DSS #54 Unofficial Feedback Thread (Visual Cliché)

bf2015

So, here is the official gallery to give your C&C for DSS#54

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 #54!!






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

Froch

Nice round of images.
Here are my top10

ghinson
ilbcnu
kidsmom
heatherfeather
tinamarie52
whatshesaw
AaronNelson
Swelldays
photosbyjd2
mrscue

Froch

ViewFrom – Not the … .. DSS#$54 entry
Hi VF,
Just wanted to let you know there seems to be a problem with posting comments to your image. I've reached out to smug to see if they can fix the glitch.
I didn't want you to feel that myself or others were commenting, but not on your image.
Below is what would display.

ViewFrom – Not the ….—another that I’m disappointed that I can’t figure out. What keeps coming into my mind is ‘one of these things, is not like the others’, but I feel it’s not that. Sorry. In any event, I really like the composition shooting down the line, and also the depth of your focus across all the crayons. For me though, with the high contrast, I do see some loss in detail in the shadow areas of the darker crayons. These are always creative choices, but I’m a fan of just a hint of definition in those areas to define separation.

**a fun shot. Let me know what the cliche was when you have a chance.

P

ghinson

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=1420522#post1420522

Froch

ghinson wrote: »

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=1420522#post1420522

Thanks.....

next time VF.

p

**VF-- My daughter just looked at your entry and got the cliche immediately. "not the sharpest crayon in the box". EXCELLENT!!! I wish it would have met the requirements.

liflander

Excellent entries everyone! I've put in my picks and I've given constructive criticism on all the images in the gallery.
Cheers,
Mark

Froch

liflander wrote: »

Excellent entries everyone! I've put in my picks and I've given constructive criticism on all the images in the gallery.
Cheers,
Mark

Nice job Mark!
Terrific commentary.
P

oldtown_dreamer

lots of really cool images.

thanks to Liflander and Tatiana for making what has to be a very, very tough set of decisions.

and thanks to Froch for making very thoughtful and constructive comments on every single entry.

here are my favorites in no particular order: (haven't figured out how to post thumbnails yet)

ghinson - Bivalve Bliss
heatherfeather - Robbing You _____
VisualXpressions - what goes up...
ic4u - Didn't Mean To
WhatSheSaw - Going Postal
Tlvodra - The Beholder
DsrtVW - Secrets Revealed
ChuBean - Former Self
pyroPrints.com - When the _____ are down, reach for the ___ up your sleeve!
Fashiznitsngrins - I told you my dessert was the best!

JR303

Well, first a little background. I've been shooting for a pretty good while, but having a business and 2 small kids doesn't always allow time for other non-essential activities. I've always seen the challenges (here and on other sites) but never really given much thought to them. Anyway, a couple of themes ago, I decided to give it a try. The reason I am enjoying it is because it's making me think about the photography instead of just having a camera and taking something between snapshots and photographs. I really enjoy the conceptual aspect of making something come together the way it is in my head. (thought about using the word brain, but that wouldn't fool anyone) Funny thing is, now I get ideas every single day. It's been refreshing, to say the least, and I really must thank you for putting the effort into these and hope dgrin will continue to do so for a long, long time.

Anyway, I think I'm going to keep doing these until you all run me off.

I don't give a lot of critiques yet because I'm not quite sure how to convey what I like/don't care for without a definition of "why", but I will, I'm still new to the forum, and appreciate the insight I've gotten from everyone already.

Here's a funny one that I didn't post, because I couldn't get it to come across the way I saw it in my head


I found this hilarious, supposed to be "like white on rice" but I just couldn't get it right. Spent half a night taking pics of rice on a white translucent piece of acrylic with my wife looking at me like I'm an idiot. Can't say she was incorrect, but I left the image up on the computer for a few days and eventually she says, "would you mind closing that down, please? Every time I see it, it looks like there are amoebas all over our monitor" Apparently she didn't appreciate the cliche.

Here's the original pic I took for the hanging shoot. Hardest part was tying to tie that damn not in the string.


Had a lot of fun, had to change a few things, but I completely agree with the "balance" of her not being perfect. Was difficult to get her high enough off the ground, plus she's 6 feet tall. Nothing makes you feel great like having to stand on a step to take a shot of a high schooler.

Well, had a blast, thanks for all of the comments, will be around in the future. There are stripes everywhere, by the way, but that image on the challenge entry is gonna be tough to improve upon.

lkbart

I'm in a similar boat as JR303 (idiom or cliche?? Sorry!). I've been watching the challenges & agree that they are a neat way to expand & learn all kinds of different things about photography - technically, compositionally, etc. I'll be attempting more also, & also haven't commented for a very similar reason - I can't always say what might be technically wrong or skewed with a photo, but can tell it's just not quite right, so many times it's hard to give good C&C.

I will say that I was very impressed with the thread on here earlier in this challenge where several experienced dgrinners were helping another less-experienced one with the challenge - the comments were not degrading or "you have to do it this way" or "that is just wrong", but were very helpful, giving explanations of why it didn't look right done that way & giving specific suggestions of how it could be improved. Very nice community!

BTW, JR303 - really cool & well thought-out set-up & put together nicely! Thanks for the background

liflander

Re: DSS #54 Unofficial Feedback Thread (Visual Cliché)
JR303,
Could you please elain how you shot the suspended figure in your entry?
Amazing!

Thanks.

LiflanderPhotography.com

liflander

Re: DSS #54 Unofficial Feedback Thread (Visual Cliché)
Oops, I meant "explain"

LiflanderPhotography.com

JR303

liflander wrote: »

JR303,
Could you please elain how you shot the suspended figure in your entry?
Amazing!

Thanks.

LiflanderPhotography.com

Sure, and I like elain better anyway.

I took the pic of her as above, on an ottoman, covered with black fabric. Light cam left, accent cam right, and put a flash on the ground behind her to "rim" her with light. (Didn't do as much for it as hoped)

Anyway, cut her out in photoshop, made a black background, tilted her (never got the exact right angle, but had to use what I had) used the liquify to add her butt and a little curvature to her back since she was lying on a flat surface then took a pic of the thread combined them in ps. Honestly, my photoshop skills are pretty limited, but this is very close to what I imagined when I got the idea, so I'm happy with it.

Hope that's what you were asking.

I've had more cliche/idiom ideas since this contest closed than you would believe.

I hope to be able to keep these up, having a lot of fun with photography again.

John

liflander

Hi John.
Thanks for the how-to explanation on your shot. I always wondered how photgraphers got that "body floating in space" effect. Anyway, I loved your shot! Looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Cheers,
Mark

JR303

Thanks, have tried this before with pretty poor results. Finally found a way to cut an area out that works pretty well.


Yours, too.

John

travelways

I'd like to congratulate everyone for the great work, entries and especially great creativity this round,
which I think was one of the most difficult - more difficult than even the mega-challenge.

Judging was not easy either and I can say I had a hard time to get to sleep last night, thinking that
I made a mistake by miss-judging at least one of the entries, and didn't make it my top 10 favs.

... but again the number 10 is just 10 and unfortunately it cannot be extended... I really hope that Sean
will replace the actual 2 steps judging system into only one, the one with multiple votes, that he just
tried.
- I personally think it's a great system and more accurate, than having the work evaluated by just 2 persons.

I have comments for every entry and I hope I'll have the time today to post them all.

However, please take my comments just as another opinion, from an external point of view.
I cannot give advice for how the work can be improved, because I'm not that advanced.

... and btw: please excuse my english mistakes

travelways

For Jenn,

From my external point of view I would have liked to see your entry cropped to the point
of emphasizing the 2 cents more than the hand. Something like this, for example:

rstwohee

photo-bug wrote: »

For Jenn,

From my external point of view I would have liked to see your entry cropped to the point
of emphasizing the 2 cents more than the hand. Something like this, for example:

sherstone

Ok this is partly my fault for commenting on a couple of the posts myself. But the discussion has gotten way off topic.
This is the the unofficial feedback thread for this round. The discussion has taken a turn that is perfectly fine to discuss, but please take the discussion here in the general discussion thread.

If you want to make specific comments on specific entries then by all means do so here. If you are going to generalize and talk about the merits of how a photograph is taken or created, do it in general discussion.

Please and thank you.

sherstone

Not trying to single anyone out but many of the recent posts are exactly what I was referring to. They are off topic for this thread and so I have moved them to general discussion starting on page 74 where you are very welcome to continue the conversation.

Any further posts that do not give specific feedback for the current challenge will likely be moved there as well.

Thanks

EDIT: Any replies to posts in this thread can still be referenced in the general discussion thread there is a link in each reply that links it back to the original post.