DSS #37 Unofficial Feedback Thread - Fill the Frame

hawkeye978

Here is the official gallery to give your C&C for DSS#37

Find Gallery Here...

Once more into the fray. This unofficial feedback thread is a catch-all of sorts, lets make it happen:thumb

Anyway, let's start feedback on DSS #37!!

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 )

Feedback is an important part of the photographic process. While those selected as finalists get feedback from the judges and those who vote, others are never quite sure where they stand. So share your thoughts both in this thread and with comments in the actual gallery. Constructive criticism should always be welcome.

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/Other/DSS-33/9546126_UcMnF#646702914_YfHpk

To this (minus the space in the IMG tags)

[IMG ]http://challenges.smugmug.com/photos/646702914_YfHpk-Th.jpg[/IMG ]

Happy Feedbacking :scratch

dlscott56

Good luck everyone. Lots of great images. Here are my favorites, in no particular order. It was hard to pick and really should have listed more.

ic4u

I finally took the time to figure out how to post the images for a top ten. Not sure why they arent the same size, but maybe next time I can figure that out. There were so many that I really liked, but these are the ones that appealed to me the most...Great job by all, there is such talent here!

bf2015

These contests are getting harder and harder to pick favorites! Everybody's game just keeps getting better and better with each challenge. These are some of my favs in gallery order:

Aspecto5

My Top Ten!

nightpixels

Dave asked me to show the lighting setup I did for my shot "Sumptuous". It is quite simple, but proved to be effective. In addition to what you are seeing in this image, I used an on-camera flash, as well, as noted in the picture. Here it is:

travelways

I have to thank you for this explanation Allen. For me the artificial lighting is a total mystery...
- but not the only one

My question however is how did you find that beautiful model wearing that fantastic outfit and make-up???

Kinkajou

My favs:



Thanks to those who included me in their top ten

dlscott56

nightpixels wrote:

Dave asked me to show the lighting setup I did for my shot "Sumptuous". It is quite simple, but proved to be effective. In addition to what you are seeing in this image, I used an on-camera flash, as well, as noted in the picture. Here it is:

Thanks for sharing Allen. It's a gorgeous shot. Nicely done!

Eia

Choosing was extremely hard this time! There are so many good entries that I had to keep narrowing it down trying to choose the best for the theme! So in no particular order:


Greensquared – Antioxidants
photo-bug: Autumn fireworks
dlscott56 - Finding Hope
Chandi - Fractals in Nature
davev - 10 Pointer
ic4u – Lamborghini
AaronNelson – Poset
KevXman - Not Forgotten
nightpixels – Sumptuous
Aspecto5 - The Beginning of a Ripple

JAG

OK...I have sent in my top 10 list. I will add comments after the voting starts...

Now the drumroll begins!

You all did marvelous work and it took me all day to wean it down...and even then had to cut some favs.

MarkR

Thanks Aspectos and others who commented on my entry.

And thanks for these challenges! I've been under a TON of stress at work lately and it was great to have an excuse to force myself to go out and shoot. Best. Therapy. Ever.

tinamarie52

great images
Very tough choices. This is only my second challenge and I'm totally blown away by the talent of this group.

Here are my 10:

Greensqaured- antioxidants
ghinson- Squab
MrsCue- Head shot
Nightpixels-sumptuous
rteest42- Thanks Ida
JWear- Gone fishing
davev- 10 pointer
Chandi-Fractals in nature
ic4u- lamborghini
HoofClix- Sand Dancing

Best of luck to all,

Chris

fotomom

Ribbons of Light Setup
Hi,
WhatSheSaw asked if I'd share my setup on my Ribbons of Light entry. Sure...

Are you ready? OK... We used lightsabers. Well, lightsaber attachments for our Wii remotes...the ones we use to play the Lightsaber Duels game. They come in a 2-pack at Gamestop and one is red and one is blue. LED.

I think you know my kids are good sports about helping me with my pictures. We did a trial run a week ago, and there was glare from the family room TV screen and the curio cabinet in the shots, so I put blankets over them. Then, I put Joey in a black hooded sweatshirt on backwards, as in over his face, so hopefully he'd be invisible in the shots. Then I coaxed him to swing the lightsabers around and let me take pics. I used an exposure time of 1 second. I told Joey not to swing them 'too' fast. Lots of really neat effects like some shots where the red and blue made purple. Fun!

Thanks to those that made comments on my photo:-) Lots of really great entries this round as always! Always fun to participate!
Maryann
(fotomom)

JAG

I have added my critiques to my top 10 picks in the album. If you would like a critique of your image in the album, please feel free to PM me and I will try and leave a critique in the album for you.

I am now going to focus on getting ready for my cruise. So unfortunately will not be entering any challenges till mid december. (I suppose I should find out when the next Mega round is....).

nightpixels

JAG wrote:

I have added my critiques to my top 10 picks in the album. If you would like a critique of your image in the album, please feel free to PM me and I will try and leave a critique in the album for you.

I am now going to focus on getting ready for my cruise. So unfortunately will not be entering any challenges till mid december. (I suppose I should find out when the next Mega round is....).

Great job, JAG. We always say that it is really difficult to pick 10 images, but this time I believe that really was the case. Have a wonderful time at your cruise.

JAG

nightpixels wrote:

Great job, JAG. We always say that it is really difficult to pick 10 images, but this time I believe that really was the case. Have a wonderful time at your cruise.

Thanks I certainly will.

I just looked up the next Mega round and its starting Nov. 30! Oh my! I am gonna have to hope something hits me on the theme right away...cause that will only give me a couple days to shoot! Then I wont get to see the results unless I buy internet connection on the ship of a couple bucks a minute! I must be addicted to these challenges.:seamus

dlscott56

JAG wrote:

Thanks I certainly will.

I just looked up the next Mega round and its starting Nov. 30! Oh my! I am gonna have to hope something hits me on the theme right away...cause that will only give me a couple days to shoot! Then I wont get to see the results unless I buy internet connection on the ship of a couple bucks a minute! I must be addicted to these challenges.:seamus

I have the solution for you. I'll go on the cruise for you, that will give you plenty of time to get ready for the challenge. Don't worry, I'll take lots of pictures.:D

Greensquared

Hi all! I was asked to share my setup for "Antioxidants", so here goes:

Homemade light box - large clear plastic tub with desk lamp laid down inside and pointed up. White gauze fabric placed on top for diffusion. Clear perspex on top of that. Sliced fruit placed lovingly on the perspex. Shoot from above. That's about it! Oh, I did use, for the first time, my close-up filters. Stacked several together to give ample magnification.

dlscott56

Greensquared wrote:

Hi all! I was asked to share my setup for "Antioxidants", so here goes:

Homemade light box - large clear plastic tub with desk lamp laid down inside and pointed up. White gauze fabric placed on top for diffusion. Clear perspex on top of that. Sliced fruit placed lovingly on the perspex. Shoot from above. That's about it! Oh, I did use, for the first time, my close-up filters. Stacked several together to give ample magnification.

It came out very nice. I have to try this. Thanks for sharing your set up.

travelways

Greensquared wrote:

Hi all! I was asked to share my setup for "Antioxidants", so here goes:

Homemade light box - large clear plastic tub with desk lamp laid down inside and pointed up. White gauze fabric placed on top for diffusion. Clear perspex on top of that. Sliced fruit placed lovingly on the perspex. Shoot from above. That's about it! Oh, I did use, for the first time, my close-up filters. Stacked several together to give ample magnification.

Very good idea and great result Emily. Thank you for sharing - I'll have to look for some of these
"close-up filters" too for macros. - I read someplace about them, but didn't know if they were effective or not...

travelways

Thank you very much JAG for your comments - this make me feel soo proud :ivar

Many thanks to everybody who left comments on my entry

JAG

dlscott56 wrote:

I have the solution for you. I'll go on the cruise for you, that will give you plenty of time to get ready for the challenge. Don't worry, I'll take lots of pictures.:D

Yeah...nice try!

JAG

photo-bug wrote:

Thank you very much JAG for your comments - this make me feel soo proud :ivar

Many thanks to everybody who left comments on my entry

Your welcome!:D

rteest42

ya go away for a few days and...
WOW!!! I'm a finalist????

THANK YOU!!!!

I am amazed at the variety of incredible interpretations of the theme....and all are so good!!!!

Guess it's good thing I don't have to scratch my head to figure out MY favorite, right?

Someone critiqued and said they liked the addition of the water.... believe me the WATER was there... 3 straight days of rain from TS Ida... (I went down to the James River yesterday and holy cow...the amount and the strength and the breadth of the water rising...)

Thanks guys...
Trish
PS heading to work now, but I will do some appreciating of images tonight or tomorrow!

sherstone

lighting setup
Dave (dlscott56) asked about how I lit "over the edge". I decided to put it here because the other thread is about the winner(s) not about the behind the scenes etc...

Lighting on this is dead simple. Because of the nature of both glass and water you want a very large area of light if possible and you also want it to fall off quickly so that things in a surrounding room do not show in the reflections. You could build a light tent that surrounds your subject with light but it is much harder to use water in that type of situation.

I opted to use one flash set at 1/4 power (the lower the power the faster the flash). the flash is sitting level with the top of the glass and pointed at a 45 degree angle at a white background. It is the reflected light from the background that lights the scene from behind. This setup is why you see a slight graduation of bright to dark from the left side to the right side.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Sean

dlscott56

sherstone wrote:

Dave (dlscott56) asked about how I lit "over the edge". I decided to put it here because the other thread is about the winner(s) not about the behind the scenes etc...

Lighting on this is dead simple. Because of the nature of both glass and water you want a very large area of light if possible and you also want it to fall off quickly so that things in a surrounding room do not show in the reflections. You could build a light tent that surrounds your subject with light but it is much harder to use water in that type of situation.

I opted to use one flash set at 1/4 power (the lower the power the faster the flash). the flash is sitting level with the top of the glass and pointed at a 45 degree angle at a white background. It is the reflected light from the background that lights the scene from behind. This setup is why you see a slight graduation of bright to dark from the left side to the right side.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Sean

Makes sense. Thanks Sean. Tried a couple here but still need some work. Always love learning something new.

Thanks again.

sherstone

dlscott56 wrote:

Makes sense. Thanks Sean. Tried a couple here but still need some work. Always love learning something new.

Thanks again.

I am tickled that you were inspired to try the same thing. The first one is pretty darn close. Try it with just one flash and see what you get. Just so you know I did the shot about 8 times to get the splash look I was after. Also I'm not sure if it has any bearing on things but I used my 135 F2 with an extension tube to let me get closer.

dlscott56

sherstone wrote:

I am tickled that you were inspired to try the same thing. The first one is pretty darn close. Try it with just one flash and see what you get. Just so you know I did the shot about 8 times to get the splash look I was after. Also I'm not sure if it has any bearing on things but I used my 135 F2 with an extension tube to let me get closer.

I've tried a few more times and got pretty close with this shot. I've learned a lot with this round and had a lot of fun. But, now I've had my "fill" of it and am ready to move on.
Thanks again for your help.

sherstone

dlscott56 wrote:

I've tried a few more times and got pretty close with this shot. I've learned a lot with this round and had a lot of fun. But, now I've had my "fill" of it and am ready to move on.
Thanks again for your help.

I would say that is more than close. it looks like it could be from the same shoot that I did.
Awesome stuff. I know what you mean about moving on. I have no interest in doing another shot like that for quite some time. I still want to try getting a double drop crashing splash flower like this master of the water drop Martin Waugh

One day.

dlscott56

sherstone wrote:

I would say that is more than close. it looks like it could be from the same shoot that I did.
Awesome stuff. I know what you mean about moving on. I have no interest in doing another shot like that for quite some time. I still want to try getting a double drop crashing splash flower like this master of the water drop Martin Waugh

One day.

Wow, those are incredible.