DVXUser Photography Challenge

Jeremy Ordan

Jeremy Ordan

Major Contributor
Hello photography people...

Well after conversing with Jarred regarding this section of the site, I am pleased to announce the:
First DVXUser Photography Contest!

Why is a filmmaking community doing something with photography? Simple... With photography you learn about lighting, composition, framing, blocking, and it is fun.

It is very simple:

*Take a picture that fits within the topic of the week on any camera with any lens that you want.
*Post process the image in any way that you choose and see fit.
*Please do not post any images that are larger than 7" x 7" at 72DPI for the sake of the loading times as well thread viewing.
*Post the image using your DVXUser Uploader Service: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/uploader.php
*Vote on the image at the end of the time period that you think is the best image
*The winner will choose the topic for next weeks photography contest.

Simple, right?

Well I will go ahead and throw out the first topic for our filmmaker photography challenge:

TOPIC: Portrait / People Shot
START DATE: August 2nd 2006
END DATE: August 9th 2006
VOTING BEGINS: August 10th 2006
VOTING ENDS: August 12th 2006 (and the next one begins)

PRIZE:
*Jeremy Ordan (me) will give a $50 B&H Gift Card to the winner
*The winner chooses next weeks topic (example: landscape, macro, or anything)

Well this topic is completely open to interpretation and should be a lot of fun. Thank you Jarred for your blessing and encouragement, and here's to seeing some great submissions.

-Jeremy

EDIT:
Sorry it has taken me a while to update this first page with the results. Here are this week’s top 5 entries.

Top Five

Waiting for Lunch
thumb_Waiting_for_Lunch.jpg

Omya
thumb_omya.jpg

Balled Emotion
thumb_Balled_Emotion.jpg

Downtown
thumb_Downtown_%281%29.jpg

Untitled
thumb_untitled.jpg
 
All Details:

General Overview Information:

TOPIC: Portrait / People Shot
Detail: Portrait is defined as: A portrait is a painting, photograph, or other artistic representation of a person. Portraits are often simple head shots or mug shots and are not usually overly elaborate. The intent is to show the basic appearance of the person, and occasionally some artistic insight into his or her personality. Because this is a Portrait or People shot full body portraits are acceptable.
START DATE: August 2nd 2006
END DATE: August 9th 2006
VOTING BEGINS: August 10th 2006
VOTING ENDS: August 12th 2006 (and the next one begins)

Submission Instructions:

The beta test is working out very nicely, although not originally what I had in mind, but the upload system is only working 10% of the time. I am very sorry about this and have really been trying to get this up and running properly, but it just isn't working...

Therefore, I am offering two different methods to submit your image:

1. Email: DVXUser@Stffilms.com your image.
2. Upload your image to your DVXUser file and PM me a link.

You can begin to submit your entries now.

Image Name:

Please title your image with 'Laura Profile', 'View Into Her Soul', 'Why I Like To Hug Trees' whatever you want to call it, but do not put your DVXUser name on your image. I will link everything so that we can really have the anyonymous voting.

Please do not post images in the thread.

Image Size:

A couple of people have asked me about this. Any image under 2megs is acceptable, but for ideal viewing 4'x6' is ideal @ 72dpi. You could go as large as 6"x9" without a problem...

Post Processing:

Since DVXUser is a filmmaking community and unless you take your project directly out of your camera and then to DVD with no editing, we all know that things must be processed. There are no limitations for this challenge as to the level or degree that you can post process an image.

Voting / Comments:

This system is working out very well so far and you will be able to select the images from the gallery and vote on them. I ask that if you are entering an image that you take the time to vote on the other entries. Remember, this is a community event, other people have invested time, money, and energy into putting their submissions together so it is only polite to take a moment out of your day to vote on the images.

Next Contest:

I will continue to host the images and can continue to host the future contests without a problem. The winner of this week will get to choose the next weeks topic.

Prize:

*Jeremy Ordan (me) will give a $50 B&H Gift Card to the winner
*The winner chooses next weeks topic (example: landscape, macro, or anything)

The Best Prize:
Mikko is going to make a donation to Isara.com for every entery in the amount of $2. So just by participating, whether it is a cell phone picture or something that you took on an $8000 SLR camera helps raise money for a great cause. How can you sleep at night without entering?

Additional Questions:

Just ask!

-Jeremy
 
Last edited:
Great idea, Jeremy, and kudos for setting it up!
Like the fact that it's ALL cams now (and not just the Nikon! :)


By the way, and although this probably can't be verified anyway, but the contest's pictures have to be taken after the contest start date, or no?
 
vidled said:
Great idea, Jeremy, and kudos for setting it up!
Like the fact that it's ALL cams now (and not just the Nikon! :)


By the way, and although this probably can't be verified anyway, but the contest's pictures have to be taken after the contest start date, or no?
Click to expand...

Well it wasn't 100% my idea, but I really hope a lot of people get behind it. My recent photography work is changing the way I'm approaching my storyboards for my horrorfest entry so I really think that this is something that most everyone here can get behind regardless of what camera or format they are using.

I don't think it is possible to verify that someone took this picture during the challenge week and I'm not about to ask the mods to look at RAW files and I'm not about to do that. I think it's an honor code thing as well as participating for fun and learning something new.

What's great about the DVXFests is that they make me get out and shoot rather than just cuddling with my camera. What I think could be great about these challenge things is that is makes me get out and shoot with a specific vision in mind rather than just thinking about shooting.

The key is... Let everyone know what's going on!

-Jeremy
 
Okay, sweet!

Just wanted to check and see whether one is expected to snap a pic AFTER the announcement or not. Honour system is cool!
 
vidled said:
By the way, and although this probably can't be verified anyway, but the contest's pictures have to be taken after the contest start date, or no?
Click to expand...


I've thought this with other contests before... I'm sure some people have images sitting around that will be perfect for various categories as they come up... but I think it's kind of crappy to submit old work for a "challenge"... an open contest is one thing, but the idea of these threads is to create the camaraderie of the shared experience... much like the DVX-fests. It's knowing that each person has to set aside some time in the week for all of us... and that it's mutual... and if something great happens we can all talk about it.

In my opinion the fun is dilluted if somebody pops in with an old portfolio of work from which they're sourcing their entries.

The honor system works for me... since my cam is brand new it wouldn't matter even if I wasn't honest. :)
 
I agree with Matt. I mean with these things, especially a portrait shot, you can invest as little as 10 seconds, hold the camera in front of your face and hit the shutter to as much time as Rapier spends adjusting the levels on a strand of hair.

Think about how much time you spend on this board a day... you can spare 10 seconds.

-Jeremy
 
Ah yes, Matt and Jeremy, thanks for those good explanations.
A new thing for me, this challenge/competition thingy, so yeah, all makes good sense!
 
scharky said:
Can you post more than one image per contest?
Click to expand...

I think you can post as many images as you want, but how about just one image for the actual contest, just to keep things simple and organized :)

-Jeremy
 
I'm in!!!

But you all better watch out! All your talents and skills are nothing compared to my beginners luck. wuuu haaa haaaa wuuuu haaaa haaaa :)
 
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