Contest #3: Portrait Due 11.16.08

[Jeremy Ordan]

Contest #3
Subject: Portrait

Detail: Take a portrait of something

Due Date: November 16th @ 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time

Post Processing: You may post process in any way, shape, or form but may not add text

Restrictions: This contest does not allow any text, words, or letters to appear

Submissions: You may submit up to 3 entries to this contest, uploading will take place at http://www.dvxfest.com/upload/photo.shtml Please be sure that you select the correct contest that you are entering otherwise you might not make the deadline (contest number is listed at the top)

Voting: Voting will take place at http://www.dvxfest.com/photofest and will begin on the Monday after submissions are due and run through Thursday of that same week.

Results: Results will be posted on the Friday after voting concludes.

Standing Rules: 1. Submissions must conform to DVXUser Terms and Conditions (no personal attacks, no politics, no pornography) 2. Submissions are exclusive copyright material of the photographer but please do not watermark your submissions 3. All submissions must be posted anonymously until voting has been completed 4. Please post feedback, comments, and constructive criticism if you participate 5. Spread the word… we have gotten this going again and would like a good turn out 6. All images must be shot between the announcement of the contest and the submission deadline 7. All images will be submitted anonymously until after voting has been completed at which time you may post in the thread announcing which entry is yours.





RESULTS:

1 Fly The Friendly by deedive
http://www.dvxfest.com/host_mirror/photo/photo_portrait/tn_PC3.fly_the_friendly.deedive.jpg

2 Dark Window by 13th Judas
http://www.dvxfest.com/host_mirror/photo/photo_portrait/tn_PC3.dark_window.13th_Judas.jpg

3 Rapper by Moojangles
http://www.dvxfest.com/host_mirror/photo/photo_portrait/tn_PC3.Rapper.Moojangles.jpg

[Moojangles]

ok i'm entering this one for sure :)

[Adam J McKay]

I am going to try my damndest as well

[RyanT]

Something and not someone? What does this imply?

I mean a portrait is..."a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant."

I don't understand :(.

[Moojangles]

i think it just means it can be like a dog or an inanimate object as well rather than the more restrictive "person"

[Mattykins]

Hmm, too bad. I don't usually do portrait photography. My friend just got done with a nice series of self portraits though.

Maybe I'll bring the 4x5 view camera out to shoot something. I need to test something out with it anyways.

edit: just read the due date. Not gonna have time.

[ConspiracyPenguin]

I've got this one. :)

[Moojangles]

uploaded! :)

[Mike Manning]

Submitted!

[Beat Takeshi]

Got mine in.

[Kyle Stebbins]

submitted!

[Adam J McKay]

I have submitted as well.

[seansshack]

Camera is as cheap as chips. But what the hell, I'm in...

[ConspiracyPenguin]

I knew exactly what I was going to photograph but the battery was dead and I forgot that today was the deadline. Then Robbie asked me if I had submitted and I realized I only had a few hours so I pulled up some pictures I took Friday night and found one I was particularly fond of. Ran it through some post real quick-like and uploaded. Not the best things I've taken, but it looks alright. Let the games begin.

[Jeremy Ordan]

Open and available for viewing/voting

[Moojangles]

getting a database error:
Warning: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1 in /home/.malin/fest_admin/dvxfest.com/private/_lib/Db/Db_MySql.class.php on line 200

[Mattykins]

Same database error here.

[Robbie Comeau]

Same error here, both Safari and Firefox.

Robbie

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Yes. It seems that the picture links are missing their .jpg extensions.
If you highlight each broken icon the same link comes up and it does not have the entrants name and/or .jpg extension.

Mike

[Larry Rutledge]

Sorry .. my mistake ... fixed now.

[alveraz]

How come the images look so pixelated? They look bad compared to the originals actually uploaded. Hmm.

[Larry Rutledge]

The smaller image on the voting page is just a representation, like a large thumbnail. It is autogenerated upon upload and is just a reference. In order to see the original uploaded file simply click on the image on the vote page and the original uploaded file will display ... that is the file that was provided by the entrant, untouched in any way.

[alveraz]

I see, thanks! Sheesh, some folks attached some giant images, like the drag-queen, it's a huge file. Nice work all around fellas, good luck :)

[Larry Rutledge]

I'll see if I can improve the thumbnail generator ... when I get some free time (not sure what free time is ... I've heard its nice though :grin: )

[alveraz]

Going forward to make it easier on yourself just ask folks to keep it under a certain size, maybe that will help. Thanks for the hard work though Larry, I know this kinda thing isn't easy to juggle when you've got other priorities.

[Adam J McKay]

Larry,

To help with your free time... let's make the fests once every 2 weeks. The weekly fest is nice to get people off their butts, but every 2 weeks would give more time to prepare, vote etc.
I know you mentioned it was staying as a weekly thing for now...but I don't think it's going to hurt anything.

Any thoughts?

[Larry Rutledge]

Not my decision ... Jeremy runs the show here. I just support him.

[RyanT]

Larry,

To help with your free time... let's make the fests once every 2 weeks. The weekly fest is nice to get people off their butts, but every 2 weeks would give more time to prepare, vote etc.
I know you mentioned it was staying as a weekly thing for now...but I don't think it's going to hurt anything.

Any thoughts?

I agree. Again, I can't shoot develop and scan my photos in a week unless I am super on it. Takes just a bit longer than that...

[Mattykins]

When I saw Portrait, I was thinking I would enter. I was considering shooting with a hasselblad. But I would need to ship the 120 film out to get developed.

I can process 4x5 here. But that would take a while. And I didn't have the time. A week is tight especially for those shooting film.

[Jeremy Ordan]

As I have said in PMs...

The contests, after Round 4 will move to an every other week format.

After viewing the difference in thumbnails we will ultimately do a file size limitation... the best solution is to just render your images for web viewing at 72dpi.

I'll think on this and update the format submission options when I post Round #5.

[Adam J McKay]

Sounds good.

[deedive]

i know how u feel.


When I saw Portrait, I was thinking I would enter. I was considering shooting with a hasselblad. But I would need to ship the 120 film out to get developed.

I can process 4x5 here. But that would take a while. And I didn't have the time. A week is tight especially for those shooting film.

[alveraz]

I would like to cast my vote regarding the 1 vs. 2 week thing. I vote 1 week instead of 2. I mean why are you guys creating complex set-ups for? I mean grab your camera, a subject and go shoot it.

Most of us are simple photographers. Making it this a complex process will only scare us simpleton shooters away, so the guys you gain will cost you us amateurs :) Anyway, it's more of a challenge to get it done in a small frame of time, not to mention get with the times and buy digital :) He-he, I kid, I kid.

:)

[Larry Rutledge]

Hey! I apologize, but with the addition of the previous fest choice I broke the vote storage ... so if you've cast any votes for this, Round #3 - Portrait, you'll need to re-cast them.

Seems like the more I try to give you in the way of feature set, the more I mess it up :) ... but it seems to be working correctly now. Comments are storing, my test votes all stored correctly.

No fear on previous fests, as I didn't upload this code until the last fest closed.

[ConspiracyPenguin]

I get an operation aborted error every once in a while. If I hit back enough times it will finally stop but then it will return a few clicks later. I don't know what is causing this.

[Mattykins]

I've commented on a few. Voted on all.

But I keep seeing P&S. What the hell does that mean? I've been a photographer for years and I've never heard P&S. Maybe I am just lame. Or sports photogs don't use it. I don't know.

Really curious is all.

[Adam J McKay]

point and shoot? I have never seen the term either but I am assuming that's what it means.

[Mattykins]

I guess? That is the only thing that makes sense.

[Jeremy Ordan]

P&S normally stands, as stated above, for point and shoot.

It can refer to a simple camera (a disposable camera or something like a completely auto digital camera). It can also refer to a style of shooting, namely letting the camera do all the work and just releasing the shutter. Finally, it can refer to a simple type of photo journalism, namely what your grandfather does at family reunions.

[Moojangles]

and it's not always a bad thing, if done right P&S documentation has a kind of immediacy which can be quite strong. Colour grading always helps though.

[13th Judas]

i'm sorry for my ignorance, but how can we vote? can i give each a 10 score? can i vote for my own entry? cheers.

[Jeremy Ordan]

Read the first post

[13th Judas]

darn jeremy you made me dig :(. anyway i've found it :). could we make this post of larry a sticky for those people like me who's new in dvx contests. cheers :beer:



The original idea was to allow full res images to be provided, but to scale them down for easy viewing within the context of the page. For those who haven't discovered it yet, clicking the image on the page will pop up the full res version of the image. For those who are asking for predetermined size constraints, what is the reasoning behind it? Why not allow for the larger version to be accessible? It is certainly possible to make the initial display larger, but we have to make sure it is viewable by the majority of viewers who might come by to view/vote.

Regarding the voting ... the system we are using is the same one we use for the DVXFest Film Festival. Each image is rated on its own, not ranked amongst the other images. Take each image on its own ... view it and decide where that image falls, in your estimation, on a scale of 1 to 10. You represent your choice by selecting the equivalent number of stars. The moment you click the representative star it is instantly recorded, but until voting closes you are free to change the vote.

The idea is not to rank the photos, do not give one image 6 stars because it is slightly better than an image you gave 5 stars. Rate each film on its own. We then total the votes entered by all users and calculate the average vote and rank the photos based on that average.

The advantage of this system is it prevents people from swaying the results by giving 1s or 10s. There are people who will give their own, or their favorite, photo a 10 and give the others all a 1, thinking that they are pulling down the other images and boosting their own. But because it is an average it doesn't have significant impact. The average actually tells us what the overall consensus of the image is. You might only give it a 1, but if it really is a 6 then the bulk of votes will be between 4 and 7, thus giving an accurate representation of the voters.

The other advantage of this system is that as long as at least 5 people vote honestly for each entry it doesn't matter if everyone votes for every entry or not. One entry may get 50 votes and another only get 10, but because it is an average of the total votes for that entry the result comes out the same.

When we initially devised this system we ran a tremendous amount of theoretical numbers through the system and proved this to be the case. Then during the recent TimeFest Film Festival we watched the system in action and saw that this was truly how the system worked. There were people who tried to sway the outcome by giving 1s and 10s, yet they had no significant impact on the total average, and definitely didn't push the entry up or down a single position.

The only way to sway the system is to get all voters to agree to under vote, or over vote, but unless the majority go along with you it won't have an impact.

This means that even if you vote 10 for your own entry it doesn't really have an impact. Some people have argued that you should give yourself a 10 to counteract every one else giving themself a 10, but as I've explained it has no significant impact anyway.

There is also the argument that you should give yourself a 10 because if you were running for president wouldn't you vote for yourself? This argument doesn't work. That is a count of votes only, so of course you include yourself because you, as a competitor, definitely want to win. But in this case the entries are being ranked, not just providing a vote count in favor of one over another. We don't pick a single entry and ignore the rest. So there really is no reason to vote for your own entry and really isn't a realistic representation because most people can't be objective about their own entry ... and if you give your self a 10 then you aren't being honest (unless you are Ansel Adams :) )

So for those of you who voted for yourself but now wish you hadn't, don't worry it won't significantly impact the system. If you didn't vote for yourself, again it won't have a significant impact.

Going forward we will change the system so when you see your entry come up in the voting it won't have an option to vote for it, but the remaining entries will have the stars.

Hope this clears things up.

Larry

[Jeremy Ordan]

Voting is super tight....

[Jeremy Ordan]

RESULTS:

1 Fly The Friendly by deedive
http://www.dvxfest.com/host_mirror/photo/photo_portrait/tn_PC3.fly_the_friendly.deedive.jpg

2 Dark Window by 13th Judas
http://www.dvxfest.com/host_mirror/photo/photo_portrait/tn_PC3.dark_window.13th_Judas.jpg

3 Rapper by Moojangles
http://www.dvxfest.com/host_mirror/photo/photo_portrait/tn_PC3.Rapper.Moojangles.jpg

(my browser is not letting me link the images for some reason right now... I will link the winning images later today)

[alveraz]

Congrats guys! Wish I knew which images these were though but, congrats anyway!

[Jeremy Ordan]

Congrats guys! Wish I knew which images these were though but, congrats anyway!

I will be adding the pictures as soon as I have access to it... For some reason the site is not cooperating with my work computer and IE.

[13th Judas]

WOW thanks guys. congrats to deedive and moojangles as well.

i don't know why i called it "dark window". 'dull window' is more appropriate, don't you think? anyways, that was shot by d80 using its kit lens. (how i wish i have a better lens). i used the long end of the lens to attain a shallow DOF. but it seems that the kit lens is inferior to this kind of shot and lighting. the original image looked unsharp so i desaturated it hide its unsharpness. thanks God my daughter has an expressive eyes thats why the monochromatic effect works a bit, (i guess so). thanks for the votes again.

-jude :dankk2:

[Moojangles]

thanks for the votes people, that was from a shoot in Japan with a local rapstar. Congrats to Deedive and 13th Judas. Lets see if we can't up quality on the next contest :)

[deedive]

cool, thanx guys! glad people liked it. congrates to all that entered.

[ConspiracyPenguin]

Congrats, everyone!

[bill totolo]

Round two, anyone?

[Erez Henya]

1 Fly The Friendly by deedive:

http://www.dvxfest.com/host_mirror/photo/photo_portrait/tn_PC3.fly_the_friendly.deedive.jpg


Beautiful!