I don’t want to be a whinger but ….

[swampa]

Been having a discussion in this thread about whether film frames violate the border rules (currently you can only add a 2px border but film frames are considered legal regardless of size).

I think it should be illegal, others think the rules are fine as it is. What do you think?

[jpatten]

Hmm I see arguments on both sides, but the strictest interpretation would remove frames I think.
It doesnt matter to me however

[soosh]

FWIW, swampa, I don’t think you’re whinging. It’s a legitimate question and I respect your opinion on the matter.

[swampa]

Thanks. I also respect your view on the matter (and the knowledge you have in this field – made me feel very n00bish again!), its just something I have noticed for a while now and wanted to bring up but as I was usually in the comp at the time, I thought it would be bad form.

[Elsinore]

I frankly don’t care much either way. I can see arguments on both sides, though I think it’s kosher within the current rules. I think it’s something the community should discuss and clarify though, so I’m glad you moved it over here 🙂

[swampa]

so I’m glad you moved it over here 🙂

You told us too! 😛

/Was quite happy stuffing up the other thread 😛
//Not really

[Elsinore]

Yeah yeah, I’m glad you did what I requested, then 😉 Honestly, I think this keeps the issue from getting lost in the theme thread. It’s clearly important enough to discuss, so it merits its own thread.

[schnee]

How about make them legal for both digital and film? That way, Farktography gets a little polish.

yeah, yeah, I hear the concerns about recreating the 35mm-threaded-in-Holga effect digitally, but… we could try it until we get a bunch of drop-shadow, torn-edge entries and then re-address.

[anneb]

How about make them legal for both digital and film? That way, Farktography gets a little polish.

yeah, yeah, I hear the concerns about recreating the 35mm-threaded-in-Holga effect digitally, but… we could try it until we get a bunch of drop-shadow, torn-edge entries and then re-address.

I tend to see the outside of a negative as part of the picture more than a border, just a rather extreme choice when it comes to cropping the photo. Thus I reveal my throwback, cave-photgrapher nature! It probably comes from being exposed to too many photochemical fumes while staring at negatives or something.

For the most part, though, I’d rather that people not do too much in the way of borders- couple reasons.

*) I’d rather people spend the time they would spend “scrapbooking” their photos actually on the photos (cropping, white balancing, selecting, whatever). ie. if it’s there, it’s there, if it’s not, we get to see a slightly larger inline of your photo.

*) If borders are similar, the competition presents more nicely, even on the web. It’s neat, with some of the contests, that you can get a bit of an exhibit-like feel, something that works better or worse, depending on the week’s theme. The less variety there is in borders and size etc., the more polish I see to the exhibit as a whole, to be honest, but… therein madness lies, and all that.

*) The first person to post a photo “torn paper” border that’s really subliminal bouncing boobies around the outside WILL be posted the week I have that career-apex life-best photo submission, that other one will win, and I will be mad.

[Curious]

*) The first person to post a photo “torn paper” border that’s really subliminal bouncing boobies around the outside WILL be posted the week I have that career-apex life-best photo submission, that other one will win, and I will be mad.

that type of border would be off limits even under the looser rules we are discussing. i voted don’t care but after rethinking the subject maybe no borders is best. it sure is less distracting. same goes for the habit of centering some folks have/had. just because you can really isn’t a reason to do something.

[staplermofo]

I’ve never seen farkography this evenly split.

[corsec67]

*) The first person to post a photo “torn paper” border that’s really subliminal bouncing boobies around the outside WILL be posted the week I have that career-apex life-best photo submission, that other one will win, and I will be mad.

that type of border would be off limits even under the looser rules we are discussing. i voted don’t care but after rethinking the subject maybe no borders is best. it sure is less distracting. same goes for the habit of centering some folks have/had. just because you can really isn’t a reason to do something.

What if I took the picture I wanted, then printed it out, ripped the edges, and scanned or took a picture of that, like this:
flickr page

As I see it, adding a thicker frame just uses up pixels that could be in the picture, so I say allow it, since there is reason enough to not use it. I have noticed that I try to take my pictures in a vertical orientation since that allows more pixels in the fark competition, but I still limit myself to 800px tall, not the full 1100px I could do.

[sleeping]

I don’t think I’ve ever used slide or negative film borders in a competition, but I have posted scans of entire polariods:

I think the border, and the imperfect edges, is an important part of these, and if borders were disallowed I doubt I’d post one in a competition again.

[jpatten]

I think the Intent of the borders rule is to eliminate post-processing. A scan of an entire polaroid or the scanf of photos that HAVE borders as part of the development process itself while may technically violate the letter of the rule I dont think violate the spirit. OF course a lot of this winds up being posters honor…..

[soosh]

One thing that I would like to say is that if a person wants to have the look of a photo with a negative, slide, or polaroid frame, it’s not that expensive to purchase a Seagull, a Polaroid, a Holga, or a TLR and some film and have at it. A Holga and a roll of film will run you what, $50 with shipping? I picked up a fully functional Polaroid SX-70 recently for a dollar. This is really lo-fi stuff, so to say “I’ve only got a digital camera, I can’t compete with that” is missing the point.

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