Guidelines for the BiWeekly Shootout Forum-Updated 4/11/10

[calr]

As you may already know, the original "Guidelines" thread was lost during the last forum crash. Consequently, here is a new one.

I found an anchored post in the General Forum on posting photos. Here is a link to it. I have also posted this link in a separate message.
http://forums.steves-digicams.com/fo...amp;forum_id=2
Although this posting suggests 640x480 as the largest size, we will accept up to 800 pixels for the long dimension.

The Biweekly Shoot Out forum is a place to have some fun and, hopefully, learn a few things. It is a place to see some excellent photos...and a few bad ones! It is a place to post your photos and get comments from the moderators and other users. Everyone is invited to comment and critique posted photos. If you like a photo, tell us why. If you don't like a photo please tell us exactly what you think is wrong. You are asked to be civil and make your comments constructive. Simply saying a photo is "crappy" doesn't help anyone and could cause the loss of a good forum member.

In this forum, we post a new challenge every two weeks, either on Tuesday evening or on Wednesday. This is not a contest! There are no winners or losers. The idea is to read the challenge description and then go out and shoot pictures within the guidelines specified in the challenge. Most challenges are wide open to interpretation but some may include explicit guidelines or restrictions.

I said there are no winners but this is not true. We are all winners in that we can learn something from every photo posted and the comments attached to that photo. Some of those comments will be technical in nature and will recommend different camera setting to try or a different approach to the composition.

We have a few rules by which we try to abide. Here they are:

1. Photographs should be taken during the challenge period, if possible. You are encouraged to go out and shoot new photos for the challenge. (Removed limit on archive shots)
2. Photos should be posted during the challenge period, if possible. Occasional "late" posting are OK as long as it doesn't get out of hand.[/*]
3. Please limit yourself to three postings per day and three photos per posting. For those of you who post a photo as an attachment and then immedialy post a reply to the first message for the purpose of adding a second photo, this will count as one posting.[/*]
4. You may use any of the tools, filters, and effects in your editor to enhance your original photo. Please do not add any non-photographic elements to your image or create artistic poster type images. Use of the clone tool to remove objectionable elements, move elements to a better location in the image or duplicate elements is permitted. Selective coloring and BW conversions are permitted as are infrared images. Merging of more than one photo is permitted. If you like to "tweak" colors or do other artistic renderings of your photos, it is recommended that you visit the "Digital Art" forum. There is a lot of tweaking going on there. If you do any significant enhancements to your image, we ask that you show us both the original image and the enhanced image. You may be asked (for educational purposes) what you did to accomplish your desired image. [/*]

Note-- you are not required to do any post processing. Feel free to post the original image from your camera if you want.

We will have challenges now and then that will be "Anything Goes". In those challenges, you are free to do anything you want to the image. In those "artistic" challenges, you are not required to post anything wild or artistic if you don't feel that you have the skills for digital art. In that case you can post a normal/enhanced image that meets the theme of the challenge.

These rules may be changed as required from time to time.

Now, go out and shoot some great photos and show them to us. Remember to read the entire challenge description. I think some people just look at the challenge title in the forum index and use their own interpretation. This can result in some negative comments or disqualification of the photo for the challenge.

Enjoy!

Cal

[calr]

We had a request from one of our newer European members that we spell out state names in our postings. The reason for this is that most Europeans (and other nationalities) don't know the state abbreviations but most are familiar with the state names. I think this is a reasonable request.

Thank you.

Cal

[Bynx]

It sounded like the changes were going to be good to some and bad to some. I can only see positive things here. Cudos to you Calr and anyone else responsible for some very sensible updates.

[onlooker]

Originally Posted by calr

Guidelines for the BiWeekly Shootout Forum-Updated 4/11/10

Cal could you please mark in same way where the changes are? I'm very pleased the BiWeekly Shootout forum is continuing.

Thank you.

Bernice

[2morrow]

Likewise I think these are good, I hope the changes breathes a little more life into the forum. Should be exciting.

[Ordo]

Originally Posted by calr

3. Please limit yourself to three postings per day and three photos per posting. Cal

Nine picks a day per member? As much as you like the picks, who can possibly comment nine picks a day per member?

[selvin]

Ordo,
Remember we are not asking for you to comment on all photos. If each viewer were to comment on at least one or two photos we would be significantly ahead of our previous pace.
The veteran stalwarts like yourself have done a remarkable job of viewing and commenting when appropriate. Please do not feel as if we are demanding comments from anyone on every photo. If the majority of our viewers made comments the interactive level of this forum would grow by leaps and bounds.

Like you I look forward to the effect of the new changes.
Aloha

[calr]

Originally Posted by selvin

Ordo,
If the majority of our viewers made comments the interactive level of this forum would grow by leaps and bounds.

Aloha

If the majority of our viewers commented on every photo, Steve would be constantly buying new hard drives for the server! As it is, this forum probably uses ten times as much disk space as any of the others on this website. OK, now that I've said that, let's make it necessary to add those disks!

Cal