Photo.net Newsletter: October 1, 2008

Hi %%First Name%%,

We started the photo.net newsletter one year ago this month. In that time it has proven quite popular with the users and has grown in size and content. However, at this point we feel like it has grown a little TOO large. Our intent was to clue people in on what was going on around photo.net, not to give them a book to read every month. So, for the next few months, we are going to try splitting the newsletter in two. One newsletter will go out around the 1st of the month and the second will go out around the 15th of the month.

The first newsletter will be “community” based. It will have the Featured Member, Monthly Project, Photo of the Week, any new site feature announcements, and so on. The second one will be more “editorial” based. It will have new reviews, previews, columns, tutorials, and other articles.

This is just an experiment, and we will see how it goes. We fully realize that some people may not want to hear from us twice a month. For those who do not, click here for instructions on how to remove yourself from the newsletter mailing list.

Other than that, just business as usual around here. Working hard at improving the site and adding new features for our users. Plenty of cool stuff in the works that will be rolling out over the next few months. I’d tell you, but you know, then I’d lose my “Top Secret” security clearance.

FYI, did you know that baby spit isn’t the greatest lens cleaner? And before anyone asks, no, that is not my wife/baby. Just a very close friend and her son.

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, please send them to me directly at contact@photo.net. Enjoy the newsletter!

Sincerely,

Josh Root

Photo.net Director of Community

Latest Articles

In this newsletter, the focus is less on editorial, as we’re saving the best for the mid-month editorial newsletter bang. However, we have a few new tasty articles to peruse as you chase away the fall blues.

Justin Serpico walks us through a user-tested and approved review of the Pentax K20D. As he puts the camera through its paces, he shows us what’s new and improved on the camera compared to the previous K10D, as well as how the K20D matches up with other offerings such as the Sony A350, the Olympus E-3, the Nikon D300 and the Canon 40D.

Ever wanted to learn how to stitch together a series of photographs to create a panorama? Jean-Sébastien Monzani shows us step-by-step how to use Autopano Pro to achieve panorama stitching. This is part of the Digital Workflow Series, which encompasses entire digital workflow suggestions, as well as digital post-processing tips and techniques.

Bob Atkins previews a few new offerings that were released at Photokina 2008: the Leica S2—a medium format DSLR; and the Pentax K2000, the latest small entry-level DSLR for beginner and enthusiast photographers.

• Pentax K20D Review
• Stitching Panoramas using Autopano Pro
• Leica S2 Preview
• Pentax K2000 Preview

New Site Features

New alert for non-working email addresses

Photo.net users who have non-working email addresses cause all sorts of problems for the site.

• Users cannot contact other users.
• Admins cannot contact users (a working email is required by the TOU).
• Prospective buyers cannot contact photographers about print/usage sales.
• When passwords are forgotten, then cannot be sent without a working address.
• Forum alerts and server notifications aren’t received.

And so on. But worst of all is that when a user has a non-working email address but is still receiving email from the PN server (thread notifications, subscription expire notices, member contact attempts, etc) when those message bounce back, email providers start to think we are a spam outfit. Eventually we start to get grey and blacklisted from various email systems and that can cause tens of thousands of photo.net users to start missing their photo.net related email.

So, we now have a system to detect non-working email addresses. If your photo.net login email or your @photo.net forwarding email address is bouncing messages back to us, it will be shut off temporally. When you log into your photo.net account, you will see one of two warning messages. This one for a bouncing login email and this one for a bouncing @photo.net email. You will also find instructions on how to reset (if you know the address is good but it had a temporary problem) or change (if you know the address is bad/old) your email.

Photo.net policy on forum ‘signature’ lines/links

This is just a reminder for users:

Photo.net does not allow “signature” lines, images or links at the bottom of any posts on the site. We have spent a lot of time and energy giving photo.net the clean and uncluttered look that has made it so popular. Signatures lines or links clutter up the site graphically and detract from the conversation.

The specific message itself doesn’t matter. You cannot say “Go Red Sox” at the end of your posts any more than you can say “God Bless You” or “Nikon Sucks” or “Please visit www.johnsmith.com”. If you wish to close with ”-John” or “Regards, John” that sort of thing, while unnecessary (your name is already right next to your post), is generally overlooked. But messages and/or links are not allowed. Animated GIF’s or other similar images are absolutely not allowed. All images in a thread should be related to the conversation taking place.

I know that one of the weak aspects of photo.net is that there is no full listing of the site’s policies anywhere that is easy to find. Photo.net grew from a small site where it was easy for people to “get it” regarding site rules and policy, to a very large site where we really need to spell things out to avoid misunderstandings. There is the TOU that everyone should have read before signing up, and Bob has listed the basic forum rules here. But I understand that it is easy to miss those unintentionally. It is something we need to work on and I will do my best to improve the situation in the future.

We’re looking for ‘Featured Member’ suggestions

Just finishing up its first year, the Photo.net Featured Member article series has proven quite popular. It is also a great way to recognize some of our more interesting photographers and allow them to share some tips about the kind of photography they do.

Here are the requirements:

• The person must have a theme or specialty to their photography. Just being a good photographer is a great thing, but the Featured Member series is about teaching as well. It could be a specialty like wedding photography, or a technique like photoshop alteration, or a specific project like “park benches of my hometown”. But there needs to be something to tie the article together. Take a look at the previous choices for some ideas if you are still confused.

• The person should be an active photo.net participant. For one thing, we need to be able to get ahold of them. It does us no good to try and track down someone who hasn’t logged in for 3 years. For another, these articles are a pretty cool recognition and promotion for people and we want to reward those photographers who are dedicated members of the site.

• The person must speak English well enough to answer my questions. It is one of my greatest shames that I only speak one language. However, that happens to be the language photo.net is presented in. Grammar and spelling problems are unimportant, we can correct them easily. But the person and I must be able to communicate well enough to create the article.

That’s it. If you have someone in mind that you think would make an interesting Featured Member, use the “Contact Photo.net” link (at the bottom of every Photo.net page) and let us know.

What’s Happening In Our Forums

• Casual Photo Conversations (80 Responses) "Wow, you have a really nice camera"
• Medium Format (129 Responses) Too late for medium format?
• Philosophy of Photography (117 Responses) Sunday Musings: Your wedding is not important so quit taking pictures already!
• Casual Photo Conversations (80 Responses) The "Myth" of Ansel Adams
• Casual Photo Conversations (54 Responses) Do we need really F2.8 anymore
• Canon EOS (76 Responses) 40D: Weird colours
• Canon EOS (141 Responses) What are your favorite lenses- Canon EOS users...
• Nikon (50 Responses) which Nikon should I buy?

Go To Photo.net Forums. »

Project Of The Month: Bounce Flash

Back to techniques! This month we’re doing bounce flash.

Everyone knows that direct “on-camera” flash is harsh and unflattering in almost every situation. The light source is too small and too close to the subject to give anything other than harsh light. But what to do about it? After all, you can’t carry around a 2×3ft softbox with you everywhere you go. The answer is right above you.

Simply by angling that flash up towards the ceiling, a whole new world of lighting opens up for you. Allowing the flash to bounce off the ceiling, particularly a low (8-10 ft) one, allows the light from your flash to reflect back on your subject with a much softer quality. Try varying the angle that you set your flash. You will see that different angles send different amounts of light up to the ceiling and change the results.

See all of the Monthly Projects (and submission instructions) on the Monthly Project Index page. Also, be sure to take a look at last month’s For Sale project page and see all the wonderful images that were uploaded. Here are a few that caught my eye:

Editors’ Picks

Architectural Photography

Samples: