>DSS #11: Loud or Silent Feedback Thread

Greensquared

Okay guys, here's your chance to really pull these Challenges together as a community. This is the thread where I will post feedback on both my own and the other judge's chosen top ten, but go ahead and start giving input for each other.

Post your own favorites, give critiques, add comments. The more you are able to provide, the more helpful this will be to your peers. Keep it constructive and polite, and help each other to learn how others view their work.

The challenge theme was: Loud or Silent

Your judges were:
_________________________________________________
Michael Atkins - Feedback
I would like to thank Greensquared, Smugmug, the other moderators and sponsors for keeping these challenges going on this wonderful site. I have gained so much from these contests and from the feedback given to me from the other competitors. I am happy to get to contribute something back to this forum in this way. I don’t feel I’m particularly strong at critiquing photos but here’s my best shot. Before I start I did take an idea from PaulThomasMcKee and even covered my screen with a piece of paper so as not to know the identity of the individuals who entered. I thought this was a great idea when he mentioned it as a guest judge and it worked great for me.


Post #7 - dlplumer - stealth
Wonderful capture. Lighting and detail are amazing, especially the reflection of the water under the wing.

Post #10 - Halite - George Urges Calm
I really liked this photo. The perspective and composition is outstanding. It really brings the picture together and makes me feel like the statue of George Washington is communicating with the people.

Post #14 - Jag - Make a joyful noise!
Great shot. It really fit the concept of the challenge to a “T” and the little girl yelling back is priceless.

Post #24 - achambers - Woofer Surfing
Outstanding composition, detail, and DOF really make this photo special.

Post #35 - Tylwydd - Musica tacet
This picture is absolutely stunning. The composition and detail are amazing. I absolutely love the soft tones and textures throughout.

Post #36 - pyroPrints.com - The Gun says, "Boom"
I thought this concept was really challenging and I feel you pulled it off wonderfully. Love the black & white and the outstanding detail. Great post processing work.

Post #39 - cmorganphotography - No Words
This is a beautiful capture that speaks for itself. The color and lighting really draw the viewer into the scene. I almost feel like I’m there. Really well done.

Post #40 - pemmett - Is Anybody Out There?
Outstanding shot. Your composition is spot on and really emphasizes the theme while the lighting and detail is amazing.

Post #53 - pyry - When nothing moves but the stars
This is a really beautiful shot where all the elements work great. The detail and lighting is wonderful and the tone of the image really adds to the feel of it.

Post #60 - mtmillz - The Mountain and I, Nothing Else
The lighting and colors in this photo are absolutely gorgeous. You really get a sense of the moment between the skier and the mountain. Really beautifully done.
_________________________________________________
Greensquared - Feedback

#2 - Llywellyn - Feel the Noise
This one made me laugh right off the bat. Neat concept and the cat's expression is perfect.

#9 - Eia - My Soul Waits in Silence for God Only
The striking composition, fall foliage, archway and mist all work extremely well here together. I can feel myself present in the stillness.

#11 - jeffmeyers - Silenced & Forgotten
Very moving image. Love the repetition and the message is unmistakable. Great pp choices, very well done.

#14 - JAG - Make a joyful noise!
This one totally says loud! The only minor nit was the distracting pants and the hint of chair on the right,but otherwise, really great!

#24 - achambers - Woofer Surfing
Hilarious and perfectly done!

#28 - fashiznitsngrins - Time for Reflection
Beautiful colors, soft glow and stillness of water all combine into a pensive and peaceful moment. Almost surreal, this one works very nicely.

#35 - Tylwydd - Musica tacet
I love the detail in this and the excellent processing. Just gorgeous.

#40 - pemmett - Is Anybody Out There?
Strong compostition, great use of negative space. Definitely says loud!

#41 - KevXman - A Blast From The Past
Very well shot and processed. I can totally here this image and it works completely for me.

#60 - mtmillz - The Mountain and I, Nothing Else
A remote, snow covered location, solitude and beautiful light pull this image together wonderfully. Very well done.

AnnasPhotos

I get to be first. Congrats everyone. Fantastic Round!

Here is my top ten.

KevXman

It was hard to narrow it down to ten. There are several others not included here that I would be happy to hang on my wall. Here are my Top Ten in no particular order.



Good luck to everyone.

— Kevin

You beat me to the trigger Anna. Thanks for including me in your favs.

divamum

I struggled picking for this round - to narrow it down, I chose according to which pictures really evoked a sound-sense in me, which means that some truly awesome images aren't included. There are some images posted that I absolutely ADORE ... but although they were glorious images, I just couldn't "hear" them enough (I've never considered myself a particularly literal person, but it appears that photography is bringing out this side of me!!)

Congratulations to everybody - I think this round may have had the most consistently strong images of any of the challenges that I've followed, so even though there were fewer entries, they were all very high quality.

My list, in order of entry:

6. Quark Cathedral Library
11 Jeff Meyers Silenced and forgotten
13 Sherwin James Silent Solitude
14 JAG make a joyful noise
24 achambers Woofer surfing
26 knapph Once loud, now silent
35 Tylwydd Musica tacet
41 Kevxman Blast from the past
42 Jeffreaux Alma Mater
44 Idiom "Don't dare make a sound!"

Kwarta

Here are my top ten. In entry order.

#2 Feel the noise~Lluwellyn
#4 Surround Sound~DivaMum
#11 Silenced and Forgotten~JeffMeyers
#14 Make a joyful Noise~JAG
#24 Woofer Surfing~Achambers
#35 Musica Tacet~Tylwydd
#41 A blast from the past~KevXman
#47 Silent Solitude~VelvetRide
#49 Your Move~cmkultradome
#62 The Sound of Surf~Sunita

pyroPrints.com

in order

dlplumer

A Few of My Favorites
This was a very tough round to pick favs. So many creative shots, but here are a few:

HumpreyCogay

My Top Picks
Great Round Guys .... everyone is a winner here...

These are my picks, My criteria was (may include 1 or more of the ff),Composition, Simplicity, Humor, post processing, uniqueness, creativity



#8 dlplumer - Stealth
#9 Eia - My Soul Waits in Silence for God Only
#13 SherwinJames - Silent Solitude
#25 KisaKat - Quiet Afternoon
#28 fashiznitsngrins - Time for Reflection
#35 Tylwydd - Musica tacet
#39 cmorganphotography - No Words
#40 pemmett - Is Anybody Out There?
#51 Izzy - Still Smoke
#53 pyry - When nothing moves but the stars
#60 mtmillz - The Mountain and I, Nothing Else

PaulThomasMcKee

A few of my Fave's

Gastrocnemius

I enjoyed browsing through these entries. Inspiring.

The one image that really grabs me though, is the young chess player.

An engaging image in itself, it also evokes the inner turmoil that often accompanies an appearance of outward tranquility, especially during concentration.

Loudness and Silence co-existing.

Cheers,

Steve

VisualXpressions

Favorites from this round...

Tylwydd

I'm relatively new to the site and even more to the challenges (my first one here hehe)

So here are my ten fav in no special order. That's amazing to see how you can render the sound (or the lack of it) in a single picture.

pyroPrints - The gun says "boom" : great idea to render the sound. Couldn't get a more contrast between the loud reality and the silent photo imo.

richtersl - No more flour to grind : the composition and the treatment work pretty well

KevXman - a blast from the past : I like the composition and the treatment with this "antique" photo look.

cmkultradome - your move... : the kid looks so concentrated on his next move that even flash could not disturb him ! Therefore it matches really to the silent theme.

Llywelynn - feel the noise : sooo funny !

Quark - cathedral library : great place and nice composition. Many details and different levels to explore in your pic.

dlplumer - stealth : what a capture ! you can almost hear the sound of the bird's wing touching the water...

PaulThomasMcKee - Forest Fortissimo : great colors and light. also a great translation of serenity in photo, imo.

Achambers - Woofer Surfing : very funny too ! Great idea and execution !

Mtmillz - The mountain and I, nothing else : I like the composition and the light. You can almost hear the sound of the ski sliding on the snow.

cmkultradome

Another really fun challenge! I get so inspired by everyone's posts and all of the different interpretations on two simple words. Thanks to KevXman, kwarta, PaulThomasMcKee, & Tylwydd for including me in their favorites and also for the comments from Gastrocnemius. My son was so excited to see his picture posted in a challenge. Below are my favorites in no particular order.

Stephanie
[IMG][/img]

VelvtRide

Thanks, Kev and kwarta for putting me in your favs!

ic4u

I found this to be a fun round! It's so interesting to me to see the different interpretations that everyone has.
These are my ten favorites from this challenge....In no particular order

pemmett

PaulThomasMcKee wrote:

A few of my Fave's

Paul thank you :-)

cmorganphotography

Thanks for the fav's everybody. I wasn't super confident in my choice from the day. Good luck everyone!

ic4u

Thank you Anna and Stephanie for including me in your faves

divamum

Thanks Kwarta for including me in your faves! It was a fun one to shoot - my husband is actually the organist and I had wanted to get a similarly-produced shot but with him in it GENERATING the sound, but unfortunately the schedules made it impossible to find a time when he could be there that I could do the shoot...

Was fun to learn about zooming-while-shooting, so it was worth doing even without a live model

JAG

Thank you so much Anna, Kevin, Divamum, Kwarta, Paul, and VisualXpressions for including me in your favorites.

Lots of good entries and it is tough to wean it down. Here are my favs in no particular order...

#4 Surround Sound
#8 Stealth
#11 Silenced and Fogotten
#20 Open E
#24 Woofer Surfing
#25 Quiet Afternoon
#28 Time for reflection
#42 Alma Mater
#44 Don't dare make a sound
#62 The sound of surf

quark

Wow. Thanks to you all who included my photo in your lists! So many amazing photos, thank you thank you!

idiom

Hey, thanks to everybody who included my photo in their top ten, I'm honored, thank you very much.

Here are my top ten. I picked these on the following basis in this order: Topic, Originality, Photo characteristics (comp, color, etc).

These photos (along with 3-4 others that I had to cut to make 10 ) really speak the topic of this challenge to me.

And for what it's worth; Cmorgan, Sherstone, DaddyO, and Jag: I think your photos, creatively, are amazing. Very on-topic, and unique, I love them.

DaddyO

Gage, thanks for the notice in your top 10. Appreciate that.

Too bad I forgot to link up my EXIF info with the shot.
I'm sick about it.

Like the way you worked up your top ten and presented it. Looks great.

Michael

richtersl

Holy cow! Thanks Dan, Tylwydd, and idiom for including my pic in your top 10.

KevXman

Thank you Anna, Divamum, Kwarta, Pyro, Tylwydd, Stephanie, Karin, and Gage for putting me in your favs. This was a fun one to shoot. Nine hours, 400 miles in the car and 3 on foot round trip, all for 10-15 seconds worth of shooting. It was rathering impressive. You could hear the engine huffing and puffing for a couple of minutes before it came into view. Can't wait to go back and actually ride the thing.

— Kevin

rutt

The Silence of Addiction by The Green Egg was my favorite entry by far, though I can understand why it didn't make the finals, since it is so disturbing and generally depressing. I like the treatment of darkness. I've found that as it gets darker, color casts become more pronounced. This could have been yellow from the match flame, but red is also plausible and works much better with the subject.

Anyway, nobody has mentioned this shot, and it was really the only one which made me look twice (except the skiing picture, which made me wonder where I could get such nice powder this early in the season.)

Greensquared

Judge's feedback has been added to the first post in this thread.

Eia

Wow, thanks to those who included me in their faves! I hesitate in submitting my favorites; it is so difficult. The more I looked at the photos the more complicated it became to narrow it down. Even though there were excellent photos I tried to let my eyes tell my ears what the photo said for the tehme.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
2 Feel the Noise
6 Cathedral Library
8 Stealth
11 Silenced & Forgotten
13 Silent Solitude
14 Make A Joyful Noise
24 Woofer surfing
26 Once Loud, Now Silent
27 Too Much
28 Time for Reflection
36 Gun Says Boom
41 Blast From the Past
60 Mountain & I

pyry

Thank you Anna, Pyro and Humprey for the picks

Michael Atkins wrote:

Post #53 - pyry - When nothing moves but the stars
This is a really beautiful shot where all the elements work great. The detail and lighting is wonderful and the tone of the image really adds to the feel of it.

Thanks a million for the feedback and place in the voting round!

I shot this quick 5x2 minute (had to reject the first and ended up with four 2-minute shots) trail while I was out measuring night sky brightness for my thesis. Stacking and a shameless blue toning later, I had my dead silence

pemmett

Greensquared wrote:

_________________________________________________
Michael Atkins - Feedback
Post #40 - pemmett - Is Anybody Out There?
Outstanding shot. Your composition is spot on and really emphasizes the theme while the lighting and detail is amazing.

_________________________________________________
Greensquared - Feedback
#40 - pemmett - Is Anybody Out There?
Strong compostition, great use of negative space. Definitely says loud!

Michael/Emily, Thank you so much for your comments and positive feedback. The photo took quite some time to setup, mostly due to me trying to subtly light up the inside of my mouth with a third flash! So I thought I would do a small behind the scenes thingymajig

Here's the setup shot:


The main light of the photo in provided by the softbox camera left, which by itself produces the following image:


The second light I added was the hair light camera right, which by itself created the following image:


The image with these two lights combined looked like this:


I wanted to try and highlight the mouth in a subtle way so I spent the next 30-45 min creating an 8" snoot with a whole the size of small button on the end! This light on it's own produced this image:


Finally with a reflector on the right to give a very subtle fill-in I was able to get the following image:


I felt that the light on the mouth was slightly too obvious so I added a 1/4" grid on the end of the snoot and finally got the subtly I was looking for



Finally I used Photoshop to add in the negative space simply by doubling the canvas size and filling it with black.

Thanks again for the feedback.

cmorganphotography

idiom wrote:

And for what it's worth; Cmorgan, Sherstone, DaddyO, and Jag: I think your photos, creatively, are amazing. Very on-topic, and unique, I love them.

Thank you so much!! I'm absolutely delighted being favourited! Thanks to everyone for the fav's.