to share or not to share

alexkidd

alexkidd

D.O.N.K.E.Y.
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Alex
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someone posts photos on a regular basis and gets good feedback and rarely if ever reveals information about their technique etc when politely asked

a good forum member or not?

(if anyone does reply to this post remember people are entitled to their opinions and be nice)

:D
 
depends what said technique is really, if it's unique to them then why should they share it? Every reader of the thread could then take away the process and and use it themselves meaning it'd no longer be their unique selling point
 
good point, but then does this place become a showing off ground or a place to help each other? :)
 
I guess it depends if it's just a hobby at the end of the day or your main source of income, as I'm just a hobbyist these days I'd have no issues with sharing, when i was working professionally though I wouldn't have been giving anything away, in fact it was very common place for other photographers to try and get the lighting techniques out of me for several shots so they could replicate them themselves. When it's hard enough getting clients as it is you don't want to give anyone else an advantage ;)
 
Good question :) imo we are all entitled to divulge methods or not, it does not make any person good or bad. Some people have put a lot of effort and probably their own money into being trained, and then used that knowledge to develope their own style, the simplest way forward would be to follow suite and get people asking you, would you let on how you did it? ;)
 
99% of the time I don't think there's much new under the sun, people think their the first to do something but there often very very wrong, its all been done before by some one somewhere, photographys been around a long time now ..its only the original image that’s new.

So share I say, help the community, otherwise those searching will go elsewhere and find it anyway.
 
As far as I'm concerned, a style isn't really possible to copy. You can try and replicate it, but every artist develops their own style, and no matter what they do, they'll always end up creating art that is similar to their own style. In photography for example, you could ask someone how they processed their image, or what aperture they used, but unless you think exactly like them, it's unlikely you'll be able to recreate their work flow.

Another question? Why would you want to...
 
I would agree with Forbiddenbiker also if a tog will not reveal technique then they should forfeit the right to help from other members.
 
mr bizzare said:
I would agree with Forbiddenbiker also if a tog will not reveal technique then they should forfeit the right to help from other members.
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because ?

digital photography is not exactly difficult or expensive once you have the kit, unlike film.

click adjust setting click again or is it that some of you are too lazy to work it out for yourselves?

I never ask for help with shooting settings because the fun is working it out :thumbs:
 
andrew748 said:
because ?

digital photography is not exactly difficult or expensive once you have the kit, unlike film.

click adjust setting click again or is it that some of you are too lazy to work it out for yourselves?

I never ask for help with shooting settings because the fun is working it out :thumbs:
Click to expand...

But digital processing is. Are you suggesting that starting from scratch to learn the processing (which makes a huge difference to the images) is the only way? That asking how some things are done is lazy?
 
foodpoison said:
As far as I'm concerned, a style isn't really possible to copy. You can try and replicate it, but every artist develops their own style, and no matter what they do, they'll always end up creating art that is similar to their own style. In photography for example, you could ask someone how they processed their image, or what aperture they used, but unless you think exactly like them, it's unlikely you'll be able to recreate their work flow.

Another question? Why would you want to...
Click to expand...


Good point, I guess we all like to know how before we choose a style of our own.

I was thinking along those lines too ..you can tell someone everything you did to make an image, but without a good feel and crafting eye of their own it could so easily become an absolute mess anyway.

Its all in the subtleties sometimes.
 
who? said:
But digital processing is. Are you suggesting that starting from scratch to learn the processing (which makes a huge difference to the images) is the only way? That asking how some things are done is lazy?
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no, all i'm suggesting that half the fun is working it out for yourself, be it processing or shooting and gives a much greater sense of achievement.

these threads that push this issue are very unhealthy and place unfair pressure on those that don't want to share their secrets for whatever reason.
 
So its okay for those people to take others advice and knowledge ... but not okay when we suggest they also share theirs.

I can understand people being protective to some extent and everyone holds a little back I think...but to suggest its unfair and that they are pressurised by those that do all the sharing is unnecessary and plainly biased to throw a 'mercy on those' angle into the debate

;) I reckon.

I don't understand why you think its unhealthy though? To whom?
 
Let me put it this way, I do help where I can but there is another side to this particular coin.

My training budget for the next 18 months is currently £1600. Quite a substantial investment I'd say. So why would I be coming back from a weeks intensive tuition and telling everyone else exactly what I learned? I'm making that investment to raise my own game, to set myself apart from others in my price range.

I will share juicy bits with some of my colleages but then that's because we already share resources :)

The other point is that we all need to take the knowledge, experience, training and creative thoughts and develop our own way of doing things. It all distills into your style, your process.
 
To answer the OP I would say "Why should they feel obliged to" and that it would depend on the question? or to put it another way it's very easy to ask a question but not always easy to answer!

From my point of view if someone asked a specific question then I would always try to answer :cool: ... However sometimes people ask questions that are far too general .. eg: How do you do that? or something similar...
 
don't get me wrong i have picked up oodles of help form TP, other forums and google.

I'm all for a bit of help, but if you can't master the basics then why should i help you?
as far as i'm concerned you are a potential customer.

I will always do my best to help when asked but at the moment this is a moot point regarding TP as i don't post images anymore, since my face doesn't fit here, i find this more of a creative stop over to buy kit and steal ideas.
being a freak, i will always give credit for the idea or at least let the victim of my theft know that i've stolen and hopefully tweaked their inspiration.

anyway i have made 3 replies to a potentially contentious thread and i am now in danger of another suspension, so adieu for another 7 days.

happy clicking :thumbs:
 
Personally this subject is simple and also a little tricky. Both Food Poison & AliB have touched on the areas that I tend to agree with.

When your putting in the effort, paying for or researching heavily to develop your skills, improve the quality of your output and become more efficient at doing so, it's fair enough to not give it all away.

I think it's justified that folk don't want to give every last drop of their personal touches away anyway.

The development of individual style is paramount, I see little point in attempting to replicate someone else's style.
Be inspired and influenced by your heroes style but use this magic to develop your own.

One thing that does grate a little though is the absurd over protective faff surrounding 'camera settings'.

I've seen this a few times now and it's grossly missing the point.
One thread in particular stands out in my mind, where a member refused to divulge in their camera settings for a certain activity, funnily enough, it's evident that the member has learned a fair amount from TP and the web (including the said tech), further more the technique is actually fairly widely known and has been around for a long time.

This kind of behaviour is redundant, selfish and largely hypocritical.

'Settings' meaning shutter speed, aperture, ISO and the like are the mechanics of a camera, we all have them and it's up to us to use those mechanics in our own individual style.

Regardless of style, the means of adjusting those settings remain the same, it's our personal frame of mind or individual decision in a given circumstance or condition that decides the end result.

Hording a technique that can be found through a little reading just makes you look like an arse riding a high pony.

Most folk when searching for something can find it difficult when the exact name or label for the technique is not known, similar to search engines or forum searches, you have the ask the exact question sometimes before you get the answer your looking for.
 
alexkidd said:
someone posts photos on a regular basis and gets good feedback and rarely if ever reveals information about their technique etc when politely asked
a good forum member or not?
(if anyone does reply to this post remember people are entitled to their opinions and be nice)
:D
Click to expand...

a question of willingness to give up something valuable...so that others can benefit i suppose
its not selfishness but one could say that some techniques have been found out by hard work and lots of trial and error..and if giving an edge in a competitive sense...may not want to be disclosed

a cat may look at a king, but not rule because of it.:thinking:
 
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