Photographer's Championship - Page 2

Oops! Hopefully this isn't too late >.>

My entry: Plane ride home from California.

Okey dokey. Nice turn out for the first round. The idea with the judging is not only to provide a winner for each round but also to give constructive feedback to all participants. So without further adieu I give you the results of the first round: Freestyle...


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Paranoid Android

Spoiler: Entry
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The first thing that strikes me aobut this shot is that it would look much better in portrait. The composition leaves too much negative space on the left hand side and distracts the eye from the obvious lead in lines of the hallway floor and roof.

Film is a brilliant medium and the grain and rustic feel definitely add to what could have been a stark lifeless shot.

standard

Spoiler: Entry
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Nice choice of subject in this shot. The rock formation is definitely worthy of being a focal point. However, the washed out sky, crooked horizon, harsh shodows on the formation it self all detract from what has potential as a wonderful shot.

Next time try using a mild flash to get rid of some of the harsher shadows, line up your horizon at a third from the top or bottom of the shot and lessen your exposure time to try and prevent colour washout.

ShinyMilotic

Spoiler: Entry
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When dealing with silhouettes the key is to make sure the negative space is used to complement the shot and not become dominant over what, in this case, is a lovely background. Lower the top of the silhouette to a third up from the bottom and this shot would have gained a lot more impact.

Nice job bringing the colours out. Sunsets are great subjects to practice post process colour editing as they often provide such a vibrant pallette to play around with.

Vena

Spoiler: Entry
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Great composition in this shot. The depth of field, in terms of composition, is lovely and allows the eye to work it's way from foreground to background step by step. Unfortunately this is let down by the lack of focus in the background. Try using a smaller aperture to bring the distant beach into focus. It's something this shot would greatly benefit from I think.

You could also try experimenting with slower shutter speeds to add motion to the water. The static look can look unrealistic and bland in beach settings.

McClubbin

Spoiler: Entry
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Aside from the obvious skew of the shot the composition here is great. Had the horizon been straight you have a great sunset shot with sufficient foreground and middle ground interest to complement but not overwhelm the main subject, the sky.

Where this picture really lets itself down though is the exposure. It is waayy too dark. You do want to keep the land to the left in silhouette as much as possible but not at the expense of darkening the wntire shot to the point where squinting is necessary. Throw open the shutter next time and let some more of the sunset in to work it's magic.

SlangX

Spoiler: Entry
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There are a few things I really like about this shot and a few things that really grate on me. First up, great subject. Texturally and colour wise this shot is awesome. I also adore the fact you've opened the aperture and blurred the background. Although you could have possibly taken it a little bit further.

The big let down for me is that the first thing I notice is the overwhelming presence of the skeleton and then how much of it out of focus despite the fact it's a focal point. Where you've positioned it gives it too much presence in the shot. Either moving the head to the right hand third or changing to portrait would have greatly strengthened the composition.

Naked Snak3

Spoiler: Entry
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I love this shot. Great use of gradients to manage the colours in the sky and keep the eye focused in the shot. The use of the silhouette to balance the sky is understated perfectly. The panoramic format is also the perfect choice for this shot as it really gets the full scope of the sunset in the composition.

My only realy fault is the seeming lack of quality in the right hand side. Not sure if that's just the quality of your submitted file or an over edit of colour levels, but that's just me being anal.

Chekkaa

Spoiler: Entry
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I found this shot to be incredibly hard to judge. On the one hand it's a cluttered, busy and confusing shot of flora. On the other it's a great abstract piece with vibrant colour and interesting lines.

If you intended this to be a shot of the plants with clear focus then using a shallower depth of field next time is somthing I can't recommend enough. Open the aperture to blur the background and you'll see this shot gain infinitely more punch as the central focal point is the first and only thing the eye sees.

However, as an abstract shot the lines provided by the stems throughout the sea of vibrant colour is attractive and immersive.

SC_adept

Spoiler: Entry
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I've got two key things to say about this shot. First of all, wonderful composition. The bee is positioned perfectly and the background provides interest without being distracting. Secondly, the focusing needs improving. As I mentioned above to a couple of people, opening the aperture and blurring the backround in shots with a key focus point can provide extra impact. In this case I think clear focus is the major thing missing. I would personally have the bee and flower as sharp as possible and everything else a blur to the point where you can only see what it is by looking at forcifully. This draws attention to you subject and keeps it there.

peachjars

Spoiler: Entry
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Another shot I loved at first glance. The composition is wall put together, the washed out colour adds tone and atmosphere, and the lines of the horizon and wing give clear flow to the shot and draw the eye to the logo on the wing tip.

My only advice would be to consider a more abstract approach as a complimentary shot. The colour and lines would give great impact to a shot in portrait rotated anti-clockwise so the 'southwest' text was straight left to right.

windowlicker

Spoiler: Entry
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I love those moments where you just manage to get the shot before it's lost forever. Gives the result so much more personal meaning.

Great crop for this shot. The narrow composition suits the position of the birds wings and gives a sense of it really leaping upwards. This could be further enhanced however if you cropped higher on both top and bottom. You've included all of the sign and this detracts from the bird as the sign becomes a secondary focal point, which it has no right to be. Cropping higher and leaving some negative space at the top would give a sense of where the bird is headed and would give the taking off feeling much more impact. I would have put the bottom half way up the stand of the sign and given the same amount of space at the top.

You could also use the photoshop skills I know you have to really give the birds colour some serious punch and make him stand out.

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Ok guys now that the hard part is out of the way I need to announce a winner. Before I do that though I just want to reiterate, all criticisms are meant to be constructive and helpful. If your cameras don't have some of the features I'm talking about don't stress; I'm more just giving hints and tips where I can for everyone to see. I also didn't go into anywhere near as much detail as I could have as frankly the time would be immense once I finished with all of them. If you have any questions about what I've written, or you want to vent your fury at me ;], either post here or PM me. I'm happy to get more discussion going in this forum.



So without anymore grandstanding the winner is:

peachjars - for wonderful use of colour, atmosphere, lines and overall composition.






Feel free to discuss the results (no negativity) and provide suggestions for the next round's theme which will be announced in 24 hours.

Congrats peachjars, and might I add that there's definitely some fierce competition bubbling through here. Thanks for the comments Euphoric; it's always interesting to get someone else's take on a piece!

Can't wait for the next round!

Oh wow, thanks everyone! I'm actually so flattered n_n Everyone had such incredible entry's. I wasn't quite sure how mine would stack against such tough competition ;-; I'm excited to see what our next round is!

Congrats peachjars, I really like your picture! Everyone else did a great job, too, I'm excited to see what the next round will be like :3

Ok guys the first page will be updated with each rounds winners and the 'Entries' post will also be kept as up-to-date as I can manage to help the judge for each round. Feel free to let me know if I miss any ;]

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round II

theme: People
deadline: SUNDAY 6th Mar
judge: peachjars



Ok everyone, remember to interpret the theme however you wish so long as you can provide reason for how your submission relates to 'People'. Please note that People =/= Portrait. Portraits are of people, obviosuly, but I'd prefer not to limit the scope to just portraits.

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Another thing I'd like to add for this round is that the idea is to go out and take a shot for the theme. Not really to hunt through old photos and submit one you pick. Try and use this as a bit of inspiration and motivation to get out and do some shooting.

Could we submit photos that were taken within a reasonable amount of time? (such as in any longer than 3 months or so?) I use film, remember... :'(

quote Euphoric

Yeah there's no need to be overly zealous with that rule. It's more just so people aren't submitting shots from years ago they dug up. For me that defeats the purpose of what this is all about; which is sharing and learning as a group while trying to boost the community here.

Awesome! :D Ergo, my submission is as follows..