E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

If you are a frequent or occasional user of the Professional and Advanced Portraiture Section, please be advised of the following changes and augmentations to the rules and policies governing this specialized section. If any of you are interested in the finer points of portrait photography, you are invited to subscribe to the section.

The section was originally established to promote fine portraiture whereby advanced workers and professionals could share ideas and methods and help, teach and encourage others to improve their portrait work, receive constructive critiques, avail themselves of tips and pointers and hone their skills. All members are invited to subscribe and participate!

The rule changes are being enacted, augmented, and more carefully enforced due to some issues that have arisen. There have been posts that are not in the realm of PORTRAITURE but more in the area of fashion photography, family snapshots, and frankly speaking- some pretty strange stuff! Although the section is certainly not restricted to traditional "bread and butter" portraiture, and theatrical portraiture, abstract work, portraits made of modeling portfolios and "head-shots", and non-traditional portraiture styles are all encompassed and acceptable, however, certain images and text may be MOVED to other section or deleted at the discretion of the managers.

CRITIQUING: Hereafter any an all images posted in the Professional and Advanced Portraiture Section will be subject to critique. It is not mandatory and will not always occur, however, any participant or any of the managers are allowed to critique or edit any image for the purpose of teaching or illustrating points. This is to encourage a WORKSHOP ENVIRONMENT where all can participate and share their opinions. IF YOU DO NOT WANT CRITIQUES OR EDITS, PLEASE DO NOT POST IN THE PROFESSIONAL AND ADVANCED PORTRAITURE SECTION. There are many other sections where your photography can be displayed where critiques are not permitted without permission.

All posts should be accompanied by a brief technical summary- equipment, lens focal length, exposure, lighting approach, and a title. motivation or usage of the image.

Question and answers are invited and encouraged- it's best to accompany questions, especially those concerning troubleshooting with an IMAGE that illustrates the problem, question or issue.

PLEASE! NO "attagirl or attaboy" critiques- if you like an image explain why! "Cute kid or lovely model, etc.", is not a valid critique- here's why; Usually, in PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY, unlike fashion and commercial photography, the photographer does not always get to choose their "models"- our subjects (oftentimes clients) get to choose their photographer! The most important skill a portrait photographer can have is to FINDING THE BEAUTY AND CHARACTER IN EVERY SUBJECT.
all critiques should be constructive and encouraging and include positive and negative points and remedies where applicable. A poster can offer feedback to critiques but prolonged and protracted arguments and personal attacks will be immediately deleted without notice. Folks that insist on carrying on personal attacks, prolonged arguments, adding to these occurrences (adding fuel to the fire) will be banned from the section.

Images that are presently posted in the section will not be deleted or moved, however, any and all of the text containing personal attacks, goading, and unnecessarily protracted vitriolic content will be immediately deleted.

You needn't be a PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER to fully participate in the section but "PROFESSIONAL", decorous and friendly conduct is appreciated, encourage and moderated.

If there are any questions or concerns, please post them in the Profession and Advanced Portrait Section or send me a PM.

Ed

User ID

I look forward to checking out the
results of your house cleaning. An
absence of meaningless "attaboy"
replies, and elimination of lengthy
O.T. rants, would set that forum
apart from much of UHH. Sounds
rather promising.

alphonso49uk

Hi.....at the risk of being thick...can someone tell me how to access this section......looked in photography digest and various other sections but cant seem to find it.

cmc4214 Loc: S.W. Pennsylvania

All the way to the bottom of any page and click on (All Sections) and you will see a list

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

This belongs in the Professional and Advanced Portraiture Section, not the Main Section.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Section managers are supposed to promote their sections- besides the rule changes there is an invitation to subscribe to the section as well as a description of the improvements- perhaps folks woud be interested in checking out the section. As you can see, some of the members don't know about some of the specialized sections or how to access them.

Where else shoud an announcement and invitation be posted? The rule changes are also posted in the section in greater detail. I can't see any harm in this post or thread. The proposed changes were approved by the admin.

I've been on this forum long enough to understad the rules and procedures. Some of the post in the MAIN section are pure nonsense- this one is pretty straightforward and informative.

cmc4214 Loc: S.W. Pennsylvania

JoeJoe

I take it these new rules will only apply to images posted from this date forward..... And not on images previously asking not to be altered etc....

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

I was not aware of this section. Thanks for the post.

A10 Loc: Southern Indiana

Thank you Ed.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Exactly!

Existing images will not be altered, moved, edited, or disturbed in any manner. As I previously promised, I am not changing the rules in the middle of the game. So...the new rules only apply from this day forward.

I have only deleted personal attacks and nasty or
offensive commentary. Proper critiques and feedback are left in place.

I will gladly move any image to other sections at the poster's request.

Thanks for asking.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

No "Attaboy" for that guy. How would you like to be stuck on an island ...just the two of you???

JoeJoe

Thank you Ed for clarifying..... Appreciate it

Do you feel this rule change will draw in more posts to the section??

I have always liked portraiture but feel this section is very sparse in terms of posts / engagement and maybe asking all those who just sit in the background what they actually want from the section or how / what would get themselves posting …..May possibly bring in some ideas??

Regards
Joe

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

A clarification about the digest: it only shows the original UHH sections (managed by Admin/owner) unless you specifically subscribe to others. Also, the sections you do see in the digest are just a sampling, not the entire number created. You will also note that everything is "yesterday's" news

There are currently 35 volunteer-moderated sections that remain invisible to a large portion of membership and casual visitors.

Click on "all sections" at the bottom of this page, subscribe to those of interest, then use the "newest topics" link at top of page instead of the digest.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I am always up for new ideas and everyone's participation. I have no intention of running this section as a dictator. I just need there to be certain parameters and content.

As you will observe by scanning through many of the specialized volunteer moderated sections, most of them a sparsely utilized for several reasons. If you look at the MAIN section most of the posts are having to do with gear, computer-related matters, landscape, and wildlife photography. There is not too much general interest in professional photography, the business of photography and traditional portraiture. Portraiture wise, there is the odd question or inquiry but not all that much. There are some great portraitists on our forum but only a few post their work in other sections and are not all that interested in teaching the basics and fundamentals to newcomers.

I do, however, take responsibility for not promoting the portrait section as much as I should. When portraiture-related items show up on the main forum, I sometimes suggest that folks subscribe and contribute to the section but I don't want to hijack posts and threads either. I also have time limitations because I am still working full time and retirement is not gonna happen any time soon- I'll probably die before that!

Sadly also, there is a trend of sloppy shooting and extreme post-processing which is not really applicable to portraiture- it is, in my opinion, a very heavily in-camera oriented skill set- if the lighting, pose, composition and expression are not right on, all the post-processing applications and retouching in the world will be of no remedy.

I'm not into strict rules for many aspects of portraiture but the problem is that many folks don't even understand the basics so they get "creative" before they know the foundations and the run before the can walk. So...that's my philosophy. If anyone else has any other, better, more exciting, out-of-the-box, different ideas or concepts, they are welcome to bring them on to the section.

I don't have a crystal ball, so I present, I can not predict whether the new rules will help or hinder the population or traffic in the section. Hopefully, they will serve to create a pleasant working atmosphere for folks to participate and yield some good teaching and learning potential. Perhaps it is better to have less population and more cooperation and comradery. If it only yields aggravation and conflict, it will serve no purpose. If it stops being "fun"...why should anyone participate.

All the best, Ed