DVXUser Photography Challenge

My photo was “Waiting for Lunch”:
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I never expected it to match up to the talent I’ve seen on this website in the last couple of months. This photo wasn’t even planned. The only reason I had my camera was because we had been to a birthday party that morning and it just happened to be in the car.

A little about the location: This place was built in the mid 1930's and my dad used to take me there when I was a kid (I’m almost 30 now). He also used to go there when he was young (he’s almost 60 now). So, this place is kind of special to me and my dad. It’s the only place around here that when you order a Coke, they still bring it to you in a glass bottle. It was in a nice part of town when my dad was younger, but now it’s the part of town you really don’t want to visit after dark. Most of the buildings around it have been hollowed out by fires.

Anyway, after the birthday party, my wife suggested we take our daughter there. When we finished eating, I thought “wouldn’t it be cool to have a picture of her in here to show my dad”. Then it dawned on me that I had the camera in the car. I agree it would have been much better if I could have reflected some light back on her face... but it’s a tiny place and there were people eating... so we were trying to be as discreet as possible (we did ask for permission before taking pictures). I tried a few shots with the built-in flash, but I wasn’t happy with them. I’d love to go back and try to retake it with better lighting... if they’ll let me.

I also had a hard time deciding between the angled shot or a straight one. Seems some really liked it and others liked most everything except the angle! Here are a couple of the other shots I had to choose from.

I almost used this one, but my wife talked me out of it:
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And here’s the straight version that I considered submitting:
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Thank you all for the votes and great compliments (and for the constructive comments,too)! The wife got a big kick out of your comment, PK. And a big thanks to Jeremy for setting this up... it’s been a lot of fun.

Chad
 
KOVAROVA said:
chad those shots are wonderful. have you printed any?
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Thanks! Not yet. But I'm probably going to order a couple prints in a week or so. I showed my mom and she thinks my dad would love to have one... just so happens his birthday is next month. So, I think I'm going to order a big one and have it framed for him. I know he'll like it... he'd like it if it was a cell phone picture of her! (she's his only grandchild as of now)
 
Chad, that was my personal favorite of the competition. I loved the angle. It reminded me of small town America that I visited with my parents when I was young. btw, your wife's a smart lady. :thumbsup:
 
Isaac:


The idea of a ghostly or almost hidden image to suggest what you were after is a hell of a great idea. However, it seems the image as a whole came out a little to dark, and mayhaps wasn't able to pull that off as you may have liked.

If I may suggest something, by simply copying and isolating only the highlights (to whatever varying degree you want) and putting those on black gets something more, I think, to what you were after.

In Pshop, when you press Ctrl+Alt+`, you select only the highlights. If you press Ctrl+Alt+1 you select more highlights and Ctrl+Alt+2, selects yet more. If you would have used a little levels to balance the picture, and had then selected the fewest Highlights (Ctrl+Alt+` or Ctrl+Alt+3) and placed that on a black background (and mixed in a couple copies blurred) and turned down the opacity the result would look like this:

gma.jpg



Which may be closer (I hope) to what you had in your head. I'm not trying to show you up, rather, trying to help out.

And the posibilities of mixing varying degrees of blurred copies, the number of copies, and the amount of selected highlights to work with really opens up a lot of doors. The background curtains were removed with the layer mask but you could use an eraser as well, or even the burn tool to darken them into the black background.
 
CR_OPSO said:
just so happens his birthday is next month. So, I think I'm going to order a big one and have it framed for him. I know he'll like it... he'd like it if it was a cell phone picture of her! (she's his only grandchild as of now)
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perfect.
 
Blaine said:
Chad, that was my personal favorite of the competition. I loved the angle. It reminded me of small town America that I visited with my parents when I was young. btw, your wife's a smart lady. :thumbsup:
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Thank you! What's so cool about that place is it's like stepping back in time... it hasn't changed much over the years.
 
CR_OPSO said:
Thank you! What's so cool about that place is it's like stepping back in time... it hasn't changed much over the years.
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I could feel that. That's why I called it a slice of Americana on the contest page. :)
 
My image was shot out of bordem, snaped a shot in the back of her car and it turned out well. Yeah it would have been nicer sharper, but there was no photoshoping involved. I dont believe in photoshop for adding those "magazine graphic's" to photos. Raw imaging.

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Isaac_Brody said:
I loved that photo Chad. Such a great moment.
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Thank you!

As I said in my comments on your entry... You really made me put more thought and time into yours than all of the others. I even copied your picture over to a basic program (don't have PS at work) and hit auto levels... I was surprised that it almost pulled out your original image. I really didn't understand the meaning... but kind of wondered if you were making a point. I've seen your photos in the past and they're really impressive... so, had I known it was yours, I would have been sure it was intended. I can very much relate as my grandmother suffered with alzheimer's and my wife's grandmother is currently. The comments section would have really helped your photo on this round.

Chad
 
great job

great job

Chad-

Nice work, one of my favorites! Great story.

Does anyone else think you should only vote, if you entered a picture
 
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HowDareMe said:
Chad-

Nice work, one of my favorites! Great story.

Does anyone else think you should only vote, if you entered a picture
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Thank you!

I don't have a problem with that rule... but I guess there will be weeks when some of us don't have time or just don't get the right photo... but we'd still want to vote. I do think everyone should at least be a dvxuser member to vote (I think Jeremy's trying to do that already).
 
HowDareMe said:
Chad-

Does anyone else think you should only vote, if you entered a picture
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I think yes and no to that.

No, becasue some people don't have access to or own equipment, some people don't have time, and some may simply choose not to participate for their own reasons. But that doesn't mean they don't appreciate the work and may want to help judge.

Yes, because those of us who do participate are taking time out of schedules and using the equipment we have put so much time into learning, we should be religated to voting, and everyone else to simply commenting.

So, I'm kinda torn. My photo skills blow, but I'm gonna plug away anyhow.
 
Does anyone else think you should only vote, if you entered a picture
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No, I want feedback from all the people who participate on this site. Also there wouldn't have been as many posts if it was only for participants to leave comments on the pictures.

Just think, PK's beloved isara.com wouldn't have gotten as much cheese if that was the case!
PK's reaction ->:furious3:
 
I have no problem with open voting or closed voting... so be sure to also mark me down as "undecided"... I'll be participating after this... just had a bad week.

I'm dying to know which one was Joey's picture? One of the only one's that hasn't been claimed yet, but is still near the top of my personal pics is the "light" picture. I would expect Joey's work to be on that level... and I'm surprised that pic didn't do better.
 
MattinSTL said:
I have no problem with open voting or closed voting... so be sure to also mark me down as "undecided"... I'll be participating after this... just had a bad week.

I'm dying to know which one was Joey's picture? One of the only one's that hasn't been claimed yet, but is still near the top of my personal pics is the "light" picture. I would expect Joey's work to be on that level... and I'm surprised that pic didn't do better.
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Joey's was the Lagoon picture.
 
good points

good points

i guess its nice to have only DVX users voting, but how do we know that it was the real DVX user voting? I could very easily find a registered dvx name, sign on to jeremy's site and vote for my photo, then pick a different dvx user's name and vote for mine again. and over and over...(i don't know why i think like a cheat, im not a cheat, but i think like one.) i hope no-one would do this on our site, it is a FRIENDLY competition. Just a thought to ponder....

maybe if there was a way to use the same password as on dvx, can jeremy access those passwords?
 
I could be a little naive but I can't believe that it would be SO important to win a little photography contest that someone would resort to that. And if they did, well, I'd have to feel kind of sorry for them if that's the big moment in their life. This is for fun. And to learn.
 
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