DSS#45 Unofficial Feedback Thread - (Together or Apart - Single Exposure Challenge)

bf2015 · March 8, 2010

So, here is the official gallery to give your C&C for DSS#45

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 #45!!

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

[LEFT]http://challenges.smugmug.com/Other/DSS-44/11173146_XPbWE#784726765_MXFDd[/LEFT]

To this (minus the space in the IMG tags)

[LEFT]http://challenges.smugmug.com/photos/784726765_MXFDd-Th.jpg[/LEFT]

Happy Feedbacking :scratch

WhatSheSaw · March 8, 2010

I think I am finally getting the hang of the thumbnails. These are my faves in no particular order.

For pure visual appeal - absolutely stunning!

I wannabe producing images like these.

I know I can produce images like these - well seen and well shot!

For capturing a moment.

So I didn't quite get it down to 10.

And there were quite a few others that were very close!

Well done all participants!

I'll try to post comments over the next few days. Work has been keeping me busy, so it will be hit or miss.

Velvet-Art · March 8, 2010

Well there are some really nice images this round, here are my top 10 in no particular order.

Well done everyone.

Tim

WhatSheSaw · March 8, 2010

Well done getting it down to 10, Tim!

Velvet-Art · March 8, 2010

WhatSheSaw wrote:

Well done getting it down to 10, Tim!

It wasn't easy, at first I was going to go for a top 60

:D:D

Tim

tinamarie52 · March 8, 2010

Really challenging round for me. Lots of ideas, but in the end, there was only one I felt I could shoot. I can't tell you how much colored water I poured this weekend. I hope food coloring doesn't harm planats, because all of mine were watered with it!

Thanks to everyone who left a kind comment under my entry.

For those who asked how I shot it....it was almost too simple to tell. I shot in my kitchen sink, which is in the middle of the island.

My camera was on a tripod facing the sink. A white pillow case was hung from a chair behind the sink. I had a bowl perched on another bowl in the sink to elevate it to counter height.

I mixed the blue and yellow food coloring in separate bottles with 3/4" mouths. A wooden spoon was laid across the receiving container to focus manually.

Two 120 W CFL bulbs were facing the bowl about a foot away.

This is the highly technical part..... I set the timer on the camera, hit the button, picked up the bottles and carefully poured. TAH DAH!!

I must admit that I took 80 shots to get the four or five in my gallery. The one I entered was the only one that I got good separation of the blue and yellow streams once they were running together.

Pretty low tech but then that's the beauty of photography.

Chris

mr peas · March 8, 2010

tinamarie52 wrote:

Really challenging round for me. Lots of ideas, but in the end, there was only one I felt I could shoot. I can't tell you how much colored water I poured this weekend. I hope food coloring doesn't harm planats, because all of mine were watered with it!

Thanks to everyone who left a kind comment under my entry.

For those who asked how I shot it....it was almost too simple to tell. I shot in my kitchen sink, which is in the middle of the island.

My camera was on a tripod facing the sink. A white pillow case was hung from a chair behind the sink. I had a bowl perched on another bowl in the sink to elevate it to counter height.

I mixed the blue and yellow food coloring in separate bottles with 3/4" mouths. A wooden spoon was laid across the receiving container to focus manually.

Two 120 W CFL bulbs were facing the bowl about a foot away.

This is the highly technical part..... I set the timer on the camera, hit the button, picked up the bottles and carefully poured. TAH DAH!!

I must admit that I took 80 shots to get the four or five in my gallery. The one I entered was the only one that I got good separation of the blue and yellow streams once they were running together.

Pretty low tech but then that's the beauty of photography.

Chris

Wait, you mean to say you did all that with auto-timer? That's madness! It must have been super hard. Kudos!

The food coloring may be taken up by the plant (more-so with white petals), but as to their safety, this is something I am unsure about. I doubt it though, I suggest watering them more if anything so as to dilute the food coloring you've already presented it with.

Cool foto btw!

bf2015 · March 8, 2010

Ah the good-old auto-timer...My camera doesn't have the capacity to use a remote so all my shots are auto-timer. So I definitely know what you're talking about. Nice job!

DeuceFour · March 9, 2010

My Top Ten...

Great Job!

Brandon

BinaryFx · March 9, 2010

In the challenge gallery, LiflanderPhotography asked how I achieved the detail in my macro shot "Binary FX - Matchbox 50". I shot this image using available light, outdoors in shadow on my balcony - I did not have time to setup a "home studio". I tried to go for indirect, conservative natural light that I could enhance contrast later in post.

LiflanderPhotography - the basic method of enhancing texture was something like this:

1. Work on a copy of the original.

2. In Photoshop, look at the separate R, G, B channels to see which had good detail. The Blue channel was pretty good, so I selected and copied the blue channel data to the clipboard.

3. I then pasted the Blue channel as a layer over the top of the colour photo. I set this new layer to luminosity mode. I also added a layer mask to remove the match heads from the luminosity blend, so that the detail was being added only to the match sticks.

4. Add a contrast enhancing curve to this detail layer. Adjust opacity to taste.

5. Flatten the image. Dupe the background into a new layer and set to luminosity blend mode. Run the free "adaptive equalisation" filter on this duped luminosity blend layer. Reduce opacity to 10%.

The free Adaptive Equalization plug-in is available from Reindeer Graphics: http://tinyurl.com/y9q2k63

6. Flatten image. Next I used "deconvolution" (de-blur, similar but not the same as sharpening) Apply smart sharpen filter twice (more accurate mode checked so that it was actually deconvolving rather than using unsharp masking), once at 2 pixel radius - amount 10% and a second time at 1 pixel radius - amount 20%.

7. Flatten and copy image.

8. Open the original image and paste the edited image as a new layer over the top and save. I did not feel the need to keep my intermediate edits, I was happy to flatten them into a single correction layer to add over the original for archiving.

Sounds longer/harder than it really was!

Attached is a before/after image - left hand side original, right hand side the final entry.

Sincerely,

Stephen Marsh

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/

travelways · March 9, 2010

... Attached is a before/after image - left hand side original, right hand side the final entry.

Sincerely,

Stephen Marsh

Wonderful image, clarity and textures, fantastic processing!

Thank you for sharing, Stephen

mr peas · March 9, 2010

I've never used that plug-in before, thanks for sharing Stephen!

KevXman · March 9, 2010

Great images again this round everyone!

— Kevin

liflander · March 9, 2010

thanks
Stephen,
Thanks so much for the detailed write-up. I will try to apply your process.

And wow! What a difference between the original and final. The detail you brought out is incredible. Did you use a macro lens for the shot, or a regular lens?

Thanks again and good luck in the challenges!
Mark

BinaryFx · March 9, 2010

liflander wrote:

Stephen,
Thanks so much for the detailed write-up. I will try to apply your process.

And wow! What a difference between the original and final. The detail you brought out is incredible. Did you use a macro lens for the shot, or a regular lens?

Thanks again and good luck in the challenges!
Mark

Thank you for the nice comments, just used my kit 14-42mm 4/3 Olympus Zuiko Digi lens. My first macro, getting auto focus was a pain - I had to adjust with manual focus. I may have to start a new topic in hardware - as I know that there are a few options for macro shooting: macro lens, lens extension tubes?, reverse mount adapter ring? so that a second lense can be placed backwards.

On the Adaptive Equalization filter, the idea is to be very, very subtle with it and to mask off flat areas where you do not want texture (sky, skin etc).

EDIT: Although the Adaptive Equalization filter is great for enhancing detail, the detail needs to be there in the first place. The luminosity blend of the contrast curved blue channel and the subtle Smart Sharpen filtering also played a big part in the texture processing.

Regards,

Stephen Marsh

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
http://prepression.blogspot.com/

BinaryFx · March 14, 2010

DSS#45 Unofficial Feedback Thread - (Together or Apart - Single Exposure Challenge)

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