How about an actual Education section under Learning Photography?

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
When I look under Learning Photography I really don't see any subforum that has anything to do with actual learning, it's just a list of styles. And while I realize that there are methods and techniques specific to each type, it seems that the parent forum is a catch-all for everything and anything that someone wants to post that doesn't have a specific category, including threads about actually learning how to photograph and process your images. For example, I just came across a couple great articles on Composition. Where should I post them? OK, in "Learning Photography", right under Rick's Kayak thread, my Farmer's Market and Musikfest threads, Post Your This and Post Your That threads, and Ted's 1001 threads ;), until they quickly scroll off the page and are lost forever.

Could we please have a subforum that is actually just about Photography Education under Learning Photography? The tutorials section is great, but that's a moderated forum for us to post our own tutorials. That could certainly exist as a subforum to the one I'm proposing, but certainly doesn't have to.

This is not just a thought, I'm begging you!!! There's a lot of gold to be mined out in the webosphere and it would be nice to have a place to corral some of it so others can benefit.
 

WayneF

Senior Member
And that Education section could have subforums, maybe like Lens topics (general, i.e., DOF, FOV, etc), Camera features (general, i.e. White balance, Raw. etc), Flash (general, i.e, triggering, modifiers, etc), Lighting (general, bounce, studio, etc), etc, etc. This stuff is not remotely about camera model. We could argue some of these divisions do exist now, but look at them, hidden away. These new general topics should come first, at the top of all else.

All of the existing forums, itemized for D3100, D3200, D3000, D5100, D5200, D5300, etc, etc, etc, just serve to provide many places to dilute and hide anything of interest, because new users assume their Depth of Field question needs to go into their D3200 forum.

Photography topics have nothing to do with a specific camera model. "I cant make it worK" topics might sometimes deal with individual buttons, but photography does not. Maybe many of those existing forums could be eliminated (combined more generally).
 

Lawrence

Senior Member
This is the one big downfall of this forum - and that is coming from someone who has learned a lot, most of which has come through very helpful members and some pretty noob questions of mine, which might easily have been found in the proposed forum.
Could we also have a forum of how to write much shorter sentences?
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
Good idea. I had a question about post processing B&W, and just started a new topic in the B&W forum.
Would have been easier to post it in a dedicated learning forum and easier for others to find.
 

jdeg

^ broke something
Staff member
How about "Photography Q&A" ?

There are a lot of general photography questions floating around that could use a section like this, I just want to make sure users know just by looking at the title what the forum's purpose is.

I could even set it up so the OP or staff can choose the "best answer" and members can receive some kind of point for getting best answers chosen.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
That works, but it's not even the half of it. People ask questions now about everything and anything and people give answers and half the time we have no idea if it solved the problem or if the OP with 2 posts to their name even saw it.

What I'm talking about is not about answering questions. This is about posting answers to unasked questions, links to tutorials that don't cover a specific style of photography or brand, and aren't necessarily ours to own so it doesn't go in tutorials.

People ask questions everywhere. This is about learning and instruction and while there are forums that appear to be about those things, they really aren't.
 

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
The Learning Photography section was one of the first places I went to see hints and tips, etc only to my surprise, find it consisted of sub-folders of all types of shooting circumstances ie wildlife, abstract, low light, etc. These sections as has been previously stated do have some good info, but is generally hidden. Yes it can be found using the search feature of the forum, but to me Learning Photography section should consist of resources for just that. I like BackdoorHippies's idea. The Q&A idea is also something that can be beneficial. I have personally asked questions in various section ie D5300 etc, however I have found beneficial answers in other sections that pertain, to all photography.
 

WayneF

Senior Member
How about "Photography Q&A" ?

There are a lot of general photography questions floating around that could use a section like this, I just want to make sure users know just by looking at the title what the forum's purpose is.

I could even set it up so the OP or staff can choose the "best answer" and members can receive some kind of point for getting best answers chosen.

Points would just be a distracting show, and wouldn't do anything for it, but the FAQ sounds like a very good idea to constructively improve things. To me, it is the prime purpose of such forums. Its description on the forum menu page should ostentatiously mention "for general questions, ESPECIALLY all those NOT related to some specific camera model". Maybe moderators could move such questions into it.
 
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jdeg

^ broke something
Staff member
That works, but it's not even the half of it. People ask questions now about everything and anything and people give answers and half the time we have no idea if it solved the problem or if the OP with 2 posts to their name even saw it.

What I'm talking about is not about answering questions. This is about posting answers to unasked questions, links to tutorials that don't cover a specific style of photography or brand, and aren't necessarily ours to own so it doesn't go in tutorials.

People ask questions everywhere. This is about learning and instruction and while there are forums that appear to be about those things, they really aren't.
In that case a wiki format may be better, no?
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
In that case a wiki format may be better, no?

If it was only about sharing the idea, yes. But again that's only part of what it's about. This is a discussion forum, and the idea would be to present an educational concept and then have the opportunity to talk about it. There are photo wikis out there and I visit them when I want to learn something. But it's just strange as heck that a Learning Photography subforum has no real section on photography education.

Not sure why you're not getting what I'm talking about but everyone else seems to get it. I'm talking about a place where I can post links to things like...

Pro Shooter A Talks About The Keys To Composition
Kelby on How and When to break the Rule of Thirds
McNally on The 5 Greatest Lessons I've Learned Shooting With Someone Else
...

Where the heck does someone post that so it doesn't get pushed down by the type of threads I mentioned in the initial post? There is absolutely nowhere a person can go to on this forum and search that specific subforum for information about photography. Not "How do I bracket with my D5300?" or "Why are my D600 colors yellow?" or "Why is continuous high stopping after 3 frames?"

My take is that this forum is probably over-organized in some places and has no real organization in others. I know there's an overhead for every new forum, particularly in the work it creates for the mods. My solution? Take everything other than Tutorials that's currently under Learning Photography and move it into the Photography section, because it's not about learning 9 times out of 10, it's about showing your photos. Then move Flashes, Computers & Software and even Photography Business under Learning Photography and add a Photography Education sub-forum (or simply Education?) for the types of threads I'm talking about.

There's a lot of great information contained on this forum already, but frankly a new person would have a hell of a hard time finding some of it, which may explain why we get so many repeat questions (I blame 60% of that on internet-inspired laziness, but you get my point).

Again, I appreciate what you guys do here, and my complaining about the organization is not a complaint as much as it is justification for why I think this sub-forum is so necessary.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
@BackdoorHippie can you give some specifics on sub forums that can be created within a new Learning Photography forum? Off the top of my head, I can think of topics such as composition, lighting, and possibly contrast/color. I'm sure there are others. I too feel the current Learning Photography section is a catch-all for everything. And maybe it would be nice to have a second forum created specifically for 'other' photography related discussions that don't tend to fall into one of the existing sub forums. That's what the current Learning Photography forum seems to attract. If there is a second forum where all the other photo discussions can be listed, perhaps the current Learning Photography forum can be expanded to include lighting, composition, and other specific topics. :confused:
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
@BackdoorHippie can you give some specifics on sub forums that can be created within a new Learning Photography forum? Off the top of my head, I can think of topics such as composition, lighting, and possibly contrast/color. I'm sure there are others. I too feel the current Learning Photography section is a catch-all for everything. And maybe it would be nice to have a second forum created specifically for 'other' photography related discussions that don't tend to fall into one of the existing sub forums. That's what the current Learning Photography forum seems to attract. If there is a second forum where all the other photo discussions can be listed, perhaps the current Learning Photography forum can be expanded to include lighting, composition, and other specific topics. :confused:

I sort of did in my last post. It's not my place to redesign, and I don't necessarily care how and where it goes and what's around it, as long as there's a place dedicated to it.
 

Scott Murray

Senior Member
I understand where Jake is coming from and it would be to change the current Learning Photography into an actual learning photography thread, we would remove all the unrelated stuff and have things for certain types of photography. This would require more modding than usual as you do not want any crap going into it.
 

WayneF

Senior Member
I vote for Jakes idea too, it seems a very good plan. And jdegs "Photography Q&A" also seems a very good idea. Why not both?

And I would put them towards the top of the list, specifically to draw attention away from the way-too-many camera model forums, to try to better concentrate the general information in fewer places, some place someone might look and expect to find general information.
 
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