DSS #39 Unofficial Feedback Thread - Paper or Plastic
hawkeye978
Registered Users Posts: 1,218 Major grins
Here is the official gallery to give your C&C for DSS#39
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 #39!!
This thread is:
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 (minus the space in the IMG tags)
Happy Feedbacking :scratch
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 #39!!
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 )
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)
http://challenges.smugmug.com/photos/646702914_YfHpk-Th.jpg
Happy Feedbacking :scratch
0
Comments
I'm leaving comments in galleries rather than doing a list here - with such a small field this time out it's probably the easiest. It will take me a while to get to all of them, but I will leave comments for all shots over the next few days....
There are some nice shots in there. Mine is a bit of an inside thing, gamers having to choose to play old school D and D (rifts,whatever) or log into a MMORPG online and play.
I think it came out well though.
Good luck to all.
I am in AZ and would love to meet others from Phoenix.
I, too, will leave feedback in the gallery as I get time over the next several days. I have never been successful with the thumbnails.
It was good to see some new entrants in this rather small round. A big WELCOME to all of you!
First I had to make the cranes - I picked up an out-of-date "page a day" calendar at the dollar store which had the sheets of paper AND the instructions (kinda cool - we're having fun with the rest of it, too!). I wanted each crane to be a different colour/design, so we went through and made a bunch, then picked otu the ones that looked best together.
The cranes are sitting on a mirror, and I have my three-sided foamboard presentation board propped up around them. I didn't even use off camera flash - just bounced it off the white ceiling at a slight angle.
All other elements in the shot were PP (I used CS3 for all of this one - no Lightroom at all) - basic processing was pretty simple, with nothing special. However I had to enlarge the canvas to get rid of the frame, and then started playing around with creative elements, which included the following layers (all separate)
- photo filter layer selectively applied to the mirror surface to turn the "water" blue
- wave filter to get some movement in the water; after that was done, I selectively added some "crystallize" filter onto the bird shadows too, to try and make them look like they would in real water. I then burned some areas in darker to make it look like there was plant life under the water and give it some depth.
- clouds (filter/render) on a separate layer, which I then brushed away until I liked the way it looked (I nearly used them as "mist" from the bottom, but decided I liked them more as a cloud reflection).
- added flare (filter/render)
- used a set of PS brushes I found to add the reeds - even though I'm still not 100% happy with those, at least I finally came up with the right sort of colours, which was surprisingly challenging. The green always looked either too blue, or too yellow so it was a ton of trial and error. I also burned them in on the rh side to try and make it more consistent with where the flare light was coming from.
First time I've done anything like this - I generally prefer less obviously processed images - but ... well, it's just kind of the direction this one went and it was a lot of fun to work on!!
The fun part is the key! Love it BTW.
I went to the gallery and started commenting on the entries starting with the last.
Alas, the Internet connection is insanely slow and my comment didn't register.
Bottom line, lots of copies of the same comment on the last entry.
I'd ask Kerry too remove all but one, but she is busy judging both current contests and I don't want to distract her.
My apologies for hogging space.
Shall forgo further comments until I have access to a faster connection.
Really nice shots among the entries I really enjoyed looking at all of them.
Virginia
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." Diane Arbus
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You can always let me know. I may be swamped, but a heads up is always helpful.
Nothing special about the set up really. I just used 3 pieces of black poster board for the bottom, back and left side of the set up. Cut some paper people out of white poster board and lined them up. I took the shot at night so there wouldn't be any stray light through the bedroom window and experimented with various light sources (desk lamp, 2 desk lamps, small flashlight, very small flashlight, all of the above). I had hoped to have my very first external flash here in time to experiment with that for lighting as well, but alas it's been delayed until today (apparently, in California, UPS believes a little rain is "Adverse Weather" and delays packages... *grumble*).
The chosen exposure was 8 seconds, lit entirely with a mini maglite (the keychain version) which was held on Duke (the GI Joe) for most of it and then waved around for a frantic second or two to get some light on the paper people. In post, I just pushed the highlights a little higher so the shine would really show on the plastic and pushed the blacks a bit to hide the seams of the poster board. And there you have it, nothing too special!
Good luck to everyone and let's all keep our fingers crossed that the ongoing drizzle won't delay UPS and my flash too much longer so I can give it a try for Comedy or Tragedy!
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For the challenge period I stayed out of all challenge threads except MC6 threads. I also stayed away from the entry gallery since I didn't want to have more time on any one image than any other. This morning at about 8:30 am was my first look. Lots of great images there. You should all feel good about the work you've done!
And now on to #40.
Good luck to you all in the voting when it starts.
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Thanks muchly!
Va
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." Diane Arbus
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I enjoyed Origami Lake. Nice execution of the concept.
Believe it or not, I had origami paper and a mirror all set to get shooting Saturday morning until I saw your entry in the forums.
No worries. Moved on to setting up for a high-key Christmas portrait session with my daughter and five friends. When my daughter gave me the funny expression in response to my request to open her eyes further, I thought I might have something fun to work with for the Challenge. Alas, my Photoshop skills were not up to the task.
This Challenge was one of successfully failing for me. That is, I generated a lot of ideas, worked on executing a few, failed to get a satisfactory result, but kept working anyway. While I naturally would've preferred to produce a good image for the Challenge, I'm happy that I kept working on things rather than waiting for the perfect inspiration to strike. Tough learning exercise, but one I hope will pay off in the longer term.
These Challenges really help to enforce continued creative work despite all the other distractions and obligations in life. So thanks to Kerry, Dgrin and all the other volunteers who keep this place running.
On to Challenge #40!
(and you should have done the paper bird anyway, I would have liked to have seen another version....) (in fact a theme where we all photograph something of the same would be cool...)(Kerry whatcha think?)
I considered doing the origami swan anyway, but also realized it was probably better to focus on concepts, props and setup for my daughter's shoot. Now that I still have the origami paper, there's no reason I can't do the shots apart from the Challenges.
I like your idea of picking one object or set of objects as the theme. I've been shooting a lot of shoes lately. So I suggest the first topic of this sort be "Shoes".
Actually, potatoes could be fun!
Hmm...
This is an awesome idea, Aaron!!!! Big +1
Shoes...SHOES?? Do you realize that most of the women on this board would have a FIELD DAY with that one???!!!?????!!???
Halite, I'm sorry I trumped your idea! I was actually surprised when I checked the gallery before I started that nobody had already done it (I think Qarik posted his while I was working on mine, so we were kind of simultaneous!) It was, as I say, one of those "gee, I wonder what it might be like if I ...." ideas on a whim since I couldn't get out to my recycling center to do my original concept. I'd love to see what you come up with if you shoot it for fun!
Yes, "shoes" might be more of a lob ball for some of the women on the board than for the guys. But we all have access to shoes and I wonder how many of us have shot them specifically as a subject. Maybe those who have done weddings.
No worries on the "trumped" idea. I was actually surprised as well that origami had not been submitted earlier. My Saturday morning peek at the forums was just to see if it was still "safe". I had to laugh when your entry wasn't just origami, but a swan on a mirror. Great minds think alike!
What a great idea! No worries about WHAT to shoot, just HOW to do it. Betcha we'd see some awesome interpretations.
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Women more attached to shoes than to men
"The average woman owns 19 pairs of shoes."
:oogle Only 19?
I went looking for this shot in my "Word of the Day" gallery and realized I shot pictures of my shoes way more often than I recall doing. Lots of shoe love here, apparently.
The black and white pair near the middle and the aqua blue right behind them are KILLER! I'm going through some shoe envy here.
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It's even worse when you're Shoe-a-holic AND a size 11 narrow ::cry Still, I have my sources and my ways... I come up with enough to satisfy the shoelust in my soul, although perhaps not as easily as a size 8 medium. Then again, everybody needs to indulge their inner Captain Ahab every once in a while, so the chase can be almost as much fun as the find...
Sorry, boys. We've gone all girly on you. Of course, since I've turned camera-freak my shoe funds have been diverted towards lenses and other technotoys so maybe I've reset my priorities (for now
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Chris,
Maybe your theme will just be "shoe"
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Either that or I'll be raiding my girlfriend's side of the closet, and I don't know if I'm allowed to do that!
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out of my experiences I'm fairly certain thats a "no", in fact be happy you have a side at all.....