Welcome to the Mega Round #16. Only the top finishers of DSS 95 - DSS 100 qualify to participate in this challenge. They are:

memol
Jenn
Chandlerja
ghinson
torrbrae
PedalGirl
Aaron Nelson
NelsonK
SAMBALAM
dnie
kdotaylor
Al the killer
Vandana
GretaPics
kwickers
Pat664422
Ikbart
K10D
sweetharmony
Bryce Wilson
dc.roake
Crokey
SeascapeS
Michswiss
puzzledpaul
photo-funtasia
rteest42
richtersl
Sventekoz



Mega round #16 will run:
Monday, April 16, 2012 8:00pm PST time (GMT -8) on through Monday, April 30, 2012 8:00pm PST time (GMT -8).

Mega round theme: Spoof Movie Poster

Create a SPOOF movie poster. Spoof means: Parody by imitation Satire. The movie can be any movie ever created. The goal is to not copy an existing poster but to make up your own version and put a mock title. Do not use the actual movie title. Example: Star Wars can be Nova Wars.

With the exception of your text, all pixels used in your poster have to be justified with a current EXIF. That means any layers including textures and backgrounds. So be sure to list all your EXIF info if you have multiple layers of images.

The only text that you can put on these posters is the Title and your signature. No need to add any other mock info.

Also I would like to remind you all to please limit your titles to just a few words and not long run on descriptions or sentences. There is a limited amount of characters that the poll program will take per entry. Thank you! :)

EDITING RESTRICTIONS listed above.

Your Judge:
1 round 72 Hour Public Vote.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Your entry is to be submitted directly into a SmugMug gallery. It's pretty simple, just go to the gallery link below, and follow the upload instructions at the top of the page:

Mega Round #16

Remember, the basics stay the same: 1 entry per person, and the photo must be fresh, taken during this contest period. Do not use a minimal save method (such as "save for web"), and your EXIF will be embedded in your image, no worries!

To avoid disqualification, read, in full, the Dgrin Sharp Shooters Challenge Rules.

aughh.... and I just found a bunch of good spoof ones and don't want to copy them... but oh I want to. I need to just stop looking. Sigh... This is going to be a very hard one for me.

Another PS challenge. While I do enjoy the challenge of putting these types of shots together I cant help but feel that my photography skills end up taking a back seat to my Photoshop abilities. Out of the last 4 mega challenges 3 have been more a test of Photoshop skills than photography skills IMO (for whatever its worth).

I hope this doesn't get taken wrong as I really do appreciate the work that is done in order to put these challenges together! And as I said, I really do enjoy improving my PS abilities. I just hope we can have a mix of more traditional photography themes in future Mega's.

With that said I have no idea how I'm going to attack this one! Definitely got my brain working!

This sounds like fun. Now, all I have to do is decide on a theme. Soooo many ideas are going through my head right now, too!

Seems I had forgotten to add the top winners of DSS #95 to the list. So I have edited the list to include those people too. Sorry about that. Eventually I will get the hang of all this!

Originally Posted by CHANDLERJA Another PS challenge. While I do enjoy the challenge of putting these types of shots together I cant help but feel that my photography skills end up taking a back seat to my Photoshop abilities. Out of the last 4 mega challenges 3 have been more a test of Photoshop skills than photography skills IMO (for whatever its worth). I hope this doesn't get taken wrong as I really do appreciate the work that is done in order to put these challenges together! And as I said, I really do enjoy improving my PS abilities. I just hope we can have a mix of more traditional photography themes in future Mega's. With that said I have no idea how I'm going to attack this one! Definitely got my brain working!

Seems we have a good mix. Might just be a cycling of ideas at this point. But your doing great to be in the mega and the point to everything is to learn to improve on the skills that need improving on, right? Your doing awesome!

Aaron has a good concept. Also on this challenge, layering is not necessary. It can be straight from the camera, although you need to tack a mock movie title on it with text. That shouldn't be too difficult. Its all up to how you want your poster to be. I had mentioned the layered texture thing in order to let everyone know that they have to have an exif for the textured layer to be qualified for this challenge. No boxed stuff.

I agree with Aaron and Jeromy....At this stage I'm more about the photo taking and haven't had much success with digital creating and only just purchased the scaled down version of PS with Elements 9. However I always like to give the challenge a try so here's to using more than the clone tool in Elements. Good luck everyone. GP

Originally Posted by Aaron Nelson I like the themes because it forces me to shoot a subject that I may not have ever done on my own ambitions...

This is why I love the challenges, although I have not had time to actively participate for the last several weeks I do come up with ideas for each and write them down for future shoots.

While my photography will always be improving the greatest challenge is the subject and/or processing that others will find interesting. Photoshop editing is my strong point since I've been manipulating images professionally for 17 yrs.

Wish I had more time, these challenges have been the most fun yet!

Troy

I've really learned a lot since I've been here on Dgrin. Hopefully, I've improved, which I kind of feel that I have.. other times I just go blank and have no idea what to do for the challenge until the last minute. All I can say is thanks to everyone for inspiring me. :)

While the challenge certainly can be done near-SOOC, it is going to favor the person who can ham it up the best with PS. That's what will get the most attention. That can be fun, and I hope I can find time to shoot for it, instead of just react to it (forcing a pic to fit the theme). But I too wouldn't mind focusing back in on powerful photography. In part because it is ultimately much easier to be good at PS than it is to be great at photography! And that's how I hope to grow.

Originally Posted by ghinson In part because it is ultimately much easier to be good at PS than it is to be great at photography!

While I understand what you're saying, good at PS starts with a good photo and concept. A phrase used at work "You can polish a turd, but it's still just a turd"

Originally Posted by ghinson While the challenge certainly can be done near-SOOC, it is going to favor the person who can ham it up the best with PS. That's what will get the most attention. That can be fun, and I hope I can find time to shoot for it, instead of just react to it (forcing a pic to fit the theme). But I too wouldn't mind focusing back in on powerful photography. In part because it is ultimately much easier to be good at PS than it is to be great at photography! And that's how I hope to grow.

I understand what you are saying Greg.

I have to smile here because just not too long ago when I stripped this forum to just basic photography skills with no ps...just about the whole forum fell apart. Or so it seemed to seeing things on this side of moderation. So...I cannot make everyone happy but I think that themes like these are the most popular and everyone has a choice of how they will handle it.

Question: What does a title consist of?

Most movie posters I've seen include the actors names along with the title text .. like the Big letters part of the title and the small letters part of a title. Is that doable?

Originally Posted by Jenn Question: What does a title consist of? Most movie posters I've seen include the actors names along with the title text .. like the Big letters part of the title and the small letters part of a title. Is that doable?

"The only text that you can put on these posters is the Title and your signature. No need to add any other mock info."

That being said in the OP. I realize that some titles have sub titles. Like: Star Wars Return of the Jeti

I think that is ok, just all the other stuff is unecessary.

Originally Posted by JAG "The only text that you can put on these posters is the Title and your signature. No need to add any other mock info." That being said in the OP. I realize that some titles have sub titles. Like: Star Wars Return of the Jeti I think that is ok, just all the other stuff is unecessary.

Can you look at my entry and let me know if that's ok?

http://challenges.smugmug.com/Other/...3199&k=9HgVZ9Z

I just looked at the Mega gallery....wow! There are some really good entries already!

Sherry

Originally Posted by slpollett I just looked at the Mega gallery....wow! There are some really good entries already! Sherry

I hope nobody takes my idea before I can get it done!

Originally Posted by Jenn Can you look at my entry and let me know if that's ok? http://challenges.smugmug.com/Other/...3199&k=9HgVZ9Z

Looks fine to me.

Originally Posted by JAG Looks fine to me.

Great, thanks! :)

Originally Posted by JAG Aaron has a good concept. Also on this challenge, layering is not necessary. It can be straight from the camera, although you need to tack a mock movie title on it with text. That shouldn't be too difficult. Its all up to how you want your poster to be. I had mentioned the layered texture thing in order to let everyone know that they have to have an exif for the textured layer to be qualified for this challenge. No boxed stuff.

JAG -- I just submitted my entry. Could you please take a look, and let me know if it is OK. I just want to make sure adding the film strip does not disqualify my entry. Please note that I did create the film strip in CS5 myself from scratch and using two background layers. Also in my linked gallery, I have tried to show some of the intermediate steps. But still just wanted to double check. Thanks....