Photography Competition - $25 gift certificate

[KyleT]

Updated Rules, please re-read.

Welcome to the first Planted Tank Photography competition. This is going to be a community run competition in that members of the board are going to vote for the winner. The winner, as chosen by members, will receive a $25 gift certificate to AquariumGarden.com.

There are a few rules:
1. Images must be your own original work.
2. The Image must be no larger than 1024 x 768.
3. By submitting your picture to the site you agree that both The Planted Tank and AquariumGarden.com have the right to publish photos on our respective websites.
4. Pictures can be anything related to aquariums. Fish, plants, overall tank etc....
5. There is only one picture per person. Please send me only one picture.
6.Competitors are to remain anonymous until end of voting to avoid any biased votes.

If you are interested in entering simply email me your picture. The higher the quality the better. Make sure to include your username in the email. For my email address click the button in my profile.

The competition will start on May 1 and will run for 2 weeks.

Good Luck!
Kyle

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

By no editing - do you mean NO editing? Not even cropping?

[chinaboy1021]

Ghori please dont enter the contest so the rest of PT can have a chance. ; )

[KyleT]

Originally Posted by Ghazanfar Ghori

By no editing - do you mean NO editing? Not even cropping?

My Oh My. I'm sorry Ghazanfar. Your right that is rather ridiculous. I altered the rules slightly. Really I just meant to color alterations, adding in fish, etc... Image resizing/cropping is allowed.

Kyle

[mario]

Kyle, sorry to be picky, but color alteration are indispensable when working with digital cameras. Many color alterations are performed automatically when taking your picture in the first place (white balance).

Most cameras have automatic white balance. However, sometimes this automatic feature falls short and needs to be modified manually. Is that still acceptable?

[KyleT]

See this is where it gets kind of sticky. See what I dont want is for people to edit the pictures to make them better than what really exists. For example you might want to make that rotala, just a tiny bit more red than it really is to make it seem healthier and better. This of course is not fair and not what the photo contest is about.

Kyle

[cich]

Originally Posted by Ghazanfar Ghori

By no editing - do you mean NO editing? Not even cropping?

Answer:

Originally Posted by Fender963

2. No alteration other than image cropping/resizing is allowed.

[KyleT]

Cich,

I changed the rules after Ghazanfer's question. Before it read "No Editing".

Kyle

[GDominy]

Kyle,

Maybe we could firm things up a little? Say.. specify an image size so we have some criteria for submission?

[Daemonfly]

Ah, a contest mainly for the guys with the expensive cameras :P

[2la]

Originally Posted by Daemonfly

Ah, a contest mainly for the guys with the expensive cameras :P

To some degree, perhaps, but if this is a true photography competition then neither the technical nor the compositional aspects (nor the subjects) of the images should be more emphasized than the other. However, the judges are going to be the board members at large, so going into it one should realize that certain subjects may appeal more to this forum's membership than others. For example, if total image crispness seems to be preferred, then a more artistic image utilizing a large aperture and smaller plane of focus may not rank as highly--even if it's the more photographically disciplined image. Enter at your own risk, I say (or just stay out, knowing that both the G-men are probably going to be entering... ).

[Leipo]

I often edit pictures so that they resemble the true colors that my fish have at that moment. I often find that my camera adds a rather greenish color to my foto's which I edit...

[Gomer]

The problem with editing is that there is a tendency to use certain adobe filters such as Auto contrast, Auto levels, Image Multiply, manual level changing. Using these and others, you can get some unreal effects that are just not natural..but they sure do look good

[Leipo]

I understand that u can use these alterations to make your fish/plant/tank look more beautiful than it really is, but many people (like me) use them so show how the fish/plant/tank really is according to the human eye and not according to a digital camera.

In the end it all comes down to trust...

[GDominy]

2la, as a Canadian I will not be entering the contest, or if I do, it will simply be for novelty. Aquarium Garden does not ship outside of the US so even if I won, the prize would be wasted on me.

Besides.. as far as disciplined photography goes, I'm really quite inexperienced. I rely pretty heavily on post processing touchup in photoshop (I've been doing desktop publishing faaaaaaarrrr longer then I've been taking pictures)