~gizmo2406

<deliberately controversial, grumpy old sod>
Apologies to anyone offended by the following, OK? It's not a dig at anyone in particular, just over the last couple of days I've looked at a lot of photos (other types of DA submissions don't generally interest me as much) and there are so many people who don't do the simplest things to make their photos better.

1. Black and white/sepia photos... Just because it's in black and white (or sepia) does not in itself make a photo good, still less arty. Personally I don't use black and white that often, although sometimes it's just 'right' - to reduce the effect of the background, or whatever. In this age of cheap colour digital point and shoot cameras, too many people seem to think that it automatically makes them Kevin Carter.

2. Size... I'd be willing to bet that 95% of DA viewers are using a monitor that is either 1024, 1280 or maybe 1600 pixels wide. So why oh why do so many people post images direct from their cameras at 2000, 3000 pixels in width? You can't possibly see them all on screen, and it uses up DA's bandwidth as well as yours. So get Photoshop, GiMP, or whatever, and crunch down the size a bit (all mine are 800px with 50px border, total width 900px) - this also has the happy coincidence of reducing the noise levels on low light shots (which could be a rant all on it's own, but it's usually down to crappy little compact cameras and the dodgy optics of their CCDs/lenses).

3. Focus and Blurring... are you all drunk? On drugs? I don't have very steady hands, but my camera is comfortable to hold and has a light shutter release. If you are shooting without flash and/or on long exposures (over 0.1 sec), get a tripod. Or at least put the camera on something and use the timer setting so your finger doesn't knock it as you take the shot. Tripods are not expensive: for instance [link] item #65561 (put it in the search box) is only £7 and it's perfect... You'll be amazed what a difference it makes.
</deliberately controversial, grumpy old sod>

On a lighter note, there are so many of you out there taking some fabulous photos that I can't hope to get near... keep it up