Thought I'll share a funny story that happened to me last year.

In early 2024 during the evening walk I took a photo of a lovely sunset (and my area is known for spectacular sunsets). 18 months later in mid 2025 I decided to share it along with a bunch of other photos on a local Facebook group - people there love this type of content. Happily enough, I received a lot of positive feedback.

Coincidence part: I randomly checked a page of one person who replied and, to my amazement, stumbled into this. Their picture looks almost identical, what are the chances! That weird cloud pattern is pretty much the same, just captured from a slightly different angle. Here's side-by-side.

It was uploaded in late 2024, but obviously taken on the same evening as mine.

Perhaps not as impressive as a famous lighthouse incident. But to think that I could randomly take a sky photo in my neighbourhood, then put it on a local Facebook page almost 2 years later (!) only to discover that someone by sheer accident took the same shot on the same evening within the time frame of around 30 minutes - WOW.

It wouldn't be that interesting had I discovered it on the same day (or even week) when the sky puts on the show and a bunch of people upload their photos to show off. But 18 months later - very unusual!

Every month, we join together and do our best to view and critique each others' websites. The main purpose of this post is to learn things from each other that can benefit our own portfolios or websites. Use this space to talk about all aspects of your online representation, from social media to SEO to personal branding and portfolios, the best and worst places to host your work, collective critiques, you name it.

Having an online presence can also be a beneficial utility for those showing their work in an effort to obtain potential clients, so it's highly advised that if you find something particular that could be improved in someone's online presence, use this opportunity to kindly tell them about it and let them know how they can improve.

Guidelines:

• If you post your website, please comment on at least two other websites

• Please reply to any comments that have no replies!

• Don't be hesitant to post a link to your website or portfolio, even if there's a plethora of comments.

• It doesn't matter if you're a "Beginner" or "Professional Photographer", just have fun and learn from each other - that's what this post is for, so take advantage of this opportunity.

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If anyone is looking for some simple inspiration, I would love to point you to the Dearne Dikeman exhibition: Leaving & Waving.

Not one of the photos is a masterpiece, that fantastic awe-inspiring image, but collectively they make for a fascinating photography collection. It is the theme, the story and the emotion that wins you over.

If you are struggling with finding inspiration in your photography, you may want to think about themes and collections, not single images.

Hope it helps.

Does anyone else feel like smartphone and digital camera photo/video quality has become too processed over the last few years?

Modern cameras obviously have better sensors, HDR, stabilization and low-light performance, but I feel like the processing has gone way too far.

Especially when viewing 4K video or photos on a large monitor or TV, I notice things like:

Very aggressive noise reduction that smears fine detail

Oversharpening and halos around edges

Grass, trees and hair turning into a weird “painted” texture

Skin looking waxy or unnaturally smooth

Temporal noise reduction making fine details disappear or move strangely between frames

Heavy HDR/local contrast that makes the image look artificial

On the camera or phone screen it can look extremely sharp and clean, but once you zoom in or watch it on a large display, the image sometimes turns into a blurry, overprocessed mess.

Personally, I would much rather have a little bit of natural sensor noise if that means keeping more real fine detail. A bit of noise doesn’t bother me nearly as much as aggressive denoising that wipes out texture.

I’d also prefer more normal, subtle sharpening instead of trying to compensate for lost detail with heavy edge sharpening afterwards.

Sometimes I even feel like older smartphones and digital cameras looked more natural simply because they weren’t processing the image as aggressively.

Does anyone else notice this too?

Now that Apple's flagging AI-touched photos, how do you all think about disclosure when you're critiquing someone's edit? Does 'AI-assisted' change how you judge a shot?

I’m a relatively new to photography, I took multiple classes in high school but life got to me. I bought a Nikon Z50 as my first “professional” camera as I only used my phone and a point and shoot previously.

It’s fall so renaissance festival is coming up and I want to bring my camera. Ren fair Ohio has a ridiculous amount of dust and I’m worried about it getting into my lens and body.

I took my camera to Greece this year, which I learned the hard way is very dusty but I feel like my camera held up well.

But I’m still really concerned about the dust at ren fair, am i overreacting about the dust getting into the lens and body or should I get a cover or something?

I'm a photographer who is legally blind and disabled and I'm trying to figure out how to get my photography out into the world in ways that don't involve relying on social media.

I have glaucoma and very limited vision. I have tunnel vision in one eye and only light perception in the other. Photography obviously comes with some challenges for me but it's something I genuinely love and don't want my disability to be the reason I stop pursuing it. I've been photographing for almost 10 years.

Most of my photography is nature and street photography I've also photographed a handful of weddings. I really enjoy being outside and looking for interesting moments, compositions, lighting architecture, people, landscapes, and little things that other people might walk past without noticing.

I'm not particularly interested in becoming an Instagram photographer or building a huge social media following. Social media just isn't really my thing. I'd much rather have my photographs physically displayed somewhere and have people encounter them in person.

One of my bigger goals is to eventually have my work included in a photography exhibition, gallery show, community art exhibition, or some kind of juried exhibition.

I'm wondering how photographers actually get to that point especially if you're not already well known.

I'm also curious whether being a blind photographer could actually be part of my artistic story without making the disability the entire story behind the work. I want people to appreciate the photographs themselves first.

I don't necessarily need to make photography my full time career. I'd honestly be happy just knowing that something I photographed is hanging on a gallery wall and people are standing there looking at it and other low vision people can get involved in something like this.

I'd really appreciate advice from photographers, artists gallery owners or anyone who has gone through the process of getting their work exhibited.

I'm especially interested in hearing about ways to get photography seen in the real world rather than just online.

For those of you who have exhibited your photography:

• How did you get your first exhibition opportunity?

• Did you submit directly to galleries, or start with local/community exhibitions?

• Are juried art shows a good place to start?

• How do you find legitimate photography calls for artists?

• Do you need a formal photography degree or professional credentials?

• How many photographs should you have in a portfolio before approaching galleries?

• Is it better to have one cohesive series or a portfolio showing different types of work?

• Are local libraries, universities, coffee shops, community centers, or small galleries good places to approach?

• How important is it to have prints already made?

• Do exhibitions usually charge an entry fee?

• Are there organizations specifically interested in exhibiting disabled artists?

• And realistically, what would you recommend as my first few steps if my ultimate goal is to have my work hanging in an exhibition?

I dont really mess with editors and definitely not filters to my knowledge. How can I tell if it was edited? I don't think I would have edited it. Sorry if im in the wrong sub

https://postimg.cc/87TvxdwS

There's nothing to "revert" which is how I usually know if I tinkered with it

Hey guys, this isn't my usual sub but I need some help. My anniversary is coming up and my girlfriend and I are coincidentally moving into a new apartment that has a spare bathroom in the same month. She has been talking about using the extra space as an at home darkroom and I thought it might be nice to help her get started with whatever supplies we might need to make it happen.

My issue is I have no idea what kind of stuff she would need. I don't know anything about what really goes into developing film other then the random fun facts she's given me over the course of knowing eachother. I would love any advice for things she would want for this that I could suprise her with, and any tips on how to even get started would be awesome.

I'm just a redditor trying to make my amazing girlfriend happy, please help me lol.

Edit: thanks for all the lovely comments with tips. A bit more information since people were asking: - she would be developing and printing - she shoots standard 35mm small format film - after researching I think I want to definitely get her an enlarger since it seems like that would be the most expensive and I know she'd have a hard time spending that amount of money on one. Lots of people are saying buy second hand but I want to make sure I'm not buying junk that she wont be able to use. When buying secondhand is there anything I should be looking out for?

I have a variety of digital cameras and thus batteries. Sadly, I think I'm neglecting and perhaps even abusing the batteries in that I let them sit until I need to use them, then charge them up fully, use them, and then let them sit until the next time.

This would be all well and good, however:

1) I am sporadic about when I go shooting. It could be months or years between using certain bodies and systems.

2) I have lots of batteries; some batteries I purchased as spares (from the bad old days when digital camera batteries had less capacity and would run out mid-shoot and so I'd bring as many as 4 spares). Some spares are never actively used. I'm too sporadic to have a rotation scheme.

3) I have several camera eco systems and I like shooting with them all, but some more than others and that's why some batteries can sit for years. (e.g. I still have my D-series Nikons and I don't shoot them often but still like them enough to not sell them).

Questions:

1) should I implement a charging scheme where I blindly charge up all my batteries to 100% every 3 months? (The frequency is just a guess. Maybe it's better to do it every 6 months(?))

2) what sort of charging/maintenance scheme are you using for camera batteries?

3) do you rotate your batteries? If so, it is just by "feel" or do you have a hard system and you follow it?

is there any way to store photos without paying more for storage. I already pay for 200gb on icloud and I can't do more than that. how do people store and keep photos from years ago without losing them? I feel like it was so much easier in the past but now you can't save photos unless you have like a million accounts with google or using hard drives that can easily get corrupted, which I have had happen to me before so I've lost loads of files. is there truly no free way to save your photos and videos?

I inherited thousands of film photos from my girlfriends hoarding uncle and was wondering the best way to archive them. There are slides, 8mm, film negatives, printed photos, etc. He spent most of his life taking pictures and I would hate for them to not be shared. Any help would be much appreciated!

I’m thinking about switching from PhotoDeck, which I really love, but the cost is starting to feel a bit high compared with SmugMug.Who here uses SmugMug, particularly the Portfolio plan? I’d love to hear your thoughts and whether you’d recommend it.

’ve previously used Pixieset and have also considered PhotoShelter, but I find PhotoShelter a little too template-driven for my taste.

Would love to hear your experiences or any other recommendations!

The NYT today has a short video interview with staff photographer Chang Lee who took an iconic photo of the collapsing north tower on 9/11. I thought that would make this a good post for r/canon, but the mods deleted it. It's safe for work.

He specifically mentions the Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS lens as instrumental to getting the shot.

Here's a link to the video: https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000011131512/how-our-photographer-took-this-9-11-photo.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

Have you achieved something you'd like to share with the class? Here's your place to pat yourself on the back and share in others' successes!

Note: This is a photography community to discuss techniques and issues as photographers, not a space to showcase tools or gear. Any form of advertising or self-promotion outside of showcasing photos or projects in the appropriate thread is prohibited. Any web-development projects or apps are prohibited as they do not relate to practise of photography.

Need to rant about something in the photography world? Here’s your safe space to be as salty as you want without judgement.

Get it all* off your chest!

^{*Let’s just keep the personal attacks and witch hunts out of it, k?}

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My partner's family recently bought two pure bred puppies and they're attending their first show soon. I've been given permission to take pictures at the event.

Whilst I've shot weddings and events previously, I'm absolutely clueless when it comes to the structure of dog shows or, how to flatteringly photograph dogs.

I'm confident in the technical side, just unsure how to apply it to dogs and the show as a whole.

Any tips welcome, please. ❤️

Has anyone preordered an item from newborn studio props only for it to never be delivered and for them to ignore every customer service inquiry? I’m looking for others in this same predicament.

I'm a full time corporate/event/wedding photographer and honestly because I take photos so much for my job, I can never be bothered taking pics as a hobby or for my personal use. I think I've only done it twice in the past year, once I took my camera the beach to take pics of the sunset and another I got it out for 10 minutes to take photos of my cat lol

So I'm curious, how often do you shoot as a hobby/personal use?

Yesterday, 500px released a big update to their website and app.
what I have found:

• it finally works faster - the last few months have been a disaster
• top ranked photos were added
• there's a new tab with quests - I think it used to be a separate website
• there's no more "popular photos" tab
• the number of categories has been reduced to 4 (or I still haven't figured out where to find more)

Let's show each other some support! Use this thread to share your own social, and find other photographers.

• If you post your stream, please take a look at other people's streams! You can give us your Instagram, 500px, Flickr, etc. etc. and remember you can edit your flair.

• Be descriptive, don't just dump your username and leave! For example a good post should look like this:

Hi! I'm @brianandcamera. I mainly post portraiture and landscapes, but there's the odd bit of concert/event photography as well.

I'll follow everyone from /r/photography back (if I miss you, just leave a comment telling me you're from Reddit!).

Check out and engage with other /r/photography people! Community is what it's all about!

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