Grad School -- The Rules

pathfinder · June 17, 2009

Welcome to Grad School! The place where dgrinners can learn how to take their images to a higher level.

Getting into Grad School is hard (as we all know).

These threads will be long, and may be challenging for some readers, but we hope they will lead to a higher level of image editing skill for all of our readers, and, thus, an on going, continuous improvement in the artistic qualities of our reader's images.

To post a new thread in Grad School, your post must be:

Clearly written, well illustrated, and demonstrate step-by-step techniques.
Devoted to expanding the reader's creative editing skills for images, and must go beyond the basics of color balance and exposure.
Clearly titled. This will help later readers find the information with search engines. Clarity is more important than humor.

You know your thread doesn't belong in Grad School when:

It is a request for information. Of course you can ask questions about tutorials already posted, but general requests that start with "How do I..." will be moved to Finishing School.
It covers basic concepts such as how to use a brush or a mask. This is Grad School and if you are still in high school you need to learn your abc's first.

Other notes:

The posts in Grad School will be moderated. Discussion following the inital post is to be of a similar level as the initial post -- eg: well illlustrated with step-by-step information.
General disclaimers of the technique under discussion, or criticism without clear exposition and illustration, may be deleted without warning. You cannot say "That won't work" unless you can prove it. You can offer an alternative technique if your exposition and illustrations meet the high standards of Grad School.

Our desire is that Grad School will consist of "tutorials in the rough". Any criticism of them needs to be equally well illustrated and described so that the readers can compare the techniques and make up their own minds about the outcome of the topic under discussion. We encourage active polite discussion.

A couple of examples of posts that belong in Grad School can be found here and here. Both are titled clearly, and the steps are clearly described and illustrated.

If you have any questions or comments, you can make them right here in this thread.. We will welcome suggestions for threads to be moved to Grad School in this thread only:thumb

Let's get started on our images!