I look around this site, and I haven't been on for a long while so my own work is very out-dated. My new focus has been on photography. I skim through the photos on here for my own inspiration... BUT I see a major problem.

>Dear photographers,
Your photos are beautiful, so beautiful that you do not need to frame them. PLEASE DON'T PUT TACKY FRAMES ON PHOTOS. Personally I think it makes your work go down the drain. For example on a photo with a frame I will pass and not comment because of the fact that it makes me want to hurl.
Anyone agree?

I don't. Some are tacky and some enhance the photos. I might as well complain about black & white photos.

I just prefer if they were out lawed lol. But I do see your point.

Since it's an opinion based question I can't really agree or disagree.

But I agree.

Anything can be overdone, and when a technique gets popular it tends to be overused. But there will always be artists who can make good use of it.

I say let the photo speak for itself. But I think you are talking more of on the lines of design. If it is more a design thing, it depends on the photo surroundings. For the computer it has no surroundings so... get my point?

I forgot to mention that I hate tomatoes. I also hate ketchup. But I like salsa.

That being said, I prefer watermelons.

Thanks for the info, its well noted.

No problem.

Here's a few more thoughts and opinions on the matter:

"What Isn't Art? (Photo Borders)"

Depends on whether your focus is on photography per se and excellence of technique etc OR whether it is the intention to create something that stands up well as a desktop wallpaper. Sometimes one is simply added to make an image an acceptable size.
A 'tacky' frame can detract from an image - a complimetary frame can add.
It is an old argument which has been going on since I first joined caedes and perhaps it will never be resolved.
A poor photo with a great frame will still be a poor photo. It seems like a good image with a suitable frame will always be rejected by those who are dyed-in-the wool frame haters.
Outlawing frames? - that is a bit OTT, surely?

:) :) :)

Leaving the realm of digital art, framing-making used to be an art in itself. If you go through a gallery of "classical" art, some of the frames are worth more than the paintings.

Often I use a desktop picture smaller than my desktop, particularly as my computer is widescreen and most of the photo proportions aren't right (too deep, usually). The surroundings of that photo can be any colour I choose (generally black). I found that a bright little frame or line around the picture is distracting... it's more obvious than both the black surroundings and the picture itself. Perhaps those are just examples of photos framed badly? I have seen some that I like, but the borders are usually a bit thicker and belong with the picture in some way -- they're not just lines.

I agree with Lyn.

I'm fairly well known as someone who isn't, as a general rule, fond of frames for online images. There are, however, some very tasteful exceptions, and I've been more than happy to say so when I see them. Overall, I feel they should subtly help an image, not "make" it.

I still agree with Lyn.

There's a difference between a wall and a desktop -- frames and mounts do set off pictures on a wall, but a desktop is a working environment. If you use a picture that's smaller than your desktop, it's already got a kind of frame (I use the colour black most often).

I had the impression all images were being randomly 0-rated, not just framed ones? Perhap signed ones do as well, and small ones, and ones that aren't in the right proportions, or the right genre, or the right colour. :-)

Surely there are enough images to chose from here to suit all tastes - framed or unframed. Let the artist decide how they want to present their work - and then let the work be chosen for use according to requirements.

Tootles, one of the reasons I use frames on photos is actually because the computer monitor IS a working environment. I run a Mac and have the dock (for applications and projects) running up the right side. Some Mac users place theirs on one of the other four edges. I've noticed in my office, where there's approximately 50 more computers, all PCs, that many people have icons on the left side. If a Caedes submission is very busy, with lots of colors and fine details, those icons can get lost and become hard to find on a busy wallpaper. By putting a frame around a submission photo, I'm giving the PC user a place to display both their icons and the photo so that neither one visually fights the other.

Earlier today, our Turkish friend Tanju mentioned that my latest submission would have been just as successful without the frame. I appreciate his candor and told him so. I also told him that if he wished to use any of my submissions as wallpaper but didn't care for the frame, I would have no problem with him removing the frame (provided he has the software to do so) and letting the image run from edge to edge on his monitor. Isn't that a lot more reasonable than giving the image a zero? As long as my submissions aren't being ripped and republished, it's fine for you folks to pull off the frame if you want to use it that way as wallpaper.

Hi Nikoneer

I hear what you say, and there are people out there who do worry about whether or not there is space for their icons, so that's fine... I'm not one of them myself; I have some unbelievably busy wallpapers and am very happy with them. :-) Perhaps it's because I keep wallpapers on an automatic cycle, and so a wallpaper will only be there for up to 15 minutes (most often just one minute), then it will move on.

I do not regard myself as a 'frame-hater', and have collected lots of wallpapers showing borders and frames of one type or another... but I have observed over the years that if one picture shows up that distracts me in a 'not good' way (sometimes because of a clashing border, or a frame that is awkwardly placed on my monitor; sometimes for reasons that have nothing to do with frames) then I will usually end up deleting it. It's not a case of "oh, it's got a frame, I hate it!" It's more "oh, and I liked that picture as well! But looks untidy/distracting/unattractive on my monitor."

You may feel it doesn't make sense how I can be happy with a busy wallpaper yet be frustrated with a smaller image that has a neat white border or something... well just now I'm watching images coming up on my other, larger monitor (there are very few images that fit it fully). And I notice that one or another comes up with some sort of border... white; white and black (black next to the picture and white on the very edge); a very thin white that you might not notice if my background wasn't black, etc. And each one affects me in a different way! The one with a bold black and white border was attractive, and seemed to fit the snowy landscape. It was like a Christmas card. The one with a very thin, almost invisible white border is irritating (also a snowy landscape). It is hard to say why, and sometimes I think it's safer not to frame, thus avoiding the whole can of worms. There's a bright starry galaxy scene on my monitor right now, with no borders apart from my black background, and I love it. It looks stunning, as though it could go on forever.

I better mention that I very rarely hand out zeros and tens and in fact haven't been in the voting booth for a long time. I don't put my own images up for voting and feel it would be inconsistent of me to vote on other people's. Whoever is wriggling through the voting booth handing out zeros and tens, it isn't me... but I know there are folk out there who don't realize that everything they do impacts on their own character and reputation. They are everywhere... it would seem a Utopia indeed not to have them here, though of course I wish they could have a better sense of what's fair and just. I also wish (not for the first time) that we could have King Arthur and his round table back again. ;-)

I don't like frames either. I de-frame every image I save if it has one. If you like a an image that has a frame, it's easy enough to get rid of the frame. Put it in a photo editor and use the crop tool to eliminate the frame.