight shots in my portfolio and still have my feet on the ground too. I know that some think I get too many awards but I've worked bloody hard to build up my skill and my portfolio.
Quote: I pulled an image last night because I'd played with it in PS
But is that not why we have a DIGITALLY MANIPULATED section of the gallery?
much of the problem may lie in photos/images just being uploaded to the 'wrong' category.
Joe B
Bloody hell, K.....stop letting people impose their will on you. Keith's just expressing an opinion and his main point is that there should be a clear distinction between an image and a photograph. Don't feel guilty about anything unless you are compromising your own beliefs.
Photoshop only replicates camera effects in theory and soon the cameras themselves will be photoshopping the images as you take them and then it will be acceptable.
Being a relative newcomer, I uploaded a series of Portraiture (mainly) unps'd images lately.
I did get some clicks/comments, for which I'm grateful, but the critique from which I had hoped to learn was very thin on the ground.
Still as an exercise in something different (for me), getting the courage to ask people to take their photograph, it was both of benefit and immensely enjoyable.
Something I'd both recommend and have a go at sometime again, even though it doesn't seem to have much appeal here.
T.
Flippin eck...no need for guilt...it's just that many of these 'images' are treated as being great photographs and quite clearly they are not...who knows, they may under all that slap be a great photograph too....but if you start with a great photograph you often end up with an even better manipulated one...quality continuation...n all that
I agree with you Keith to a certain extent but this is far less of a worry for me than the hundreds of images that get RCs that are out of focus, poorly composed, overexposed (not intentionally either). False praise of these images is far more disconcerting that whether a good photograph has been played with. Off to take a chill pill 
Photography is a wonderful and easy medium for everybody to use, but if you have aspirations to take it beyond snapping you have to be prepared to learn it the right way around.
Start with learning the technical aspects of the camera, then learn to take good photographs, then learn to manipulate images in a controlled way.
This is the road to photographic nirvana.
My camera, a borrowed camera, works only on manual, no TV or AV settings work. I have to control it, and as a result have learnt a whole lot more.
From Keith's original post:
Quote: ...a quick scan of the Readers Choice pages shows very few Photographic Portraits...
As the Readers' Choice depends on people clicking, maybe the question is not "Are people not taking good portraits any more?", but rather "Do people not like portraits any more?"
I agree with Keith's dislike for overly-manipulated shots, but we should first check that the argument's orginal assumptions are correct.
Having watched a popular vote competition at our camera club i was not surprised to see the voting follow the same pattern as viewer clicks here on EPZ.
Look at the images that get EC, there is a wide variety of subject matter, including portraiture. It is also a shame that there is not an HC area, as i have seen some good portraits achieve this.
Try the portraiture search if you have e2 and mostly what you will see is nothing spectacular, often only happy snaps in my opinion. Good portraiture is an art and a skill that i feel many people are lacking in, for one reason because of the problem of encouraging people to sit for portraits. If you can get 1 or 2 good images that you can show other potential victims it is always a good start. Current media stories including Red Ken's signposts will not help.
Even better for a good laugh, compare most viewed and most voted for, lots of nudity in the most viewed but they do not always get the clicks. Some of the highly voted for images are in my opinion really great and often show a great deal of imagination - worth getting e2 to have this power to view, if it is good Pete usually spots it.
Mike
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