Okay, I promised we'd talk about this after the first of the year and it's after the first of the year! So, let me get the ball rolling by telling you a few things first and then I'll open it up to anyone who wants to leave a constructive comment.
As far at BPN is concerned, the OOTB (Out of the Box) forum is a place for images that are outside of the "normal" in-camera techniques, compositions, or post-processing workflows. Since BPN's inception, this forum has hosted everything from black and white & toned images, in-camera blurs and pans, images where multiple filters or techniques were used, and any image where the photograph took on more of a "painted" feel or became more of a "digital art" piece. One of the big guidelines was "if you use a third party plug-in, it almost always goes in the OOTB forum." Even just a year ago this was very true as you really couldn't use many plug-ins and still retain the original look and feel of the natural image - and there are still many plug-ins out there where they almost instantly change the image from "natural" to an OOTB image. Plug-ins like "Fractilius," "DAP" or "Fotosketcher" certainly come to mind as they instantly change a photograph with even a minor tweak.
But in between all these "special effect" plug-ins we have others that do the same kind of normal workflow that the big boy, Photoshop, does. Plug-ins like Nik's Viveza which allows you to alter the tones and lighting on an image like Photoshop's levels and curves; Neat Image or Noise Ninja that help with noise reduction (and do a better job in most cases than Photoshop does); Nik Sharpener or FocalBlade which can be used for very natural looking sharpening are also ones that come to mind. Even Nik's Silver Efex can create very natural and beautiful black and white images and, in the past, we've allowed those who post black and white images to leave them in whichever forum they've chosen to post them in.
As the world of digital photography progresses, new techniques come to light - many of these make for some pretty beautiful images, especially when combined with macro and floral photography. Textured overlays, vignetting, bi-colored filters, filters that zoom or do radial blurring - they can add a special touch to an image that still looks pretty natural - OR - they can take them to the extreme and really create something entirely new.
As a moderator, I'm finding it harder and harder to find that line where an image goes from being artistically beautiful in a natural way and one that becomes more of a "digital art" piece. I've tried to define what plug-ins are acceptable in this forum and which aren't but, truth be told, you can lightly and delicately use almost any of today's plug-ins and still retain a natural look to your image so I don't think we can say "if you use 'X' plug-in you have to post in OOTB" because it simply isn't true. Using Nik Adjust to simplify a busy leaf pattern can either leave an image with a little less detail or it can leave it looking like a glossed over painting...it's all in how you use it.
So what do you think? What constitutes "normal" in-camera and post-processing procedures and what doesn't? What if an image doesn't follow the ROT's or we use Nik Viveza to tone down a hot spot...does that mean it belongs in OOTB? What if we take the rules of photography literally - will we ever grow then as artists? So what say you? How do you know when you are working on a photographic image that you just "crossed that line" from being "cutting edge" to being OOTB?
Let's hear your thoughts...
(And I trust we're all going to maintain a great deal of civility as we voice our artistic impressions, right? Right!) ;)