How Do You Rate Your Image Quality ?

[Guy Parsons]

...... I was just reflecting on Guy's comment that "arty" photos don't tell you anything about a person. ........

No, I did not say that, what I did say was "Arty stuff does not tell you anything, except how arty I am, it's basically an ego trip. I'm more practical and want to remember the world as it is/was and not if I was clever on one day. "

So I should imply from that = "arty" shots do tell something about the person.

The fact is that I worked out all the arty enthusiasm over a period of some years in camera clubs, now I just want to take photos that mean something to me and possibly others.

But then I do lapse now and then back to camera club mode and take a shot of a rusty hinge or some flaky paint, you know how it goes.....

Looking up a mushroom, LX3.......



Regards.......... Guy

 

[danielsonkin]

...... I was just reflecting on Guy's comment that "arty" photos don't tell you anything about a person. ........

No, I did not say that, what I did say was "Arty stuff does not tell you anything, except how arty I am, it's basically an ego trip. I'm more practical and want to remember the world as it is/was and not if I was clever on one day. "

So I should imply from that = "arty" shots do tell something about the person.

The fact is that I worked out all the arty enthusiasm over a period of some years in camera clubs, now I just want to take photos that mean something to me and possibly others.

But then I do lapse now and then back to camera club mode and take a shot of a rusty hinge or some flaky paint, you know how it goes.....

Looking up a mushroom, LX3.......

Regards.......... Guy

Wow, did I miss that! Thanks for the clarification Guy. Sometimes I wonder how much I really misunderstand what my clients tell me at work; while thinking I know what they're telling me. But for whatever reason don't pause to respond and therefore nothing is clarified. Communication is really complex, even when speaking the same language. II think I've reached my quota for deep thinking today. Just got back from Israel yesterday and my brain/body is not sure if it's day or night.

BTW, I like that shroom shot.

Take care,
Daniel

--
http://danielsonkin.smugmug.com/

 

[danielsonkin]

I have been taking photographs for fifty years now and pretty much know what I like when I see it. Currently I have an exhibition of my work showing in an art museum in Venice, Italy, all taken within the last month before the photographs were shipped off to the curator. I typically take about ten shots of the same subject and maybe about eight different subjects during an outing. I bought the FZ35 because I hate lugging heavy professional and prosumer equipment around. I take pictures in passing as I go about doing different things and do not go on photographic outings very often

I am sailing around the world in my own sailboat so I have plenty of opportunities. I get about one out of four of different subjects as keepers and about one out of ten of different subjects as gems. After I got the FZ35 and had taken it out of the boat on board my boat, having read the manual on line, I stepped out on deck and the photograph here was one of eight of this very first subject I photographed, a dead flower floating by my boat. I would rate it as a decent gem. Nice start for the FZ35 which I got just a week or two ago.





.

Beautiful shot. It has an outer space quality to it.
Daniel
--
http://danielsonkin.smugmug.com/

 

[danielsonkin]

Hi Daniel,

I knew your response would be just so..thanks.

i might add that within the arts world there are a sprinkling wh believe the artist should live and breath their work and sacrifice (if needs be) the safety (and perhaps destruction) that playing the 'happy idiot and struggle for the legal tender' (Jackson Browne)
a no compromise for the purity of the form.

Cheers
Billy Dingbat

Thank you, Billy Good point. Fortunately for me, or not depending on your perspective, the artists in my family were as dedicated to political activism as their art. I sometimes felt like a political refugee but the country was my family. ;-)
Take care
Daniel
--
http://danielsonkin.smugmug.com/

 

[Detail Man]

Myths are public dreams,
and dreams are private myths .

-Joseph Campbell

 

[Wiggers_626566]

--
Cheers
Billy Dingbat

 

[Detail Man]

Wiggers_ wrote.

Clever, there. I like that twist. And "life" (aware existence in general) is even more mysterious (and in many ways intangible) as are conceptualizations of aesthetic-value that fail to be legislatable fact.

While societal thinkers may not overlook the importance of poiesis, or creative activity, neither may they underestimate its danger, for the poietai are the ones most likely to remember what has been forgotten - that society is a species of culture .

The deepest and most consequent struggle of each society is therefore not with other societies, but with the culture that exists within itself - the culture that is itself. Conflict with other societies is, in fact, an effective way for society to restrain its own culture. Powerful societies do not silence their poietai in order that they may go to war; they go to war as a way of silencing their poietai. Original thinkers can be suppressed through execution and exile, or they can be encouraged through subsidy and flattery to praise the society's heroes .

What confounds a society is not a serious opposition, but the lack of seriousness altogether. Generals can more easily suffer attempts to oppose their warfare with poiesis than attempts to show warfare as poiesis .

... poets do not "fit" into society, not because a place is denied them but because they do not take their "places" seriously. They openly see its roles as theatrical, its styles as poses, its clothing costumes, its rules conventional, its crises arranged, its conflicts performed, and its metaphysics ideological .

To regard society as a species of culture is not to overthrow or even alter society, but only to eliminate its perceived necessity .

-James P. Carse, "Finite and Infinite Games"

 

[Wiggers_626566]

of living ones life is placed in the 'art' box by way of tidiness and containment..I have often wondered whether the urge/need etc to look beyond ones sociable confines is indeed a form of mental illness..but then me thinks the entire human race suffers from some form of brain disorder and some manage it better than others!
Cheers
Billy Dingbat

 

[Guy Parsons]

All the world is strange save thee and I.. and even thou art a little queer. — Robert Owen

I guess we all individually think that way....

Regards...... Guy

 

[Wiggers_626566]

--we could all quote until the cows come home (well I have plenty around me)
these days very often our wit and wisdom is a mere click away!

I am forever amazed at how very different individuals perceive the 3 letter word to mean etc..many consider it a formally boxed concept (framed painting) to be it and all the rest is nonsense..because it is not 'formalised' !

In western society the label 'artist' is often used in somewhat demeaning terms....probably meaning nutcase!

Guy I rather thought you were 'belittling' in the WAY you wrote it and (for me) in turn put a completely different spin on your statement....I think when the push comes to the shove there is hardly a living soul who would not rescue personal 'life' stuff over the Mona Lisa..but then there are always exceptions!
And of course the older we become the less we value silver and gold.
Cheers
Billy Dingbat

 

[Guy Parsons]

--we could all quote until the cows come home (well I have plenty around me)
these days very often our wit and wisdom is a mere click away!

I am forever amazed at how very different individuals perceive the 3 letter word to mean etc..many consider it a formally boxed concept (framed painting) to be it and all the rest is nonsense..because it is not 'formalised' !

In western society the label 'artist' is often used in somewhat demeaning terms....probably meaning nutcase!

Guy I rather thought you were 'belittling' in the WAY you wrote it and (for me) in turn put a completely different spin on your statement....I think when the push comes to the shove there is hardly a living soul who would not rescue personal 'life' stuff over the Mona Lisa..but then there are always exceptions!
And of course the older we become the less we value silver and gold.
Cheers
Billy Dingbat

Nothing personal intended to anyone here, or anywhere else in fact. Just making a random observation and the Owen quote fitted nicely. Just some noise from the peanut gallery, that's all.

Carry on.......

Regards......... Guy

 

[Wiggers_626566]

Cheers
Billy Dingbat

 

[Guy Parsons]

Nice. Leunig comes up with strange stuff at times but great truths live within. I like his weird whimsy.

Meanwhile I found this right/left brain 'test'. I wonder how others see it. In my case I blink or look away for a second and the direction swaps - about equal right/left for me it seems. Is that good/bad/indifferent?

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/right-brain-v-left-brain/story-e6frf7jo-1111114603615 oops forgot the link, had to edit.

Let's now see how far we can wander off thread.....

Regards............ Guy

 

[Mikedigi]

Detail Man wrote:
. . . . . . .

My keeper rate is small, maybe 1%. It's more about the impact of the pic than about image quality, I have an FZ8 shot taken at 1250 ISO that I would never delete. Sometimes I delete all the pics taken on a particular occasion because they are simply boring.

Re image quality, I still find the 80-100 ISO IQ of the recent FZs and TZs/ZSs disappointing (frogspawn), maybe 12 mp is just too much and 8 mp would be cleaner.

That does not prevent them from being Top Guns, for me. Their lenses, handling and ability to grab pictures are simply Wow.

Mike

 

[MooCows]

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest, I would
say #2. (2 being the fact that I captured an image in the first place).

I have 5 cameras at my disposal and can count on one hand, how many
images I've actually collectively taken thus far in the last few months.

Winter is not my time of year, and as I tend to stay indoors for the most part
during this 7 month period, I therefore certainly don't have anything to
rate for the most part.

Also, it's been an entirely new process for me, this digital age, and find
that in some cases, I'm starting all over again from the film days, when I first
picked up this wonderful tool back in 78'.

I plan on getting out more, now that the nicer weather is on the
horizon, and look forward to "uping" my keeper rate to at least
a #3.

If I ever get a #5 on my scale, I'll certainly come running through
the forum door like a kid with a C+ average on his report card.

Thanks
Kim

--
Shoot first and ask questions later!

 

[danielsonkin]

Nice. Leunig comes up with strange stuff at times but great truths live within. I like his weird whimsy.

Meanwhile I found this right/left brain 'test'. I wonder how others see it. In my case I blink or look away for a second and the direction swaps - about equal right/left for me it seems. Is that good/bad/indifferent?

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/right-brain-v-left-brain/story-e6frf7jo-1111114603615 oops forgot the link, had to edit.

Let's now see how far we can wander off thread.....

Regards............ Guy

Thanks for the interesting link, Guy. I have been very interested in incorporating this type of brain reseach into my work as a therapist. There is this wonderful researcher at the University of Wisconsin who is partticularlly interested in this area of brain asymetrry, Richard Davidson. He scanned the brains of Budhist monks to find out why they tend to be more compassionate and more frequently experience states of emotional equanimity (compared to us regular people). He found that the monks had higher activations of the left prefrontal cortex (part of the brain right behind the forehead) relative to the right. Approach emotions are regulated by the left prefrontal cortex (love, compassion, happiness, etc.), whereas withdraw emotions are regulated by the right (anger, fear, sadnesss, etc.). Some people are left dominant, others are right dominant. So some people really do see the glass as half-full (left dominant) or half empty (right dominant). What's more, is that he found that you can change a right dominant person to be more left dominant by teaching them meditation or mindfulnness.
Daniel

--
http://danielsonkin.smugmug.com/

 

[Detail Man]

Daniel ,

Have you noticed that the "cine-loop" runs in one direction for a while, then reverses and runs backwards for the same amount of time (noted by a commenter). Made me wonder ... what?

 

[silent tim]

She span clockwise for me, I tried to concentrate and reverse it but nada - noticed her spinning anti clockwise after I changed focus away, and couldn't get her back to clockwise again.

Saved the gif to desktop and ran the loop through photoshop, exact same result, so the sudden reversal is not trickery on the website!

 

[Detail Man]

silent tim wrote:

She span clockwise for me, I tried to concentrate and reverse it but nada - noticed her spinning anti clockwise after I changed focus away, and couldn't get her back to clockwise again.

Saved the gif to desktop and ran the loop through photoshop, exact same result, so the sudden reversal is not trickery on the website!

Saved and watched the animated GIF, too. It appears that (somehow) the direction of the playing of the "cine-loop" is reversed (via the GIF itself) in non-regular time intervals - probably a table in the GIF animation instructions that includes some random number time intervals (after which the direction of the playing of the "cine-loop" is reversed) ...

However, it is very clear which direction the figure is spinning in when they are spinning in that clockwise (or counter-clockwise) rotation.

Seems like a joke to me - it is not my "mind". It's very clear what the direction is !!! ...

 

[Guy Parsons]

If I ever get a #5 on my scale, I'll certainly come running through
the forum door like a kid with a C+ average on his report card.

Yes, it's good to think of images in the camera club terms of 1 to 5 scoring.

My simplified look at the scoring method when getting a "judge" to score images is...

Score 1. Waste of time and effort, should be discarded. Technical mistakes.

Score 2. Could do better, something went a bit wrong with technicalities or artistic content.

Score 3. Good average work, basically the keepers, all round competent shot, nothing particularly wrong with it.

Score 4. Better than average, technically spot on, does hold the attention somewhat, suitable to print for the wall.

Score 5. Wish that I had taken that, a brilliant result. Very few usually found.

I tend to discard the 1. stuff and keep the rest as you never know what may be needed in future. If making a slide show then selections from 3 to 5 included. Maybe crops from 2 if need some detail not elsewhere.

If printing then they are selected from the 4 group, or 5 group if I have any, very rare indeed.

As an aside.... thinking along those lines I once had to re-judge hundreds of images in a major inter-club competition after a stuff-up with real judge availability and late delivery of some items. To see how I stood as an untrained judge I analysed the judging style of the other official judges involved (4 I think at the time) and I came in with very similar results to the toughest judge in the group. I then realised that I did seem to know what I was looking at when evaluating images - I just couldn't talk the arty talk if I were to be asked to make artistic comments.

Regards....... Guy

PS. As for my own stuff....

Score 1. = Occasional, not many really.
Score 2. = Quite a few. Usually when experimenting with ideas.
Score 3. = Lots.
Score 4. = A significant but smaller than 4 group quantity.
Score 5. = Rare, cause for a celebration. Fireworks optional.