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There Are Dead Among Us
There Are Dead Among Us
breadfan35


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Free Study 2007-01 (Advanced Editing V)
Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D
Location: SMU Campus Dallas Texas
Date: Jan 22, 2007
Aperture: f/2.2
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/800
Galleries: Emotive, Black and White
Date Uploaded: Jan 24, 2007

Shot on the Campus of SMU here in Dallas Texas. I wanted to use this for Shallow DOF II, but I shot it two days before that challenge came up and I wasn't going to have the time to go and reshoot it so I decided to use it here. I like the image and hope it does well, but I tend not to fair too well in Free Studies. We shall see.

Converted From RAW
Convert to B&W
Dodge and Burn
Levels
Curves
Save for Web

Here is my Re-Edit for this challenge per some of Pedro's pointers:


Statistics
Place: 452 out of 559
Avg (all users): 5.0072
Avg (commenters): 6.0000
Avg (participants): 4.9259
Avg (non-participants): 5.2903
Views since voting: 675
Views during voting: 180
Votes: 139
Comments: 5
Favorites: 0


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AuthorThread
 Comments Made During the Challenge
02/07/2007 10:42:15 AM
The depth of field works well. i'm curious how it will look revesed. Nice shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/01/2007 07:36:15 PM
Overall it's a very nice image. one that would look very nice when presented well (in a frame on a wall i mean). from a DP perspective (or any other type of online contest for that matter) I can offer a few opinions.

First off, conceptually it's a solid idea. it really could have gone into shallow DOF or minimalism quite nicely as well. in fact as a shallow DOF entry you'd likely get more attention, since the field is so huge and diverse in this one.

With regards to the composition, there are a few minor adjustments that would make it flow better i think. To stick with the 'rules' of photography, I'd like to see the rose a little lower and a bit to the right. The real subject is the flower, so using the rule of thirds makes sense to me. It sits so high in the frame it's out of the viewers natural gaze and almost acts as a distraction rather than a focal point (in theory we naturally look at the intersections of the 1/3 lines in a photo - in case you haven't seen it, draw a tic-tac-toe board over the picture; where the lines intersect is where you put the intended focal point of the photo).

You've created some great leading lines in this photo, which end rather abruptly at the left. it's kind of hard to tell, but i think if you backed the crop out a little and made it taller (same width) it would continue with a bit more flow with the inclusion of the square part at the top of the leftmost column. (coincidentally that would put the rose on the third-line as well)

the technicals of the shot are pretty good, though the focus almost seems to be a bit short - as if it's on the first column and not the rose (though that could easily be a result of the reduction in size for submitting it). Where an image like this will fail to grab the attention of the voters (hence the lack of comments, and the score of 5.3 - just a guess) is in it's subtlety. The prevailing theory is that you have 5 seconds to impress the voters enough to move them to look deeper or give it a high score off the bat. Low contrast images like this one need to have a really compelling subject or they'll get passed over without further inspection. one objective way to check your contrast is to look at the histogram (in photoshop under the window menu check 'histogram'). Your image has a histogram that shows most of the tones in the mid-range - no whites at all, and very little true black. Try using curves or levels to increase the contrast so that the histogram stretches out a little and presents the full range of tones from black to white (check your e-mail in a few minutes). the contrast will keep their attention a little longer and give them time to absorb the rest of the shot.

all in all i quite like this and with a few minor changes you have a better shot at getting the masses to like it too.

good luck with it - I like where you're going with it.

P
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/01/2007 11:51:30 AM
I think that the flower needed more light to draw your eye to it because my eye is following the pattern and almost miss the flower.
02/01/2007 07:46:03 AM
great!
02/01/2007 06:07:13 AM
I love this composition so much. The shallow depth of field adds so much to the artistic feel of this photo! I can see this as a wall print :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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