*** Canon Image Challenge 65: Windows, Doors, and Gates (man-made) ***

Windows, doors, and gates (man-made).

The Challenge Gallery: http://www.pbase.com/cichallenge/cic65_windows_doors_gates

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This challenge's eligible gallery is open to all makes/brands of cameras.

Enter a maximum of three pictures per person in each gallery and please remember the 200kb limit.

Challenge Starts: Friday, April 13th, 2012 00:00 UTC

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=04&day=13&year=2012&hour=0&min=0&sec=0&p1=0

Challenge Ends: Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 23:59 UTC

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=04&day=24&year=2012&hour=23&min=59&sec=0&p1=0

Voting Begins: Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 00:00 UTC

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=04&day=25&year=2012&hour=0&min=0&sec=0&p1=0

Voting Ends: Thursday, April 26th, 2012 23:59 UTC

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=04&day=26&year=2012&hour=23&min=59&sec=0&p1=0

Voting will take place here: http://www.liteserv.com/cicvotebooth

If you are new and do not know the user id and password, please send an email to passes(--at--)imageattic.net Please replace(--at--) with @ in the email address before you send it out. One of the challenge administrators will contact you with that information, but please be patient. Challenge FAQ can be found here http://www.pbase.com/cichallenge/faq

Thanks.

(Posted by Charlie Beck on behalf of kyagudin, the winner of Challenge 64.)

--
http://www.pbase.com/cbeck

One does not achieve success by being at the right place at the right time, but rather by being ready when the right place and time present themselves for your inspection.

Do you guys know much about doing long exposure photos? I really want to try this, but it seems like it's not the best thing to do with the camera. Is it damaging at all?

Thanks

...I have done like 90 second shots for star trails....and yes, the camera gets warm from sensor heat I suppose.

Longer than this, I don't know.

Best wishes, Traveller

Traveller

Well I stumbled across 2 photographers, mathewpillsbury.com and chrisbeckerphoto.com. Anyways the people in their shots are fading in that they are almost transparent. I am guessing they used a long exposure to achieve this judging by the blown out lights in the images. So I am unsure of how long, but if anyone has any ideas that would be great.

first 5 winners announced in "stones" challenge (eligible and exhibition)
--
Shu

One thing I will tell you is that if you go too long you start picking up hot pixels.

Here's an example I just did in my very dark office at F11 30 seconds and iso 100. I lit my face with a very small led flashlight and moved around every 7 seconds or so. If you look close you will see some hot pix because my camera suffers from it. DPP took out most of them during the raw conversion but there are still a few here.

I've shot many exposures up to or over 120sec. Shot mostly during very bright afternoon hours. Didn't break the camera. Don't worry about that.

I didn't get a chance to check those links. But I will. Just need to rush to sleep. I'll just quickly say that you need to look into ND Filters and you will need to block any light from entering the viewfinder. Sounds silly but it's important. I use a ND110 B+W. Get the biggest sized filter you can afford or need (and small step up rings for the smaller lenses). Because these filters get really expensive and that way it's one size fits all.

I'll write back again tomorrow afternoon with more details.

Dear friends, thank you very much for your help to setup the galleries. My last two weeks were quite stressful - first week I spend in Bangalore (India), visiting my team, and then flew to China, to meet my another team (it took almost 22 hours from leaving a hotel in Bangalore till arriving to a hotel in Hangzhou). But weekend in between was very nice, I spend it in Huang Shan (Yellow mountains), where I shot posted pictures. The last weekend I extended my business trip to do some private trips around the area and visited some nice ancient Chinese water towns . Unfortunately, WiFi was not so good I was not able to setup new galleries - thanks a lot for your help !

And nice to see nice pictures already posted. Please keep going!

Now I'm sitting in the lounge Shanghai airport, waiting for my flight back to Singapore, If I have enough time, will post something from my last "photo-hunting"

K

I've got three in "Pending".

If you're not familiar
with the title of this
message:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthago_delenda_est

Quote: A use of this phrase "is to affirm the correctness of one's opinion about a necessary course of action by adding either at the beginning or the end of a statement the two words "Ceterum censeo". It bears some (self)irony indicating that the action has been proposed since ancient time, is still valid and has not yet been acted upon."

--
db.

Daniel,

could you please move your great pictures to the exhibition? (Without Ceterum Censeo ..)
K

No, K, I can't. Because I'm not
prepared to resize them; and,
OTOH, if I entered my images
as they are into Exhibition
without an official rule-change,
that would not be fair to all the
other contenders/challengers
who "play by the rules"; the
playing field would no more
be "level".

I do, though, appreciate your
above post very much, indeed.
I'm —seriously!— proud of the
implicit compliment. And even
if I may seem somwhat stub-
born, I'd be enormously pleas-
ed if—as your words seem to
indicate—my "stubbornness"
would lead to an open discus-
sion by the group taking my
suggestion at least into con-
sideration.

In this sense, K: please do ac-
cept my sincere thanks for and
appreciation of your post!

--
db.

After reading your post, K,
I have, though, entered oth-
er pictures (with less detail
and, therefore, less prone
to being degraded by a low-
er resolution) into Exhibition...

--
db.

P base is running on limited space.......I know pictures looks better larger, but the fact that you are still disrespecting p base is an issue, pending or not your being stubborn is taking up someone else's space, so if you can't follow the rules, just don't enter anything. Everyone else is cooperating, so I'm not sure why there is any problem?

Dearest Daniel:

Seriously, this is a problem only because you are married to your current workflow...there are solutions.

See Daniel 3 in Pending:

Not Save for Web...Save as...Quality 6 from photoshop. Also reduced the size to 500x750

(yes, I hate going down to a quality 6, so....See Daniel 4b in Pending)

In photoshop, save as a quality 8...size remains 600x800...but, added sharpen even less in ThumbsPlus and re-saved at 72%.

Daniel, this is what I usually with my images....after a radical downsize from photoshop, I re-sharpen a little in Thumbs because it gives me a chance to save again...at the size I need.

Both of these version display just as well as your very large file in Pending.

I know change is hard and we become comfortable with how we do things...but new or different methods can be good too>

I know how sensitive you are about anyone touching your images...I think you've been unhappy with me on this some 4 years ago or so....but I must try to....show you a different direction.

Your large file really isn't acceptable in Pending either.

Try something new...

Seriously, your friend, really, Traveller

Hi, Sierra:

I am glad someone takes up
my gauntlet; and even more
so if it is someone young (I
think it's your case?) and—
relatively—new here.

Let me start with a strong dis-
agreement. I do take offense
by your implying I don't follow
the rules. I do follow them
—and always have!— strictly
(that's why I entered my pic-
tures today in "Pending" and
then refused to move them
to "Exhibition").

But I do not agree with the
rules concerning the weight
of our images. And I dare
saying that again and again,
hoping that someday we will
discuss the subject (maybe
not exactly in the tone you
used in part of your answer
to my plea). That discussion
has, though, not yet really
taken place.

You, Sierra, may not be a-
ware of the fact that I've
been a member of this
group for probably a dec-
ade or so (I'm not sure of
the exact year of my join-
ing); and I have also been
a member/client of pbase
for myself since 2001. I
think I may consider my-
self to be someone who
is not competely ignorant
on the subject.

My argument is that then,
in the practically prehistory
of digital photography as a
popular hobby, the limit of
at the time 150kb was per-
fectly OK. But meanwhile
our sensors have grown
enormously and can capt-
ure much more detail; and,
therefore the actual limit
of 200kb is no longer, IMO,
adequate.

If I have to degrade an
image I love, in order to
enter it in a challenge, so
much that I do not like it
anymore myself (because
I see it in my own galler-
ies with so much detail
as was not even available
from our cameras when
that limit was introduced ),
then —again: that's my
personal opininon—that
same limit is no longer
"up to date" . That feel-
ing (and nothing else!),
is the reason behind
my "stubbornness".

Furthermore: As a client
myself of pbase, I can not
accept that often heard say-
ing we'd be ungrateful to
pbase if we used more of
their space or—as in your
absurd misunderstanding—
we would take up some-
one else's space if we
used more bandwidth of
pbase's. Accusing me of
"disrespecting pbase", is,
dear Sierra, ridiculous, to
say the least!

1) I'm convinced cic is just
a tiny little fraction of all the
pictures on the server(s) of
pbase. 2) Even if we had no
size limit in place, we'd still
not use more space than
we did when there were
many more "Challengers"
around here. And, last but
not least 3) there can not
be any doubt about our cic-
webpage being quite a good
and free publicity for pbase.
Are these convictions of mine
right or wrong? We might
want to ask our friends run-
ning pbase: There were
some of us (still are?) who
do know them personally...

Now, Sierra: my thanks
for your having taken up
my gauntlet are sincere.
So is, I do not deny it,
my slight irritation about
your, IMO, somewhat ar-
rogant ironic tone in part
of your wording (and I
hope my, therefore, little
anger did not carry me
too far away in this long
answer). Now, with my
argumentation on the
table, I hope we —all
of us at cic—can start
discussing the matter
seriously ... and also
respectfully, politely
and friendly.

Thanks to all of you who
read until the end, for
your patience! ;-))

sierraphotography said:

P base is running on limited space.......I know pictures looks better larger, but the fact that you are still disrespecting p base is an issue, pending or not your being stubborn is taking up someone else's space, so if you can't follow the rules, just don't enter anything. Everyone else is cooperating, so I'm not sure why there is any problem?

Click to expand...

--
db.

"db:
I do take offense
by your implying I don't follow
the rules. I do follow them
—and always have!—strictly
(that's why I entered my pic-
tures today in "Pending" and
then refused to move them
to "Exhibition")."

hahaha! Thanks for the laughs. You can keep your gauntlet, I don't need it, as I don't have control issues. I too wish we didn't have to resize our images so small, but I really enjoy participating in the cic challenges, so I will not abuse a good thing. If you personally know everyone in charge of p base and have been around for such a long time, I'm sure you'd be the first to know if they ever decided to toss out the size rule. So in the meantime lets all get along and not go on strike, because I don't think any of our points will be heard that way.

The reason for 200k, the way I understand it, is because Pbase does not charge us (CIC) for using their service. Further I don't think the

The way I see it is my photography isn't that great, nor do I want to win bad enough that I give the 200k limit any concern.

There's my 2 cents.

Traveller said:

Dearest Daniel:

Click to expand...

Dearest Trav:

Traveller said:

Seriously, this is a problem only because you are married to your current workflow...there are solutions.

See Daniel 3 in Pending:

Not Save for Web...Save as...Quality 6 from photoshop. Also reduced the size to 500x750

Click to expand...

I never "Save For Web". I
always use the "normal"
"Save As" procedure in
PhotoShop.

"Quality 6" I do find
normally unaccepta-
ble. Generally, "Qual-
ity 8" is the lowest
setting before you
can see degradation,
IMO.

Traveller said:

In photoshop, save as a quality 8...size remains 600x800...but, added sharpen even less in ThumbsPlus and re-saved at 72%.

Daniel, this is what I usually with my images....after a radical downsize from photoshop, I re-sharpen a little in Thumbs because it gives me a chance to save again...at the size I need.

Click to expand...

I am not familiar with
ThumbsPlus. But, then,
OTOH, my quest/plea
is not "How can I get
around that limit with
additional work?" but
why maintain a limit
no longer up to date?

Traveller said:

Both of these version display just as well as your very large file in Pending.

Click to expand...

I partly agree: they dis-
play surprinsingly well,
but I doubt they do so
"just as well". It is true
that one knows one's
own pictures too well
to oversee any degra-
dation others may not
see (because, to begin
with, they don't know
your original file...).

Traveller said:

I know change is hard and we become comfortable with how we do things...but > new or different methods can be good too>

Click to expand...

Again: my quest is not
for "How to get around
a no longer adequate
limit", but why main-
tain such a restriction?"

Please read my answer
to Sierra (a most charm-
ing young lady, BTW):

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=41239227

Traveller said:

I know how sensitive you are about anyone touching your images...I think you've been unhappy with me on this some 4 years ago or so....but I must try to....show you a different direction.

Your large file really isn't acceptable in Pending either.

Click to expand...

I think it is, Trav: what's
in Pending will be delet-
ed once a Challenge will
be over and, therefore,
not use any server
space at all any
more.

Traveller said:

Try something new...

Seriously, your friend, really, Traveller

Click to expand...

What a pleasure talking
to a civiized person as
you are, Traveller!

Take, please, my very
best wishes for you,
my friend!

--
db.

I beg to differ, I think that your a great photographer, as the rest in the challenges, everyone is just confident with what they do, so it doesn't really bother anyone to see something degraded slightly. I can still tell a good photo from a bad one either way.