I'm going to step way out on a limb here, but I think the quality of photos being posted lately needs a lot of improvement. So, I decided to post some random advice on creating exciting and interesting images. Much of this advice I picked up from a National Geographic photographer (Joel Sartore).

1. If it's boring, don't shoot it.  Most of the time the answer is no (a Joel-ism).
   
2. Compose your picture from the background forward (Joel-ism).
   
3. Expose for the brightest part of the frame that you want to see detail on.  For example, many times the sky is the brightest part of the frame for a landscape. Expose for the sky (not the sun).  As Joel says, the sky is the boss.  Conversely, if your frame includes a reflection of the sun, don't expose for that as it won't matter how much you stop down, it will still be burned out.  This piece of advice made a huge difference in my own images.
   
4. Focus on your subject.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but I'm seeing lots of shots where the subject is out of focus.
   
5. Don't have out of focus distractions in the foreground.  That is unless the out-of-focus items in the foreground are an essential part of your composition.  I remember one neat image lately where out-of-focus tallgrass blowing in the wind created a veil-like curtain in front of the subject.  In most cases though, either get it in focus or get it out of the frame.
   
6. Use near/far perspective on landscapes to give perspective, just make sure the near objects are in focus.
   
7. Edit ruthlessly.  If you post 20 pictures don't be surprised if people get scared away.  Sift them down to the ones you think are best and then be open to feedback.  You'll get more worthwhile feedback and you'll create goodwill with your mates.
   
8. Good light is good and bad light is bad (Joel-ism). Meaning? The good light with lots of warmth is early in the day and late in the day.  Also, cloudy days can give nice, even lighting.  If you're tempted to shoot in bad light, don't.  Come back later in good light or create good light by somehow diffusing the harsh light.
   
9. Compose, compose and compose.  Don't just assume you're going to be able to crop later in PS.  Take your time and compose in the viewfinder.  If what you're seeing isn't working, either make it work or don't shoot the picture.  Again, most of the times the answer is no.
   
10. Know what your subject is.  Again, another no-brainer, but there are a lot of images being posted where it's not clear.
    
11. Give people paths to wander in your image.  By that I mean be conscious of layers and the path the viewers' eyes may follow through your image.
    
12. Make your image something interesting.  That includes picking a subject matter that is not the same as what everybody else is doing.  It feels as if Photographica is becoming the flower picture site of the Web.  If it's an incredibly beautiful flower shot then great, post away.  But if it's a garden variety flower shot (pardon the play on words) why not leave the posting space for someone else with something different to show.

I know I'm opening myself up to tons of criticism with this posting.  But, I felt that rather than find myself drifting away from Photographica I ought to at least take a shot at offering some constructive feedback in the interest of making it better.

I'll be the first one to admit that I'm not a great photographer.  I'm sure you'll be able to look at my images and find a number of them where I've violated the advice I posted above.  But, I hope that doesn't cause you to dismiss it.  After all, it's not my original thinking but rather advice that I've soaked up from some really great photographers.

Also, I've tried to stay away from rules, like the rule of thirds.  We know the saying about rules and I don't hold to them that strongly.  Finally, this is not meant to be an exhaustive list of advice on taking interesting images.  It's just the random thoughts that have popped into my head as I've been composing this posting.  I'm sure that the moment I hit the Submit button I'll think of something else.  You'll probably want to add your own items as well.

Anyway, please don't anyone take this as a slight.  I truly love this site and want to see it get better.  I'm just a bit distraught that we're not posting as high a level of images here lately.  When I see the numbers online seeming to drop I worry that the quality of images might be part of the reason.

Let's all do our part to make this the best site possible.  There are a lot of great photographers here who could add lots of items to this list.

Okay, fire at will!

Yup - exactly one more week and I'm done with this quarter. Haven't had much time for this site in the last few weeks. Next quarter? I take a 12 credit class on usability & user testing. Gee - I wonder what I might use for that class?

That being said - I will finally have some time to finish off some projects for this site. This is on my todo list:

• Add Delete!
• Make it easier to manage your images and attach hi-resolution pictures.
• Implement some business ideas for the store which I will probably talk about in another post. Lets just say, so far, not much is getting sold. I (and a few other people) have some ideas to "pimp" the store, but again - another post.
• Add some other stuff to the store
• No doubt minor user interface tweaks
• More documentation tweaks
• Revisit ratings
• Some of you have emailed with with suggestions - I've been thinking about those too (like a chatroom/message board/IM kind of thing)

Any other ideas to improve the site?

Dont get that next camera yet - this is a new technology that is coming out that will change everything. See here for a less technical description.

Basically - most cameras today have a ligh sensitive chip known as a CCD. This chip splits the light coming into your camera into three components - red, green, and blue. Each color gets shunted off to it's own sensor. Once the image is taken, the computer on the camera has to stich those separate images back into a full color one. Because of the way the light is divided, and because of the nature of the process - modern digital cameras have relatively blurry images vs. a film camera.

This new chip captures all three bands of light, red, blue & green in one single pixel. Basically, the sensors are stacked on top of each other. Coupled with other improvements in chip design - these require less light, less energy, and produce a much, much sharper image. According to the first article, the chip will generate a sharpness and color accuracy found in 120mm film (about twice that of 35mm film).

Start saving though - the first camera to incorporate these is an SLR that starts at $1800 /w-out a lens. In the near future, expect "consumer" models to start using these chips as well.

I'll ask, and I hope Jonathan chimes in (I'm just the code monkey) - What is the future of photographica. Where do you see this site going?

Clearly, we cannot go back - Greymatter, while great for a small site, just does not scale very well with a lot of users.

Scoop seems like a natural fit - it was easy to make mods to, it's database driven, it has a sophisticated comment system, full text searching, the ability to find out all of another users comments/stories/images and all kinds of other cool features. It will scale VERY well if this site should grow.

Clearly there are some "features" that are of no use to this site - comment moderation or story voting for that matter. However, there are features that can be used to our advantage - for example sections, easy administration & customization, and all that good stuff.

However, none of that matters if the community does not support it. This is where you all come in - Where do you see this site going? What can we do to prevent it from becoming some lame worn out weblog? What kinds of features would you expect from this site?