Welcome to Round #135 of the Dgrin Sharp Shooters Challenges. - CLOSED

JAG · August 5, 2013

This challenge is for all dgrin members.

PLEASE NOTE NEW CHALLENGE TIME REQUIREMENTS:

It will run from Monday, August 5, 2013 8:00pm PST time (GMT -8) on through Monday, September 2, 2013 8:00pm PST time (GMT -8).

The theme this round for your interpretation will be: Tilt-Shift Photography

Here is a chance for you to learn a new technique or hone one you might already have. Tilt-Shift is a process that can be done either with special lenses, or in post processing. To learn more about it, please do a search on Tilt-Shift Photography

There are many tutorials that are for free for this too. Many of the newer editors have this as an option to do. In PSPX4 it is a filter called "depth of field" under the adjust tab. For those who do not have an editing program, it can be done online too, however I do not know if they will strip your exif so be careful to what you enter. So your homework for this challenge might have a learning curve, but you will have 4 weeks to complete!

It is strongly encouraged and recommended that if you have questions or need help with deciding how to improve your work, that you start a new thread on the challenge forum to get feedback from others who know how to do this.

Here are a couple examples of mine:

Dominica

Panama Canal

Aruba

No Editing restrictions

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:

DSS 135 Gallery

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.

PedalGirl · August 5, 2013

Great challenge theme, JAG! This is one technique that has always interested me but haven't really played with. Looking forward to this one.

pemmett · August 5, 2013

Great challenge, but when do they start getting easier?

JAG · August 5, 2013

This is actually a very fun way to do pictures. I have several pointers for the first timers if you all are interested. Basically keep these things in mind:

1. use a wide angle lens like 18mm-35mm
2. Try to get above the scene as much as possible (but not totally necessary)
3. using a feathered edge to your blur layer will help ease the transitions between focus and blur.

GretaPics · August 5, 2013

Good challenge theme for me - have been wanting to try this technique. Thanks, GP

tinamarie52 · August 6, 2013

I didn't know that the effect could be applied in post with the same outcome as using the lens. I already learned something new!

Chris

juanheredia · August 7, 2013

Good challenge theme. I was looking forward to try this technic, now it's a good opportunity to learn.

Sent from my S3 using Tapatalk 4

JAG · August 7, 2013

tinamarie52 wrote: »

I didn't know that the effect could be applied in post with the same outcome as using the lens. I already learned something new!

Chris

My images above were all done post processing. What I like about using the depth of field tool in psp4 is it gives you the option to draw the selection. Which means I can include or exclude object I want and not be confine to preshapes such as circles and rectangles. The same effect can be used with a two layer process of the same image. With the top layer blurred, using a free hand selection tool on the blurred layer, outline the area you want to be clear. Then simply erase the selected area. This is one of many ways to do it. I would love for people.to.share how they do their technique.

grandmaR · August 14, 2013

As usual it looks like the photo hasn't uploaded and now I have two of them. Please delete the second one. They are exactly the same.

I wasn't going to do this because I thought I had to get up high and I didnt see how I could do that as all our windows have plastic on them and everything looks blurred. Tere are just no tall buildings here in the country. And I did not and probably still do not understand the concept. But we do have hills, so after dinner, I went up on one of those.

tinamarie52 · August 21, 2013

JAG wrote: »

My images above were all done post processing. What I like about using the depth of field tool in psp4 is it gives you the option to draw the selection. Which means I can include or exclude object I want and not be confine to preshapes such as circles and rectangles. The same effect can be used with a two layer process of the same image. With the top layer blurred, using a free hand selection tool on the blurred layer, outline the area you want to be clear. Then simply erase the selected area. This is one of many ways to do it. I would love for people.to.share how they do their technique.

Joyce, is the Depth of Field tool new to PSP4 or can I find it in PSP3? How do you find it?

JAG · August 21, 2013

tinamarie52 wrote: »

Joyce, is the Depth of Field tool new to PSP4 or can I find it in PSP3? How do you find it?

It is found under the adjustment tab. They have the same feature in pspx2, which was the earlier version I had.

JAG · August 24, 2013

Wow! I just looked at the gallery. We are coming up to our final week! I figured there would be at least 1 whole page worth of entries. What is everybody waiting for? If everyone waits till the last minute, and there are problems, you might not get your entry in! :yikes

ShootingStar · August 26, 2013

Hi JAG,
Personally it is because I will try to get some other shots until the deadline and don't want you to have to erase too many. I will enter my final version on one of the last days.
Claire

juanheredia · August 26, 2013

ShootingStar wrote: »

Hi JAG,
Personally it is because I will try to get some other shots until the deadline and don't want you to have to erase too many. I will enter my final version on one of the last days.
Claire

Same here. For me this is a new technique so I'm practicing and trying to find a good photo with a decent post process.

JAG · August 26, 2013

I look forward to seeing everyones awesomeness!

grandmaR · August 26, 2013

juanheredia wrote: »

Same here. For me this is a new technique so I'm practicing and trying to find a good photo with a decent post process.

It is just the other way around for me. I like to get a shot, and post it so I don't have to worry about running into the deadline.

byoshi · August 29, 2013

Just uploaded a file to the gallery. I can only see it when logged in under "challenges". It does not show when logged out or logged in under byoshi. Any idea why?

JAG · August 29, 2013

byoshi wrote: »

Just uploaded a file to the gallery. I can only see it when logged in under "challenges". It does not show when logged out or logged in under byoshi. Any idea why?

there is an invisible button that will hide a photo. No one knows where or why it does this, but it somehow gets triggered. Please re enter another photo and I will remove the first hidden one after you do so. Thanks. Sorry for the inconvenience.

byoshi · August 29, 2013

JAG wrote: »

there is an invisible button that will hide a photo. No one knows where or why it does this, but it somehow gets triggered. Please re enter another photo and I will remove the first hidden one after you do so. Thanks. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks, uploaded the second one. Looks to be showing.

JAG · August 31, 2013

Ok folks, only two more days yet we have only a handful of images!:(: I shutter to think what could happen if we don't get the numbers up! Start uploading your images now! Waiting till the last day could end up being disasterous if we have an outage or something. Besides, Monday is Labor Day in America and for all the Americans, you might forget because your busy doing something fun on your day off!:ivar

sherstone · September 2, 2013

This challenge is now closed. The voting poll will be available soon.

EDIT - the poll is here

JAG will be working on posting something for a new challenge tomorrow.

JAG · September 3, 2013

Thanks Sean for putting up the poll in my absence. As for the new challenge, please see this thread HERE.

grandmaR · September 3, 2013

Something I've wanted to know - can we vote for our own photos? It isn't an issue this time as mine is not good enough to vote for, but sometimes I like my photo better than some of the others, so I wondered.

JAG · September 5, 2013

grandmaR wrote: »

Something I've wanted to know - can we vote for our own photos? It isn't an issue this time as mine is not good enough to vote for, but sometimes I like my photo better than some of the others, so I wondered.

It is not against the rules, it has been discussed on this forum (quite awhile ago) and at that time the mod suggested that we refrain from it. I have the opinion that if someone votes for their own picture based on merit that the image is better than all the others that they could choose from, then it is acceptable. If they are doing it just to pad their images votes, that is unacceptable.

grandmaR · September 5, 2013

So I guess it is up to your conscience.

Although I guess now that there are no challenges, it won't come up

Welcome to Round #135 of the Dgrin Sharp Shooters Challenges. - CLOSED

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