06-24-09 – Homeless Images, Free to a Good PS’er

Are we going to have a guide on what’s photoshop friendly again?

Here are my suggestions, which are just one person’s perspective. I’d encourage other PS’ers that are reading this to chime in as well… Also, I’ll post something on the PSAEF forum asking for more feedback. It can’t hurt, eh?

All of these characteristics add to the potential of a source image when I’m searching for something to work with.

– The higher the resolution the better, with something like 800×800 being the minimum if I’m cutting something out of the image to be added to another image. The process of pulling an element out, resizing, re-shaping (perspective tool), and adjusting color levels all tend to introduce blurring or other distortions. So starting with a larger image helps hide those artifacts. So providing a link to a bigger version for this one is definitely a plus.

– The larger the depth of field the better. As much as a love artistic, abstract photos where only a small window is in focus, it’s hard to turn them into something else. Adding to them is painful since you have to simulate various degrees of in/out focus. And pulling elements out if hard since they aren’t likely to be completely in focus.

– If there’s an element (or elements) that are the core focus of the image, which PS’ers will probably want to cut out and put in another image, those element(s) should be completely visible and not cropped by the edge of the photo. If the focal element(s) are entirely captured in the frame, then there should be a clean/obvious way to cut out the element and have it make sense without the bits that got left behind. So if “supporting imagery”, as opposed to the main focus, is between the camera and the main focus of the photo such that it partially obscures the main elements that makes more work for the PS’er. It’s harder to cut out and might require them to construct missing bits, which can be a pain.

– Good lighting, meaning where you get a wide contrast range without overexposure or underexposure is great. Combining images together often involves match colors, bright/contrast levels, and levels of blurring. If the source your working with covers a wide range of light/dark and also a wide range of color saturations it’s looks better once you tweak it to match other imagery.

– A number of people have suggested that photos which are already funny are harder to work with. I think the idea is that a photo which is intentionally composed to tell a joke has a narrow focus already and might be hard to deconstruct and repurpose. I think that can be the case for elaborate setups, say groups of people dressed in costume. But if you can see a way to pull elements out of a funny photo someone can probably work with it.

On the “oh cool” bonus front…

– Extra images from a photo shoot showing the same imagery from a different perspective, with things shifted a bit, obvious passage of some time, etc… are all great. If you provide a link to more photos related to the image you posted it could help a PS’er create a composition where design elements are rotated slightly, duplicated but not identical, etc… Also, if some part of the primary photo does need reconstruction due to cropping, being partially obscured, etc.. the alternate photos might have elements that can be used.

I’d also add that high quality background images are also fun. Many PS’s entail moving an image element into a new background or environment. Some specific examples from your anniversary thread (The first one is what really kicked this off. It is so full of win and I wanted to see if there were enough pixels to turn it into a textured overlay)

Sunset by maced
Virgin River by Ranger Joe
Alleyway by sclark5150

By no means an exhaustive list. Just three completely different examples of cool backdrop photos.

except for the ‘within reason’ part I think you’re pretty much bang on. mangle away 😉

The theme is just post any photos you really like that you won’t mind if they get photoshopped later (there is our normal contest and then there will be a photoshop contest taking any photos from our contest and going nuts with them).

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Well, that makes sense. Now I’ll have to reread all the pages. What happens if someone’s photos aren’t picked up by a PS person? We enter 3, correct? Are we voting for everyone’s normal three entries and then voting a second time on the PS entries? OR just enjoying the PS entries? It probably explains all that in the discussion thread. Time to reread!!!!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Well, that makes sense. Now I’ll have to reread all the pages. What happens if someone’s photos aren’t picked up by a PS person? We enter 3, correct? Are we voting for everyone’s normal three entries and then voting a second time on the PS entries? OR just enjoying the PS entries? It probably explains all that in the discussion thread. Time to reread!!!!

Here’s how I understand things will work…

The Farktography and PS contests each work like a normal contest. For the Farktography contest that means we all submit up to 3 photos, and any can vote for as many as they like when the contest goes live. The votes are tallied like normal. For the PS contest that means anyone can enter as many PS creations as they want. TF’ers can enter as soon as the contest is scheduled and non-TF’ers get to add theirs when it goes live. At that point anyone can vote for as many entries as they like.

So yes you can vote on the Farktography contest and the PS contest. The PS contest will go live roughly 5-7 days later, but if you are a TF’er you can check the entries from time to time before that if you like.

And given the math involved I think it’s almost certain that a number of photos in the Farktography contest won’t be used in a PS contest. It’s nothing personal though. The number of photos entered in Farktography contests is generally higher than the number of entries in PS contests. So unless lots of PS’ers combine multiple photos, or there’s a higher number of PS entries than normal, that difference alone would rule out all photos being used.

Uhh… here’s a potentially dumb question… but what the hell are we voting on in the farktography thread, exactly? “Best” photo? Funniest? Most PS-able? What exactly is the criteria for what gets a vote and what doesn’t?

Throwing a bunch of random photos into a thread and then telling people to vote is an interesting social experiment, but it’s a bit unnerving for those of us who actually pay attention to our “stats” on the FSM. (Yes, yes, I know; paying attention to farktography voting = doing it wrong.)

That’s a very good question and it’s tricky to come up with an answer for this contest in particular. In the end I think for this one, like most other broad/open themes, voters will rewards photos they like without considering how well they fit a particular theme. That’s just my opinion, so if this group wants to try to direct people to consider some other criteria, then let’s go for it. I just think we have limited influence over voters in general, and it’s even less for broad/open themes.