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Weekly Photo Contest March 22th - 29th: Cucoloris / shadow patterns

Robotti

Robotti

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 16, 2014
251
713
This week's contest will be something that I'm hoping will be fun to experiment with, be it in the garden, on the street, inside your house or in a studio. I'm talking about a cucoloris (or a "cookie") effect, where there is a shadow pattern on your subject. You can spend any amount of time to create the exact pattern you want by cutting shapes into cardboard and using it with sun or a flash, or you can just go outside and see what happens when people are walking in a garden on a sunny day. Or something completely different. Of course, you subject doesn't have to be human, sometimes clouds create fantastic patterns on landscape.

The photographs must be your own work.
  • Be creative and have fun.
  • You may only submit one photo per contest.
  • Please do not comment on photos until after the judging has taken place.
  • The contest runs for one week, starting NOW!
  • At the end of the week, The Judge (last week's Winner) will choose a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place photo, providing as much feedback as possible.
  • The 1st place Winner will start a new thread with the topic/theme of their choice, and act as the Judge for that contest. (Winner has 48 hours to create new theme, after that it defers to 2nd place).
As an example of the technique, I'm using a school project we just did the other day with my mate Mika Levälampi and others. This is Mika's shot and edit, while I was holding the cardboard:

17390663_1305910842822575_4018512869679619779_o.jpg


And of course there are thousands of photos for inspiration when you google "cucoloris photography".
 
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Mark0

Mark0

macrumors 6502a
Sep 11, 2014
516
3,399
SW Scotland
One of my favourites from last summer using a phone (iPhone 5)
What I love about it is how such a quick, off the cuff photo taken whilst walking ended up with such a nice composition!

IMG_1403.JPG



EDIT: Just realised I've not really got the concept of shadow patterns and totally missed the point of the topic, my pic is just shadows :O
 
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Robotti

Robotti

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 16, 2014
251
713
Ok, time's up. Not too many entries this week, but great entries. I'll be back with the results.
 
Robotti

Robotti

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 16, 2014
251
713
So this week there weren’t too many entries. So a big thank you to everyone who contributed. As it always is, this is my personal view on the photos:

kenoh: Even more than how the shadows are halfway behind the urn, the shadow of the urn itself makes me wonder! It’s twisted in a strange way. This is an interesting photo.

stillcrazyman: You’ve put some thought into this, seeing how the lines are all leading exactly into the corner. Do you have a wide angle shot from this place, because I’m interested to see what the whole pier looks like?

anotherscotsman: This shot has a good feeling. The idea is excellent and the warmth helps, because it’s still surprisingly cold outside around here. Put some careful lighting on it, and you got a nice product photo for the bottle.

Janichsan: These huge malls and other indoor locations with big skylights are classic. And what’s best, they always look different depending on the time of day. I bet you can shoot a completely different photo some other time, when the shadows hit a different wall. You could make a nice photo story.

deep diver: You have nailed this photo. I love the contrast between the colours, and the editing brings them out and is still well balanced. And looking at the structure, it doesn’t seem that obvious that the pattern would follow the lines on the flag, but they do. Excellent.

The Bad Guy: I love this. Especially how you’ve managed to bring out her face, while the body is brightly lit. The separation between the model and the background is nice. It’s subtle on the shadow side, but it’s still there. I like the look on her face and the direction she’s looking at. Every little detail in this photograph contribute in a story it tells. In In my mind, there isn’t much that could have been done better than right here.

Mark0: I don’t think you missed the point too much! You can call this a pattern, there are shadows of three people! Three’s a pattern, right? Also, it’s very nice and summery and, again, makes me happier while I’m waiting on the weather.

So, the results.

3rd place to anotherscotsman for the warm feeling and delicious way of picturing the bottle.

2nd place to deep diver for the bright, sunny, contrasty red, white and blue.

1st place to The Bad Guy for the perfection.


Thank you!
 
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kenoh

kenoh

macrumors 604
Jul 18, 2008
6,507
10,850
Glasgow, UK
Well done winners. Good judging.

On my shot honestly not messed with it in any way as regards lining it up or photoshop manglement.

Just a combination of an irregular shaped fence and a weird angle on the urn. Didnt notice the weird shadows until pulled into LR but its a head scratcher for sure
 
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A

anotherscotsman

macrumors 68020
Aug 2, 2014
2,369
16,735
UK
Robotti said:
So this week there weren’t too many entries. So a big thank you to everyone who contributed. As it always is, this is my personal view on the photos:

kenoh: Even more than how the shadows are halfway behind the urn, the shadow of the urn itself makes me wonder! It’s twisted in a strange way. This is an interesting photo.

stillcrazyman: You’ve put some thought into this, seeing how the lines are all leading exactly into the corner. Do you have a wide angle shot from this place, because I’m interested to see what the whole pier looks like?

anotherscotsman: This shot has a good feeling. The idea is excellent and the warmth helps, because it’s still surprisingly cold outside around here. Put some careful lighting on it, and you got a nice product photo for the bottle.

Janichsan: These huge malls and other indoor locations with big skylights are classic. And what’s best, they always look different depending on the time of day. I bet you can shoot a completely different photo some other time, when the shadows hit a different wall. You could make a nice photo story.

deep diver: You have nailed this photo. I love the contrast between the colours, and the editing brings them out and is still well balanced. And looking at the structure, it doesn’t seem that obvious that the pattern would follow the lines on the flag, but they do. Excellent.

The Bad Guy: I love this. Especially how you’ve managed to bring out her face, while the body is brightly lit. The separation between the model and the background is nice. It’s subtle on the shadow side, but it’s still there. I like the look on her face and the direction she’s looking at. Every little detail in this photograph contribute in a story it tells. In In my mind, there isn’t much that could have been done better than right here.

Mark0: I don’t think you missed the point too much! You can call this a pattern, there are shadows of three people! Three’s a pattern, right? Also, it’s very nice and summery and, again, makes me happier while I’m waiting on her.

So, the results.

3rd place to anotherscotsman for the warm feeling and delicious way of picturing the bottle.

2nd place to deep diver for the bright, sunny, contrasty red, white and blue.

1st place to The Bad Guy for the perfection.


Thank you!
Click to expand...

Cheers Robotti - good contest and excellent standard of entries. Well done to the winners, I'd have put money on both of these to win. I'll have to console myself with the contents of the bottle ;)
 
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Scepticalscribe

Scepticalscribe

macrumors Haswell
Jul 29, 2008
65,197
47,580
In a coffee shop.
anotherscotsman said:
Cheers Robotti - good contest and excellent standard of entries. Well done to the winners, I'd have put money on both of these to win. I'll have to console myself with the contents of the bottle ;)
Click to expand...

Loved your shot - that image is good enough to feature as an ad in a glossy magazine; the colours as shadows are stunning, and it makes you want to curl up with a glass of the malt in the bottle.
 
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