DA Photo Contest Forum / Photography / Photography Discussion

Voting

Tonka — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:24:41 GMT

Hey everyone...

Gotta question for you all..

I want to improve my voting.
Does anyone have any time or the gumption to maybe teach by way of giving out lessons..

Just an idea I had in my head..like take one element at a time..post links or have us search for info ourselves....then post a pic which shows the flaws, or not, and see if we can pick out certain flaws or merits?

or just post pics with known issues and then do a thorough search and critique highlighting both what we think are good and bad points..

but it was just an idea...assignments.

:)

Faux Architecture

Stormhaven — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:42:17 GMT

I see so many of these that it's beginning to itch me. I must scratch. We have a lot of architecture shots that take a pretty nice building and turn it at an angle to make something special???? out of it. IMO, a true architecture photo ought to stand on the merits of straight-up photography, good composition, technically excellent detail, AND an architecturally unique or attractive building. IMO, far too many of the photos in this category are getting points for rotating the pic. I wonder if I rotated a child, animal, landscape or whatever, I would get more credit? I wish one of you would experiment on your best shots, and let me know.

Adobe Photoshop Online

Admin — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:55:08 GMT

If you haven't seen it yet, Adobe is taking a light version of Photoshop online.

[url=https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html]https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html[/url]

OOFs at full size

Stormhaven — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:55:51 GMT

Would like to hear your opinion. What is a fair score for a photograph that is OOF and/or noisy as seen at full size? It seems as though a lot of people are submitting shots larger than the 640x resize, and then when viewed at full size the photo quality deteriorates. This doesn't even take into consideration the "quick comment" problems that are apparent. So, what do you think? I should say that there are some pics that stay sharp no matter what.

Water

Tonka — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:13:11 GMT

Would anyone mind educating me on water pics?

specifically of the water drop kind?

I know they have a degree of difficulty but what are some things to note while viewing and voting on these?
Anyone have any samples of awesome water drop accomplishments?

I saw a few today whilst voting, I felt I needed to get some advice and some knowledge about this obviously challenging subject.

Thank you !!

I need advise on shooting bands in a bar.

SkyBlueRose — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:14:03 GMT

Does anyone have tips for shooting a band in a bar? I have a Nikon D300, 85mm 1.8 Nikkor lens and 18- 200mm VR Zoom Nikkor lens.

MASTERs Week

wemor — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:46:28 GMT

It's Masters week (GOLF!) and I found an interesting blog from the photo team of the Augusta Chronicle posting about some of the photo activities involved in covering this Major Event. A fun read...

Chronicles of a Photo Staff

Videography

bhasmang — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:25:03 GMT

Hi, this is actually related to videography, and not to photography. About 8 years back my parents went to far east on a holiday, and they took my camcorder with them, but when they return we found out that everything they had shot was captured in "negative mode". I checked up then with a few people if they can convert that into the colour mode, but the answer was no. After all these years I wonder if there is any software developed that can do it for me. Has anyone any idea on this, if yes please let me know.

Image quality

PictureThis — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:27:46 GMT

I'm still very new to this world of photography so please forgive my ignorance...But on my camera menu under "image quality" there is a list.

NEF (RAW)

JPEG fine

JPEG normal

JPEG basic

NEF (RAW)+JPEG fine

NEF (RAW)+JPEG normal

NEF (RAW)+JPEG basic

I've been shooting in jpeg normal most of the time and switch to jpeg fine sometimes but I really don't know why or what it does other than make a bigger file.

I guess my question is what do I want to use and when?

I know the answer could be quite complicating so sorry if so but could someone please help me understand it a little better.

BTW....I use a Nikon D80 if that makes a difference.

And thank you in advance for your time if I get any answers!

Scratch disks

bhasmang — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:26:37 GMT

Hi I got photoshop elements 6 few days back, and I was trying to create a panorama using that, as I started to do so the error message came up saying 'scratch disks are full, could not complete your request". What should I do? What are these scratch disks? I don't have any clue on this.:ermm:

Editing Program

PictureThis — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:00:34 GMT

Is there anyone that knows anything about the program Capture NX?

Selective Coloring - PS Help please!

Jacky vdM — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:22:08 GMT

I have the concept going, but can't seem to figure this out - in GIMP it was as simple as changing the background and foreground colours when you erased on a colour that you didn't want to show, by switching the fore/background colours you could "erase" areas back to grayscale/black and white.

For some reason this is not working in PS, or am I doing something wrong?

The undo history is nice, but sometimes after I've done a lot of erasing I see a mistake I made quite a few steps back.

Help, I've entered the twilight zone.

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:41:11 GMT

Strange stuff is going on with Photoshop here.

I have an image edited on the screen, looks great, nice delicate colors, good saturation, and good detail. I save as a PSD, then save to web (jpg) but after I've uploaded it to DA it has lost quite a bit of saturation. What!!

Ok, I'm thinking, perhaps it's the way I saved it, I put it in 8bit mode and do a "save as" upload, Same thing.

To trouble shoot I open the .jpg in photoshop... Looks great!

Well perhaps it's DA, I upload to PBase, still bad.

OK now this is weird I'm thinking. "Oh, I know, I'm using a beta of Firefox" so I fire up Explorer. Nope it's not that.

Any clues where to look?

My normal work flow is:
Lightroom as DNG
A ballparking corrections here usually exposure, some tonal work, clarity, saturation.
Photoshop as PSD
Crop
Levels & Curves (often done in lab mode (but not in this case))
Some saturation
Noise Ninja
Nik Viveza (localized color corrections) (BTW try the demo, nice addition)
If any dodge and burn is needed I'd do it here
Sharpen (unsharp masking,smart sharpen, whatever fits)
Save as PSD
Resize
Save for web (Normally Bicubic but on occasion Bicubic Sharpen)
Post to site

Anyone have suggestions?

Lenses and high motion photos

lil_nitelite — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:24:16 GMT

Have a quick question. I am looking to buy a new lens and am unsure of what to get. Im looking for something that will take fast moving photos further away (2-300mm zoom) such as birds or other animals at a medium to high rate of speed. I have found with the lenses I have that they come out more blurred than I wish them to. I have a Nikon D80. I find nearly every time I take a longer shot it comes out out of focus. I dont know if this is me, my camera or the lens. Me I cant fix but the lens and camera I can. Any advice would be great. Thanks!

Post-Processing A Duplicate Layer

Stormhaven — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:43:04 GMT

Is experimental PPing a duplicate layer non-destructive?

Horizon level

bhasmang — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 13:04:07 GMT

Is there any software available on the net where you can check whether the horizon level of your photograph is alright or not? And also please let me know that how can I change the background of a photograph, I mean which software to be used? Does picasa has that feature? It may sound strange but believe me I am not a big fan of post processing so don't know much about it.

Critiqueing Magazine Photos

Stormhaven — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 12:39:31 GMT

IMO, DA has some of the world's best photographers. Since my intro to digital photography, I've become more interested in the shots found in any magazine, and frankly, I believe that many of their photos would fail to make the grade at DA. I receive a number of magazines of different types, and I frequently ask myself, "How would this do at Daily Awards?" For instance, take a look at the April/o8 Popular Photography pages 24 (tarantula), 47, and 50. I just can't imagine these shots earning Daily, Monthly or Annual awards here. I'll stack my DA "heroes" up against some of the most reknowned photographers anywhere.

Just info (George Eastman)

Tonka — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:40:26 GMT

I just thought this might be good reading for some :D..

it is some info on George Eastman ..

also on the home page of PBS there is a photography link, they also have info on Ansel Adams as well as many other artists in case anyone is interested.

This is a public television station...They have wonderful programming of all sorts and I enjoy many broadcasts by them..

So...
Enjoy :)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eastman/

I hope the link works, let me know.

Baggage Ban on Batteries Begins

hahn23 — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 15:18:23 GMT

[url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h74l-BiD30YO0rsScUm-HdpKRTuAD8TQK0CO0][color="crimson"][size="2"]Baggage Ban on Batteries Begins[/size][/color][/url]

[img]http://www.shop4tech.com/photos/item-2265-2-250.jpg[/img][img]http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/imageview.php?image=1009[/img]
[img]http://www.evonetworks.com/website_g4/company/blog/images/battery.jpg[/img]

[color="navy"]Just read the article linked above.... Might be helpful for others to understand the new TSA rules, too. It will definitely affect my travel organization. I usually carry my camera, my laptop and my cell phone when I travel... plus another set of batteries for everything. While it seems like lithium batteries installed in the devices will be allowed. The rules seem to limit extra batteries to two per passenger. And, they must be carried with battery terminals covered.

So far, the new TSA regs do not seem to include NiMH rechargeable batteries, which I use in my flash devices and headlamp.

I'll be flying cross country in February. Has anyone encountered these new rules, yet? I think the implementation is 1/1/2008[/color].

Oversharpening..

arhodes — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 06:17:32 GMT

I have been forced to rank images lower due to this many times now, and I am a newbie so I am sure it has been a trend. So many great images ruined by the serious pixelation resulting from sharpening.

Ok, maybe the focus is slightly off, but you are much better leaving it slightly soft than oversharpening it. Sharpening is not a substitute for good focus!

So just consider this a post processing warning-- Don't overdo it :)

Dew, frost and the lot

Tonka — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 08:38:50 GMT

Okay you guys/gals

I am gettin ever so frustrated..

About the stupid white pixels...
I want to capture the dew, frost and water many times on flowers or leaves or whatever..

I go into editing and on one hand, the shine/sparkle from the water is absolutely gorgeous but on the other hand , translated, means white pixels..
I can edit these either by cloning or blurring but it just doesnt convey the lovely sparkle in the early morning hours when subjects look, plainly said, enchanted..

If I use my polarizing filter, I have the blue challenge and it just doesnt look the same, Flash kills the scene entirely(at least when I use it) and so....

Any suggestions for settings or editing techniques or thoughts about the white pixels???????

I sure hope so.
and thanks a big bunch for any comments you might have on this subject.
:D

Photography TV........

Sunnyside Sandy — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:02:21 GMT

Program starting on BBC4 called "The Genius of Photography". (9pm Thursday)

It's been on a few weeks now. Very interesting.

.

Photography & Art.......

Sunnyside Sandy — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:09:30 GMT

I seen some of this guys work in Glasgow a few years ago but he's been all over the world doing this.

As you'll see, he's a very talented guy:

[url=http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm][/url]

http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm

What do you think? Photography and Art complimenting each other?

Has anyone else seen him? Or similar?

.

Pixelmator

hahn23 — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:51:37 GMT

[color="navy"]Those who have MSDOS PCs can stop reading here!

The following only applies to those with Apple Macintosh computers. I have recently switched away from Photoshop to Pixelmator.

[url=http://www.pixelmator.com/]Pixelmator[/url]

The bottleneck in my photo image processing has been the Adobe Photoshop product frustrations. PS Elements is a hog on RAM usage and it's the slowest application I run. Granted, I've been using the somewhat feature-limited Elements, rather than PS CS. Adobe is not upgrading Elements for my Mac/Intel processor. That forces me to consider upgrading to PS CS. Frankly, to me.... it's not worth the big bucks to go in that direction.

Pixelmator is designed for Macs, especially those with high end processing speed and a graphics card (GPU) with a lot of VRAM. The cost is $59. This application fills the gap in my image processing needs. I capture almost all images in RAW format. Most of my image parameter adjustments are performed in Apple's [url=http://www.apple.com/aperture/]Aperture[/url], which I truly love. After Aperture's adjustments have been completed, fine tuning of images and advanced editing will now be performed in Pixelmator.

Finally, Pixelmator was designed to work seamlessly with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, which will be delivered to me on October 26. So, for those who are wondering what I'm doing.... I'm shifting gears[/color].

Photography paper

Tonka — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:49:47 GMT

Okay I didnt know which to put this in but I will put it here..:)...

I chose to do a research paper on digital photography..Anyone have any good sites that will give a good summation on digital photography..nothing in particular just it's evolution , pros and cons etc.....

Thanks ....

I do plan on researching some sites as well but you guys always get such great articles and if you can recommend any I always ask first..:D..

Photography Project - UKathome

Sunnyside Sandy — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:53:07 GMT

Hi

I've just seen a report about this on BBC Breakfast News and thought some of the excellent UK based Photographers would like to know about it and take part.

www.ukathome.co.uk

Here's the Intro from the website:
[b]No Place Like Your Home? Show Us.
The co-creator of the best-selling A Day in the Life and America 24/7 book series invites you to participate in UK at Home, a nationwide photo project, 24 to 30 September, 2007. For seven days, everyone in the UK is invited to join 50 of the nation's leading photojournalists to capture "the emotions of home." The goal of the project is to capture the extraordinary diversity that makes up daily family life, representing a broad range of economic, geographic, racial, political, and socially diverse lifestyles.[/b]

Did anyone take part in the US version?

Left or right handed snails

Rocket — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:20:38 GMT

My inquisitive mind is working overtime again.

Has anyone else noticed that all snails are all right handed. (That I can find anyway)

(I know they do not have hands) I was in the garden and noticed that the spirals were all on the right side.

I thought Glynn's snail pic was left handed and counted 15 snails in my garden (all right handed) Came back to PC to check and found Glynn's was also right handed.

Can anyone show me an unedited or unflipped pic of a left handed snail.

Do they exist or is this one of those northern hemisphere / southern hemisphere things?

I searched the web and all images were right handed spirals. Is this just coincidence?

National Geographic!!!!! Way to go Glynn!!!

Daniel — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:00:55 GMT

Glynn way to go!!!
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/yourshot/daily-dozen/august.html

Daniel

Lunar Eclipse Results

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 03:35:09 GMT

Clearly my camera was not up to the task. It always has been pretty bad in low light. I haven't gone through all of them but at first glance this appears to be the best.

[img]http://www.pbase.com/chrisbnp/image/84628776.jpg[/img]

What Are The Best Magazines?

Stormhaven — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 08:26:15 GMT

I have Christmas subscriptions for Popular Photography and Outdoor Photography. I enjoy them both. Are there any other mags that you guys would recommend??

Megapixel Sharpness

Stormhaven — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 08:52:31 GMT

My 6mp Canon is sharper than my 5mp Kodak was. Can you expect a stepup in sharpness and clarity when you increase the mps??

Also, is a 6mp DSLR sharper than a 6pm prosumer camera?

Flower assignment

Tonka — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 05:32:16 GMT

I just thought I would try...dont get mad at me...;)..

I was wondering...would anyone be willing to post some links or examples here of what , in their opinion, is a KNOCKOUT flower piccie..?...

Just a few examples from some or all of you?..

I ask because ,,well am I stuck in a rut?, am I doin fine? what does everyone look for in a flower pic that would make it a ten

Do flower pics hardly ever garner a 9, let alone a 10 and if so,,why? I really truly want to know by example what a perfect flower photo is so that I can accomplish that..or close to it..:D...

I only ask because I do not troll around to see what flower pics are gettin those 8,9 and 10's...

I know there are a few that are on the top 100 that are amazing but even those do not get straight 9 or 10s..

So just wanted to talk about "Flower Voting Theory"

Can we?..

all in an effort to learn and improve. :cool: thanks for humoring me as always...lol...jk..

Flowers

Tonka — Wed, 23 May 2007 04:45:41 GMT

Okay all, I am hoping as always, to get many responses to this thread...:)

I was wondering if we could discuss Flowers!

I would like to improve my skills in this department as well as talk about what voters find favorable when viewing flower pics..

Can you all give your opinion , including and especially those who don't usually shoot them or care for voting that category?.

One main issue I would like to discuss is the "Flower with black background" image.

I would like to start by saying that, while these are very pleasing many times, I have always tried to bring more attention to the flower using it's natural bkrnd and foliage/other blooms as I find that a more pleasing flower image..and wanted to know the general consensus about black vs. natural..

Also I was hoping to share techniques/advice and knowledge in this area ..

Myself, well one thing I have found as I have said before is...each color behaves differently, each color/shape requires special attention and one of the best things I can advise is trying light throughout the whole day to bring out each bloom's best.

I hope many will care to contribute from the shooting aspect as well as the viewing aspect on the beautiful blessing of blooms!

Thank you in advance for your contribution to this thread..:D :cool:

P.S. and also feel free to criticize my work as well or use it as an example...I do not mind to have a constructive conversation and to consider everyone's opinions/thoughts and advice. of course I wouldnt want to cheat so only archived images if you would like to point anything out ;)

Anyone willing to give TIPS on photographing flowers / macro ?

Jacky vdM — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 05:10:04 GMT

Guys, I think this category (flowers & macro) is what I would like to develop in. Firstly, I do not have a wonderful camera, so I don't think I can expect too much in terms of taking macro shots, (Yes, I realize, the camera does not make the photographer, but I believe that a 12 x zoom and a real macro lens can make a difference. Not the 3 x zoom camera I'm using!

Just a piece of useless, but sad, info : Last year I bought myself a Samsung Digimax A40 (4mp / 4 x optical zoom) (at that stage I did not know anything about Digital cameras). A little later we were at an auction and bought a Telefunken Camera at a good price, the auctioneer told us that this is a much better camera than the Samsung which has already been auctioned. So we bought it - 5mp / 8 x Digital zoom (see where I'm going).

At that stage I was already kind of used to the Samsung, so I decided not to use the Telefunken. At a stage my parents visited, and knowing that my Dad is also interested in photography, but that he will never purchase a camera, I gave them the telefunken. About 2 weeks ago I ask if we can swop for a while, I just wanted to see what difference the Telefunken will make. And, they haven't used the telefunken at all. I had it in my hands for 2 seconds and knew it was a mistake, but it was too late... my mom was already very excited about the Samsung because of the easy menu options and the auto settings. Too late, I'm stuck with the telefunken for the rest of my life. Luckily a friend of mine was kind enough to let me use her Pentax Optio 33L (3 x zoom) for a while, but then I'll have to return it. I also absolutely stress everytime I use it - what if something happens to it.

Just a little useless life story, use it, don't use it....

I just need some pointers. Please please ............ otherwise I'm gonna vote 2 on all your images (LOL _ JOKE!!!!!!!!!) Please don't report me.

Layer Mode comparisons (PhotoShop)

NiKiMoTo — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:59:04 GMT

I took a flower arrangement shot of mine and
was going to layer it over a shot of a fresco painted wall. There are various layering modes
available in PS and sometimes it is difficult to
figure which is most appealing when comparing
them by looking at them one at a time. So, I
decided to create this file which allows me to
easily compare some of the modes that I
thought were most interesting. There are many
other options and opacity levels than these but these are one which which I thought worth
comparing in this particular case and now that
I've done it I thought I would share it so that
others can see the differences.

Not really looking for critique but opinions about which mode is appealing are welcome.

I wish there was a Photoshop section but since
there isn't I put this here.

To the right of the layer mode (that's what I call them, anyway) is the opacity level I chose.

[img]http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h275/nikimoto/LayerModeComparisons500.jpg[/img]

I'm Voting For 1/2 Point Voting

Stormhaven — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 20:09:39 GMT

I'm ready for a new topic. I don't know about you guys, but there have been MANY times that I wish there was a 6.5, 7.5, 8.5. You know what I mean. This particular photo is "almost," but "not quite." Most of the time I "err" in the positive direction. Regardless of how you feel that a 6.5 would feel better than a 6, I believe that 1/2 point increments would allow us to do a better job of voting.

I know that there has to be a limit to fine-tuning the voting system, but let's set the limit after we fulfill my wishes. OK?

Differences in Monitors

Kyles :) — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 02:36:05 GMT

Hello all:D

Well firstly I'd like to apologise to any that I may have voted slightly lower on a good image. (I'm talking about rating it a 6 or 7 when it should have been higher)... I bought a laptop about 2 months ago.

I've been trying to work out why some photos looked a bit pixellated... Then after I had voted and then saw whose image it was and what it was rated at I was surprised to find I'd voted it a little lower. I've just discovered that my Laptop was set to compress all web graphics...
So I hope I may now vote fairly. It will make my voting a little slower as I am on a rather slow dialup - but I'd rather see the full image so I vote fairly.

So as you all know who you are that I did this to once again I'm very sorry.....

I've also noticed a big difference between the 2 PCs I use to vote on - so guess this could have something to do with it.

Unfair scores

Gesta — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 08:15:38 GMT

Once again I have just received a batch of uncarachteristically low scores. Numerous low votes on a number of high ranking images within the space of an hour or so. Is this just coincidence?

Underrated Photos Revisited

Zeke Smith — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:53:05 GMT

A while back there was a discussion of posting photos for discussion. The consensus was that half of the people thought it was a great idea for any image on the site and the other half thought they should only be archived images. The issue fell through the cracks though as no one ever submitted any images to me for discussion. So...that leaves it up to me. And since I don't vote as much as I should it's not happening all that often that I find one that I think is way underrated. Well, it happened yesterday. The photographer has agreed to have the image discussed and has archived it to satisfy those that think it would be contrary to the "voting privacy act of 2007."

Here it is:

[img]http://www.dailyawards.com/contest_storage/33519.jpg[/img]

Shoot Tight - Crop Tighter

wemor — Fri, 25 May 2007 14:38:48 GMT

Digital photography has brought me back (after a loooong hiatus) to my original photographic interest of Sports/Action photography. After about a year of shooting, I am seeing my ratio of keepers rise a bit. Just like the subject athletes, the sports photographer needs to practice to develop the timing, anticipation and the game understanding necessary to capture peak action.

While no where near some of the talent I have seen at various websites, I have discovered one common thread that runs through almost every piece of Sports Shooting advice. SHOOT TIGHT / CROP TIGHTER.

I found a good example of this in a couple of recent entries I made at Daily Awards. Using images from the same exposure, the tighter cropped version scored a 1/2 point higher rating, gaining 4x more eight votes plus a 9 over its less tight cousin. There are lots of pixels in these 6+MP cameras - use them all!

[img]http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u5/wemor/SSTC.jpg[/img]

View Both Images - [url=http://www.dailyawards.com/image_viewer.aspx?ImageID=71506]Tight Crop[/url] [url=http://www.dailyawards.com/image_viewer.aspx?ImageID=70831]Full Frame[/url] These image are archived.