SteveT's Photo Contest #2
- Thread starter SteveT
- Start date
Since we all have varying camera setups I think its important that pics submitted should be RAW and unaltered. Because for those of us who have fancy high end DSLR cameras and Adobe CS6 these pics can be simply unbelievable...and unbeatable 
Kind of the same philosophy with coral vendors...those who photoshop their images should be banned because its false advertising
I think RAW images or unaltered pics should the only ones accepted Just sayin! Love this type of contest. Posting mine soon.
Kind of the same philosophy with coral vendors...those who photoshop their images should be banned because its false advertising I think RAW images or unaltered pics should the only ones accepted
Just sayin! Love this type of contest. Posting mine soon.
Knowing whether a pic is unaltered is a bit difficult to gauge...and getting that perfect shot straight off the camera is tough for most people. Even after setting the white balance on my D80, the colors are far from being accurate without some post processing...all of my pics invariably are shifted toward the blue spectrum with my lighting.
I do get what you're saying though...and I won't speak for Steve, but I do have an eye for telling a super-saturated pic from one that's been accurately processed; I'm sure it's something that can be accounted for in the judging. I'm sure there are quite a few people that aren't able to shoot in RAW as well...and the irony is that with the correct software, people who DO shoot in RAW would theoretically have the unfair advantage in processing. Those RAW images allow for some dramatic editing with just a few slider bars and, as you alluded to, can really fool the eyes.
There are some great free programs that take the place of lightroom/photoshop that are worth checking out. Coming from the world of large format cameras, I definitely appreciate the ability to take a photo, push or pull the film, and get a perfect on paper...but I do think that post processing is an integral part of the digital world as it takes the place of the development process.
Just my .02 on the subject.
I do get what you're saying though...and I won't speak for Steve, but I do have an eye for telling a super-saturated pic from one that's been accurately processed; I'm sure it's something that can be accounted for in the judging. I'm sure there are quite a few people that aren't able to shoot in RAW as well...and the irony is that with the correct software, people who DO shoot in RAW would theoretically have the unfair advantage in processing. Those RAW images allow for some dramatic editing with just a few slider bars and, as you alluded to, can really fool the eyes.
There are some great free programs that take the place of lightroom/photoshop that are worth checking out. Coming from the world of large format cameras, I definitely appreciate the ability to take a photo, push or pull the film, and get a perfect on paper...but I do think that post processing is an integral part of the digital world as it takes the place of the development process.
Just my .02 on the subject.
I had two major goals when I started the photo contest:
1. To get some more activity on the forums. I love seeing other peoples tanks, and thought that getting a bunch of pics of our tanks on the boards would inspire more activity.
2. To motivate people to learn more about photography and practice taking tank shots eventually increasing the overall quality of all the photos taken on MASC. There are so many sale threads where the pictures are totally useless to both the buyer and the seller because you cant see anything other than fuzzy blue blobs.
In my opinion as a committed amateur / semi-pro photographer to get the best out of your photographs you need to learn how to process them. This especially holds true in aquarium photography where the lighting can really throw a camera sensor off and needs to be adjusted to look like it does to the naked eye. That is really the key, only adjusting to try and replicate the actual scene you were trying to capture with the photograph. I personally do not like over saturated images.
Here is an example of what I did with the candy apple pink photo in processing. The out-of-camera image is on the left with as much white balance compensation as the camera offered. not a -bad- pic but still lacks clarity and contrast, washed out and tinted blue. Most importantly this is not how the candy apple pinks look to my eye when I look at them in my tank. As you can see on the far right under the saturation and vibrancy settings I actually -decreased- the overall color saturation of the "after" photo.
This does NOT mean that only post-processed pics will win the contest. I can not deny that if you post process, and do it well, that it will give you an advantage. I also cannot deny that having a nicer dslr with good lenses will give you a slight advantage. However point and shoots and hell, even cell phones can produce some pretty impressive images these days. Its about using what you have and trying to get the best result you can. This is why there are the 3 different categories being judged and previous winners having a lockout/judge period of 2 months. Again, I am only trying to help people get better pictures of their tanks. Maybe some time in the future I will have a cell pic only contest or something like that. I am trying my best to keep it fair, and I am open to any suggestions on how to run it differently.
1. To get some more activity on the forums. I love seeing other peoples tanks, and thought that getting a bunch of pics of our tanks on the boards would inspire more activity.
2. To motivate people to learn more about photography and practice taking tank shots eventually increasing the overall quality of all the photos taken on MASC. There are so many sale threads where the pictures are totally useless to both the buyer and the seller because you cant see anything other than fuzzy blue blobs.
In my opinion as a committed amateur / semi-pro photographer to get the best out of your photographs you need to learn how to process them. This especially holds true in aquarium photography where the lighting can really throw a camera sensor off and needs to be adjusted to look like it does to the naked eye. That is really the key, only adjusting to try and replicate the actual scene you were trying to capture with the photograph. I personally do not like over saturated images.
Here is an example of what I did with the candy apple pink photo in processing. The out-of-camera image is on the left with as much white balance compensation as the camera offered. not a -bad- pic but still lacks clarity and contrast, washed out and tinted blue. Most importantly this is not how the candy apple pinks look to my eye when I look at them in my tank. As you can see on the far right under the saturation and vibrancy settings I actually -decreased- the overall color saturation of the "after" photo.
This does NOT mean that only post-processed pics will win the contest. I can not deny that if you post process, and do it well, that it will give you an advantage. I also cannot deny that having a nicer dslr with good lenses will give you a slight advantage. However point and shoots and hell, even cell phones can produce some pretty impressive images these days. Its about using what you have and trying to get the best result you can. This is why there are the 3 different categories being judged and previous winners having a lockout/judge period of 2 months. Again, I am only trying to help people get better pictures of their tanks. Maybe some time in the future I will have a cell pic only contest or something like that. I am trying my best to keep it fair, and I am open to any suggestions on how to run it differently.
I love my emerald crabs! they are so full of personality, and they decimate nuisance algae!
Unfortunately, the rules for this month state that there must be soft coral in the picture and you are only allowed one entry. So you have to choose from one of your zoanthid pics to be your official entry for the contest.
Unfortunately, the rules for this month state that there must be soft coral in the picture and you are only allowed one entry. So you have to choose from one of your zoanthid pics to be your official entry for the contest.
Steve, just out of curiosity, are you shooting with a Nikon DSLR with a macro lens (105mm)? Also what photo software was that screen shot from.
I agree with what you wrote regarding getting the most out of a picture which in some cases means some post processing. My own submission has some slight processing with a free program that comes with my macbook. HoweverI also understand from the "purest" standpoint too of an undoctored picture. I think it depends on how its presented and personal preferences. A great picture that has some processing is still a great picture due to color, composition, subject matter, etc.
I agree with what you wrote regarding getting the most out of a picture which in some cases means some post processing. My own submission has some slight processing with a free program that comes with my macbook. HoweverI also understand from the "purest" standpoint too of an undoctored picture. I think it depends on how its presented and personal preferences. A great picture that has some processing is still a great picture due to color, composition, subject matter, etc.
Yep! I shoot with my trusty Nikon D300s. The lens I used for these shots is the Nikkor -micro 105mm 2.8 ED. I use Adobe Lightroom 4 to process all my photos from RAW, this is the software in the screen shot. I only use Photoshop when there is more complicated processing to be done; masking, cloning etc.
I think it's important for everyone to realize that no matter how you take a photo there are always 2 steps involved, capture and processing. Even film has to be processed (developed) where decisions are made about contrast and color. In any digital camera that doesn't allow you to shoot in raw or is set to TIFF or JEPG mode, there is a micro processor in the camera processing the data collected from the sensor and making decisions about contrast and color based on the settings of the camera. These settings are normally packaged into "modes" and are very limited leaving the camera to make a lot of the decisions for you. When you shoot in RAW mode you get all of the unadulterated data captured by the sensor that you then can process yourself with certain type of software like Lightroom.
So basically, there is no such thing as a non-processed image, and when you choose not to process your self using software (or a darkroom for film) you are surrendering control of the image to the cameras processing software (or the darkroom technicians at print shops for film). Just because you let the camera make the decisions doesn't make them the right decision to accurately represent a scene. Especially when shooting aquariums where most cameras are not made with that type of lighting in mind.
I think it's important for everyone to realize that no matter how you take a photo there are always 2 steps involved, capture and processing. Even film has to be processed (developed) where decisions are made about contrast and color. In any digital camera that doesn't allow you to shoot in raw or is set to TIFF or JEPG mode, there is a micro processor in the camera processing the data collected from the sensor and making decisions about contrast and color based on the settings of the camera. These settings are normally packaged into "modes" and are very limited leaving the camera to make a lot of the decisions for you. When you shoot in RAW mode you get all of the unadulterated data captured by the sensor that you then can process yourself with certain type of software like Lightroom.
So basically, there is no such thing as a non-processed image, and when you choose not to process your self using software (or a darkroom for film) you are surrendering control of the image to the cameras processing software (or the darkroom technicians at print shops for film). Just because you let the camera make the decisions doesn't make them the right decision to accurately represent a scene. Especially when shooting aquariums where most cameras are not made with that type of lighting in mind.
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Experimenting with fluorescense photography... Final pic to come soon I hope
Experimenting with fluorescense photography... Final pic to come soon I hope
