Chat Thread - W-end comp 13-14 Feb 2010 - VALENTINE

[Amy Davies]

I'm really looking forward to seeing your images this week guys - no red, what a great twist!

Will get my thinking cap on for my own pics this weekend, it'd be great to get a few shots that weren't things we'd seen over and over again.

Think this could be a great one for candid/street photography as well, romantic couples on the streets and so on... just an idea for you

Amy

[flake]

So will be seeing an entry from you this weekend?

[HinFrance]

I've got a busy weekend coming up. This was my second choice of idea as I won't have the time or opportunity to do the other one.

After Dinner:



I actually took a couple of 'overlay' pictures to go with this, but in the end just went with a little gaussian blur.

Good luck one and all.

PS, Flake, waddya make of the histogram on this one then?

[flake]

Normally I wouldn't comment on the technical aspects of an image until after the competition closes, but since you ask. The image is very poorly exposed, the first whites do not start to appear until 188 (it should be 245 - 255). This has the effect of spreading the mid tones and mid tones are important because that's where the detail is. The look of the image isn't any different than the incorrectly exposed one, it just contains a lot more detail.

Quite a suggestive piece, but do I ever hate selective colour! I'm afraid mine is going to be a much more tearful theme, (provided I can get the Photoshop work done in time!)

[Forseti]

Originally Posted by flake

I'm afraid mine is going to be a much more tearful theme

Oh dear, I hope we're not going to come up with the same sort of image.

[HinFrance]

I'm sorry flake, but that crit is so deeply sad.

The picture is perfectly exposed. That's exactly what the scene looked like. No 255 white, because there is no pure white there, and what light tones there are are dimly illuminated. I have, in fact, brightened it up rather.

Try to look around sometime and really see. The world is not made up of sights that run the whole gamut of dark to light; often there is no absolute white, no absolute black; no shadow details, no highlights. I do not inhabit a world of high key lighting, and I seriously doubt that you do. Although it seems you want to.

And it's not selective colour either. It's a colour image where the yellows are simply brighter on the rose heads than anywhere else.

Trying to make everything fit into an idealised gamut is pointless. I for one am sick to the back teeth of your prescriptive, agressive, holier than thou posts. I should laugh, but frankly you are too irritating for that.

So, congratulations. You've worn me down. I'm withdrawing my entry and I'll not be back. Enough is enough.

[flake]

LOL are you planning on some specialised brushes and textures too ?

Mind you every girl does like a good weepy every now & then.

[flake]

Well if you didn't like the answer you shouldn't have asked! You must have known it was underexposed or you wouldn't have mentioned it.

Here it is again with the exposure correct, you probably won't notice that much difference with such a small file, but the histogram is now correct giving 0 - 255 to spread the tones across.

[terrik]

best consider this a semi deleted message. i have successfully failed to create alink to my pic
, but don't want to delete the entire post because later one's won't make sense.

i give up.

i feel a sense of serious foreboding about the setting up of the polll.........

[jinky]

You must have known it was underexposed or you wouldn't have mentioned it. Flake

Shame on you Flake. Only you could have seen HinFrance`s comment of "what do you make of the histogram" as some sort of confession by H that he had his exposure wrong. That you thought so and saw fit to edit a competition entry in the chat thread is as arrogant an action as I have ever seen on here / DC Mag - even by you. I agree with Andy that H`s processing is better and with H that in the real world things are rarely pure white and pure black. His comment was clearly a suggestion to you that the histogram perhaps did not meet your personal targets - and what the hell.
Your obsession with the technical and the perfect histogram is no doubt what stops you from posting any real quality work. I think watching your condescending reviews of last week where you ask if some`s work was intentional (!) and whether others realised "how good" their entries were has helped me decide to move on from this site. Don`t worry - you did not upset me with your review of my work last week. As I said it was an entry to support the comp numbers wise and never seen a s a winner by me in the face of some excellent work by Terrik and others. Just remember Flake that a histogram is a guide - not a prescriptve mantra of some sort and who knows you might come up with a picture one day that others vote for and that are not dependent on your own and other dubious voters such as in your your "glass" week entry which you seemed to ignore in a previous post by me.Strange that as you seem to pick up on every other post on here. Just realised it was H`s entry that romped it that week. I haven`t compared the histograms of yours and his entry that week but the images and voting say it all! Then again you`d probably say the voters did not know what they were looking at or how to vote!
H asked a question last week whether you would be the new Kristin with your reviews. Others know K as fizzio who not only did excellent reviews offering advice / critique in a supportive way but was also an excellent photographer who delivered the goods and shared a huge range of excellent images on here but has since moved on too. If you forget your "rules" and actually put a gallery of half decent pictures together Flake you might be a worthy successor but my advice is to put up or shut up.

I won`t be back on here to retort to any of your self-righteous remarks or comments like - Oh I`ve upset someone- so don`t bother filling the thread with such Flake.

Anyway I`ve enjoyed the time I have been around DC Mag and PR largely but think it`s time I played in other arenas. Good luck with your photography others on here and do remember that you take photos for yourself - not for others to arbitrarily dissect against a prescriptive line that has little real merit.You learn by pushing yourself to try something new and breaking the rules sometimes - don`t let others stop you

Maybe see some of you on Flickr or elsewhere - enjoy your photography.