Suzanne Williams
(K=380) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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I was hardly trying to offend anyone, and am grateful for the kind comments regarding my work. I have gotten some helpful input from Usefilm in the past. However, when I tried to upload a photo yesterday and it continually gave me a "need lens info" error, I was frustrated and eventually gave up. There needs to be a "no info" option on the forms. I have no problem posting SS/Fstop info when I personally influenced it. But when I simply used Program Auto, I do not see the point. I am by no means a professional, but neither am I posting snapshots. My goal is to get better at photography and this site gave me a good opportunity to do that, as well as view some fine work. My final point is that Usefilm still needs some serious work, and the "improvements" have not improved anything from my point of view.
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Matej Maceas
(K=24381) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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Hi Suzanne. In my experience, abandoning the auto mode in favour of the semi-auto modes and then full manual mode was a significant step forward in photography. If the compulsory nature of the exposure fields helps motivate people to take more interest and control over their camera's functions, then I think it is a good thing.
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al shaikh
(K=15790) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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Suzanne,
Even in auto mode you will start to get an idea of what the settings were as you start really looking at images. Whether it was f2.8 or f8 becomes obvious usually by looking at the image and knowing film format.
Just take your best guess and go with that. IT does not have to be exact, it is just one more way for us to sort images so you can see something like: SHots with very small depth of field. Shots with very long exposures, this way when you want to experiment you will have options available to you to look at and understand what is going on behind the lens.
I hope that explains why we are doing what we are doing.
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charlie f. kohn
(K=25919) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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al, i understand your point but cannot see the value. if this were a school i could imagine teaching about the influence of aperture and timing. but this is meant to be a platform to exchange experience. an experienced photographers doesn't need the information you require and neither does an interested amateur. but most of the members seem to be more interested in taking pictures and learning from others how to do so. and they don't want to care, even more so as most of them seem to go digital. do you really want to enforce them to take notes of their dogital data? i am not intending to, that much i can say.
please do think about this mandatory requirement again please.
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Eric Goldwasser
(K=4294) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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Charlie, everyone sees value differently. For me, I like to see what other people are purposely, or programatically setting in order to achieve the beautiful images they take. Conversly, if an image looks underexposed, too dark, too light, etc, I like to see the settings there as well so that I can try to help with a useful comment. With the advent of Digital cameras, almost EVERY camera saves the shutter and aperture settings in the EXIF information from a file. Getting this information now is FAR easier than with film where one must keep track manually...
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jcs nosuchreality
(K=974) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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What about classifying photos as helpful or not, i.e. I'm certainly not going to bother to record the exposure on every new picture I take, and I might want to upload some, so why not have an option to tag the photo as "un-helpful", "irrelevant", or "just plain pretty, nothing more"?
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Rui Miranda
(K=2716) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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Hi Suzanne, i get your point but that is a good hing to fill in the requested fields because if you take a good photo, its interesting to see the characteristics of it. Whe you take a photo, even in Auto mode, you can always go to properties tab on windows, and there you have a full information about the photo, including those that are asked. Just a tip... Best regards. Rui
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Suzanne Williams
(K=380) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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I can understand all the points of view given in this thread and had no idea I was opening such a "can of worms" so to speak. However, I do not use Program Auto out of total ignorance. I choose Aperture or Shutter Priority or even Manual when it is needed - infrareds, indoor photography, and panos being an example. But for a lot of situations it is NOT needed. And unless I chose to alter the settings from what the standard camera would choose on its own, I still feel it serves no purpose for my giving that info. Regardless, this discussion would not solve my "lens info needed" error. I tried typing in "in camera" but it would not accept that.
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Paul Lester
(K=130) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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I'm not a fan of the new requirement to enter shutter speed, apeture, etc. There are thousands of combinations to get a correct exposure. The photo should be about a message, not about the technical data. Although, sense I use a digital camera most of the time, the information is easily available as part of the image, I see absolutely no value in posting the technical data. It would be better if you make it optional.
Meaningful photographs about about the interpretation by the photographer and the world around them, not about f-stops.
Regards,
Paul
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Marcy Massura
(K=1848) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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Since I am a digi gal- does it have to be required to say the images went on a compact flash card! Seems so silly
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Stephen R. Zang
(K=1044) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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I welome and enjoy the exposure value requirement. Like Steve said, this is a learning site. Fancy photoshop manipulation is one thing, but one of the best ways to learn photography is to know what camera settings were used to make a particular picture. The phrases: "serves no purpose to post that info", or "I see absolutely no value in posting the technical data" are detrimental to learning how to photograph, or make your camera do what you'd like it to. Pertaining to "Meaningful photographs about about the interpretation by the photographer and the world around them, not about f-stops" that is correct if you are in a gallery or some exhibition, but Usefilm.com isn't that kind of place. This is a learning site, first and foremost, not a show off site. Exposure data, I'm sorry to say, is a vital part of that mission.
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Suzanne Williams
(K=380) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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That is exactly my point. It serves no purpose to post info that was chosen BY THE CAMERA and not by myself the photographer. I am always glad to share it if requested, and I fully understand the need for others to learn. But if I used Program Auto, and am asked "What settings did you use?" I will reply "Program Auto" and not make myself seem bigger than I am.
And for the 3rd or 4th time, my original complaint was that I COULD NOT UPLOAD A PICTURE BECAUSE IT KEPT ASKING ME FOR LENS INFO. MY CAMERA HAS A FIXED IN-CAMERA LENS SYSTEM AND IT WOULD NOT ACCEPT ANY ANSWERS I GAVE IT. I can post the SS/F-stop if it is going to be definately required. But if I cannot post the photo in the first place because the form keeps asking me for a lens, when my camera does not HAVE a detachable lens, then all the other conversation here is a moot point. I will get no comments, no corrections and learn nothing about the photo because I could not post it in the first place.
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Stephen R. Zang
(K=1044) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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I was able to enter whatever I wanted into the boxes, including my camera which isn't listed yet.
Your lens info is printed on the front of the camera, or in the manual. Or put in anything you want. Perhaps you tried to enter things on day one of the complete site rewrite from scratch? Alot of things didn't work then, but should now.
Worked fine for me.
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Peter
(K=4365) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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Suzanne doesnt like it, Matej does, charlie doesn't, Eric does, Paul doesn't, Rui does, Marcy doesn't, Stephen does.... So, where does that leave us?
Most important of all though - the site developers do, and there is a purpose behind it. So, it seems that we should all do our best to accept this and make the information (or guesses) we do put in as accurate and as meaningful as possible, even if we do disagree with it.
Kind regards.
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al shaikh
(K=15790) - Comment Date 3/25/2004
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Suzanne for now just put FIXED as a lens, that will work.
I will try to fix it this weekend for everyone.
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Suzanne Williams
(K=380) - Comment Date 3/26/2004
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Okay, I will try that. I appreciate all the understanding conversation here - that everyone for the most part has been "adult" about it. I really wasn't trying to stir up controversy. Just airing my thoughts.
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