Rules of the photo challenge

The purpose of this activity is to to help people develop their photo skills.

A fotpic site has been created for this sole purpose.

It is not a competition in the sense that there is no winner


The address for viewing and adding comments is

http://nationalpreservationphotographs.fotopic.net/

Rules:

1. Please do not abuse this fotopic site or I will ask a mod to ban you from here

2. If you wish to load pictures, please ask me for the details by PM.

3. I will change the password at intervals and will inform those who have asked for it what the new password is.

4. Deadline for loading is midnight Friday -given that most people fot at the weekend, this gives amply time to load.

5. Comments to be provided until the following Friday evening.

6. Please keep commentary constructive -I reserve the right to remove abusive comments

7.A mod will be contacted if abusive comments are left with the view to having their membership of NatPres suspended

8. No themes to photos at the moments apart from being railway connected -but this may change. So it is not limited to preserved railways but must be railway related.

9. Photos and comments will be left for a further three weeks and then removed.

10. Photos to have a commentary provided by photographer but the photographer must not identify themselves at this stage

11. Each week a new folder will be created in number order.

12 The first folder is week 5 (the accountant in me!!) week 6 has now been set up

13 Two photos only per member per week.

14 By posting a photo you are confirming that you took it or have the permission of the person who took it.

15 Please do not abuse the fotopic site by loading unsuitable photos.

16 Contributors are encouraged to describe why they took the shot and what equipment they used in the commentary box on fotopic

17 All comments to state the posters id - either their name or their national preservation member name

18. To add a comment, click the comment button at the bottom of the photo. You are not restricted to adding comments to photos already commented on!

19 Do not click on reply when adding comments - there is a bug in fotopic which means that if you click on reply on the comments screen your reply will be attributed to the original poster!
If you need instructions on loading to fotopic please PM me.

Please PM if you have any questions or concerns.

 

Just a thought, should there be an limit on image size for an uploaded picture so that we can maximize the number of pictures we can get on the quota. Yes the collection may only be up there a week but if everyone on the Nash Pres wants to upload 2 pictures of full size maybe some people wont be able to upload because of the quota

 

i upload 750x500pixels as standard

 

Which week?

 

Friday each week. There will be a new collection there each Saturday to load photos into.

 

Three new "rules" added:

16 Contributors are encouraged to describe why they took the shot and what equipment they used in the commentary box on fotopic

17 All comments to state the posters id - either their name or their national preservation member name


18. To add a comment, click the comment button at the bottom of the photo. You are not restricted to adding comments to photos already commented on!

 

I will start a review thread in here shortly, to which anyone may reply.

I agree that some statement of intent and/or technique by the photographer would be useful in making a review, though equipment used is less important.

 

how do i enter and put photos on to the site

 

by PM me.

but in this case I've sent you the instructions

 

19 Do not click on reply when adding comments - there is a bug in fotopic which means that if you click on reply on the comments screen your reply will be attributed to the original poster!

 

Just an idea, there seem to be a lot of comments but not so many photos, should we say you can only comment on each gallery if you add a picture to that?

I.E. you can only comment on Week 7 General Pictures if you've added a photo to it?

Might work...

 

[quote="Sidmouth
Having posted pictures I'm happy for any individual to comment , either good or bad . the limit of 2 pictures has restricted what people put up

Out of interest how many are posting ?[/quote]

I limited it to two to save space as there was a danger that we would exceed the free limit. with two topics a week that's a potential of four photos per person.

However this doesn't appear to be a problem at the moment.- so feel free to post more if you want to - though I will reimpose the limit if it becomes a problem.

I think one or two of the comments have been a bit harsh some more subtle wording would get the same point across - whether this has put people off I don't know.

 

I've posted in all three weeks so far.

Having the general collection each week will be useful.

 

I agree with BristleGWR, and have posted two photos in all the weeks so far. I only ask about limiting cmments like I did before as it takes so long to load the page up. Also there seem to be a lot of people commenting in photos when there aren't many in a specific collection, so it would be fairer that way.

I think 2 pics each is fine for now to be honest. If it gets to a stage where people aren't posting in a collection then maybe increase it. Some of the comments do seem a little personal, such as...

In addition, The Wise One has obviously been very busy commenting in them (I can't find one he hasn't!!) but it would be good to get some other ideas floating around

One question, what is a "record shot"?

 

I posted two shots in both weeks 5 and 6, and intend to post a couple into this weeks.

A 'record' shot from what I understand describes a photo that technically is very good but which contains little in the way of artistic or photographic merit. It serves as a record of a loco/location/item at a particular time but doesn't have any form of narrative. A bog standard 'front 3/4 shot of a loco with sun over your shoulder' tends to fall into this catergory.

I purposely take 'record' shots when I visit a railway quite literally as a record of my visit, but then if the opportunity exists to do some 'photography' as well then I will. Two different things in my view.

 

Record shot

Stepney: 'record shot': this is my shorthand for saying: ok, it does the job in the sense that it's a competent, technically ok record of a train , or a station, or whatever. It has value (sometimes considerable value) in that it could be a useful reference for a modeller, or as a chronicle of events, or as a prompt for the photter's own memories of the day. However, it's not outstanding in the sense that, if it were on display on a gallery wall for example, the eye would be immediately be drawn to it. It's not an attention-grabber, it doesn't knock your socks off, it doesn't make you think 'wow'. In visual/artistic terms, it's not out of the ordinary. To give a concrete example: Find an official manufacturer's ex-works photograph of a Norfolk and Western A-Class 2-6-6-4 (there'll be one on the net somewhere). That's a record shot. Now find yourself a copy of 'Steam , Steel and Stars', and look at pages 125-126. Wow!

 

Thanks for that, hadn't come accross the term before but seems to have been used a lot. Cheers for the clarification.

 

Can someone tell me how fotopic determine the final displayed image size - my usual 750x500 seem to produce midget images in portrait format.

Ta.

Steve