Well, I've stayed out of this one as long as I can. I do in fact think that Apo flames can be beautiful, and can be considered art - but I have one big old soapbox issue with a lot of the flame images posted here. Actually, it could be any fractal image, but some flames are particularly glaring.

My issue is with the way the images are what I call "finished". By that I mean that the image is clear, full, and not surrounded by tons of negative space. I've seen some perfectly beautiful flame thumbnails - only to click on the image (sometimes as large as 400KB!) to find a sparsely, barely visible splotch of color surrounded by a ton of black space. For 4 months of the year I am blessed with a fast internet connection, and I am more than likely to go ahead and view some of these 400+kb images. For the remaining 8 months, when I am on a dial-up connection, I don't waste my time. Renderosity is a meeting place for people from all over the world - and some of them have to pay by the minute for internet connections. How much is that huge mostly black image worth?

My personal rule is that if the thumbnail looks better than the final image, then something should be done to the final image to make it better.. increasing the density, zooming in, rendering at 2 or 4 or 8 times the final size: whatever it takes to make the flame show at its absolute best.

One does not have to shell out big bucks for a graphics program capable of resizing/anti-aliasing any digital image. Irfanview and the Gimp are freeware, and both do excellent jobs.

Artists improve technique as they gain experience with any graphics program - and I am not at all adverse to seeing beginners post their works here at the fractal gallery. I actually enjoy watching the progression of works as each artist finds his/her own style and improves over time.

What irks me is those artists, whether they be beginners or not, that do not take the time and pride to show the best possible side of whatever they decide to post. Again, this is just my opinion, but I don't think that the speed, size or frequency of posts is what counts - it is always the final product that gets my attention.

Panny, getting off her soapbox

Message edited on: 01/03/2006 22:00

Message edited on: 01/03/2006 22:03