Ehh... I disagree somewhat. 500px is another beast entirely, with its own (huge) set of problems. As an avid photographer myself I can't really get behind it.
To summarize a large argument: 500px has an extremely strong groupthink, leading to a very confined set of photos that its community prefers. It is much stronger than any other photo site I've come across, including Flickr.
Its notion of beauty is very firmly in the territory of tourist-kitsch, and the single-mindedness of its community prevents it from catering to, well, any photo enthusiasts who desire something different. Heavily processed long-exposure landscapes, extreme telephotos of animals/birds, and scantily-clad/naked beautiful women - those three topics alone dominate that site.
500px's photos lean towards high production values, it does not lead to either discourse about photography as a craft or deep sharing. Which is to say, it is unlikely to replace existing photography communities, nor is it likely to take the mainstream like Flickr, or Instagram. The community shuns serious photographers outside of its narrow niche, it also shuns casual amateur shutterbugs like mom and dad's point and shoot, and it shuns "artsy" lo-fi photos like Instagram. Breaking that community out of its self-constructed (and very, very small) box I think will be the 500px team's greatest challenge.
I agree with that. 500px is a bit elitist (although does have a lot of 'quality' photography in the mainstream sense). Flickr on the other hand is a lot more loose and if one knows how/what to search, there can be real gems and aspiring new artists to be discovered, alongside all the old masters.
The thing that drives me absolutely bonkers about 500px is that you can't disable the stupid right click blocking JavaScript.
If people want to use it, fine, give them the option (even though it doesn't prevent anyone determined to get a photo saved). But, for the love of everything, please don't force users to have it on. I was going to sign up (and pay) for 500px until I found out that you can't actually disable the right click blocking (see: http://support.500px.com/customer/portal/questions/475736-ri...).
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"Either way, there is currently a gaping void on the Web for people to share higher-resolution beautiful photos."
500px seems to do that quite well.
http://500px.com/
Ehh... I disagree somewhat. 500px is another beast entirely, with its own (huge) set of problems. As an avid photographer myself I can't really get behind it.
To summarize a large argument: 500px has an extremely strong groupthink, leading to a very confined set of photos that its community prefers. It is much stronger than any other photo site I've come across, including Flickr.
Its notion of beauty is very firmly in the territory of tourist-kitsch, and the single-mindedness of its community prevents it from catering to, well, any photo enthusiasts who desire something different. Heavily processed long-exposure landscapes, extreme telephotos of animals/birds, and scantily-clad/naked beautiful women - those three topics alone dominate that site.
500px's photos lean towards high production values, it does not lead to either discourse about photography as a craft or deep sharing. Which is to say, it is unlikely to replace existing photography communities, nor is it likely to take the mainstream like Flickr, or Instagram. The community shuns serious photographers outside of its narrow niche, it also shuns casual amateur shutterbugs like mom and dad's point and shoot, and it shuns "artsy" lo-fi photos like Instagram. Breaking that community out of its self-constructed (and very, very small) box I think will be the 500px team's greatest challenge.
I agree with that. 500px is a bit elitist (although does have a lot of 'quality' photography in the mainstream sense). Flickr on the other hand is a lot more loose and if one knows how/what to search, there can be real gems and aspiring new artists to be discovered, alongside all the old masters.
I hadn't really thought about the overall types of photos on 500px before, but you're right, it is rather elitist and narrow.
Anyone can post to Flickr, and things like the "interesting" link actually work (based on things like comments, I gather).
The thing that drives me absolutely bonkers about 500px is that you can't disable the stupid right click blocking JavaScript.
If people want to use it, fine, give them the option (even though it doesn't prevent anyone determined to get a photo saved). But, for the love of everything, please don't force users to have it on. I was going to sign up (and pay) for 500px until I found out that you can't actually disable the right click blocking (see: http://support.500px.com/customer/portal/questions/475736-ri...).