Photo Contest...

[akrus]

There's a number of us on TGN that have started a photography contest amongst ourselves (about a month ago). A theme was chosen and we have taking pictures and posting them to a website. What we need are some judges that could rate the pictures posted and reply with their results. The results will be tallied and a winner will be determined. Pictures are posted annonymously.

Details will be sent to prospective judges and it shouldn't really take too long to complete. There is a limit of 3 photos per photographer and there are only 4 photographers. Midnight, tonight, is the cutoff for posting pictures so the judging would begin tomorrow and last until Feb 5 11:59:59pm (posted time on email).

If you're interested in helping out, please PM me and I will send you details.

Thanks.

[akrus]

Thanks to those that have responded, I'll be sending out details today so the judging can begin.

There's still plenty of time if anyone else would like to provide a couple of minutes to judging.

[racmbs]

Thanks to those that have responded, I'll be sending out details today so the judging can begin.

There's still plenty of time if anyone else would like to provide a couple of minutes to judging.

Hey Al...send me the info, I'll be happy to help judge the photo's.

[akrus]

Hey Al...send me the info, I'll be happy to help judge the photo's.

You got it... thanks, bro!

Vote correctly and I'll see to it that Rob and I don't humiliate ya when we come after the TGN belt! :D

[mikep]

How about for the rest of us, can we see the photos anyway? A, just curious; B, I have a passing interest in photography, and I am sure others have.

[akrus]

Once the judging is done, I'll post up the details. The judging doesn't take long, you're more than welcome to take part in it.

My only concern with releasing the site on everyone, would be potential discussion amongst people that may sway votes. This way, even the judges are annonymous from one another and the voting is completely unbiased.

Maybe the next contest I'll try another format, but this one seems to be working quite well.

[mikep]

ok... I'm game... send me the info...

[akrus]

This is going really well and I'm thankful to all those that have been judging - the results so far have been quite interesting - and polarizing in some cases!

As I've mentioned, judging is open until the end of Feb 5, so there's lots of time for anyone that wants to judge, however, I'm heading out now to do the SuperBowl thing and won't be in much condition to operate a computer soon :D So, if you PM, be patient as I won't be able to get back to you until tomorrow.

Thanks.

[akrus]

Thanks to the judges, we have our winner. Heather (dks_34) won. As you can see, by the judge's responses below, the voting was all over the place, so it was a great deal of fun to watch.

We would like to thank all the judges for taking the time and hope we can have your participation again, in the near future.

ORIGINAL REQUIREMENTS FOR JUDGING
Here are the requirements I sent out to all the judges:

Thanks again for helping out here. As I mentioned in the thread, 4 of us have started a photo group that concentrates on one topic for a month and at the end of the month, the photos get judged. December's theme was "Christmas" and only one of us submitted pictures in time, so it was pretty easy to declare a winner. This month, we have more involvement and your help will be very much appreciated.

Here are the details:

- This month's contest centered on "Perspective":
---- "When the principles of perspective are skillfully applied, the photographs produced show a good rendition of the subject's form and shape, and the viewer is given the sensation of volume, space, depth and distance."

- the pictures can be found at:
---- http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhca/se...385603/detail/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhca/sets/72157594508385603/detail/)

- to judge:
---- you will note that each picture has a letter associated with it (from a to g). Keeping in mind the contest's theme of Perspective, rate each picture from 1 to 7 with 1 being your favourite and 7 being your least favoured. Your reply to me should look something like this:

a - 4
b - 3
c - 7
d - 1
e - 5
f - 6
g - 2

When all judges have replied, I will tally the results and the picture with the lowest overall score will be deemed the winner.

As a reminder, the cutoff for the judging is Feb 5 11:59:59 pm, please keep this in mind.

Again, we really appreciate your help with this. Along with your judging results, could you indicate whether you would mind the next contest as well (date and theme yet to be determined).

Thanks.

JUDGE 1

here goes - iadded some comments in case you or others are interested.

a-4 - ok - 3rd building clutters it a bit.
b-2 - again, original - nice job of keeping it in focus
c-1 - very original - nice angle, interesting subject
d-6 - simple, clear - building uninteresting
e-5 - again, a little cluttered.
f-7 - dark, unclear - not good at all.
g-3 - good angle - nice contrast of colours - very sharp

JUDGE 2

Hey Albert,

Great pictures. Here are my choices:

A - 2
B - 4
C - 3
D - 5
E - 7
F - 1
G - 6

I would also be happy to help you in the future.

JUDGE 3

Good afternoon Albert........I must admit I found this exercise quite interesting!

Perhaps a little perspective may be in order. Although I am by no means an expert I do fancy myself as a bit of a "shutterbug". It has been some time since I last took an interest to the level that you and your friends currently are, but there was a time when I did view the art of photography as just that......an art.

I will also admit that I did a little homework to refresh my memory on the technique your group is currently exploring. Although I did remember some about this technique the details could be best described as way back in my brain.

On to my opinion……….and let me state that is all it is. I hope no one is offended by the words to follow because that is certainly not my intention. I will limit my thoughts as much as possible but I do feel inclined to offer some form of explanation as to why I chose one photo quite easily over all others in this particular grouping.

My “Order of Merit” : a)2 b)3 c)6 d)5 e)7 f)1 g)4

As you all know there are various tools available to the photographer to apply perspective and make an attempt to bring a flat/two dimensional photo alive and give it a more life like three dimensional perspective as would be seen by the human eye.

The most commonly used technique seems to be linear perspective and all of the submissions made an attempt to use this technique with varying degrees of success. This particular technique is normally broken down into four main sub categories, convergence, diminishing size, foreshortening and texture gradient.

All submissions use some or all of these four linear perspective tools in various ways including varying the cameras distance from the subject. It is not unexpected that linear perspective would be a common technique of choice.

Another technique that is commonly used to create perspective is focus……or depth of field. Four of the photos chose this vehicle in an effort to add perspective.

Now to discuss the things that in my opinion made photo f) stand out amongst this grouping. Less common techniques used to offer perspective were used in the park bench scene that made the difference in my mind. This photographer made particularly good use of shadowing to present depth. The tree branch shadows falling on the snow covered ground ……..moving away from the camera provided wonderful perspective.

Colour is so often under used. In the park bench scene the yellows and the oranges in the back ground are very effective. Warm colours tend to attract the eye and therefore offer tremendous depth in this particular photo.

In conclusion I would like to say that the reason this one photo stood out (in my opinion) was due to its use of many techniques under the umbrella of perspective. I can see all four of the main types of linear perspective being applied. In addition the photographer used focus, colour and shadowing to further add perspective. Is this the best photo? I will not offer an opinion on that. Is this the photograph that best met the criteria of your “contest”? In my opinion ………no doubt.

I hope this is somewhat along the lines of what you were hoping for when you tendered for opinions. If in fact it was and you would like me to involved in the future I will do my best……..as I tried to do this time.




JUDGE 4

a - 2
b - 7
c - 6
d - 4
e - 5
f - 1
g -3

JUDGE 5

Here are my pics....now, keep in mind I'm certainly not in the same league as you guys when it comes to photography, but I wanted you to know that I picked the photo's based on how they made me feel from the moment I looked at them. I can provide explanations in more detail if you need it, but without further ado, here they are:

a - 1
b - 4
c - 5
d - 3
e - 7
f -6
g - 2

TOTALS

a - 4 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 2 = 11 - photog: dks_34
b - 2 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 7 = 20 - photog: dks_34
c - 1 + 6 + 5 + 3 + 6 = 21 - photog: Carlton
d - 6 + 5 + 3 + 5 + 4 = 23 - photog: dks_34
e - 5 + 7 + 7 + 7 + 5 = 31 - photog: akrus
f - 7 + 1 + 6 + 1 + 1 = 16 - photog: akrus
g - 3 + 4 + 2 + 6 + 3 = 18 - photog: akrus

Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for helping out. It added greatly to a hobby that's getting more and more interesting.

[dreaded3putt]

Thanks for posting the results Albert. I was curious to see the opinions and I found the tally quite interesting.

[dks_34]

I would just like to add my thanks to everyone who took the time to vote. And we do appreciate the comments - whether good or bad - in the end it will only make us better photographers.

As Albert said it was very interesting to see how people rated their favs - some really like a particular photograph while others didn't.

I hope to see more judges out there - and comment away - we don't cry - Much! LOL

Thanks again!

[Carlton]

Great stuff guys! Thanks to the volunteer judges. dks_34 is going for a hattrick!

[AnnikaFan]

cool!

put me down as one of the judges next time!!

for perspective...i personally like the snow on fence and the phrase on wall ones....not big on the building ones because i think its kinda overdone..

and the park benches...didn't appeal me at first, but after reading one of the judge's comment..i appreciated more..

[akrus]

cool!

put me down as one of the judges next time!!

for perspective...i personally like the snow on fence and the phrase on wall ones....not big on the building ones because i think its kinda overdone..

and the park benches...didn't appeal me at first, but after reading one of the judge's comment..i appreciated more..

Will be sure to include you AF. We've got the topic for this month's contest and March 3 is the deadline for submissions, so you'll be contacted around then.

Thanks for offering your help.

[Kace]

I'm curious as to what equipment everyone is using.

I too am an amatuer photographer. I was shooting for automotive websites for the past couple of years. Mainly drag racing, auto shows, models, etc...

I'm a Canon lover. :hush:

[akrus]

Carlton is a Canon freak, but we're working on him...

The rest of us are nikon users. Focal and myself have D50s and dks_34 has a D70s.

There's a wide variety of lenses amongst the group. Personally, I have the following:

24-120 Nikon VR;
50 Nikkor manual;
70-300 Sigma;

I'm expecting my 18-200 Nikon VR this weekend :D. Should make for some great Myrtle pics.

[Kace]

Not Nikon...:help: :D


I have a Canon 20D...all my lenses are Canon also.

[Rocknronny]

Not Nikon...:help: :D


I have a Canon 20D...all my lenses are Canon also.Maybe you could enter next months contest.
RR