Weekly Photo Contest Dec 3rd-Dec 10th: Deep Focus

[CmdrLaForge]

Congrats to the winners ! Well deserved !!

 

[Hughmac]

Thanks for boosting the numbers and my apologies both in advance and after the fact
By no means did I intend to be douchy-bagey.

Great, thanks. I can see you've warmed the photo up considerably and improved the look.
I still have a lot to learn with post processing, but at least I know to try this myself in future

Cheers

Hugh

 

[deep diver]

Congrats to the winners. These are all deserving images. Needfx -- job well done in a contest that was hard to judge, with comprehensive feedback as well. Looking forward to the next one.

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

Congrat's to the winners! It was a difficult contest, which is a good thing! Great feedback too!

 

[anotherscotsman]

@anotherscotsman
Leading lines formed from repeating objects, elements everywhere without becoming a distraction (save for the tree in the far left). Color palette is made from the stuff of dreams.
I can see the camera movement in this shot, particularly panning from left to right. If this were my image, I might have tried boosting ever so lightly the white in the foreground.
Top notch image and evidently, spoiler alert, the winner of this contest.

@JohnDS
I really like the restricted color palette and the use of flare filter (if you used one). Flares being in focus from foreground to background verifies the deep focus. I am however split on the square crop. In one hand, it feels as of if it is not doing your subject matter any favors. I feel like it compresses its otherwise lengthy nature and hugeness. Maybe you were getting rid of unwanted elements in the photograph. On the other hand, it splits the almost square frame nicely. I am going Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde over this photograph.

@CmdrLaForge
A sympathetic panorama, however the elements in the photo do not have enough impact to me. I find myself trying to look at the boats which are too small then I drift towards the mountains but finally end up looking at the body of water in the foreground. I might have tried to play with the colors more in post. Warming up the sand and greening the water. Background sky blue as is.

@Alexander.Of.Oz
While completely unrelated, color tone and subject matter of this picture feels to me like an extension of JohnDS' image and vice-versa. Plenty of similarities, even in how it is partitioned. There is a horizontal line coming in from the right splitting the image until after the vertical half of the image, then that splinters away to two diagonals that reach to the bottom half of the picture which counterbalance volumetrically the building on the right . I do appreciate the funky geometry and the palette but I am having trouble finding elements in the between zones to look at other than the peering youth I only just spotted his existence.

@Apple fanboy
I would have uber loved this cropped!! Try it. From about under the swimming swan up to right over the building at the top and you have yourself a cinematography shot. In terms of this specific contest, it lacks some elements in the extreme foreground that justify the in-focus. The water body isn't quite "giving" in that regard. This is also a shot I can see camera movement, in this particular one, a vertical one, north bound.

@Hughmac
Before anything else, I do have to mention that the cool spectrum colors do not give justice to the subject matter. While it has been shot in the winter, there is serious lack of contrasting warm colors, at least in my mind. Theme-wise, the foliage in the foreground does not provide enough gazing pull and serves more as minor detail of the lake instead of an element making a statement. Same applies for the treeline in the background. I do however find his picture interesting to look at, and again, I can imagine a camera movement, in this case one that starts face down in the water dollying in towards the structure then rotating upwards on its Y axis to face the structure. I will pm you if you want what I think color should look like.

@Laird Knox
Mad max meets the Final Frontier. Two point perspective is very welcome however my little eye spied a camera and tripod smack in the middle of the frame. I do find interesting that only half of the frame is illuminated by a light source, it provides a contrast between the two halves of the frame which is only intensified by the Dutch Angle nature of this picture. Camera movement imagined is on the Z axis moving out in light rotation, starting at a 180 degree from its current state with the sky at the bottom.

@deep diver
Nature, I love it out here. This is definitely a still cine frame for me. There is different coloration in the back of the frame opposing the foreground, and I find this antithesis compelling. The sinister mountain against the peaceful valley. Treeline in the foreground does offer scale to the mountain and makes them useful in the frame. Pity the lake is kind of bland. Maybe some coloring could have helped it out. I could really see this photo with a desaturation at approx -40.

So, the placements are

#1 anotherscotsman - for a still made in cinematic heaven.
#2 JohnDS - for the simple fact that I both love it & hate it at the same time.
#3 Apple fanboy - for submitting a cinematic photograph as well (should it have been cropped).

Thanks again at everyone for participating and I sincerely hope my feedback does not insult anyone in any way. It is always subjective and extremely personal.

To the next one!

Many thanks for the placement needfx - much appreciated and insightful commentary on all the entries. The tree off-left is a bit divisive - I like it but my wife and most others find it distracting and I can see why. Tried to use it to get a bit of nature into what is an otherwise human-dominated scene but for me it was the colours and 4-minute exposure effects that I'm pleased with. The two photos I've taken from here on that day I've done to death on this site: time to find something else....

Great pictures from all the entrants with LairdKnox's and JohnDS's being my personal favourites. I'll try and post a new competition this evening before I'm off on my (work) travels again in the morning.

Thanks again.
[doublepost=1481561944][/doublepost]New contest is up here : Weekly Photo Contest Dec 12-Dec 19: The Shopping Experience

 

[Apple fanboy]

@anotherscotsman


@Apple fanboy
I would have uber loved this cropped!! Try it. From about under the swimming swan up to right over the building at the top and you have yourself a cinematography shot. In terms of this specific contest, it lacks some elements in the extreme foreground that justify the in-focus. The water body isn't quite "giving" in that regard. This is also a shot I can see camera movement, in this particular one, a vertical one, north bound.

You have a good eye. Creative cropping is not something I often do, but I think this adds to the image.

_DSC0198-2 by apple fanboy1, on Flickr

 

[needfx]

You have a good eye. Creative cropping is not something I often do, but I think this adds to the image.

_DSC0198-2 by apple fanboy1, on Flickr

it definitely does give the image some extra plus points!
the S shape of the path is intensified while inviting the eye to follow it
the water in the foreground is nicely tucked in crop limbo of unnecessary pixel count.

 

[Laird Knox]

@Laird Knox
Mad max meets the Final Frontier. Two point perspective is very welcome however my little eye spied a camera and tripod smack in the middle of the frame. I do find interesting that only half of the frame is illuminated by a light source, it provides a contrast between the two halves of the frame which is only intensified by the Dutch Angle nature of this picture. Camera movement imagined is on the Z axis moving out in light rotation, starting at a 180 degree from its current state with the sky at the bottom.

Thanks for the notes.

No bonus points for the 1920x817?

This is actually a smaller crop from a larger work. It is a project where everything was shot as a pano with the tripod off axis. The final image is displayed as a triptych. I'll post the printed version after I get home. The contest image is primarily the left and center frames of the triptych.

I removed tripod shadows in some of the images and not in others. In general I intentionally kept the stitching errors in place. Each image in the series was taken at night with a tungsten light source and tungsten white balance. They also all contain both natural and man-made objects. It was because of this that I left in things like airplanes, stitching errors and tripod shadows. It was a fun project that I intend to continue to expand on.

Thanks for judging.

 

[needfx]

Thanks for the notes.

No bonus points for the 1920x817?

This is actually a smaller crop from a larger work. It is a project where everything was shot as a pano with the tripod off axis. The final image is displayed as a triptych. I'll post the printed version after I get home. The contest image is primarily the left and center frames of the triptych.

I removed tripod shadows in some of the images and not in others. In general I intentionally kept the stitching errors in place. Each image in the series was taken at night with a tungsten light source and tungsten white balance. They also all contain both natural and man-made objects. It was because of this that I left in things like airplanes, stitching errors and tripod shadows. It was a fun project that I intend to continue to expand on.

Thanks for judging.

You are definitely onto something regarding the bonus points for cinemascope aspect ratio!!

To be honest, I thought the shadow of the camera/tripod was accidentally omitted from post. However, in retrospect I find the intentional "error" amusing & titillating. Pity though it has to be mentioned somehow. Maybe a full series named "The Error" or some other signifier, would have made for an excellent artistic statement. Apologies for not picking up on that.

I will definitely amend my judging and award your photo a Most Honorable Mention sprinkled with Stardust of Amazement for thinking waaaaay out of the box.

 

[Laird Knox]

LOL - Yay for participation awards!

Where I first saw the stitching errors was in the image I used for the book cover. If you look at the dried grass stalks you can see lots of issues. Of course Facebook has crushed a bit of the detail.

In some of the images you can see multiple tracks from the same plane since each exposure in the pano was 20 seconds long.

 

[Apple fanboy]

LOL - Yay for participation awards!

Where I first saw the stitching errors was in the image I used for the book cover. If you look at the dried grass stalks you can see lots of issues. Of course Facebook has crushed a bit of the detail.

In some of the images you can see multiple tracks from the same plane since each exposure in the pano was 20 seconds long.

But we only look at our own images with that critical eye and high standards.
Everyone else just sees a great image.

 

[Laird Knox]

But we only look at our own images with that critical eye and high standards.
Everyone else just sees a great image.

True, but for this project the errors were intentionally left in in some cases. I think the cover image with the two Joshua trees was the only one with stitching errors but I left in things like airplanes in some of the others or the tripod shadow in the case of this one. It was really difficult to not edit the grasses in the cover photo. They kept yelling at me to fix them.

It was a fun project. I didn't know what to expect and the results weren't anything I had imagined. The distortions were intentional with the tripod head skewed. Some of the other magic came when I played with the projection types while stitching.

And I forgot to take a picture of the hanging piece last night. I passed out early - had to get to work early to be in time for a 7:30 am call and I'm not a morning person.