Mini Competition #308

[Cambridge in Colour]

This is an open-themed competition that is open to all CiC members.

ENTERING. Add your image in a new post below. Make sure to change your post title to a name for your picture (click the "Go Advanced" button). We request that there be just one entry per person. For help posting images, go here.

VOTING. When this competition reaches 10 entries, a poll will be automatically added and any member may then vote. After 3 days, voting ends and the winner is determined.

Once voting begins, a new competition will be automatically started.

Good luck!

Note: Please do not request feedback, or make comments on other images, until after voting has closed as it could be unfair to other entrants.

PS: Make sure to also vote on the previous competition here.

[Ati]

[jbillitteri]

[Nomadr]

cheers martyn

[nickjohnson]

[MiniChris]

[Dons]

[jjbacoomba]

Taken in the Northrup Tropical Room at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens.

[revemike]

Keeping your eye on the prize.



Nikon D90 18-200mm @ 69mm 1/400 sec f10

[Bettyboo]

Thanks Lynne

[maloufn]

[Nomadr]

thanks for the votes, truly appreciated, this shot was taken when i first got my D3 (jan 2007), F2.8,iso 1600 and cropped from original 200mm pic,cheers martyn

[nickjohnson]

Martyn, Very nice image and a very deserved win. Well done.

Regards,

Nick.

[jiro]

Congratulations on another win, Martyn.

[Nomadr]

thanks alot guys, i think i must have not set the date/time when i viewed the exif data, i didnt get the camera until dec 2007,
cheers martyn

[Will]

Congratulations again Martyn. I had no doubt who you were going to win this one. A wonderful "caught in the act" shot.

Will

[Nomadr]

thanks Will ,it was taken at a local park, they are so used to humans. i will post some more when i get time, cheers martyn

[agharken]

Fire Truck. Artistic HDR not meant to be a realistic

[MiniChris]

Fire Truck. Artistic HDR not meant to be a realistic

Other than posting this in the wrong area...and it happens, so no biggie, and though I am not a huge proponent of HDR except in very moderate terms, and though, there are some nice artistic touches to this, I have a problem with the house and barn in the background. They're askew and my eye goes there, stays there and it's hard for it to get back to the truck where it belongs.

Case in point, I took the liberty of demonstrating some basic rules concerning perspective and things to look out for when composing a shot. I realize some lenses will distend verticals inward, but even these can be corrected in post production but first you must be aware they exist.

In the shot below, your original is to the left, and the correction to the right. Unfortunately, I had to crop a portion of the truck's front end to get the rear house perspective to work. I am hoping in your original composition you left 20% to play with, should the need arise. If not, do so next time. I used both "Perspective" and "Distort" editing controls in Photoshop to correct for the (in your case) outward bend.

What happens with the eye, is it looks for natural occurances first. There are three natural occurances in photographs: horizontal, vertical and diagonal (or lines of convergence). If the eye cannot find these occurances, it tries to make them and more often than not, quite unsuccessfully. Above, I mentioned my eye kept going to the house and barn in the upper right corner...and it is because those lines are contradictory to the lines in the truck which are, for the most part, spot on.

In your original, (an I am going to go out on a limb and predict you were using a grid overlay in the viewfinder), the top of the house was horizontal and the rear panel of the truck, vertical and you composed as such. I would probably do the same, though perhaps dialing in a lesser DoF stop to compensate for a little of this anomoly caused by super wide angle lenses.

In my corrective action, I also blurred the background a bit and masked in a little darker tone as I didn't want the brightest points competing with the fire truck. It is a great composition (as per point of view), and I think your exposure value was dead on. It was just the simple measure of taking away a conflict that I think puts the viewr's eye right where you intended it...on the Shaniko Fire Dept's fine old truck.

[PicsbyChance]

Martyn, i love this image. There is so much to look at! I think the shallow depth of field helps accentuate the movement in the birds wings and also focuses attention on your subject. Colour and clarity are also excellent. Congratulations!!

Mike