[schnee]

I tried to edit the Rules (on Fark) using the guidelines we’ve discussed. Here’s what I got:

* What are acceptable and unacceptable modifications?



** These are the submission guidelines for all Farktography contests,

unless otherwise stated in a theme description.



* Submissions must be photographs. Screen captures do not count as

photographs.

* You must be the original photographer of your entry. Do not

submit anyone else's photography as your own.

* You are only allowed to enter a photograph once. Do not submit

the same photo to another contest later.

* Up to 3 photos can be entered into each contest, as long as each

photo is of a different composition. Please post each photo

separately so they can be voted for individually.



** General Guidelines:

* Gross compositional changes are bad

No adding Elvis, no erasing ulitiy lines



* Image corrections are accepted

Color correction? Perspective? Pin cushion? Fix these. That's cool.



** Acceptable Modifications:



* Cropping

* Sizing

* Rotating

* Copyright text

* Correction for pincushion or barrel distortion

* A small 2 pixel wide border

* Spot treatment for red-eye removal, film scratches, and sensor

or scan dust is acceptable, but these are the only spot

treatments allowed!

* Sharpen using any method

* Dodge and burn

* Pimples, blemishes, stray hairs - these can be cleaned up



** The following modifications and filters (or their non-Photoshop

equivalents) are also allowed:



* Adjustment layers

* Levels

* Curves

* Brightness/Contrast

* Greyscale

* Sepia (or adding a similar monochrome tone to an image)

* Hue/Saturation/Lightness

* Color balance

* Sharpen

* Unsharp Mask

* Jpeg artifact removal

* Moire pattern removal

* Median Cut

* Noise reduction

* Gaussian blur



NOTE:



While the above modifications are allowed for Farktography, you should

strive to keep your results in the realm of the realistic. For

example, the contrast and saturation tools can yield cartoonish

results when cranked up to their maximum strength. Such use of these

otherwise acceptable tools is discouraged and may subject your

photograph to disqualification.



** Unacceptable Modifications:



* HDR (High Dynamic Range) images or use of similar techniques

that blend either separate exposures or differently exposed

single RAW images unless the individual contest specifically

states that HDR is allowed. Multiple exposures produced

in-camera are always acceptable, however.



* Remove or add objects or textures via cloning or copying - no

removing of utility wires, no inserting images of Elvis





If you have any questions about the acceptable modifications, or if

you'd just like to chat and learn more about photography, feel free to

drop by the forums at Farktography.net or email

questions@farktography.net.

It still feels “heavy” to me. I think we could tighten by concentrating on the “that shalt not” – if it is not forbidden, go for it. Basically, the key is the “General Guidelines” of “don’t change the composition, but feel free to correct all you want”.

Suggestions?

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yeah… ’bout that. for some reason it is taking way too long so I took it out of rotation. Not sure why – I’m investigating. It’ll be back.

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Hey, I’m only a release and a half back now.

“Schneeworld – 2005’s technology, today!”

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Best thing is to get TotalFark and post early

I know it’s only $5/month, but there are months when I don’t have $5 left to my name by the end of it.

/starving college student

Let me rephase that – best thing is to take good photos. The best non-photography thing is to get TF, but that is to only exploit the weak correlation between earlier posting times and number of votes.

And when I say ‘weak’ I mean that most statisticians would say the the correlation is statistically insignificant.

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often times it does seem like I’m going to need to buy a DSLR if I’m going to add a #1 to my profile.

I kind of used to feel that way. Looking at my porfolio, four of my six #1’s are done with film. DLSRs help with composition and selection – one of the digital winnars was selected from about 50 candidates. And the last digital winnar was just a matter of good timing (DSLR was incidental to the image).

Voting is notoriously hard to predict – trust me, I tried to determine the independent variables way back when. Best thing is to get TotalFark and post early, but even that isn’t as strong as one may assume.

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Heck, I wrote the tracking code and I’ve done it. Our draconian moderator always catches it.

Always. >squint<

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schnee-

1. What in the self portraiture theme would be cost prohibitive with a dslr?

Just that the winning image was made all on one piece of film. Multiple exposure techniques are difficult / expensive with current DLSRs (strobed long-exposures not withstanding)

2. I completely understand and agree that farktography should be about photography and not image editing, but some image editing is always necessary. The question is the line between photographic practices and graphic design/printmaking practices. For instance, I don’t think anyone would consider Ansel Adams’s “Moonrise, Hernandez New Mexico” anything other than one of the world’s greatest photographs, but it would be highly illegal under the current farktography rules. Hell, almost everything Adams ever did would be. The same could be said for the works of Weston, Capa, and Cartier-Bresson (who almost never printed his own work, he left it up to assistants), as well as pretty much any other photographer you can think of. I just feel that there is a difference between image correction and image editing. I am certainly not advocating letting people edit elements in and out of their photos, but I have no problem with people being able to, for instance, save a print where one compositional element in the shot appears to be a couple stops off.

I totally agree with the image editing v image correcting sentiment. When I am making a print, out come the image correction tools. With Farktography in mind, IIRC, we also wanted to keep it simple and allow for people who don’t have the digital skills to correct an under-exposed compositional element. This is, after all, Fark, not a prestigious, judged Photographic site.

That said, composition / humor will probably always beat every other image. So allowing for what you are suggesting may not be all that beneficial for an individual, but it would raise the level of what Farktography presents, and I support that.

3. Dodging and burning in have been crucial elements of all photography since it’s inception, and i agree that we would indeed see some very nifty stuff. Another pleasant side effect is that allowing people a little more freedom in their post processing would probably make it easier to determine where people are violating the letter and spirit of the rules. It would be less “i can tell by the pixels and because i have seen a number of shops in my time” and more “dude. your pomeranian does not have tusks.”

3. As far as changes to the rules go, I wouldn’t be the best one to attept to codify that on the photoshop/gimp side, as I very rarely use either program, and I dont necessarily know all of the correct terminology. I could certainly work up a list of darkroom dos and dont’s though.

Please do work up a list of darkroom do’s and don’t’s. Farktography may need to adapt them to digital workflows as well, just to be consistent. I don’t know my way around a darkroom – why should chemical-types get an advantage? (Rhetoric question in this instance, but likely to be non-rhetoric in the near future).

Oh, and, go eat a bag of dicks. 😛

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I moved from film (color transparencies, mostly) to all-digital during my involvement with Farktography (I went digital less than a year ago).

Yes, Farktography favors all-digital. Back in my film days, I used to make it a personal challenge to dust all those bit-heads (and even started collecting stats on contests to help me…). This digital favoritism pretty much reflects the state of photography in general, but sometimes one can do stuff within The Rules with film that would be cost-prohibitive with a digital SLR (reference the Self Portrait theme).

IIRC, The Rules pretty much started out to not give digital workflows an advantage over film. Photoshop is an amazing thing and some really impressive stuff can be done with it (not by me, by others). The Rules were meant to make Farktography about photography, not about image editing.

(opinion) If someone wants to dodge-and-burn in a darkroom (or really, anything else), I’d be fine with that. It would give Farktography an interesting spin, and we’d see some nifty stuff. After scanning in the developed product, however, The Rules (as stated) would apply. Adopting this may help even out the digital advantage (I’m not really sure it would have a huge affect on the Farktography Program, but it would change voting for some individual themes).

We could pilot a change. DeaconBlues, could you write up a change to The Rules to allow for the things you’d like to do? We could then discuss the specific changes and roll them out

[schnee]

Those are sweet. I want me some ruins to play in

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I have to hand it to you U-Man. Week in and week out you enter photos that are creative, original, and very well done. Not many farktographers, or photographers in general have such a solid grasp on all those those aspects.

Word

But, seriously, as a parent, how did you explain ConsumeAndDecease to your daughter? I bow to your parenting skills.

[schnee]

one statistic I haven’t seen on the FSM is number of first place finishes.

Yeah, the closest is the Average Standings stat. I’m not sure how to “normalize” the raw count statistics – someone who has been in 200 contests may have more number one’s than someone who has been in 20.

Anywho, the FSM seems back now. Sorry for the outage.

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IIRC, the camera on the Martian Rover was/is about 1 Megapixel. Those are pretty nice images (and/or image compositions).

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moderator – can you tell a n00b the easiest way to search for old farktography contests?

The Farktography Statistics Manager maintains a history of all past contests. Just go to the home page and use the selection box on the left hand side to find ‘Blue’ and then click the ‘show’ button. Someday, I really should make that easier…

Or you can just go to Blue directly. Blue came out before the FSM really got rolling, so some of the images did not get archived, but most are there. I got a tear in my eye after looking at some of the names of those who are no longer with us(*).

/(*) not that they died or anything

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What is it when the guy who keeps track of the votes wins?

It is more likely than you think…

Thanks all.

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Plus my photography skill is leveling up. Am I a level 3 photographer now?

Well, your recent average is above your evar average and you are an Ultra Farktographer. Sure, level 3, why not.

Good show.

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