Activity for User 806 - Oliver Morton - oliver.morton@yahoo.com

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1318 Comments / 837 Replies Posted

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Group Round C/R Comment Date Image
5 Dec 17 Reply Hmmmm.... I see what you mean and it's not an attractive glow! Here's another attempt. Dec 18th
5 Dec 17 Reply Richard, I think three judges would be ideal so long as they are working together and discussing the photographs. The bias seems to diminish with the square of the number of judges. :-)

It IS unfortunate that the photographers don't get the benefit of feedback. Recently I entered a multi-judge Maryland competition and did well but, like in your club, I received no input on how to improve.		 Dec 16th
5 Dec 17 Comment Thank you, Barbara. The picture received an Honorable Mention in the competition. I felt okay with that award since there were some extraordinary images entered, many of them by professional photographers.

Frankly, I don't put a lot of trust in competitions like those done in my camera club since there's only a single judge. Everyone has some biases and I've seen those biases displayed in the judging. One judge, for example, "threw out" an incredible picture (not mine) of a cat with the simple statement "I don't like cat pictures". We've never invited that judge back. Other judges seem obsessed with each image needing pure whites and pure blacks which is something that I don't feel is a universal requirement for a good photograph. Since the appeal of an image is a very personal and subjective matter, the opinion of a single individual shouldn't be taken too seriously.... however, specific critique and input (like in our group) can be very valuable!

Some contests are juried by multiple judges. These seem to be really effective ways to get a good assessment of one's work.
Dec 16th
5 Dec 17 Comment David, I really like the concept and the composition of this image! I also like the vintage feel of it and the square format.

However, a few things bother me a bit. The contrast seems a bit high which causes the interesting folds in the fabric to be lost. Also, I find that I want to see more of the man's legs which are lost in the darkness. I attempted to address these things. What do you think? It's certainly not a better image than yours.... just different.
Dec 15th
5 Dec 17 Comment Phil, you captured an amazing night sky. I almost never get to see that kind of sky since I live so close to the city that light polution is a major issue. It's beautiful!

Naturally I couldn't resist playing with the picture a bit. I used Camera Raw to reduce the headlights (but not eliminate them), to increase the contrast and saturation of the sky and to remove some of the keystone effect. Your thoughts?
Dec 12th
5 Dec 17 Comment Thank you Richard. I'll enter this into a low-light competition Thursday evening. I darkened the far left lane a bit more which seems to direct the viewer's focus to the road ahead. We'll see how it does.
Thanks again.		 Dec 8th
5 Dec 17 Reply Sheesh.... that's pretty inflexible of them. Want to join my camera club instead of the one you're in? :-) Dec 5th
5 Dec 17 Reply Well, when I look at my attempt next to yours I find that yours is much more vibrant... which I like a lot! The only positive thing I can see about my image is that the tilt may be a bit better. But, all-in-all, I much prefer yours!
Dec 2nd
5 Dec 17 Comment Very nice... and I envy your travels!

By comparing your original image and the final one, I really gained an appreciation for all the positive changes you made. Like Barbara, I wondered if the image was slightly tilted so I used the Camera Raw transform tool's Auto and saw a small adjustment. Then I tried to pull a bit more detail from the shadows (again with Camera Raw). This caused the noise to become too obvious so I used the Topaz DeNoise 6 to "smooth it out" a bit. Here's how it ended up.... really not significantly different from yours.		 Dec 2nd
5 Dec 17 Comment Nick, you image is very festive and well-composed.

I hope you have a wonderful Holiday season!		 Dec 2nd
5 Dec 17 Comment Barbara, I love the cropping on this image and the frame nicely draws one's gaze to the red color that dominates the photo. My only suggestions would be to slightly reduce the saturation, especially on his face and to blur the background a bit. All-in-all, a delightful picture that makes me feel the excitement of Christmas. Well done. Dec 1st
7 comments - 4 replies for Group 5
7 comments - 4 replies Total

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