Thursday 12th December Straight Out of Camera Comp

[Gill Blower]

Well, here it is at last, the much awaited for 'straight out of camera' competition. Who has been brave enough to enter...

This competition is a test purely of camera skills and should prove to be an interesting evening.

We have many talented photographers at ADAPS and I am sure you have all risen to the occasion.

See you there.

[John]

The response has been overwhelming, so this weekend I'll be resizing the images to pass to Keith for making into a competition.

It's looking very interesting.

[John]

The images are now all resized and put into folders ready for them to be made into a competition.

We have 85 images from 28 photographers. Fantastic! I'm very pleased that Joe's idea has been so popular.

[collier15]

Well it sounds like its going to be a good night by the sounds of it.
But unfortunately i won't be able to make it so could someone post on here or Facebook on how it all goes

Many Thanks

Michael

[John]

I was very impressed by the high quality that came out of this, quite brilliant! Tillman Kleinhans gave a sparkling performance as our judge and I could see that he enjoyed the competition as much as we did.

[John]

The images that scored 18, 19 and 20 are now in the ADAPS Gallery.

[Janice Freeman]

I really enjoyed this night and thought that the images produced were super. A really interesting comp and well done to Joe for suggesting it. Much harder to do than you think! I tried some images but could not get them right so it has set me a challenge, and I will keep trying until I do!! Well done to everyone. My personal favourite Icy Lake.

Janice.

[mikeaspinall]

Have to say that this was one of the most memorable nights at the club for ages. Superb images which some members said, were better than the usual monthly
pictures which HAD been manipulated.
Many thanks to John for his work on the pictures and of course to Keith for the presentation of them.
Top marks all round.

[GERRYG]

I have some questions about Thursday. Firstly, nobody knew who the winner was. Secondly, I've never heard of some half the people that got placed. It would be a good idea if someone from the committee pointed out who these new people are so we can say well done to them. They all must be club members. It was a good night, but if you think that your images are better than the manipulated images why don't you enter them into the monthly competitions.

[BydoR9]

Looks like I missed a good night (couldn't make it I'm afraid). The placed images all look good, particularly like john's and Tony's though.

I was quite sceptical about this competition, but I'm happy to be proved wrong. I personally will never want to shoot in anything but RAW (even jpegs need some contrast/levels adjustment).

At the end of the day I suppose the comp is like any other set comp, it's just basically a brief to work to, you don't have to like, metal, farms, purple etc, they are just the requirements you have to meet to be able to enter. I know this is obvious, but my RAW prejudice kept me from wanting to enter - I will slap myself on the wrists for that short sighted-ness!

Andy.

[John]

Here's a sobering thought on this competition. Some of the images presented were actually shot on mobile phones and I'll bet you couldn't spot which ones they were!

[keith richardson]

Another sobering thought too.
Almost all of the comments that were made about improving the entries showed that they were let down by what would be a simple touch up in Photoshop. It should not be forgotten that Photoshop is not just a tool for creating fantastic composites and effects, it is a touch up tool and in many cases, including my entry, would be used for rescuing or making the most of a grabbed shot that cannot be repeated, and is therefore the only available image that you have to work with.

For instance, I took that photograph of the bench in the sunlight, and looking at the preview screen realised that the highlight, that Tillman pointed out, would be too bright, so, as I was not allowed to repair it in photoshop, I decided to reshoot it, but by this time there were two blokes sat on the bench having their morning break. By the time they had gone the sun had moved and the shot was lost.
But two minutes in Photoshop and you would never have known that there had been a problem.

It was interesting exercise and to be honest the standard was much higher than I think many members expected it to be, so well done everyone for joining in and showing what could be done.

And now for round two, and in the other corner,....... The 'Creative Photoshop' competition.
Date pencilled in ............. March 13th 2014.

Details to follow soon..... watch this space
Keith.

[BydoR9]

Here's a sobering thought on this competition. Some of the images presented were actually shot on mobile phones and I'll bet you couldn't spot which ones they were!

I'll tell you what John, I was planning on posting my idea for the next 'special' competition and then you kind of stole my thunder a little with what you said about some shots being taken on mobiles. Like you say, you can't tell from the shots in the gallery!

Anyway, I was at Salford Quays early this morning, but not for the purpose of photography, so no DSLR! With the recent straight from camera comp in mind I pulled-out the trusty, 'best camera you have is the one with you' mobile phone and did a bit of snapping. This is the best image I took: http://500px.com/photo/54872686 I edited it on my phone in the free Android App, 'Pixlr-o-matic'. I just added a thin white border and an orange filter.

So, this is somewhere between a straight out of camera and a quick, Photoshop-like tweak. I, like Keith, still believe that even the best straight out of camera Jpeg needs some minor adjustment to be considered finished.

My Idea then is for a 'special' comp night for images taken exclusively on mobile phone cameras and processed only in a phone App (or straight out of the phone camera if preferred).

I think this would be a great comp as there are so may Apps out there, most of them free, on IOS, Android and Windows phone. It would give people loads of creative freedom and they would always have their camera on them too. A judge would be aware of the criteria and wouldn't therefore be too picky about shots not being completely straight or lens distortions etc.

Any takers for this?

[John]

We've had compact camera competitions in the past and a mobile phone one is entirely possible. We'll chat about it at a committee meeting and see what form all these things might take.

For example, there's nothing to stop the winner of a forum competition setting a mobile competition as their choice. At the other end of the scale it could be a set subject at the club.

[Paul Jones]

I personally will never want to shoot in anything but RAW (even jpegs need some contrast/levels adjustment).

I think this was an excellent idea for a competition, and it was great to see some new names getting mentioned among the winners.

Personally, I'm with Andy. I'm a RAW shooter and can't see me changing. Being a bit contentious here, I think every digital image can be improved with some basic adjustments in an image editing program. I know it's not the case here, but one of my pet peeves is the people who bang on about how they 'like to get it right in camera' and look down on Photoshop users as though it's cheating.

My Idea then is for a 'special' comp night for images taken exclusively on mobile phone cameras...

Ha, I had that idea ages ago, Andy.
See - viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2899#p15957


On another matter of images taken on a mobile, I posted a while ago of images captured on an IPhone used on the front page of the New York Times.
See - viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2679