Diptych and triptych forum

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About Diptych and triptych forum

This group is a forum for photographers who want to receive comments and constructive feedback to the diptychs and triptychs that they submit. As opposed to posting directly to a pool, contributors post a discussion topic that links to an original image with preview. However, members are allowed to post one diptych per day to the main pool, in addition to posting to the discussion area.

When submitting your diptych or triptych, please post commentary that will explain the intent of your submission. Posting a diptych or triptych with a one-line description saying, "I thought this was cool" will likely result in the removal of your topic. One of the goals of this Flickr group is to share techniques for creating thoughtful and artistic diptychs and triptychs. Discussion of contributions is an important part of this sharing. For some basic tips on diptychs, refer to this discussion thread.

How to submit:
1. Go to the photo's main page and click the ALL SIZES button.
2. Click the Medium size.
3. At the bottom of the next page you will find the HTML code for the photo itself. Select the block of HTML (a single left-click should work) and copy the HTML to your clipboard.
4. Create a new discussion topic with the Flickr title of the picture you are submitting. Paste in the HTML at the top and then write your commentary.

Some Flickr settings you may want to configure before submitting:
» Enable viewing of 'All Sizes' of your photos. To fully appreciate your picture, critics will often want to see more than the posted medium size picture.
» Enable notes. Notes are an easy way for critics to post cropping suggestions or point at certain items of your picture.
» Allow for derivative work in your license. Sometimes, critics wish to illustrate their comments by posting their own edits and revisions. This form of visual feedback can be very instructive. However, if you want this sort of input you must either set your license to allow the posting of derivative works or give explicit permission for this in your original post.

How to critique:
There are two aspects to every photo that deserve comment: the technical and the aesthetic.

Technical: This is the easy one. Look for things like exposure problems (are the shadows blocked or the highlights blown?), dust spots, colour casts, focus issues, noise in the image, motion blur, lens distortion, tilted horizons, et cetera. Think about how these problems can be fixed in post-processing and, more importantly, how they can be avoided in the future. Good technique can be very important in clearly communicating your ideas. However, even perfect technique can't save a photo with little artistic merit.

Aesthetic: This is a lot more difficult to discuss because art is very subjective and every person is different. The important thing is to try to think about your reactions. If you like a photo, ask yourself why? or why not? Think about the composition. Is the arrangement of elements within the frame pleasing? Or do they feel awkardly placed? Look for leading lines, shapes and patterns formed by these elements. Is the photographer trying to convey a mood or story? How successful have they been? Colour (or lack thereof) can have a significant impact on how we appreciate a photo. Is the use of colour successful or do colours clash or provide a distraction?

These few simple rules of thumb are intended solely as a starting point for critical evaluation and are very incomplete. We leave it up to you to fill in the blanks as you see fit.

Remember: The better you are able to think critically about other people's photos, the more you'll be able to apply those insights to your own work.

Some important guidelines:
» Posting of violent or pornographic material is not permitted. Submissions in violation of this rule will be removed and repeat offenders will be banned.
» Not all feedback will be positive and glowing. This is precisely the point. Critiques will be honest and sometimes blunt. No hurt feelings allowed. Conversely, no mindless insults either, please. Only constructive feedback.
» Don't use the Flickr Photo Replace feature. While using the replace feature seems completely logical, it can make the discussion in a thread difficult to understand or even nonsensical. It is preferable that you post later revisions as replies within the thread.
» Don't start unnecessary or redundant threads. If you feel your photo has been overlooked, please don't start a new thread. Instead, bump the old thread up to the front page with a new post requesting feedback. However, use common sense and don't repeatedly bump a thread for no good reason.
» At this point, single file diptychs/triptychs and separate images can be posted.

Much of this group's guidelines are based on the excellent C.A.F.E. group, which you are encouraged to visit.