DSS#48 Unofficial Feedback Thread - (Lo-Fi SOOC)

ghinson · April 19, 2010

So, here is the official gallery to give your C&C for DSS#48

Gallery Here...

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

Anyway, let's start feedback on DSS #48!!

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 )
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-44/11173146_XPbWE#784726765_MXFDd

To this (minus the space in the IMG tags)

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

Happy Feedbacking

sherstone · April 19, 2010

Official results are up
Do not let the official results stop you from letting us know your own favorites here or in the gallery or even better both!

TLVoDra · April 19, 2010

My Top 10 Picks
Here are my favorites. I would hang any of these in my home!

So many interesting shots this round. It's tough to pick just 10!

michswiss · April 20, 2010

I really hadn't planned on doing a lo-fi entry, but am always open to opportunity and inspiration. This time it came in the form of a bulb-bottomed tumbler that fit perfectly over my 50mm.

I was at a favourite stopping off point for me after long walks and I had been tromping around in the rain for several hours and felt I deserved a break and a drink. I began experimenting with the glass over the lens pointing at various lights and objects and thought, hmm, maybe something? Focus was hunting all over the place with the glass in place so I moved to manual and prefocussed on the target before adding the glass back to the mixture. I also modified the camera settings to add a bit more saturation, contrast and sharpening.

I'm not sure when I got the idea, but I wasn't happy with all the flare from the lights with the glass over the lens so I flipped the glass around and gingerly placed the bulbous base on the front element of the 50mm. Thankfully they didn't actually touch, but sat nicely close to each other. I took a few more shots inside and felt I had a handle on a starting point. Ready for the rain.

I step outside, check exposure and focus and suddenly two ladies were approaching, umbrella's in hand. All I can say is that I reacted and took maybe three shots as they walked past. The white-ish blob on the upper left is the first umbrella. The pinkish blob on the lower right, my thumb. The smile in the middle is all hers! I was back inside within a minute. I felt that gush of hope that I'd actually gotten what I'd just seen. I chimped, I stopped, I posted.

It isn't perfect, but it was fun. I think that was the whole point!

travelways · April 20, 2010

Thank you Tammy for including my entry into your favorites.

... and thank yo uso much to those who took their time and left comments on it

I think yours was a really nice one, too. The only think that made me not to include it
on my favs. was the top-right bright light.

So many wonderful, creative photos on this rather difficult challenge - I'm surprised
that some of the most creative (from my point of view) didn't attract the judges eye...

Here are my top 10, but many others are included into my favs.

Congratulations to all participants for their hard work and creativity!

Velvet-Art · April 20, 2010

photo-bug wrote:

I'm surprised that some of the most creative (from my point of view) didn't attract the judges eye...

Those darned blind judges:lol4:lol4

Because this was the 1st time I had ever judged anything other than the tempreture of bath-water, I was pondering for most of the 2 week exile just how I was going to do it. Therefore I came up with a system.

I created a very basic spreadsheet with columns for the name of the entry, and then columns for Themeworthyness, technical ( focus, exposure, framing ), artistic, and finally a column for my own personal liking of the photo being considered. Then finally I had a column for some comments on each picture and then a column that would give me the total for the 4 scoring columns. Clear as mud eh

I figured that this would help me to note and rate each photo without me having to endlessly compare each photo with every other entry. So I decided to score each of the 4 aspects ( themeworthyness, technical, artistic, and my own personal preference ) between 1 and 10, therefore giving each entry an overall score of between 4 and 40.

I found it to be really helpful and stopped me from continuously comparing one entry with another, but instead to try and judge each entry on it's own merits.

This was a tough round to judge, but must have been even tougher to enter, as instead of a subject as a theme, you all had a method of capture as the theme. I must say that I was absolutely blown away by the creativity and inginuity of you all. It really was difficult narrowing it down to just 10, but the spreadsheet scoring helped.

I have left individual comments on all the entries ( i think I got them all, if not shout up and I'll fill in any blanks ) in the gallery itself. Please remember that my comments are just the rambling opinions of a chocolate starved mind, all the usual disclaimers apply, if you do not keep up your repayments your house may be at risk if you leave the door open.

The main thing I want to say is that I think all the entrants deserve a big round of applause

clap

May the most voted-for entry win

Tim

travelways · April 20, 2010

Velvet-Art wrote:

... Therefore I came up with a system.

Tim

Ha, ha,... I thought to do this in the exact same way you are describing when It was my turn to judge

I didn't have time to do it though and I don't know if this was fortunately or unfortunately

I do think however, that a system is a good way of judging, because sometimes it's so difficult :tough

What about submitting your system to Dgrin for who wants to use it - maybe there are other ideas
too, that can be added to it...

... On the other hand, the personal feelings may be more appropriate on judging artistic work

PS: Who knows what is the best system...

CaiusMartius · April 20, 2010

travelways · April 20, 2010

PS2

I just saw your comments on the entries - I think you are right I didn't know anything, and still don't know enough about lo-fi
( a little bit more now, after the challenge) :hide

- your system seams to work

Kinkajou · April 20, 2010

My top 10 in gallery order:

I found that I really like the ones with vibrant color and some nice contrast. Nice job!

rteest42 · April 20, 2010

I posted this under my photo at the gallery itself, but figured I would come here too....

Thanks Guys!!! Yeah, the dots bother me too, but what can you do when you can't clone them out!!! ?

It was basically a light hanging above, nothing I could do about it, considering the swarms of people around me (thinking Birds is right JWear) It was about 3 days post Ipad release at the Apple Store in Manhattan. I had just that morning found out the challenge topic and was looking around and BAM....of course, it didn't final...ah, well...
Some great stuff out there

The variety of ways people interpreted this theme was fun!! I totally don't know which is my fave, because some of the techniques were so cool, but the subject matter may not have done it for me....

You can bet my stairs shot WILL be post processed now, to make it more like what I prefer.... Ah the reliance of Photoshop!!!

Already thinking about this next challenge....

silversx80 · April 20, 2010

I can't pick a top 10. Ain't no way, ain't no how. They're all too good and I love how you can see each artist's style pop through in every photo. That's what I loved about this challenge, it was just like Ansel Adams said, "There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."

I guess I'll explain how I did mine, which might be one of the most complicated route to get a lo-fi image I could go about. I figured lo-fi was the opposite of hi-fi, which is a lack of noise and distortion. I did want a little clarity in the image, so I tried to push my dSLR to its extreme.

- I cranked the ISO up to 3200 for some noise and reduced dynamic range in the shadows, clipping to black sooner.

- I set the camera to Sepia tone to eliminate the chroma noise, and I liked it better than the B&W results. With that, I chose the in-camera yellow filter to brighten up the yellow daisies.

- Contrast set to max in-camera to clip to black and white sooner.

- Aperture priority and f/22 for some diffraction softening on top of some more dof and to make just the iluminated flowers appear. Sharpness reduced in camera to further the softening a bit and smooth out some of the "grains" produced by the high-ISO noise.

- Remote flash set behind the flowers, underneath them and over-exposed by over 3 stops to provide a VERY strong backlight, blowing out the flowers in the background while getting a decent exposure in the foreground. An added bonus is that I removed my lens hood and got a little flare and ghosting from the flash, the light through and reflections off the flowers.

... don't give me too much credit. I spent more than an hour toying with different flash positions, powers, camera angles, etc. until I "stumbled" across the above. I have more than 100 exposures from that trial for just a few usable ones.

liflander · April 20, 2010

silversx80 you got my vote! there were many great shots this round, and many great ideas. congrats to all the entrants on amazing photos!

i entered a pinhole image for this round (hibiscus pinhole). i just wanted to add some comments about what i did because i also played with a holga lens on my nikon d300.

i dissected my old holga 120 film camera, scavenged the lens, and taped it to a d300 body cap with a hole in it. so i had a holga lens on my d300. results? not too exciting. i read online about someone else doing this, and they also did not like their results on a d300, but interestingly, they did like their results on other dslr bodies. so the holga thing was a bit of a bust.

for pinhole, i used the same body cap with hole drilled in it, and tried both cardboard and tinfoil pinholes. results? not too thrilled. i found the focus tricky, and the effect just not too interesting. i have played with oatmeal container pinholes and have been thrilled by those results.

anyway, i loved what other people did with simple lo-fi techniqes this round, especially putting glasses and plates in front of their lenses. i will be playing with those ideas.

thanks,
mark;)

Velvet-Art · April 20, 2010

I forgot to mention, if anyone wants more specific comments on their entry, just give me a shout on this thread ( or via pm if you want private comments ) and I'll try and bore you some more with my "blind" comments!!

:D:D

I also wanted to add a note; There are some absolutely amazing shots in the gallery, shots that would make any wall look fantastic. These are shots that are, by themselves, as close to perfect as is possible to get straight out of the camera. ( in my "blind" opinion

)

So why are some of these almost-perfect shots not among the ones I chose to go through to the voting?? The answer lies in that all these challenges are led by a theme, and this time it was "lo-fi".

Now imagine that a technically perfect shot is entered, the sort of photo that you would sell your own mother to own, a picture of unimaginable beauty, but alas it does not fit the theme as strongly as other pictures in the gallery.

Which should be put through if there is only one place left? Then what to do if there are 8 or 9 pictures that are stronger on-theme than the perfect shot?

During my judging process I kept reminding myself that this is not a "great picture" competition, the theme has to be an important factor in deciding.

I hope this goes some way to explain my process of judging.

Tim

whiterice · April 20, 2010

Very honored to have my photo included in such a great group of finalists. Thanks all for your very kind words and encouragement - much appreciated.

JAG · April 20, 2010

Velvet-Art wrote:

I forgot to mention, if anyone wants more specific comments on their entry, just give me a shout on this thread ( or via pm if you want private comments ) and I'll try and bore you some more with my "blind" comments!! :D:D

I also wanted to add a note; There are some absolutely amazing shots in the gallery, shots that would make any wall look fantastic. These are shots that are, by themselves, as close to perfect as is possible to get straight out of the camera. ( in my "blind" opinion )

So why are some of these almost-perfect shots not among the ones I chose to go through to the voting?? The answer lies in that all these challenges are led by a theme, and this time it was "lo-fi".

Now imagine that a technically perfect shot is entered, the sort of photo that you would sell your own mother to own, a picture of unimaginable beauty, but alas it does not fit the theme as strongly as other pictures in the gallery.

Which should be put through if there is only one place left? Then what to do if there are 8 or 9 pictures that are stronger on-theme than the perfect shot?

During my judging process I kept reminding myself that this is not a "great picture" competition, the theme has to be an important factor in deciding.

I hope this goes some way to explain my process of judging.

Tim

Tim I whole heartily agree with you. The image without its title should scream the theme! When I shoot for a challenge I always put my priorities as
1. Theme 2. wow factor 3. technical 4. title

Although I said it in the album I would like to say it here...Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment on my image!

Its greatly appreciated!

DeuceFour · April 21, 2010

Velvet-Art wrote:

So why are some of these almost-perfect shots not among the ones I chose to go through to the voting?? The answer lies in that all these challenges are led by a theme, and this time it was "lo-fi".

I think instead of "lo-fi" the theme for this round should have been "Who can take the worst picture"

I guess I just did not understand what "lo-fi" meant. I researched many definitions and just came out confused on exactly what one would be looking for in this theme. So I opted out for this round. I absolutely interpret the theme completely different than what most people entered.

Phew... Glad I didn't have the tough job on judging this one.. that would have been a task for sure.

Velvet-Art · April 21, 2010

DeuceFour wrote:

I guess I just did not understand what "lo-fi" meant. I researched many definitions and just came out confused on exactly what one would be looking for in this theme.

I think the thing with this theme was that it was a very wide theme, by that I mean that Sean left the interpretation of the theme very loose, and I think it was deliberately loose. Personally I think that was a stroke of genius as it was designed to break us all out of rigidly trying to take photos on a very specific theme and stretch our creative abilities.

To me, the theme meant not a poor picture, but a picture taken using very basic methods, and those methods should be clearly seen in the resulting picture. ( otherwise it would be hard to see if a photo was taken according to the theme ) To others it may have meant something different, and that's why there is more than just one judge on all these challenges.

So I opted out for this round. I absolutely interpret the theme completely different than what most people entered.

I'm sad that you opted out as I enjoy seeing what you have produced in past challenges, and the fact that you interpreted the theme completely different from most of the other entries means that this round missed an element that we all could have benefitted from :cry

Phew... Glad I didn't have the tough job on judging this one.. that would have been a task for sure.

It was a hard thing for me, but I have really learnt from it. Having to express and write down what you like and dislike about a photo may not be that hard, but then to also reason why you like or dislike it, or try and think what you would change to make even a good shot better ( from my distorted, blind, and twisted personal perspective

wink ) really made me stop and have to spend some time in deep thought ( which is foreign territory for me ).

So now it is over I hope to take what I have learnt from judging and apply it to the next challenge before I forget it all and return to the blubbering mess I was before all of this:D:D:D:D

Tim

sweetharmony · April 21, 2010

Once again I both was greatly impressed by the wide variety of styles, creativity and technique expressed in this challenge........sure was fun to participate in and stretch my imagination....

sunflowerstudio · April 22, 2010

sweetharmony wrote:

Once again I both was greatly impressed by the wide variety of styles, creativity and technique expressed in this challenge........sure was fun to participate in and stretch my imagination....

I ended up not contributing anything, though I did try a number of things (ran out of time, spring break, etc.). But, I enjoyed having to stretch myself and think out of my usual boxes. I have a certain kind of picture I default to taking: candid shots of children, landscape views out of my window, flowers.

One of the reasons I decided to spend more time on the forum is to get out of that pattern (which I'm not quite willing to call a rut, because I like those kinds of pictures). But, I wanted to stretch.

This theme was a good example of the motivation for joining -- it definitely forced me to stretch, in both the techniques and subject matter I default to. One interesting observation for me was that I don't think of myself as being an extensive post-processor. But, I realized with this SOOC competition that there are some "corrections" I routinely apply (exposure/contrast "correction", straightening, and minor cloning). That was a good reminder, especially since I often argue for more "SOOC" work (clearly, I don't really mean SOOC).

slpollett · April 23, 2010

I finally finished adding all of my comments. There were so many wonderful images in this gallery and I was very impressed with the variety and the quality. It was very hard to pick just 10 for the voting round--I could have easily picked 20 (...or 25...or 30...). Congrats to all.

I will never take the judges for granted again. I knew choosing a top ten would be extrememly difficult because each of you are awesome photographers (way better than me), but I didn't realize how hard it would be to stay away from the comment threads for two weeks. Argh! I didn't think I would miss that so much, but I did. I also learned a lot and feel I have gained from the experience. Thanks for having me.

Sherry

WhatSheSaw · April 23, 2010

Well done, Sherry! I appreciate that the judges commented on every shot.

Judging is very subjective. So many of the shots are technically good, that in choosing a top 10 it comes down to personal taste. Inevitably, some of my favorites are missed each round.

michswiss · April 23, 2010

WhatSheSaw wrote:

Well done, Sherry! I appreciate that the judges commented on every shot.

Judging is very subjective. So many of the shots are technically good, that in choosing a top 10 it comes down to personal taste. Inevitably, some of my favorites are missed each round.

Are you saying Sherrie's blind?

Seriously though, the recent massive effort for the judges to comment on each and every entry is to be applauded!

Thank you Sherrie for the effort and contribution.

travelways · April 23, 2010

Wow... I just looked on the "lo-fi" contest gallery... and I cannot believe that my entry got so many good comments!

I was not surprised that I didn't get into the finalists, because I honestly thought my photo was not worth it.
- In fact, in the last time I was thinking to make a break with this hobby, because I'm not doing well...

Hmm, your comments give me so much encouragement and hope to continue - Thank you so, so much! :ivar

BTW: I'd like to add that I had no idea Mike's - Old Town Square was taken as a granite reflection, too.
- I saw his comment under his entry after I posted mine.

First I was hoping to get a shot through the windshield in the rain, but I didn't have the chance.

After, I thought about reflective surfaces and I got lots of shots - some posted here for CC.

- So, I hope you will not think that I copied Mike's idea, because I didn't

All the best and success with the new contest

WhatSheSaw · April 24, 2010

Tatiana, I think your expectations have increased. Your photos are very good. I especially like the candid, street photos you have been posting.

travelways · April 24, 2010

WhatSheSaw wrote:

Tatiana, I think your expectations have increased. Your photos are very good. I especially like the candid, street photos you have been posting.

I think you are right

. Thank you

, and let's go to the next step

DSS#48 Unofficial Feedback Thread - (Lo-Fi SOOC)

Comments