Challenge #7 - CHAT - Motion

[Mark Schretlen]

Thanks John.

If you've got a moment, I'd really like to hear how you pulled off your entry. I think it is a really first class image.

Mark

Well done Mark, another thoughtful run down of a challenge

JB
5700 - 775 - PSP7
http://www.jbimages.co.uk

--

Mark Schretlen
http://kodachrome.fotki.com/

 

[Mark Schretlen]

Thanks Sid. As I'm sure you are aware, even though you want to do it, sometimes it's not that easy to find the time. Kudos to you, Michael and Doug for tag-teaming so well to bring off these challenges that we all enjoy.

Mark

I'm finding your comments a very enjoyable addition
to these challenges. I hope you continue on with it
in the future. It really is a valuable addition to our
challenge.

Sid

Mark Schretlen
http://kodachrome.fotki.com/

 

[Mark Schretlen]

That's much better. It's a magnificent shot.

Mark

Mark said:
...

9) Paul_Sansom-TakingFlight: Anybody who attempts wildlife pictures
will appeciate the quality of this shot. Majestically frozen in
flight the bird of prey makes a stunning image. For me, the out of
focus branch on the left is really annoying and spoils this
wonderful shot - I would suggest that you clone it out in Photoshop.

Mark Schretlen
http://kodachrome.fotki.com/

--
Paul Sansom
Helena, Alabama
http://www.pbase.com/nomantra

--

Mark Schretlen
http://kodachrome.fotki.com/

 

[John Brain]

If you've got a moment, I'd really like to hear how you pulled off
your entry. I think it is a really first class image.

Ok Mark, here goes. A few days after the 'motion' challenge was posted, I was watching The Lord of the Rings on DVD. Seeing the 'Ring' falling into Frodo's hand sparked the idea, and ruined the rest of the film as I couldn't stop thinking how I could do it lol.

Lighting was a dimmed room light, and the beam of a flashlight passing over, but not fully lighting, my hand. A length of straw coloured cotton was tied to the ring, and during the initial part of the exposure, the ring was lowered through the flashlight beam, into my hand.

It was a hit or miss affair, and took dozens of exposures to get the effect as best as I could. Keeping my hand still during the six second exposure was a big problem , but setting up the 'scene' was greatly helped by plugging the 5700 into the PC via the 'video out', and looking at the 'scene' on the pc monitor before exposure.

Well......the games up for me now... no more votes lol

JB
5700 - 775 - PSP7
http://www.jbimages.co.uk

 

[John Brain]

Kudos to you, Michael and Doug for tag-teaming so well to bring off these challenges that we all enjoy.

Aye to that!

JB
5700 - 775 - PSP7
http://www.jbimages.co.uk

 

[Ginko]

My point was not to disqualify or even hint at that but to make the guide lines more accurate.
Bit touchie petra, maybe you need a vaction in the sun! (joke)

If someone is making guidlines they have a lot to consider including light availablity etc etc etc etc etc.......
geeeez ;-)

Would I then be disqualified 6 months a year because there's a rule
for "no artificial lighting"??

I don't think so!

But the challenge #6 had a rule about using anything but available
light meaning you could use incadecent light, but not a flash- or
studio setup.

Petra

Cheers,
Brent

I should probably be disqualified
for using a flashlight - however, a cheap flash light is hardly a
prohibitively expensive accessory and others could easily adapt.

SPECIAL RULES
The following RULES apply for this challenge:
1. No Artificial Lighting

Brent, I think that was a special rule for the Faces of the World
challenge wasn't it?
It doesn't apply to the Motion challenge. At least that's the way I
read it.

--
Regards Sheila

NCP5

--
Nikon Coolpix 995
http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~bhaydama
http://www.pbase.com/bhaydama

 

[Ginko]

the exact quote I was refering to was
" SPECIAL RULES

The following RULES apply for this challenge:
:
1. No Artificial Lighting "

So maybe now you see that, it did change to allowing your interpretation due to lack of natural light, but MY point is that we should consider these things more when doing guide lines etc.
confusing and you prove my point =)

I would not want to do without your punchie attitude and great pictures!

As far as challenge #6 I had to ask about the "artificial light"
since I live in an area where there's almost no daylight for months
during the winter and all light we have available (and that was
what the challenge said "available light") is incadecent light
through ceiling lamps, desklamps etc.

Would I then be disqualified 6 months a year because there's a rule
for "no artificial lighting"??

I don't think so!

But the challenge #6 had a rule about using anything but available
light meaning you could use incadecent light, but not a flash- or
studio setup.

Petra

 

[pns]

Pns-Oldie: Good example of rotational motion. Good tight crop.
Would have preferred to see more detail/light on the arm.

mark and all other forum members,

is the new version any better, or did i mess it up instead? (i'm including both versions for easy reference)
original



lighter arm



thanx in advance for your input.

cheers,
pns

 

[Mark Schretlen]

pns:

Unfortunately I can't tell for sure (my monitor at work is one of those LCD thingys where I can't tone down the contrast for "normal" photo viewing). That said, it does look better.

When I made my original comment, I was thinking that lightening the arm would add a little more visual/tonal balance to the image. The eye is intially drawn to the motion on the record label (which is good) but the rest of the record is a large dark area. If there are large areas of a similar tone, I would prefer to see some detail to fill it out (this is more of a personal preference, rather than some sort of "law of composition"). I think there's more detail on the arm and on the record, but it may be a little tricky bringing it out and keeping the record dark or "black".

Pns-Oldie: Good example of rotational motion. Good tight crop.
Would have preferred to see more detail/light on the arm.

mark and all other forum members,
is the new version any better, or did i mess it up instead? (i'm
including both versions for easy reference)
original



lighter arm



thanx in advance for your input.

cheers,
pns

--

Mark Schretlen
http://kodachrome.fotki.com/

 

[Midnight2]

Another thanks to Mark for Mega comments, I reiterate PNS's remarks too. I find it valuable to get other perspectives.

As a beginner I often question my own instincts. Mark's observation about the 3 light reflections in my Skater is case in point. The original was a vast area of ice w/skater in bottom right corner. I knew I'd have to crop but I liked the skater in that position in the pic w/reference to the whole. A tighter crop would have eliminated that reference.

I will wait till after voting to discuss and elicit help with the 'processing' techniques I needed to prepare my submission. I'm still not quite sure what's appropriate to discuss before the vote is in.

Soooooo, what's our next assignment?

--
midnight2, CP775, 4500, Portland, Or.

 

[Sid Daley]

Thanks for the kind words, Doug, Michael and I enjoy
serving our paying clients. Oops, forgot were not being
paid. LOL

Sid

--
Yahoo 4500 Community:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Nikon-4500/
Sid's Pics:
http://www.pbase.com/sid_daley/coolpix_4500
The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/
Making Color Images from Prokudin-Gorskii's Negatives:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/making.html

 

[Michael Offe]

Hi Mark and John,
Thanks from me too, your kind words are much appreciated.
I hope this Challenge can continue for many years ahead!

Hey Sid, that thing about paying clients sounds good! Can we rework the script to include them? LOL ;-)

Yours sincerely,
Michael Offe,
South Australia.

Thanks for the kind words, Doug, Michael and I enjoy
serving our paying clients. Oops, forgot were not being
paid. LOL

Sid

--
Yahoo 4500 Community:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Nikon-4500/
Sid's Pics:
http://www.pbase.com/sid_daley/coolpix_4500
The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/
Making Color Images from Prokudin-Gorskii's Negatives:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/making.html

 

[Mark Schretlen]

Here is more of what I had in mind:



The record seems a little too light now. Perhaps color-selcting the record and ramping up the contrast might do it.

Cheers,

Mark

Unfortunately I can't tell for sure (my monitor at work is one of
those LCD thingys where I can't tone down the contrast for "normal"
photo viewing). That said, it does look better.

When I made my original comment, I was thinking that lightening the
arm would add a little more visual/tonal balance to the image. The
eye is intially drawn to the motion on the record label (which is
good) but the rest of the record is a large dark area. If there are
large areas of a similar tone, I would prefer to see some detail to
fill it out (this is more of a personal preference, rather than
some sort of "law of composition"). I think there's more detail on
the arm and on the record, but it may be a little tricky bringing
it out and keeping the record dark or "black".

Pns-Oldie: Good example of rotational motion. Good tight crop.
Would have preferred to see more detail/light on the arm.

mark and all other forum members,
is the new version any better, or did i mess it up instead? (i'm
including both versions for easy reference)
original



lighter arm



thanx in advance for your input.

cheers,
pns

Mark Schretlen
http://kodachrome.fotki.com/

 

[Sid Daley]

Hi Mark and John,
Thanks from me too, your kind words are much appreciated.
I hope this Challenge can continue for many years ahead!

Hey Sid, that thing about paying clients sounds good! Can we
rework the script to include them? LOL ;-)

I got Paypal you got Paypal ??

Lol

Sid

--
Yahoo 4500 Community:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Nikon-4500/
Sid's Pics:
http://www.pbase.com/sid_daley/coolpix_4500
The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/
Making Color Images from Prokudin-Gorskii's Negatives:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/making.html

 

[Ginko]

I cut and pasted this from the challenge.

As I said before, I know we changed this due to the needs of many of the people due to the lack of natural light. Which I feel was the right thing so we could get as many people as possible. All I was trying to convey was that winners could use that example so they could tailor the challenge to include guide lines that will enable everybody to enter.

This was from the original post I did not make it up ya know ;-)
SPECIAL RULES

The following RULES apply for this challenge:
:
1. No Artificial Lighting

The rule regarding artificial light for challenge 6 was
simply stated as "any light was ok as long as it was a
natural light from the enviroment and the main issue
was that light was not moved to create a specific lighting
effect. So in effect it was ok to using incandescent lighting
as long as it wasn't staged for the shot.

Sid

--
Yahoo 4500 Community:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Nikon-4500/
Sid's Pics:
http://www.pbase.com/sid_daley/coolpix_4500
You Are a Suspect:

 

[pns]

mark,

many thanks again for your continued interest in my little image.

you know, after posting i thought i had been stupid. i mean, if everybody did the same, you couldn't possibly have the time to attend to everyone, and so you (and any other prospective critics) would probably be discouraged from making comments on all the entries next time (and the next, and the...). you obviously wanted enough to help to continue this, and i appreciate it, but here's my commitment: if you do it again, as i hope you will, i'll read it carefully and try to learn something, but i won't bother you again with "improvements" to my images.

Here is more of what I had in mind:
http://images.fotki.com/v11/photos/4/42596/145719/oldie2_lighter2-or.jpg

The record seems a little too light now. Perhaps color-selcting the
record and ramping up the contrast might do it.

i think the record is a little too light for my taste, yes. which means i have to try and shoot it again, with better lighting... thanx again!

cheers,
pns

 

[Mark Schretlen]

pns:

Don't worry about it. The nice thing about a forum format is that pretty much everybody can join in and share the time giving opinions. Images are posted to this forum every day and plenty of comments are posted. If you do post an image for feedback, make sure you say something like "all comments/critiques are welcome" or "how could I make this look better?". There are no rules forbidding critiques on challenge entries (in a separate thread) BEFORE thay are submitted to the challenge - take advantage of this loophole, I don't think anybody would mind.

I think any image that is submitted to a challenge has made it past some careful scrutiny (your own) and is worth the attention of the judges. For some strange reason, the feedback isn't the same as it is for a casual image post.

A small tweak here or there can sometimes turn a good image into a great one. Realize that my opinion is only that of one judge and that there were about 65 judges in the last challenge. I'm sure every one of them has their own unique taste as to what they'd like to see and could probably suggest valid tweaks to each image entered.

Anyway, as I said earlier, don't worry about it - I'd much rather have some feedback than none and I like to know that it was a benefit to some. You've done that - THANK YOU.

Cheers,
Mark

mark,

many thanks again for your continued interest in my little image.
you know, after posting i thought i had been stupid. i mean, if
everybody did the same, you couldn't possibly have the time to
attend to everyone, and so you (and any other prospective critics)
would probably be discouraged from making comments on all the
entries next time (and the next, and the...). you obviously wanted
enough to help to continue this, and i appreciate it, but here's my
commitment: if you do it again, as i hope you will, i'll read it
carefully and try to learn something, but i won't bother you again
with "improvements" to my images.

--

Mark Schretlen
http://kodachrome.fotki.com/