What other photography forums?

Phate

Phate

Phate

Caporegime
Joined
1 Nov 2003
Posts
35,691
Location
Lisbon, Portugal
Ok guys, I know I'm living in gaga land thinking that there are other forums beside this one, but it's time to reduce the amount of screen burn my monitor has from 'forums.overclockers.co.uk' in the address bar :p

Basically I'm looking for more places to post my photos to get a broader all round collective opinion :) - And also to look for at different peoples work :p

I can think of the following:

1) This forum
2) Talk Photography (although the quality of the images and the bitching on this place can quite frankly be...shocking :p)
3) Photography-on-the-net

Can anyone recommend any others with good community's etc? :)

Spanks,
Jake x
 
Phate said:
2) Talk Photography (although the quality of the images and the bitching on this place can quite frankly be...shocking :p)
Click to expand...

a bit harsh on the quality of images bit, yeah okay there are a lot of newbs learning so some can be hit and miss but not everyone (even on here) is a seasoned professional.. ;)

the bitching though i will agree with at times though lol

i left POTN a long time ago, full of annoying over opinionated yanks.
 
neil_g said:
a bit harsh on the quality of images bit, yeah okay there are a lot of newbs learning so some can be hit and miss but not everyone (even on here) is a seasoned professional.. ;)
Click to expand...

I wasn't being bigheaded about it. My point was that you would get (and quite rightly so) a newbie to photography post some images. And instead of people getting critique to help them you'll get a stream of people going "wow nice work! keep it up!" or "great set"

Then someone who knows what they are talking about will come along, tell them that they aren't great, tell them why they aren't and how to improve - then said person gets slated for not being supportive.

It also leads to the OP of said set being err...mislead, so he then starts commenting on others photos when he has no idea what he's talking about then defends his points to the death when hes 100% wrong :p

So yeah, I've stopped posting on there :p

Don't get me wrong, there is good work on there and people who know what they are talking about, but that's about 5% of the population that browse it :)
 
with that clarification on your previous point, yeah youre right that can and does happen. but then short of locking the crit sections down so only people with a certain criteria can post youll always get it. but then even some of the regulars post bad or irrelevent advise sometimes..

it does seem to be a victim of its own sucess a little.
 
Indeed, I used to browse it a fair bit a few years back - Now I only use it for its market place.

Shame really :(
 
Last edited:
Photography forums annoy me in general. I used to be on about 10 of them, like largeformatphotgraphy (bunch of small dogs trying to bite each other tails), apug.org (bunch of *****), dpreview (Credit Card Phographers), POtN ("How good is the 50mmf1.8?") etc and I scaled it down to nothing now. I returned a bit on POtN since I got my 5DmkII, but I hadn't posted there since 2006, and I'm already getting bored!

I own a "manual focus" related forum, which I like to be quiet and polite... thats about all, apart from this recent participating here...
 
Phate said:
I wasn't being bigheaded about it. My point was that you would get (and quite rightly so) a newbie to photography post some images. And instead of people getting critique to help them you'll get a stream of people going "wow nice work! keep it up!" or "great set"

Then someone who knows what they are talking about will come along, tell them that they aren't great, tell them why they aren't and how to improve - then said person gets slated for not being supportive.
Click to expand...

Phate said:
Indeed, I used to browse it a fair bit a few years back - Now I only use it for its market place.

Shame really :(
Click to expand...

Exactly - well summed up and, with the second quote to highlight, that is the problem. A lot of those offering 'critique' or, rather, saying 'good set' etc. are really only doing it to boost their post count for the market place sadly. I recall having a chat with one of the admins because I was close to the post count and had been critiquing a few shots and they thought it was me trying to bump it up. Naturally that wasn't the case as I neither wanted to buy nor sell but it was good to see they were keeping an eye on things.
 
Kol said:
Exactly - well summed up and, with the second quote to highlight, that is the problem. A lot of those offering 'critique' or, rather, saying 'good set' etc. are really only doing it to boost their post count for the market place sadly. I recall having a chat with one of the admins because I was close to the post count and had been critiquing a few shots and they thought it was me trying to bump it up. Naturally that wasn't the case as I neither wanted to buy nor sell but it was good to see they were keeping an eye on things.
Click to expand...

the mods are very good i must say.

i think things have improved now theyve lowered the post count but extented the membership time needed for the classifieds. it was aweful when they had the post count set higher..
 
In terms of viewing others photography I'm finding POTH more interesting that TP mainly due to the points Jake outlined above but also because the site is global it offers more varied content.
 
I agree that TP "critique" tends to be trite comments but if you wish for proper critique you can ask for it. You will certainly get it!

The value to me of a busy forum such as TP has been to raise my knowledge of the game since I only came out of the green zone about 3 years ago and very basic questions are answered quickly.
Another important thing for me is that TP covers a greater age range, important for an old git like me. Photographers aren't all under 35!
I can turn up at a photo meet without people thinking I'm someone's grandfather tagging along unlike other meets I can think of.

POTN seems to suffer from that particular American trait that any criticism will damage peoples self-esteem which is a major crime in the USA. However, they do cover a very wide field of interest especially in their dedicated subject sections.

PhotoCamel can be a bit fluffy/cuddly at times but ego is not a problem there.
 
I only know you guys and The Dorkroom in the Something Awful forums. Are we not good enough for you Phate? :(
 
Phate said:
I wasn't being bigheaded about it. My point was that you would get (and quite rightly so) a newbie to photography post some images. And instead of people getting critique to help them you'll get a stream of people going "wow nice work! keep it up!" or "great set"

Then someone who knows what they are talking about will come along, tell them that they aren't great, tell them why they aren't and how to improve - then said person gets slated for not being supportive.

It also leads to the OP of said set being err...mislead, so he then starts commenting on others photos when he has no idea what he's talking about then defends his points to the death when hes 100% wrong :p

So yeah, I've stopped posting on there :p

Don't get me wrong, there is good work on there and people who know what they are talking about, but that's about 5% of the population that browse it :)
Click to expand...

HA ha Sounds like me (being the Noob not the Pro)
I have commented on pictures but I know what I like, and If I like it I'll say so. But that does mean I may not like a perfectly composed shot purely because I dont like the subject.

I've had some harsh Critique and its more that welcome. How else am I going to improve. I took a picture on holiday that to be honest didnt think much of But its been given the thumbs up, so I looked at it a bit more and can now understand why some people like it.

I dont give advise though. Who am I to give advice only had my d7000 a couple of months, and it was my first camera.

I agree with the "great shot" comments on shots that even I think are poor. Waste of time for all concerned.

But you cant have a noob only forum. we need the proper toggs to help us out.


2penneth done
 
I love TP it's the only one I use apart from the very occasional browse here. I find it far more varied than here, probably due to the number of posters and far less cliquey.

I've found 5 or 6 people on TP who I've learnt more from than any book/mag etc. Advice that I have found extremely helpful :)
 
Phate said:
I wasn't being bigheaded about it. My point was that you would get (and quite rightly so) a newbie to photography post some images. And instead of people getting critique to help them you'll get a stream of people going "wow nice work! keep it up!" or "great set"

Then someone who knows what they are talking about will come along, tell them that they aren't great, tell them why they aren't and how to improve - then said person gets slated for not being supportive.

It also leads to the OP of said set being err...mislead, so he then starts commenting on others photos when he has no idea what he's talking about then defends his points to the death when hes 100% wrong :p

So yeah, I've stopped posting on there :p

Don't get me wrong, there is good work on there and people who know what they are talking about, but that's about 5% of the population that browse it :)
Click to expand...
This is the exact reason that I stopped posting and then even bothering to read TalkPhotography. I'm all for being constructive rather than simply critical, but saying 'Wow, great image' at every given opportunity is helping nobody.

I browse the Fred Miranda forums occasionally. Quite a lot of pros on there, so I go mainly to look at the images.
 
Last edited:
I've been watching some FroKnowsPhoto on YouTube which is quite entertaining. He has his own forum that I've posted on a couple of times to submit for his weekend topics. It seems more suited to people new to photography though, so many of you might get annoyed by it.

Ghhh typing on a phone pad is painful...
 
I like forums where I can learn from. Not just from in terms of technical knowledge, all the math involves in the invert square law etc but I like to look at images where I go "ooooooh, I wish I had taken that" or "How did you take that?" to the "Bloody hell, that is amazing!" You hardly get that on TP these days. 99% of the stuff are photographs of their wife/children/pet or flower from a garden. The forum as a whole doesn't inspire me to go take more pictures to I rarely visit to read photos but post some for crit.

I understand there is a place for TP and it is a invaluable resource to the community. However, as I said, the work by most of the members produced doesn't make me want to go out and improve myself. It is like playing tennis, you only can get better by playing with a better player than you.

PoTN is much better in this respect, although American based, they have a lot more pros who post there, and as a whole the quality of work is also much higher. I don't have to trawl through 100 threads to find one that has nice photos.

Another forum which I go to (read mostly) is DWF, it is a subscription based forum, but the standard is on another planet, so high at times it makes me feel inadequate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom