finished at last

[NathanFranke]

Today I finished reading all the archived Photography Tips and Tutorials. My archive binge complete, it's now time to regurgitate everything I learned. I found lots of redundant stuff, lots of entry level stuff, lots of interesting stuff, and a couple of glaring (IMO) absences of useful stuff.

The quality of articles has increased substantially since the site launched. Early articles were plagued by a lack of example photographs--examples that often didn't even illustrate the concept being discussed, or at least didn't illustrate it well.

Grammar and spelling were a problem at the beginning, and they still are today. Simple mistakes, like you're/your or they're/their/there--small stuff really, but it makes the writers look ignorant, lazy, or both. A couple of times in the early articles I saw some misleading stuff, i.e., "use a big aperture to get everything in focus from foreground to background". A bit of proofreading never hurts.

Lots of articles repeat themselves--child portraits being the textbook case. I saw at least 5 different articles about getting low, getting in sports mode, and trying to keep up with the subject. Better search functions to get the relevant articles would be nice--that way they wouldn't necessarily have to rewrite old articles for new readers. Regardless of search terms that I used, I invariably ended up wading through pages and pages of gear reviews to find the actual content articles I was looking for.

So what's missing?

I like the 3 minute interviews with current photographers. I'd like more of these, but I'd also like to see something similar for the Old Masters. Alternating between current photogs and "legacy" photogs would be pretty cool. People interested in self-portraiture would be interested in Cindy Sherman, and architectural and street photographers alike would benefit from viewing Eugene Atget's oeuvre. The history of photography is fascinating, and a lot of the current arguments on the fora (HDR vs SOOC, for example) have been going on forever (f/64 vs pictorialists).

Also, a lot of film techniques still apply. HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography is discussed, but dynamic range in general was only mentioned once. Knowing the limitations of a sensor and how Ansel Adams' Zone System can work with that would be of use to everyone.

There it is. Good work, Darren and associates. This is without a doubt, the best photography resource I've found online, but there is always room to improve.

[NathanFranke]

Now, I'm halfway through the post-processing section. I expect to complete it sometime next week, if the day job continues to be slow.

The useful article:total article ratio for this section is much higher than the other two sections. The GIMP resources have been invaluable to me, as I'm transitioning from almost-free-student-version of Photoshop CS 1 to I-can't-afford Ps CS 5.5. Unlearning photoshop is hard enough--the entry-level information is exactly what I need.

I've been using lightroom for a while, and while I don't pretend to know everything about the program, I do consider myself an intermediate/advanced user. The articles are informative, yet accessible to all levels. Well done.

I've been looking at the photoshop articles too, even though I no longer use that software. As with lightroom, they provide good step-by-step information with useful examples. The problems that plagued early DPS articles are absent here.

What can be improved?
As with everything else on this site: searching. Chronological order for articles is great for repeat visitors who read everything, and might just want a quick glance to see what articles are new since they last visited. But if someone is searching for an older article, on a specific topic, the Search function won't get them there easily. A launching point with the articles separated by program would be great: have a list for Photoshop (all versions), Lightroom, GIMP, Aperture, etc would make it quick to find the articles that are relevant to a specific person. While all cameras work pretty much identically, software varies substantially. I don't use a Mac, so Aperture articles are useless to me. If there's a way to go quickly to the articles for the software I use, it would save clicks, save time, and make me a happier DPS user.

There are still occasional spelling and grammar mistakes. You wouldn't misspell your name in a watermark; don't use the wrong homophone in an article.

Videos: I don't really like watching video tutorials. I'd prefer to have screenshots and text--it's easier to go back and reread then guess with the rewind/pause/play. This is not just with the post-processing section--I could live without videos entirely.