Computer Graphics with Photoshop

Author

PS contests

ronviers@gmail.com

2007-03-04, 10:14 pm

After participating in Mike's color challenge and thoroughly enjoying
it - even though I failed to read the instructions, I decided to check
the web to see if there were other PS challenges. Apparently there is
a kind of industry (industry may be too strong a term) built around
the idea. So I entered one at Worth1000.com - which was free. Here are
some of the comments my first entry generated. There are more but
these are typical:

"I don't see anything different here."

"Very subtle changes!"

"Theres nothing changed....."

"This is very subtle indeed. It took me a while to see what had even
been done. I think many people will skip over it when voting."

"VERY subtle changes - unless I am missing something I see shadows and
a change in the BG tree? Voters like to see entries they can figure
out quickly. Your work is well done but it does not make a clear
change in the image and that will probably hurt your score."

Apparently I misjudged the voters. I finished 33 out of 36 - a real
embarrassment to this group. To begin the contest I was given a photo.
You can see the before and after versions here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ronviers/Reader

You may need to use the download photo links to see the differences.
The changes, which were many, will be obvious to anyone in this group
but they were not the kind of dramatic changes the voters were looking
for. I am competing at the beginning level, and appropriately so, and
the voters, at this level at least, have no desire to poor over a
color cast or a shadow blend. The shadow on the near side of the
statue alone took two layers each with different gradient overlays and
four blend modes. Changing the horizon line and time of day are non-
trivial edits. That said, even the entries that finished lower than me
did a better job of gauging the voters preferences.

http://www.worth1000.com/cache/cont...otoshop#entries

So I tried again. I was given this photo:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ronvier...139349474667490

And told to do something interesting with it.

So I held up graph paper at the light source to be reflected in the
lenses of the sunglasses. Which you can see here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ronvier...147106185604130

Then took another shot of the sunglasses (not shown but can be seen in
the final result) to get a distinct shadow (for sun light).

Then I stuffed a coat in this shirt, draped a 1950's phone cable over
the should to act as a radio, put a pen in the pocket and took this
picture:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ronvier...140075324140546

Then I extracted the yellow jacket and badge you can see in the same
album, and placed them all into this photo here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ronvier...138348747287490

If you used the download photo link you can see that the sign on the
police line says beware of the angry yellow jackets.
This time I scored 8th place out of 55 entries. I think I could have
made the top three if I had remembered to flip the reflection in the
sunglasses so the print read backwards. You can see the other entries
here:

http://www.worth1000.com/cache/cont...ontest_id=13543

Anyway it has been a lot of fun and I encourage anyone to enter
contests as a way to focus and rush your PS education. The other
participants provide feedback about how to improve and give
encouragement.

Thanks,
Ron

colorexpertsbd

2007-03-05, 3:15 am

quote:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ronvier...138348747287490I think I could have made the top three if I had remembered to flip the reflection in the sunglasses so the print read backwards.[/B]

The "Caution" sign I think was a good concept. But, I admit that, the judges were pretty cunning in discovering this. Actually, when you do a very good job, judges always try to find the demerits from top to bottom.

KatWoman

2007-03-05, 6:14 pm

<ronviers@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote in message
news:1173051814.350156.84520@30g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> After participating in Mike's color challenge and thoroughly enjoying
> it - even though I failed to read the instructions, I decided to check
> the web to see if there were other PS challenges. Apparently there is
> a kind of industry (industry may be too strong a term) built around
> the idea. So I entered one at Worth1000.com - which was free. Here are
> some of the comments my first entry generated. There are more but
> these are typical:
>
> "I don't see anything different here."
>
> "Very subtle changes!"
>
> "Theres nothing changed....."
>
> "This is very subtle indeed. It took me a while to see what had even
> been done. I think many people will skip over it when voting."
>
> "VERY subtle changes - unless I am missing something I see shadows and
> a change in the BG tree? Voters like to see entries they can figure
> out quickly. Your work is well done but it does not make a clear
> change in the image and that will probably hurt your score."
>
> Apparently I misjudged the voters. I finished 33 out of 36 - a real
> embarrassment to this group. To begin the contest I was given a photo.
> You can see the before and after versions here:
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/ronviers/Reader
>
> You may need to use the download photo links to see the differences.
> The changes, which were many, will be obvious to anyone in this group
> but they were not the kind of dramatic changes the voters were looking
> for. I am competing at the beginning level, and appropriately so, and
> the voters, at this level at least, have no desire to poor over a
> color cast or a shadow blend. The shadow on the near side of the
> statue alone took two layers each with different gradient overlays and
> four blend modes. Changing the horizon line and time of day are non-
> trivial edits. That said, even the entries that finished lower than me
> did a better job of gauging the voters preferences.
>
> http://www.worth1000.com/cache/cont...otoshop#entries
>
> So I tried again. I was given this photo:
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/ronvier...139349474667490
>
> And told to do something interesting with it.
>
> So I held up graph paper at the light source to be reflected in the
> lenses of the sunglasses. Which you can see here:
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/ronvier...147106185604130
>
> Then took another shot of the sunglasses (not shown but can be seen in
> the final result) to get a distinct shadow (for sun light).
>
> Then I stuffed a coat in this shirt, draped a 1950's phone cable over
> the should to act as a radio, put a pen in the pocket and took this
> picture:
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/ronvier...140075324140546
>
> Then I extracted the yellow jacket and badge you can see in the same
> album, and placed them all into this photo here:
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/ronvier...138348747287490
>
> If you used the download photo link you can see that the sign on the
> police line says beware of the angry yellow jackets.
> This time I scored 8th place out of 55 entries. I think I could have
> made the top three if I had remembered to flip the reflection in the
> sunglasses so the print read backwards. You can see the other entries
> here:
>
> http://www.worth1000.com/cache/cont...ontest_id=13543
>
> Anyway it has been a lot of fun and I encourage anyone to enter
> contests as a way to focus and rush your PS education. The other
> participants provide feedback about how to improve and give
> encouragement.
>
> Thanks,
> Ron

I like that you took the pole out his head
and the correction of the horizon
(two of my pet peeves)

When I work on my own or hubby's pictures I feel free to change them as much
as I like, and I can ask the artist to look (as he is right here)
HOWEVER when working on other people's pictures I sort of feel I should not
manipulate them too much, just make basic fixes unless they request more.
At a certain point corrections can turn into creative changes that may not
be what the artist intended. Or it makes them look as if they know what they
are doing....

that site has some interesting creations from the challenges
and as you say most involve a good deal of fantasy, collaging etc