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My First Entry
My First Entry
Beautiful-Joe


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Contre-jour (Basic Editing)
Camera: Olympus D-560Z
Location: Chippewa National Forest
Date: Mar 30, 2007
Galleries: Landscape, Nature
Date Uploaded: Mar 31, 2007

 This was taken at a field within the boundaries of the Chippewa National Forest. I'm very glad that we had such an early spring this year, otherwise this probably wouldn't have turned out as green. The photo hasn't been edited at all. Not even a little bit. I just made it smaller to fit the size requirements. Otherwise, it's straight out of my camera. This was kind of a last minute thing, so I hope I do good. I didn't use a flash and the photo turned out just as planned. The darkness of the trees brings out the brightness of the clouds. However, I'm beginning to think that it would've looked alot better if I had dodged the trees before submitting. Most of the field is in a huge shadow. I also noticed that pink spot by the sun. I really don't know if I'm allowed to get rid of that or not, so I just left it. Also some of the plants in the ditch are reflecting the sun and that's a bit distracting. I guess this isn't my best photo ever, but I like the sun through the clouds.

Statistics
Place: 263 out of 332
Avg (all users): 4.7901
Avg (commenters): 4.6250
Avg (participants): 4.7654
Avg (non-participants): 4.8100
Views since voting: 1113
Views during voting: 255
Votes: 181
Comments: 16
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 04/24/2007 10:15:40 PM
With some more post processing, (curves/levels), i think that you could have brought out the foreground a lot more. What you have here is a foreground silhouetted by the background

nice composition over all
great job
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/24/2007 11:35:00 AM
Fun thing to do is go around to other people's profile and see what their first entry looked like. You will be amazed at what some of these huge ribbon winners first submitted. Keep with it man...and welcome to DPC.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/12/2007 05:47:40 PM
Hey Joe...sounds like a Hendrix song...anyway, yeah tough challenge to start out on, but you did ok. I am assuming you used the "auto" exposure setting on your camera? hence the darker foreground as the camera attempts to compensate for the extreme brightness of the sun. Just a thought here but if you position yourself a little further to the right and get the tree there to partially block the sun the camera would have a bit easier time with the exposure, ideally you should switch to manual exposure and over expose it by a step or 3, lol. But overall not too bad for a first try and I kinda like the dirt road and small clearing in the frame. Good luck!! and have fun!!

Jack
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/12/2007 08:42:01 AM
Not a bad first entry in my opinion. I agree with the others about the foreground being slightly less exposed than it could be, but this setup is very difficult to shoot with perfect exposure, and especially more difficult to correct within Basic rules. You could have corrected the pink spot in Photoshop by adding a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, then taking the saturation of the Magenta colour channel down to zero. That likely would have removed the spot, and it would be legal in basic. Great attitude Joe. You'll go far having this much fun and taking it for what it is, as you do. Congratulations and welcome!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/11/2007 03:32:13 PM
Welcome to DPC, great start! You picked a tough challenge to cut your teeth on :-) I notice your question about getting rid of the pink (sun flare). In basic editing, you can't clone anything out, so you chose right to keep it there. In advanced editing, it would be your artistic choice.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/11/2007 02:43:34 AM
a great start joe. well composed and, for shooting straight into the sun, exposed. the pink blob is a sun flare on the lens. the sun sort of bounces around the curved edges of the lnes, setting up little reflections of itself. you can see it as a good thing and use it as part of your image. a lot of artists do that. the flare, o yes, it's an important part of the image....;-D

i do agree with sparky mark in his critique of your shot. but, that kind of imagery comes with practice. so, shoot, shoot, shoot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/10/2007 11:00:44 PM
Such a great attitude in the forum post you wrote. So happy to see someone excited to learn and participate!!!

Awesome colors here! Impressed that this is straight from the camera. One thing you MIGHT be able to do, in basic editing, for the pink spot, is to use a "selective color" adjustment (in photoshop), choose the reds or the magentas, and then change the amount of the colors it has in it, to something more blue. This only works in basic because you don't have pinkish parts in the rest of the photo. If you did, the selective color edits would of course change those as well, since you have to apply edits to the whole image in basic. Try it out and see if that gives you something less distracting.

I think that this image met the challenge well, and unfortunately the foreground was a bit too dark but it works better in the contre-jour challenge than another challenge where people do not expect darkness. I think as another commenter said the lack of subject sort of hurt. With a brighter foreground, this could stand on its own without a subject, but being darker, the eye needs something more to focus on.

edit: oh yes, reading your comments... dodging and burning are not allowed in basic editing! So it is good you did not do it. Perhaps using a flash might have brightened up the foreground some but I don't know exactly if it would have worked in this situation. When I'm outside, I try a lot of times to take the same shot with and without a flash, to see which one turns out better. Sometimes the differences are subtle but sometimes they can make a huge difference.

Message edited by author 2007-04-11 03:04:02.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/10/2007 08:19:00 PM
=)) Thanks for the welcoming and whatnot.. Yeah.. I could've done better.. This was really a last minute thing though.

The ground and trees turned out darker than I would've liked and I don't like that pink smudge... Whatever that is.. I didn't edit the picture at all though.. So I'm somewhat satisfied with it.
Thanks for the tips and support and whatnot.. I'll do better next time. I promise. =)
Thankyou for your votes.
Oh my god I got two TENS. Someone rated it TEN! 8D
XDD
I love this site..
 Comments Made During the Challenge
04/10/2007 07:00:39 PM
Very nice for the first entry.
Criticism: Pinky spot in the top right corner is very distracting, I know not much you can do in basic editing, but next time just crop a little tighter. Good job overall. 6
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/10/2007 03:52:02 AM
You have the lightsource (sun) in the background of the image but there is no really obvious subject to this photo. Ask yourself - What is this photo trying to say? What emotion is it trying to generate? Keep up the good work though and good luck on your next submission - this site is a great way to improve your photography skills.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/07/2007 07:13:33 AM
following the rules of the challenge is not enough to make an interestiing photograph. start by finding something more interesting to photograph.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/07/2007 06:28:36 AM
if the underexposure of the trees and bushes isn't intentional: 4... if it is: 5, the picture doesn't offer anything exciting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/06/2007 07:30:48 PM
Welcome to DPC
You need a subject. Good Luck 6
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/05/2007 07:27:17 AM
Your first entry? Way to pick a hard one! Exposure is your enemy here. It looks like you let the camera do the thinking and it exposed the sky perfectly. Unfortunately, the interest is int he foreground which is to dark.

Please don't stop submitting!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/04/2007 04:31:46 AM
Welcome. Good first attempt. Keep 'em comin!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/04/2007 04:11:43 AM
And everyone will go - awww... let's be kinder. I will, hoping subject relevance and quality will improve.


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