DSS Mega Challenge #4 Energy - Unofficial Feedback Thread
hawkeye978
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Here is the official gallery to give your C&C for Mega Challenge #4
Gallery Found Here
This unofficial feedback thread is a catch-all of sorts, lets make it happen:thumb
Anyway, Lets get Mega Challenge #4 Feedback started!!
This thread is:
As pointed out last month it's easy to post thumbnails (with help from our Moderator).
With the image selected in the gallery, copy its URL from your browser, add "-Th.jpg" to the end, delete the jumble of numbers and letters preceding the hashtag (#), change "gallery" to "photos" and that's it.
Example
Change this url
To this
Happy Feedbacking :scratch
Gallery Found Here
This unofficial feedback thread is a catch-all of sorts, lets make it happen:thumb
Anyway, Lets get Mega Challenge #4 Feedback started!!
This thread is:
- a place to post a list of your top ten favorites. (be heard, and let everyone know what images moved you.)
- a place to post your "the making of my image"
- a place to ask someone "how did they do that?"(for us all to see:D )
As pointed out last month it's easy to post thumbnails (with help from our Moderator).
With the image selected in the gallery, copy its URL from your browser, add "-Th.jpg" to the end, delete the jumble of numbers and letters preceding the hashtag (#), change "gallery" to "photos" and that's it.
Example
Change this url
http://challenges.smugmug.com/gallery/7821877_VUfQz#508585564_r5YQB
To this
http://challenges.smugmug.com/photos/508585564_r5YQB-Th.jpg[/url]
Happy Feedbacking :scratch
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Comments
My first idea was to capture a spinning coin, which was a dismal failure at all levels: I tried it with studio strobes to capture mutliple shots which I could then stack but that was a wash (do you know how hard it is to spin a coin in EXACTLY the same place every time?!), and had no better luck using my speedlights at home (they won't 2nd-curtain synch off camera so I was limited by position etc etc blahblahblahblahblah)
I then got the grabshot of my neighbour's vintage car, but that was to say the least tenuous on theme.
I'd actually thought of the Domino's sign fairly early on, but it's a pain to get to and required me to have somebody with me since I will NOT shoot at night without a companion (especially in a dangerous city) - my husband has also been busy beyond belief, so there was simply no opportunity. Finally on Thursday night we ventured out.... only to have the skies open pretty much as soon as we got there. At first it was merely "raining a bit" so I pressed on since we were already there, but after 6 frames, it was raining too hard to risk the gear even with my coat held over it, so we had to abort.... before I could move to a better vantage point away from the foreground distractions.
Here's the original, SOOC shot. If anybody can enlighten me, what's that ghosting around the sign (if you look closely you can see the lettering IN the sky)? Is that just a reflection against the water in the air?
Anyway, it took way more PP than I would have liked to clean it up and just a hundred yards or so away there was a MUCH better angle, but such is life...!! I'm proud of myself for following through with an entry despite the things that got in the way this time out, for knowing HOW to take a night shot and making good guesstimates on the exposure (and remembering the tripod! :giggle), and for managing a decent BW conversion, which is something I'm really working on in general at the moment. As far as the "learning curve" it was a valuable experience, so it's all good
Pick a top ten? Surely you jest.
Virginia
PS - Glad I'm not judging this one. :hide
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." Diane Arbus
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I was really impressed by your entry and now seeing what you started with I'm blown away.
P.S. I think this challenge came at, dare I say, a challenging time for some of us. I too only had one small window of time available to shoot so all but one of my ideas had to be passed on for now.
Yeah Im gonna have to say the same thing here BeachBill... that little thing called life kinda got in the way of this one, and I only had limited time to get out and try my ideas...but Im just glad I got something entered!! Plus was it just me or was the "ENERGY" theme hard for anyone else? It's like I had a thousand ideas but at the same time...not really lol. I dont know if that makes sense or not haha
Well if I could of just captured the energy needed to capture the image
I entered ................. yeah not easy
But hey they called it a Mega Challange so what the heck
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Fortunately the last day of the challenge showed some promise for, if not sunshine, at least little or no rain. Managed to get out to the Renaissance Festival nearby and get a few snapshots, the most relevant of which was entered mere hours before the deadline! Not my best work but since this is the first MC for which I was able to make the cut and enter, I had to at least submit something out of respect and gratitude.
It's an honor to be included with such talented photographers in this challenge. I'll be posting comments on the other submissions soon. Overall, an excellent showing, don't you think?
here are some snaps of my Zen Garden...and the a little bit of the process...its very high tech and should only be duplicated by trained crash test dummies.:D
anyway, a few mentioned you dont see the theme here... im really sorry about that... all i can say to defend myself is when i think of energy i think about my core.... and Zazen or a Zen garden always connect with me...
in short terms Zazen is the process of awakening.
so anyway i had the idea in my head and set out to see what would happen...
i looked for rocks that fit in my idea...here is my critical cleaning process.
then i stoled my little girls play sand and sifted out impurities with a window screen (that my wife got upset about...she said something about it needs to be replaced now that i ruined it or something i dont know i was not really listening...)(im joking...she hasnt found out yet)
then me and the boys flatened out the sand with the broom handle and we placed the rocks, and then made a cool rake mark....
when shooting the composition i thought to make this B&W so i knew i wanted noise and massive shadow in the finished image....
but after downloading and doing the post work the family liked the color version better than my B&W version, so i took the advice and ran with it.
it was a little hard getting the noise out of the color version that i purposely put in.... but i think its ok....
A couple folks were curious how my image came about, so I'll take this opportunity to share, but first let me thank everyone who helped me work through it from first images to the final!
Here's the first "Concept" thread and the "almost final" thread.
I really almost burnt myself out with shooting too many images (there's only so many abstract light swirls you can sort through without loosing it!
The first step for my set up was to cover the large window in my "office" (or as my girlfriend says it "junk room") because even at night the street lights in the alley shine in and would have ruined the shots. A couple queen size dark blue sheets did the job pretty well. The base and background around the bottle were just a couple pieces of black poster board. Here's a couple of the set up:
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The only lighting sources I used can be seen on the floor in the first one. Just a couple little Maglites. The larger blue one was used to light up the bottle from behind:
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When the lights were off, I got images like this one of the bottle:
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I found it too difficult to try to light the entire bottle correctly in just one frame, so I ended up shooting it in three frames that I later merged in Photoshop.
The swirls were created by swirling the smaller Maglight on a string around the bottle. Pretty much I set the camera to manual with anywhere from 5 - 15 second shutter, locked the remote shutter release button down, and just swirled the flashlight around until my arm got tired (or I knocked the bottle over and had to start again!
The gallery I linked to for the EXIF has some small details how how the color shift was achieved and can be seen here. Pretty much, I was able to color the swirls by simply adjusting the white balance of each from in raw and then I used a Hue/Saturation layer with the "Colorize" option checked to fine tune each one.
Adjusting the White Balance of the bottle didn't really work out, but a Hue/Saturation layer almost did the trick:
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Notice that there are some odd "edges" in the colorization around the center of the bottle. So I layered the green bottle back on top the original red one and set the blending mode to "Color" then added a little more glow to the bottle by slightly boosting the yellows:
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Once all that was done, I just had to let Photoshop stack it all together for me!
I've got CS3 Extended, so I don't know how many people have the feature, but under file, look for "Statistics" under "Automate" it's an awesome way to automatically stack images like this!
And the final all merged and cropped!
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And that how I did it! Hopefully somewhere in my ramblings, I made some sense and didn't bore you too bad!
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I liked the shot a lot..and I immediately knew where you were coming from theme wise... but then I often think outside of the box.. zen has a lot to do with energy, controlled and balanced inner energy.. thanks for sharing the setup... it is always educational and fun seeing the set up...
awesome shot... in my opinion.. and I really liked the sun color.. so good call there..
Kat
Really cool image, Aaron. I must admit that it wasn't until after googling to find out what "Zazen" meant that I really got it, but once I did, I had that "Ah-ha!" moment and the image fit the theme so much better in my mind.
That's a bit of my own modest ignorance though, as I always looked at Zen more in a peaceful, lack of energy kind-a-way instead of the controlling energy way that I probably should have.
Kudos to you, for a great image, and for getting me to learn something new!
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Thanks for sharing Chris.. I really wanted to see how you did that... It was a surprise to see how you actually illuminated the bottle...
you put a lot of work into this.. and the results reflect that
Kat
Okay, I've got to say it here, I think your energy drinks jump starting the car was the most original of the entries and in my top three. Which I would have thought of something like that!
CWSkopec - I think your picture is fantastic! I figured I had a little idea on how you created it, but honestly didnt think the process would be so simple. Except for the sorting through hundreds of light painting frames Im sure! I am definitely gonna have to look into that stacking feature of photoshop! Thanks for sharing your process!!
Add me to the list of 'timing didn't work out quite right'
As I mentioned early on, I had a few pretty crappy ideas and then the carnival magically came into town. I thought about boarding the rides to shoot from the riders perspective but, between worrying about how the camera and I could handle the Gravitron, and the rides themselves (with bright lights in all the wrong places) that ended up a wash. Got a few shots that I was reasonably happy with.
The shot 'in my head' was of trying to capture some electricity coming off a socket. I tried to figure out how to get that blue spark that sometimes pops when you plug into an outlet thinking I could set up with extension tubes to get a nice macro effect. Couldn't get that 'safe' electricity to work. I actually started to think of sticking metal objects into the outlet (ie scissors, staples) but figured it wasn't quite worth burning out an outlet, the house or me
Ran out of time and ideas in the end.
Great job everyone and good luck. Looking forward to more behind-the-scenes.
E
My site | Non-MHD Landscapes |Google+ | Twitter | Facebook | Smugmug photos
This was a frustrating theme to work with. At first I had a photosynthesis idea in my mind but then when I saw Emily's shot (
The big band I play in was taking part in an outdoor jazz festival and I thought I might have an opportunity there to take "energy" shots. As we were waiting to go out and perform, I heard our bass player warming up and thought, hmmmm ....
http://lrichters.smugmug.com
See, if I'd thought to google zazen like CWSkopec I'd have got it - I told you it was me being clueless!
I love the image - directional lighting totally floats my boat, so great job!
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the way the cables reflected in the chrome bumper caught my eye... so it was good you didnt raise the box...
and btw, again i loved the post you did...i might try that sometime...
Living in the Valley of the sun I wanted to use natural lighting, with all the elements we use for electricity, hoping to get the sun in the picture since solar can be utilized year round here; but I just could not get the sun behind all of the power lines. so the next best thing was our famous sunsets with red, orange, yellow skies. Naturally the clouds were not around so I could not get those in the sky. So I had to depend on color alone...:D
The main thing was to show the power lines among the cactus. It reminded me of a gridlock (literally and figuratively); who is going to win, the cactus standing tall and firm as if to say you can't go any farther as the power lines approach their territory, or trying to coexist.
Ironically I sit here in front of the computer in my a/c house because of those power lines!
Thanks, Brandon!
Once I figured out how to make it work, it really was pretty simple... the hard part was the figuring it out! The sorting was crazy!! Some were instant trashes, but each good frame had about 10 that were nearly identical! It worked out in the end, giving me a chance to pick the absolute best ones, but the majority of my processing time was spent picking through them!
I really like your concept... the one element where the image falls short for me is the splashes. They look too artificial to my eye. But the concept and composition are right on!!
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When I first started thinking about this challenge all I could think of was smokestacks. (I like smokestacks.) Looking at images on the web for ideas, every one had smoke or steam just pouring out. Ok, all I needed to do was find one that was in operation. I even had my title ready. "At What Cost?". Well, as we all know, the best laid plans... yada, yada, yada. I was taking a trip to Ohio and back and felt sure that I would run across a power plant or two. Wrong. On the last day of the trip, I ran across an old abandoned shoe factory with a smokestack. Yea! Well, sort of. Old and abandoned means no smoke out of the smokestack. And of course I'm there when there are virtually no clouds in the sky. Do you realize how long and how much huffing and puffing and blowing it takes to get the one cloud around to line up with the smoke stack? About 20 minutes and more huffing and puffing then you might think. Those of you who said "Well, that just looks like clouds and not smoke.", yep, its clouds. Finally everything fell into place and I had just enough time to snap 2 or 3 shots. Later that night and 300 miles down the road (so no reshoot) I had a chance to see what I came up with. One shot had the cloud lined up so this was what I had to work with. I had shot with my IR-converted D70. So I got the colors to look good, lightened this, darkened that (thanks Kat) to get what you see above. If I ever go back through that town I'll make sure that I do so early in the morning and try some other things.
Thanks for listening.
— Kevin
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Thanks Kat & Aaron!
I can honestly say, this is the most work I've put into a competition, from trying to visualize it and making it happen. Ussually, my challenge images have come from trying to find the theme while I'm already out in an area that was on my list of places to shot.
For this one, I had the idea first and set about trying to make it happen! I'm super happy with the way this image turned out and will try my best to follow this process in the future!
On another note... thank god there's a new challenge I can try to figure out, otherwise the anticipation of waiting for the results of this one might drive me nuts!!
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Kevin, no problem on the help, I think it turned out super.. for me, the C&C is what makes it so fun here and such a learning experience.. Interesting to here you mention Ohio.. I used to live there a few years back in Dayton and Cincinnati. If there was one place to find a smokestack, this is the place, manufacturing capital of the USA.. the problem is locating one... I always struggled living in Ohio being a small town mountain girl from Colorado.. It is "huge", there, plus you have the "hills" and trees and can never know what is over the next hill to find your way around there. That is what I liked about the West, you could always see 80 miles into the distance..
Hey Chris... I know what you mean about the wait... this next one sounds fun, but I am still at a total lose as to what I will shoot or how.. I am thinking of playing with shadows or reflections in this one.. not sure yet... oh well, look forward to seeing what you guys got going...
so what is the deal with the Mega? is it 48 hours to results or 72 hours? I was wondering since there is no poll on this one..
Kat
I wanted to mention that your title really pulled it all together with yours. I have come to realize quickly that the titles are almost as important as the photo. I connected with your photo right away because of your title and it is nice that you were able to communicate some of what you were feeling and thinking as you shot it.... I understand about the weather... I had to end up shooting mine in mist and mild rain... figures that the "energy" theme comes around and in the South it is 2 weeks of rain, storms and gloom.. I spent a week waiting on a sunrise of sunset with no luck.. and can you believe it is the South and we just had 2 days of 45 degree weather? Kind of funny, now that the competition is over, it finally got sunny around here.. aghhhh..
I don't know how you managed to shoot with all those cactus around without stepping into a family of them... I have too many past experiences in the West of that happening to me when I was younger, I can only imagine being able to not step into a family of pear cactus when busy hunting a shot..
Kat
Dan
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Funny you mentioned that... I walked thru snake infested brush and had to pull out thorns up to my ankle. Big mistake; I did not wear my boots. O well...it was interesting anyway!