Prints - Wheat and Chaff - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM

08/08/2003 09:16:38 PM · #1

Ok, I've heard a lot of discussion, both in Fanatics and privately about there being just tons of CRAP on DPCPrints. I think 90% of us are responsible for this. I'm going to sort my stuff and edit out what's good and what's crap. I'm asking for help to make DPCPrints a much more PRODUCTIVE selling site.

My prints are here Can you tell me which are your 3 favorite and 3 least favorite? You don't have to say "this one is crap" just put it in the least favorites list! :)

Thanks!

M-wants-to-be-wheat-not-chaff

cpanaioti

Canon EOS-40D

08/08/2003 09:37:38 PM · #2

Here's my lists.

You have a wide range of images up on dpcprints of which most I believe have wide appeal. My choices are based on widest and narrowist appeal not as much on quality of the image. My opinion only.

Most Favourite: Gastown Steam Clock, Ripple, Tennis Anyone

Least Favourite: The Cats Away, Canada Place, Weathered...

Aaron

Fujifilm FinePix S602Z

08/08/2003 09:38:41 PM · #3

Top:
Gas town steam clock(I really like it, hence first spot)
Ripple
Rest a spell
Family Portrait

Bottom
Beter Homes and Gardens
Sleeping Ent
A Symmetry

Aaron

Fujifilm FinePix S602Z

08/08/2003 09:45:59 PM · #4

I don't want to hijack your thread(but on the same thread, so to speak) . . . does any one think that my "roses are red" stinks?

giants

Canon EOS-D30

08/08/2003 09:50:43 PM · #5

First of all mavrik I'm new to the site and love what great things dpchallenge has to offer. I think your right in saying there is tons of crap on the site but also some very fine work. Like I said earlier I'm new and I don't want to disrespect anyone! The last open challege was for right angles. I think 75% of the photos didn't belong in the challenge. I'm not a member yet but will join soon. I just wanted to say that I think your right and I don't mean any disrespect for saying that.
As for your prints go! It was hard for me to choose three favorites so I chose 5 of what I think your strongest photots are.
What's Another Word For
Circa 1825
Tennis anyone
Streaks of light
Gastown Steam Clock
My least Favorites
Executive Decisions
Homestretch
The Cat's away
This was just my personal judgement so I hope it helps you and again please no disrespect!. I really enjoyed all your print!

JPR

Sony Alpha a55

Sony DT 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6 Aspherical ED Super Wide Angle Zoom

08/08/2003 09:53:11 PM · #6

3 favorites:

Executive Decision
Practically Idiotproof
Lakeshore in China

3 least favorites:

Sleeping Ent
Streaks of Light
Better Homes and Gardens

Message edited by author 2003-08-08 21:54:21.

08/08/2003 10:03:11 PM · #7

Crap:
beter homes and gardens
whats another word for
benchmark
wish you were here
fiery eexit
weathered

08/08/2003 10:06:03 PM · #8

good:
canada place
steam clock
Homestretch
reality
99 bottles
streaks of light

I currently have 86 Prints,at least 75 of them must be crap also,but I'm not getting any feedback!PITSAMAN PRINTS

Message edited by author 2003-08-08 22:11:18.

Aaron

Fujifilm FinePix S602Z

08/08/2003 10:19:06 PM · #9

I don't think 75 of them are, but I do find "Sun Rocket" the least appealing. You have quite a collection of great prints.

Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR DG IF-ED

08/08/2003 10:21:01 PM · #10

Thank you for the feedback!

Message edited by author 2003-08-08 22:30:31.

Pedro

Nikon D200

08/08/2003 10:49:44 PM · #11

Mav,
Here's my list (I'm looking at this in terms of what I think should be on a wall vs. what i like as a photo for a challenge etc)

Keep:
Lakeshore, Rest a Spell, Benches (title needs fixing), Feeling Quite Alone, Gastown, Fiery Exit, Canada Place.

You could Lose: Streaks, Practical Joke, A-Symmetry, berry Red,Family Portrait (nice shot, looks like about a 400mm lens - too grainy for that kind of shot IMO), Reality, and What's another Word For.

again - they're not bad shots, I just can't see someone putting them on their wall.

The Keep list are all very saleable in my opinion. I agree with what you're doing here - if there are too many prints out there that don't have general appeal, it'll get too messy.

Good Work, Bro.

Pedro

drewmedia

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

Canon EF 28-135mm F/3.5-5.6 IS USM

08/08/2003 11:32:39 PM · #12

My favorites:
Tennis Anyone?
Kyungbok Palace
Gastown Steam Clock

My least favorites:
Feeling Quite Alone - I can't remember if I only saw it in the full-size version, but I really felt like this was mediocre a photoshop job.
A-symmetry - Not a bad picture, but I don't see much potential in it.
Family Portrait - We don't have many deer pictures on the site, so one might argue against this, but this one just seems really fuzzy.

And I think "Weathered (v): To show the effects of exposure to the elements." could use a title change -- It's messing up my layout! ;)

---

Let me say that I truly admire you not just for having the balls to ask for this kind of criticism, but for taking the initiative to think about the site as a whole. I entirely agree with you that there are plenty of prints on the site that have little or no selling potential, and those prints hurt the other prints and artists on the site. If I were a buyer coming to the site and saw a couple bad pictures, I'd either think...

"This site's full of crap."

... or if I saw some good ones and some bad ...

"I don't feel like sorting through the crap to find the good stuff."

Langdon and I have discussed this a bit, and we don't really have a happy solution for it. We don't want the site to be eliteist by any means, but it's very important for all of the work on the site to be potentially sellable. If everyone went back and looked at their prints and asked them this same thing ("Which of my prints aren't worth showing here?"), the site could really benefit.

That said, I'm incredibly proud of the site, and I'm extremely grateful for all who've helped us continue to grow by being a part of the site.

Drew

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

08/09/2003 12:07:07 AM · #13

WOW!

This is exactly the feedback I wanted!

@Drew - I fixed the photoshopping in Feeling Quite Alone full size (I believe based on what you and Langdon told me). I'll change the title on Weathered after this post. Sorry! ;)

It's a hard debate - who gets to edit out the chaff. I took the initiative on MY crap because...well, I just don't wanna be part of a site-wide problem. Yes, the economy sucks right now. Yes, fine art photography is hard. Yes, selling to photogs is hard...but this CAN be done. I am taking the 'criticism' here -but I suggest EVERYONE go back and edit their own stuff. Just cuz you like it, will someone hang it on the wall?

To all who took the time to look through my stuff and seriously critique it - thank you! I'll be compiling the totals later, add in my "but I gotta have this availables" and see what comes out! I'll be adding more (and better) prints to the site still, but I'm going to make sure each one says "HANG ME ON A WALL DAMMIT" or I'm not going to bother D&L with it.

Thanks again to all,
Mav

dsidwell

Canon EOS-5D

08/09/2003 12:21:23 AM · #14

Great wake-up call, Mavrik!

Chilly0999

Canon EOS-50D

Tamron AF 18-270mm F/3,5-6,3 Di II VC LD Aspherical [IF] macro for Canon

08/09/2003 12:32:43 AM · #15

I would appreciate some feedback on my prints. What I think is strange though is the ones I thought were crap people actually bought. Maybe what I think is crap someone else thinks is art.

//www.dpcprints.com/profile.php?USER_ID=3287

Tamron AF 18-270mm F/3,5-6,3 Di II VC LD Aspherical [IF] macro for Canon

08/09/2003 04:14:49 AM · #16

Originally posted by dsidwell:

Great wake-up call, Mavrik!

Thanks! Hopefully I can weed out some chaff tomorrow!

Any last minute suggestions? I'm going to bed, will tally when I wake!

Mav

Chilly0999

Canon EOS-50D

08/09/2003 10:27:10 AM · #17

bump

drewmedia

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

Canon EF 28-135mm F/3.5-5.6 IS USM

08/09/2003 11:23:24 AM · #18

Chilly, my favorite prints of yours are:
Infrared Wisps -- The effort you put into this border was really worth the final effect.
Blue Front Amazon
Leaf
Hidden Light

I think you've done a very good job of choosing your best prints. The only one I can say that I really didn't like was 'Flowers', because there's nothing unique about it. The same might apply to your 'Bloom' shots, but those do have color and detail going well for them.

My only real criticism of your prints is that your borders sometimes don't weigh right -- that is, they sometimes feel akward with the borders so heavy on the sides. I know it's very difficult to match an aspect ratio, but I've found that it's better to crop the image slightly to get the right aspect rather than to just pad it with a border. The wide borders make your prints seem stretched out, and I think that's accented by the fact that your text lines are at either edge of the print, "pulling" the print, if you will. I'm not crazy about that font either.

I think a lot of the prints on the site only look tacky because of the fonts that have been added to them. I know these artists didn't ask for criticism, but I found them on the front page of the site, so I'll point them out. If you own one of these prints and would rather me not be making this comment, e-mail me, and I'll remove you from this example.

The Mysterious Fogs of North Hatley - Beautiful print. Bad font. Big, unnecessary border.

Single Cloud. The first thing I see on this print is the copyright sign -- it doesn't match the font for the artist's name.

Windswept Pastures. This font is actually pretty nice and works well for the print, but the alignment is really off. It just makes no sense to me.

This is not to say that I only like traditional or 'boring' fonts. A couple examples...

Not a Perfect Flower. This eccentric font matches the wild nature of the flower.

Lakeshore in China. Definitely a different approach for font and alignment, but I'd say it works well.

There are several artists on the site whose border styles I really like.

John Setzler. Clean and simple. John also told me that it's sized such that the tagline can easily be matted out on an 8x10. Several other artists on the site have adapted this style.

Marion Herrmann. Example: Flames of Existence

Matt Greene. Example: Specks and the Universe

In general, I think my point is that if you're going to add a border to your image, make sure it weighs right. More importantly, if you're going to add text to your print, it needs to be part of the artwork. It should generally to add something to the print, not take away from its value.

Sorry for getting long-winded. I guess I've been meaning to make this general statement for a while.

Drew

Message edited by author 2003-08-09 11:25:14.

Tamron AF 18-270mm F/3,5-6,3 Di II VC LD Aspherical [IF] macro for Canon

08/09/2003 11:51:48 AM · #19

Single Cloud has been fixed!

Chilly0999

Canon EOS-50D

08/09/2003 11:57:45 AM · #20

Drew, thanks for the feedback, I will work the border issue, trying for a professional look to my prints, and 'Flowers' is gone, nobody seems to look at that one anyway.

FranziskaLang

Nikon D100

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Nikon

08/09/2003 12:35:49 PM · #21

Mavrik, my favorites of yours would be:

Gaston Steamclock
Feeling Quite Alone
Lakeshore in China

The least favorites are:

A-symmetry
Weathered
Practically Idiotproof setup.

I do like that your pictures have a consistent style, even though I personally would probably make the text just a bit smaller.

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Nikon

08/09/2003 01:06:13 PM · #22

@Drew - Thanks for the compliment on my Lakeshore pic. I use Papyrus for all of my prints. I know it looks 'better' on some, but I DO want something consistent and that one seems to fit me best.

@Franziska - I got your PM and thank you. Also, I make the text large because I think of my pics a bit different I guess. I'm not sure in a large frame with a large border is the end mine are meant for. I make them more "poster-like." I have considered changing them all to match a Setz-like style or one of the styles with a thin white border, but I'm just not sure...

M

FranziskaLang

Nikon D100

08/09/2003 01:21:47 PM · #23

Actually, Mavrik, I think in most cases large print fits your photos, I just feel that sometimes a bit smaller would be good, or just moving it down a tad, the text often seems to almost touch on the photo itself and I (that might just be me) would prefer a little more separation between the text and the photo.

LindaLee

Canon EOS-40D

08/09/2003 02:22:04 PM · #24

Originally posted by FranziskaLang:

I am in complete agreement on this - it's the first thing about the photos that "struck" me. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't quite feel right.

Mavrik favs:
Gastown Steam Clock
Lakeshore in China
Circa 1825

Mavrik least favs:
Streaks of Light
Practically Idiot Proof Set-up
Weathered...