TDMMC Photo Contest: Chapter 1 - VOTING!

[Brian Fein]

I would like to offer my own comments on the field.  Constructive comments all around!

1.) Great composition, great subject, but execution seems a tad blurry.  Not sure why - I think the ripples in the water take away from it.

2.) I love the shot of the pier and the moon behind the clouds is a great touch, but I wish the frame had more of a foreground, and was cropped in from the left a bit to put the moon in more of a contrasting position from the pier.

3.) The car in the foreground corner was distracting, IMO.  A little croppy-crop would have made this one a lot better.

4.) Boring subject and lacks color and pop, but no disputing execution and clarity.

5.) Most interesting subject of the group, I think.  Would have liked to see it from a slightly different angle with the gazebo and statue not centered over each other and perhaps a wider aperture to make the gazebo more blurred in the background.

6.) Love the subject, love the dusk and the framing, but like Lil B said, could have been a tad bigger.

7.) Hard to comment on #7, since I see that view all the time.  Might have benefitted from a panoramic view but not for this contest.

8.) Surprised this didn't get more votes, really.  This was probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite.  Love the colors, and the reflection makes it prefect.  Only comment for improvement would be to crop out the distracting (and overexposed) lit up sign on the left.

9.) A great shot but its blurry.  Would have been a beautiful shot had the camera been on a tripod or stabilized against a tree or something. 

[run_to_win]

1.) Great composition, great subject, but execution seems a tad blurry. 

Using one of those flexible-mini-NON super grip tripods that come free with a camera bag ... balanced on a round hand-railing and "stabilized/secured" by hand, with a hyper 6 year old literally jumping all around. 

We "experts" just like to add a bit of challenge to our crazy endevours.   

I had other shots but I went with this one due to the color.

The white blob in the middle is the big screen "jumbotron" behind the stage at a religious revival.  Damn them Christians for screwing up my shot! 

[fyo]

Can you tell us how to do this?

Sure. If you're using Windows XP, just download the image and "right click" on it, selecting Properties. Go to the "Summary" tab and the info is there (you might need to click "advanced" the first time).

If you use IrfanView, you can do it directly there as well, although I don't recall the exact key-combo (it's probably in the menu, though). IrfanView is an AWESOME (and totally free) image viewer for Windows.

[fyo]

#8 - The Porsche Sign w. Reflection.

This one was mine, so I assume Guru is $20 out of pocket

The photo was actually a real hassle to get because of the reflection. It's not a car and it's not a puddle on the ground. It was a cable box or something with a slightly sloping top - like a roof, although clearly a lot flatter. The surface was quite wet (it had been raining heavily all day). Basically a small puddle on the cable box "roof".

The problem was getting to the reflection. I couldn't get it with the tripod, so I wound up having to place my camera on the (slightly sloped) cable box and shoot it from there. Because of the slope, I had to rotate the image in GIMP afterwards and crop a bit (although apparently not enough).

I quite liked the overexposed Porsche sign to the left, although I admit it does "unbalance" the photo somewhat.

Ideally, I would've taken the image from another angle, so the reflection lined up better and the building/show room was better framed, but I just couldn't get the reflection from ANY other angle.

[Brian Fein]

fyo - that was just my opinion, it is in no way the law.  to make that shot better, you could go back there and try to shoot the same shot, but expose for the sign (so its not all blown out), then copy/paste them in photoshop.

(of course this is against the contest rules, but would make for a wall-hanger picture, IMO)

Philly and I were talking about your picture over IM and we agreed that your shot could be a 2-page Porsche ad in a car magazine.

[Frimp]

Sure. If you're using Windows XP, just download the image and "right click" on it, selecting Properties. Go to the "Summary" tab and the info is there (you might need to click "advanced" the first time).

If you use IrfanView, you can do it directly there as well, although I don't recall the exact key-combo (it's probably in the menu, though). IrfanView is an AWESOME (and totally free) image viewer for Windows.

I like Irfanview alot. It also reads RAW images, so you don't have to wait 30 seconds for Photoshop to start up for each image.

[StL FinFan]

I would like to thank the person who voted for my picture. 

[fyo]

The Porsche-shot was at iso 80 (!), 2 second exposure. Just fyi.

No one fessing up to #5? Brian, did SportsChick sneak out with your Digital Rebel?

Edit: Hmm... I see she did #7.

[Brian Fein]

Its not my place to say who shot what.  I'll let the person who owns it jump in (if he or she wants to).

[AprFools_Phins]

#2 was me. Taken of the Kure Beach Pier. I had taken another picture from the pier looking at the beach, which I actually thought was a better picture, but I liked the moon in the one I submitted, and I let my family vote, and they picked the one of the pier. Here's a pic of the one I had originally picked:



BTW- thanks Lil B and Guru

[Dave Gray]

I voted for #2.

I disagree with Brian that it should've been cropped, and I liked that it was off-center.  Plus, in terms of nightscapes, it best captured the subject, had the moon, as well as light flare from the dock.  The nature in the foreground (somewhat out of focus) was a nice touch.

It got my vote, because it best captured the topic, from an artistic standpoint.

-----------------

Side notes:

Props to #3 for the setting that blurred the lights.  I like the creativity.  Unfortunately, I thought the framing was off.  The whole shot looks crooked, and there is some half-objects (like cars) off to the side that distract from what's going on.  This almost got my vote.

The clarity and quality of #4 is undeniable, but I thought it was too safe of a subject.

Also, a quiet props to #8, which I knew wouldn't get more votes, but I liked that there was courage to shoot something unlikely, and not just a skyline.  The reflection of the sign was a nice touch and took advantage of the subject.

[AprFools_Phins]

^well then I owe you a thank you too Dave

[fyo]

Just to give my (totally amateurish) 2 cents:

#1: There were a lot of things I liked in this shot, but it's quite blurry. It might just be suffering from being WAY too compressed. The jpeg artifacts are really hurting it. I also would've liked to have the whole building to the left in the frame.

#2: Cool, but unbalanced sorta. (I really liked your alternate shot!) For some reason the sign (left) bothers me

#3: I liked the streaking effect of the long exposure, but the image seems blurry (and tilted). As with #1, the blurring might, at least partially, be due to compression artifacts.

#4: Really nice, clean, crisp image. I think the reason I didn't vote for it was that my first thought was that someone just stuck their camera out a window at took a shot. It really is my second favorite, though.

#5: This is the one I voted for. I love the colors and the gazebo in the background is nicely positioned. The two (light) trees in the background serve to frame the photo very well, making it overall extremely pleasing. If I had to say anything negative (and apparently I do) it would be that the image is quite "grainy" and a bit fuzzy. Compression artifacts probably play a small role, but I can't help but wonder if a lower ISO setting and a longer exposure would've produced a less noisy image. (For reference, the shot was taken at ISO 1600, extremely high, and very few cameras have decent noise at that level). The only thing in terms of composition is the shadow of the sculpture.

#6: The size definitely hurt it and the framing with the trees probably could've been better. It was also taken at dusk, so not quite comparable to the other photos.

#7: Nice stadium shot, although hampered by the seat position.

#8: Mine. No comment.

#9: I think the motif here had a lot of potential, but long exposure and no stable tripod result in a blurry image.