Community Info

Community Information

Below is information about the "Photocritical: constructive approach to visual art" community on LiveJournal. To join this community, click here. You may leave the community at any time.

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photocritical (6261087)

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Name:

Photocritical: constructive approach to visual art

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About:

**LAYOUT CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION**

This community is for anyone who loves photography, but is tired of everyone with a camera and Photoshop thinking they’re artists. Not everyone is a perfect photographer from day one - including us (the moderators)! Here you can share photos, receive criticism, and give feedback to others on their work, because we know that hearing ‘Oh my god I love it!’ over and over (though it may be pleasing) doesn’t help your progress. Hearing what you might want to work on is important, as is hearing what you did right.

This community is mostly geared towards beginners/novices who seek to further develop their skills, or experts who seek to fine-tune their work. Showing off your perfected final products that you aren't looking for criticism on is probably best done elsewhere.

COMMUNITY RULES
General etiquette:

1. Don’t join if you can’t handle criticism. Don’t come here expecting to be showered with praise. Mindless flattery is good for self-confidence; however, it is useless for improving technique and skills. We seek to develop both.

If your photos have strong personal meaning and recognize that others might not see this in the images, you probably won't want to change them, so post photos that others might enjoy as much as you do. Also, if you post knowing what you don't like about your photos, but are content with them being 'good enough', then you probably won't be very happy in the community.

2. Don’t comment if you have nothing more to say than ‘I love #4’. You can’t love everything. Constructive criticism is necessary. If you choose to comment, indicate what you disliked or thought could be improved, and/or what you enjoyed, and explain why. Although the artist may disagree with your views, it is still beneficial to hear opinions from a variety of viewers.

3. With portraits, don’t reply simply to comment on the model’s beauty/ugliness. This is not a rating community.

4. This is not a DATING community. Don’t comment to hit on said models.

5. We’d like to moderate the community as little as possible. So, all criticism must be constructive. Just because we’re not here to boost each other’s ego doesn’t mean you’re allowed to be a jerk and trash someone’s photography. Criticism must relate directly to the work featured, and comments that are rude, sexist, racist, and otherwise abusive will not be tolerated. We want this to be a friendly place.

Deleting comments that are not your own will also not be allowed. Contact a moderator if there is a problem.

Technical junk:

6. One picture of reasonable size (640x480 pixels or less) can be posted without a cut; the rest go beneath a lj-cut tag, preferably one stating the number of remaining pictures.

7. Nudity is fine, but best put behind a cut so you don’t get slackers surfing at work complaining about it (and you'd damn well better be of age if you're posting anything with nipples/ass/genitals). However, blatantly sexual material with no artistic merit will not be allowed.

8. Direct links to individual photos are okay, but it's annoying when someone links to an outside page and then disables comments on the community post in order to get replies elsewhere. Please don't do this.

9. Don’t post just to look for camera advice or a good photo host; there are better places to do that. Discussion posts are more than welcome, but remember that text-only posts tend to get ignored in a community where photos are expected.

10. There's no rule against putting a lot of photos in one post, but a large number (14ish+) can be hard on those with dial-up connections. Additionally, it can be hard to study the photos individually if there's a lot at once. If you have a lot of photos you want to post, you might get a better response if you break it up into a couple of entries, or post the ones you are most concerned with getting feedback on.

Helpful (but optional) stuff:

- If you're looking for a specific type of feedback, you might want to include a brief description of what you were trying to capture/accomplish with your photos. That way if, say, you wanted the shots to be in colour with low contrast, people won't comment saying they'd like to see them with more contrast, or in black and white, when you're looking for other information.

- When you're giving critical responses, it's always okay to ask questions if there's something you don't understand or are interested to find out. The photographer can be just as involved in the feedback area. If you're the photographer, it's okay to ask specific questions you'd like people to respond to (ie. 'What do you think of the [contrast/brightness/blur/etc.] in #3?').

- While commenting on the technical aspects of the photo is important, remember to also say how the photo makes you feel emotionally, if it does this. Photography isn't just about making things look good.

Your maintainers are:
Jen:

blackbird__fly (email: blackbird__fly at livejournal)
Adam:

godfrei (email: unregistered at hotmail)

Contact us if you have a question or problem, but make sure you put the community name in the subject so your email doesn't get deleted as spam. And speaking of spam, don't comment in our personal journals with matters regarding the community.

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