Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Sharing with the Pros: Photo.net

Sharing photos with friends and family is a lot of fun, but if you want to become a better photographer, then the best way to learn is by conferring with experienced photographers. Photo.net (http://www.photo.net) is a community of professional and avid amateur photographers who provide mutual support by rating and critiquing each other’s work (Figure 14-12).

The quality of the photography on Photo.net is generally good to excellent, and the topics are geared toward professionals. For example, you’ll find portrait and nature photography, but not family and pet snapshots. If you’re thin-skinned, then you may not want to hear what pros and serious amateurs have to say about your photos. On the other hand, when you want to learn how to take great pictures, this is a good place to begin your education.

Note

Photo.net is a subscription-based site. Frequent visitors who post photos are expected to pay the $25 per year subscription fee, enforced by the guilt-inducing honor system. Until you subscribe, you can use a trial/guest membership. About half of the site’s revenue comes from subscriptions and the other half comes from advertising. Subscribers enjoy benefits such as unlimited submissions, critiques, and gallery folders.

Figure 14-11. The best part of Flickr is sharing your photos and your interests with other like-minded people in Flickr groups. For ...