In this report, I'm hoping to provide some advice to the community on deviations submitted in the Macro photography gallery and whether they should be submitted there or somewhere else such as the Darkroom or Photomanipulation galleries.

The Macro gallery is there for photographs that are macro in terms of ratio from 1:3 to the more extreme 10:1, the gallery is fairly low on miscats but sometimes work is submitted there with the best intentions of being a macro yet the overall composition of the photograph changes where it should be submitted. Let's take a look at an example:

I have just taken a macro photo of an insect, uploaded it to my computer and added a watermark - then I submitted it to the macro gallery - That's fine!

But what about if I added an extra layer to the photograph to changed the depth of field or to add extra bokeh - can this still be submitted to the macro gallery?

The moment something is edited substantially in your photograph to change the composition of the overall photo, the photograph is no longer a macro, it is now technically a photo-manipulation.

Photos that can be submitted to the Macro gallery

These photographs have had no major editing, desaturating a photo to make it B/W is still perfectly acceptable in the Macro gallery whilst slightly enhancing saturation or contrast is fine.

Photos that should NOT be submitted to the Macro gallery

Adding extra layers to create effects such as bokeh or to manually blur parts of a subject are major edits to a photograph. Changing a specific area of a photo (such as an eye) to make it stand out or look more colourful is another major edit and usually involves creating extra layers. And finally having a B/W photo with parts in colour is also a major edit.

So if I've edited a macro photo which doesn't belong in the macro gallery, where should I submit it to?

The answer is: Darkroom > Digital or Digital Art > Photomanipulation Both of these galleries are designed to keep photographs that have been edited.

Darkroom: Photographs that have undergone significant digital enhancement using computer software.

Photomanipulation: Photomanipulations are images that have been composed of two or more photographic elements to create something new.



I hope this brief news report has been of some help to you, remember that I'm always here to answer any questions you have about Macro photography so please feel free to note me or email me at any time. Thanks so much!

^dandelgrosso