[Choc-Ful-A]

Tilt-shift meets wide-angle. It’s really hard to get a good DoF at wide-angle even with tilt-shift.

I try to shoot realistic/natural (no special effects in post). but I’m not really feeling the effect with these shots:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tenesmusphyre/sets/72157619266538411/

For what it’s worth… I like them, especially the first two.

[Choc-Ful-A]

I pull the RAW images off the camera in NEF format and convert them to 16-bit PNG files before opening them with Gimp, then store them as XCF (Gimp’s native format) if I change anything. I sometimes export them directly from “ufraw” to Gimp and skip the PNG’s. But that takes more time since I have to do that interactively one photo at a time. I usually just run a script to batch convert all the NEF’s to PNG’s at once.

[Choc-Ful-A]

I blame it on the title of the contest – maybe farkers think we were referring to them 😛

My b-side for this contest:
Himeji Castle entrance
Himeji Castle
Castle gate
Osaka Castle moat and wall
Osaka Castle
Kyoto Imperial Palace moat
Another temple gate
More monkeys!

Wow, those plus the 3 you posted a quite a nice batch of photos… The “Osaka Castle moat and wall” is especially powerful and I hope you find another place to use it (since it didn’t make the cut tonight). Also, both monkey shots are great but I prefer the monkey shot you entered in the contest. It’s more intimate since the monkey’s face is so cute and you can’t tell it’s in a zoo setting. It made me want to run out and adopt a pet!

[Choc-Ful-A]

love the bird on the razor wire.

fark has been a little wonky tonight. instead of source tags on the articles, it’s mostly empty parentheses. I was wondering why the voting was so low, too. could just be a slow night, though.

Thanks! I almost posted the bird/wire one but it’s so dark I didn’t think it would do well, especially at 640 width. I really like the Holga effect you went with this week. My favorite is the one with the psychedelic green glowing plants through the railing.

And I think you’re right about the site bring wonky tonight. The empty parens where the article category should be is very odd.

[Choc-Ful-A]

Here’s some b-sides if you need more “Keep Out” photos…

Bird on a wire

Beware of vicious guard dog

Fence with red diamonds

Obvious warning for the truly dense

And as long as I’m posting, the voting is very weird tonight. The first place entry only has 7 votes at the moment even though the contest has been live on the main page for 3.5 hours. Dunno what’s up…

[Choc-Ful-A]

I’m a n00b to the DSLR world and recently purchased a D60. I did a photo workshop where we shot in RAW. In the post-processing portion of the workshop, they were using PS & Nik Filters. I was told and have read that for NEF processing, Capture NX 2 should be used, since it reads all the camera data, where some programs won’t. Anyone know if that’s true or not?

I use a freely available program called “ufraw” to read my NEF files and convert them to oher formats. I’m not aware of anything data it’s unable to read. I’m not saying that Capture NX isn’t better, since I’ve never used it. But if I’m living with limitations they aren’t bothering me.

[Choc-Ful-A]

I’m wondering if we should just take this question (timing of the two contests) back to the PSAE forum and see what everyone thinks?

Sounds like a good idea.

FYI, I posted a note on the PSAEF soliciting feedback on what those folks thought would make a photo a good source for a PS entry. I included a link to this forum but also volunteered to relay any suggestions they offered.

[Choc-Ful-A]

maybe I understood it wrong. I thought that there was a week from the post date to the contest for PS’s. So my understanding was that they’d have a week from when we started posting pics to do their entries before voting starts?

OK, then we’re saying the same thing and I just misinterpreted you. Sorry about that!

To try to clarify (in case I’ve confused other people too). Here’s a rough idea of what I was suggesting.

– Farktography contest goes live on the main page Wed night

– PS mash-up idea goes on the “upcoming contests” page the night or the night after

– The “go live on the main page” date for the PS contest would be roughly a week later, say the following Tuesday

Actually if the PS contest hits the “upcoming contests” page on Wed/Thu the timing should auto-magically work out based on how far out the contest are usually scheduled.

[Choc-Ful-A]

I think doing them simultaneously, or at least a day apart would be appropriate. Ties everything together nicely.

As far as teritary sources go, I don’t see why they couldn’t be allowed so long as it’s not a major element. What that means exactly I’m not sure though.

It can takes days to come up with a PS idea, find the source images, create a few versions you discard, etc… before coming up with something worth posting. If there’s no time between the Farktography contest and the PS contest I’m concerned there will be very few entries.

[Choc-Ful-A]

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.

[Choc-Ful-A]

The reason I’ve been lobbying for less restrictions on the Farktography contest (and now the follow-on PS contest) is that linking the two adds enough complexity already. I don’t think we should make it any harder than is necessary to maximize the number of participants in both contests.

For that reason, and just to reflect the way I think PS folks work, I don’t think we should constrain people to only using content from the photos in the Farktography contest. If you want to say pixels from the photos need to be the focus of the resulting image that’s fine. But a ban on pulling additional source material is a bit too limiting.

So how about these changes…

? Use imagery from two or more of the photos from (Link to Farktography thread) in your composition.

? Please make sure what you find in the thread is the focus of the resulting image or is at least highlighted.

I’d drop the “You might want to delay voting for a week” bit. I’m not sure what that means, so maybe I’m missing something?

On the timing of the second part of this linked contest… I suggested that we time the PS contest so that it goes live like a week after the Farktography contest goes live. So the entire Farktography thread, including the liter’s entries, will be available for the PS’ers from the time the PS contest hits the “contests” page. Again, in the interest of getting as many people to participate as possible, I think making all the source photos available from the beginning would be a good thing.

[Choc-Ful-A]

Here’s a pretty good description of the pros and cons of each file type:
http://digital-photography-school.com/raw-vs-jpeg

I shoot everything in RAW (Canon 40D, processed with Apple Aperture 2.0 software). It’s a pain in the ass because it takes up huge amounts of space, but at the same time I am able to improve the shots that I already like. In other words, shooting RAW gives you more opportunities to perfect the image once you have it on your computer, but at the cost of a huge hard-drive and some very powerful software.

I shoot in RAW mode too and agree with the above. Except I’ll add that disk is pretty cheap these days. Also I just batch convert whatever I pull off the camera to 16-bit PNG’s using “ufraw” and GIMP them from there. So I have the RAW files to go back to if I want to, but general just work from the PNG’s. So the overhead is a one-time task of converting the RAW files when I load them to the computer.

I’m using Linux but I think you can batch convert with “ufraw” on Windows too. It’s free and converts just about any RAW format you’ll get off your camera unless it’s some really obscure/exotic maker.

[Choc-Ful-A]

Entering the photo contest, then using only your photos for the PS – just for the sake of getting a head start or some sort of artistic advantage would be so crazy lame that I can’t even wrap my head around it. I’d be inclined to think that you’d have be a pretty badass photog and shopper – not to mention have some huge brass ones (or whatever chicks have) – to try to pull that one off. And I would certainly be inclined to refuse to vote for such a d-bag. So long story short I would hope we could pass that off as an unwritten rule. I can’t imagine that someone would actually do it. Then again this is the Fark that we all know and love…

And I would certainly HOPE that some of my entries get the Rule 34 treatment, although the material doesn’t exactly lend itself to it. Yeah, I already picked out my shots…

This thread has already lead to great amounts of typing.

At the risk of adding more typing… 🙂

I don’t see using your own pics in a PS as a bad thing really, not in terms of trying to “game the system” to get more votes anyway. I think that’s the core of the concern here? If so, it’s worth noting that getting votes in a PS contest is damn near unpredictable, even more than Farktography contests IMO. And as the folks on the PSAEF forum repeat over and over it’s clearly not correlated with spending more time on the entry. I’ll abide by any rules that get posted of course, since I’m just in this to enjoy myself and learn a few tricks along the way. But if you have a look at the contest entries, and I recommend this contest browser to check out the results, you’ll notice that the winning entries are often not the most impressive technically. So I really think this is a non-issue.

[Choc-Ful-A]

Also keep in mind that we need to arrange for a companion PS contest to go live after the Farktography contest. I’d suggest something like a week afterwards to give people (even liters) time to work on their entries.

I forgot to note that it’s not against the rules or unusual to have a PS contest where liters and TF’ers have equal time to work on entries. TF’ers do get to see source ‘O’s for about a week before liters. But for themed contests, where there is no single ‘O’ people are ask to mangle, the liters have the exact same level of info as TF’ers. In my opinion, this would work like a themed PS contest. There’s a whole bunch of images to choose from, so I don’t see any value in trying to force the setup to favor TF’ers. And if we do give everyone time to work on the entries we’ll probably get more people participating. And more submissions equals more fun as far as I’m concerned.

[Choc-Ful-A]

As for the question of Farktographers participating in the PS thread, I’d like to see that option remain open, but the issue of having a head start when PSing your own photos is a valid one. If it’s a mash-up contest, though, maybe require at least two different Farktographer’s photos to be included in the final result? Then any Farktographers would still have to wait for the Farktography thread to get source material other than their own. The other option would be disallowing use of your own source photos, but I’m not that concerned as long as there’s a requirement for it to not only be one’s own photos.

That seems like a reasonable solution to me. What say you, other pensively pontificating potentially participating photophiliacs?

/Penis

I enter both PS contests and Farktography contest for what it’s worth… I’ve used my own photos to make shops in the past and it’s a nice change of pace. If we want to ask people not to shop their own entries for this contest, or to require more than one photo be used that’s fine with me. But I don’t think it’s necessary since I don’t think we’re solving a problem that needs to be solved. 🙂 Getting inspiration for a PS entry is pretty random so having your own photos to work with well in advance doesn’t mean you’ll have a better chance of coming up with an idea. In fact, new images could very well spark something that never would have occurred to the PS’er from trolling their own archives for weeks.

The mash-up idea sounds like a lot for fun though, even though I can’t articulate why! So maybe we should encourage using multiple photos in the associated PS contest? I’m note sure we should require it though.

Also keep in mind that we need to arrange for a companion PS contest to go live after the Farktography contest. I’d suggest something like a week afterwards to give people (even liters) time to work on their entries. The suggestion to mash-up photos or other rules should be indicated in the PS contest. This one doesn’t need to concern itself with those details, other then to make sure the people posting entries to the Farktography contest are clear on what’s going to happen with their submissions.

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