Round 12 - DVXUser Photography Contest - 11.22.06

I love the photos from this round. Lots of unique and creative ideas. One shot in particular blew me away (no not my own), I can't wait to find out how it was done.

Chris
 
I keep going through the images and I'm so impressed by this round of entries. Great job everyone, some truly creative and awe inspiring motivating submissions.
 
Only 6 people have voted so far... This is starting to get a little insane. We have more than 6 people who entered and only six people are voting? C'mon, even if you haven't entered take the ten minutes out of your day, go to the site and vote and leave some comments, criticism, or just general feedback for the people who have taken time to enter these contests to improve their skills and participate in a community event. Your feedback is valuable and helps others to improve and awards someone with those nifty ribbons that Steve designed. C'mon, ten minutes.
 
Just voted. Sorry for the delay. The holidays have been a mess. :)

Some outstanding shots this round!
 
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Congrats to the winners! Jeremy with two in the top 3! Nice.

and Vidled that is a creepy but lovely shot. Nice work people

as for my entry:

thumb_medium_02.jpg


I know you all couldn't tell what it was (which is fine with me its about composition, colour and forms) but its toenail clippings in a candy box lit through the box itself with a flash.

I bet no one saw that coming? :)

and this one:

thumb_medium_08.jpg


is a glass on a CD case with a flash underneath it firing up (hence the blowout)

Hope you enjoyed them. Keep posting your shots folks, look forward to round 13.
 
Here are the results...

Top 5

1. Das Auge
thumb_medium_07.jpg
by vidled score: 8.0
2. Scrabble
thumb_medium_10.jpg
by Jeremy Ordan score: 7.44
3. Grasshopper
thumb_medium_15.jpg
by Jeremy Ordan score: 7.11
4. Fargo
thumb_medium_01.jpg
by cmessineo score: 7.0
5. Espresso
thumb_medium_14.jpg
by CR_OPSO score: 6.78

Great job this week everyone.
 
Here were my entries for the week:

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This is the penny shot. There was some crap on the sensor that has now been cleaned but this was my personal favorite of the images. My problem with this image is the crap on the penny but I really like this image and thought it was my best submission.

Grasshopper:
thumb_medium_15.jpg

This was a complete shot of opportunity. I was smoking a cigar on the back porch and this little guy just showed up. I grabbed the 105mm Sigma Macro f/2.8 and just took about 200 shots of him. I was practically right on top of him but in order to stretch the DOF I had to continue to step the lens down and crank the ISO. I think the image is a bit noisy but this lens has such a narrow focal plane that whatever isn't on the paper thin sweet spot just fades into the bokeh. I like the feel of the image and think that it is just cool to see him that up close and personal.

Scrabble:
thumb_medium_10.jpg

Well this was my highest rated photo and the one that I liked the least. I tried to shoot this from 20 different angles, different lighting situations, and ultimately decided on this one. Because I was playing with long exposures (to get the highest quality with the least amount of light to prevent reflection on the tiles) this was a tripod shot borderlining on birds eye. I had to organize the tiles just right and my first 15 images I had the tiles laid out as DXV (because I wasn't paying attention). Originally my plan was to do either MACRO or DVXUSER in scrabble letters but with this 105mm lens it was just too long to get it to qualify as a macro and still get everything in the image. I think that the DOF really guides the eye into the image and like the grain.


I thank everyone for their comments and votes and look forward to next week's challenge.

My personal favorites of this round were:

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thumb_medium_07.jpg


thumb_medium_08.jpg


thumb_medium_11.jpg


thumb_medium_14.jpg
 
Cool!
This was the original pic: http://pig.us/eye-s.jpg
It was taken with a Canon 300D with stock lens and a Canon extension tube; eyelashes were literally touching the front of the lens; 150W/s lash was about 8" away.
Post was done in PaintShopPro (no PS here!).



CMessineo said:
Thanks for all of the feedback on my snowglobe.
Click to expand...

I had yours as my top rated in the overall category (tied with with 'Espresso') - it's a great pic!
 
Vidled,

Thanks for the compliment on my snowglobe and congratulations on winning with your eye shot, it's well deserved.

That's awesome that you used PSP, I used that program for many years before I made the switch to PS.

Chris
 
CMessineo said:
Thanks for the compliment on my snowglobe and congratulations on winning with your eye shot, it's well deserved.

That's awesome that you used PSP, I used that program for many years before I made the switch to PS.
Click to expand...

Thanks Chris.

Yeah, regarding PSP: I've been using it since v3 (IIRC), and upgrade every odd number; i.e. 5, 7, 9, etc.
Once in a while I'd download a PS trial version, get a headache, and go back to PSP! :) For some reason I was never a fan of Adobe GUI (Premiere, PS, AE, etc.) but I do recognize their superiority in sheer ability/power.
 
1164645565.jpg


Here is mine. I wanted to give a divine look.
First image is the original NEF.
2nd image is the mods with Camera Raw.
3rd image is after cropping and some diffuse glow.
 
vidled said:
I had yours as my top rated in the overall category (tied with with 'Espresso') - it's a great pic!
Click to expand...
Thank you!


About my entries:
http://www.stffilms.com/dvxuser_photo_contest/members/img_gen.php?id=3&f=thumb_medium_14.jpg
I was going to make some espresso anyway... so I figured I'd set up the tripod and take a few pictures. I didn't like the way it looked with just the machine, so I dug around in the wife's scrapbooking stuff and found some blue paper. I folded the paper and slid it behind the cups. I got everything set up the way I wanted it and hit the brew switch on the machine. When the coffee flowed, I just held the shutter release down (continuous mode)... taking around 10 pictures. I really liked the blue background, but I was itching to convert it to B&W. I came very close to submitting one of my B&W's, but mainly decided against it since my other entry was B&W. Seems that it was a good decision based on the comments!

http://www.stffilms.com/dvxuser_photo_contest/members/img_gen.php?id=3&f=thumb_medium_12.jpg
This was my second entry. I wanted to submit more than one photo, so I wondered all over the house looking for something interesting. I knew when I took this I wanted it to be B&W. It seemed fitting for the "old trumpet". I actually took it in color so I could play around with the channel mixer to get the look I wanted. I didn't realize it was cliche since I'd never taken a picture of a trumpet before and was really pleased with the result... but I can see where y'all are coming from. It does have a similar feel as some of the images on the old band books. There was nothing fancy with the setup... I just put a light-colored towel on the kitchen table and turned on all the lights except for the one right over the table. I set the tripod up at the minimum distance the camera would focus. I took around 15 shots total at different angles.

Both photos were taken with the 50mm 1.8 and cropped to make a more convincing macro since that lens won't let you get any closer than 18 inches.

Thanks everyone for the great feedback!

And congrats vidled!

Chad

(edit to fix pics... so i thought... oh well)
 
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I too imagined that the problem would be that it wouldn't be obvious it was a bulb! Actually they aren't bevel, there is 1 or 2 pixel line from the inside that it's half transparent and with the white they look beveled. It's a cool Hasselblad border.

Oh which reminds me to tell you that I'm not aware of Fargo :D
 
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