Photography Competition - $25 gift certificate

[2la]

You're no different than the rest of us, Gareth. Post-processing is necessary particularly in situations where initial lighting isn't ideal or the camera's white balance is inadequate. Even when manually set, WB can change as your camera angle changes and more light hits the sensor or a nearby colored surface. I can understand the requisite that post-processing be limited to cropping and resizing in order to prevent less than scrupulous shutterbugs from enhancing colors, but it takes a lot of my own pictures out of the running (not that I'd enter) since I use Photoshop to correct my camera's minor mistakes. It's the digital equivalent of darkroom processing, but considerably more powerful and thus dangerous if not used properly.

[Wasserpest]

I don't understand why post-processing is considered a bad thing, even prohibited. I post-process all my images, and the least I do is to resize and sharpen them.

Consider this... most digital cameras save their images as jpegs. This involves -- besides compressing them -- a whitepoint adjustment and sharpening algorithm. Saturation and level adjustments within the camera are not unusual.

So, for example, I set my camera to "low sharpening" rather than the default "normal sharpening", because I believe that USM applied in post-processing does a gentler job than the USM algorithm that is built into the camera. So isn't that kinda ambiguous... since I do sharpening in postprocessing, my pics will not qualify, but if I set the cam to "high sharpening" they will, even though they will perhaps look oversharpened.

With all advances in optics and electronics, the human eye is still much more capable than any lens. Cameras just record reality, while the human eye adapts to the specific situation. Sensible color correction can bring an image closer to what the eye of the photographer saw in that moment.

I understand that retouching (the elimination of parts of the original image or addition of elements that were not) or special effects like certain filters are frowned upon, even local enhancements... but wouldn't in the end the viewer notice if something looked unreal?

[KyleT]

Well it seems as if the no edit rule wasn't so well received. So against my previous plans I'm going to go ahead and change this. It is going to have to be based on trust and all hopefully any drastic changes will be obvious. I also like Gareth's suggestion about the size restrictions. It is slightly unfair comparing a 1280 x 1024 to a 800 x 600 image. I have changed the rules so everyone please re-read them and submit your photos!

Kyle

[Momotaro]

I have full confidence in our top notch panel of judges!

Mike

[rumples riot]

Fender will I have to resubmit my shots as I think they are bigger than specified?

Paul

[Jeremy S]

How will the voting work? Will the pictures be posted on the forums in a poll format or will there be another part of the website dedicated to the voting and viewing?

[KyleT]

I will create a sticky post in the forum with a poll option. The actual images will be on a separate page to be as fair as possible. If the images were just all posted in a post, the first posts would obviously have an unfair advantage.

Paul, Go ahead and resend me your pictures.
Kyle

[KyleT]

Contest starts soon and still only have 4 entries. Is anyone else planning on submitting a photo?

Kyle

[wellbiz]

Kyle,

I will try sending you one.... A photographer I am not, but what the heck

Jason

[Jeremy S]

So, are you going to start the contest today?

[Buck]

Jeeeeeeeez am I a bonehead.... Im here just about every day and do ya think I remembered to do this ! :evil:

Atta boy :roll: