Announcing the winners of the 2006 Photo Contest!!

Thanks DWD, I had 'unwatched' this thread in mid December about the time the controversy started.
I kept my mouth shut during the contest when certain pics were pointed out, then the complaining about 'editing' was very unpleasant to read.
If you don't like a pic, don't vote for it.
Andy P

I'm curious. Would all the winners in the individual categories please sign in and tell if their photos were enhanced? Obviously, enhancement is nothing to be ashamed of...and inquiring minds want to know.

Sure, On my 'Bud Buddies' I burned the blue on the dragonfly, meaning I deepened the color, using Adobe Elements burn tool.

I also cloned a spot out of the cardbord box in 'Elliot in a Box', the kitty photo. I also cropped it

Thanks Weeds, Boojum!

On my veggie harvest basket, I just cropped and sharpened...the DSLR that I use has a softer focus than I like, so every image gets just a little sharpening. I crop nearly everything that I shoot simply because I can adjust the composition that way....stuff gets cropped the day I shoot it no matter if it's photo contest or not.

All the photos I entered were done this way...winners or not.

Here is an example of a photo that I just enhanced with Paint Shop Pro because I had to use a flash due to an ice storm being in progress.

The original which did not show the true colors of the plant and the top was darker than the rest of the photo due to the angle at which it was taken. I burned (darkened) the areas that were too light and dodged (lightened) some of the ice because it did not show up well after I burned some areas. I dodged the branch at the bottom that is surrounded in shadow so that it stood out more. This kind of enhancement did not change the elements in the photo. This type of manipulation makes the plant appear as it should if seen in person not as the camera "saw" it.

Original photo:

The enhanced photo:

The 2 photos side by side:

Congrats to all of the winners!!!! Wonderful pictures!

In the Annuals Category - Texas thistle:
The photo was sharpened using the unsharp mask and the contrast was stepped up by 8.

In the Perennials Category - Butterfly Clerodendrum, Blue Glory Bower

The bloom was sharpened using the sharpening tool set at 70% and when it was resized, the contrast was increased by 8. The edge of the foremost white petal was sharpened a second time. I started to clone out the 3 white insects (one on the lip of the petal on the left, one peeking over the bottom petal and one on the bloom stem near the bottom), but decided that I would not change the elements in the photo.

Beautiful shots, htop!

ok htop.... you are gonna have to teach me how to do that! *g

I am just a point and shoot kind of person, but I have figured out how to crop and take out red-eye. I really need to spend some personal time with PhotoShop.

There is a thread in Photos that anyone interested in photo editing should visit. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/681120/#top
Much of it is for fun but some info is very helpful with the very basic touch-up techniques.
Everyone can participate but I'm sure we will be labeled as 'Editors' and our pics will be closely scrutinized for "illegalities" in future contests.
Andy P

Dave, thanks. I had to take several shots of the Texas thistle in order to try to have most of the bloom in focus ... is was a booger. The butterly clerondendron was about as difficult: waiting for the morning sunlight to illuminate the bloom the way I wanted to capture it, having the right angle and obtaining a shot where all of the elements of the bloom was properly focused (which I was not completely successful in accomplishing). I guess that's why I entered them because they were difficult for me. I also entered these 2 because they were only slightly enhanced. I have been known to clone off bird poo from leaves. :o) I hope that you and yours are having a great 2007 so far. Tell Trish, "Hi" for me.

renatelynne, it is not really that difficult to do. I'd be glad to show you how. I guess all of the ice has melted there by now. II hope you were nice and warm during the "Winter Wallop". We may be in for some more of that icey stuff. I just wish it had been snow. :o)

marie, I find PhotoShop a lot more difficult to use than Paint Shop Pro; but, then I have used PSP for years. It just seems to be more user friendly. I really prefer to take a good photo to begin with and not have to retouch it much.

Andy P., thanks for the link ... what fun.

That was a good example, htop.

This morning there was still ice between the house and shop. Last night Gina slid down the ramp feet in the air and flat down. She didn't think it would still be slippery. Poor thing is sore today... Even Sheba (the cat) was slidding around last night. Yea I wish it was snow too... at least snow is sorta pretty. And not as dangerous as ice. We ended up having about 1/4 inch of ice... then 1/2 inch of sleet with another 1/4 inch of ice over it. It took both Gina and I over an hour to get enough ice off the truck on Wed to be able to drive it at all. It was thursday before I attempted to drive to work.

Thanks for the info on the photo forum thread and the types of editing software. It almost blew my mind to look at what can be done with photos. I am so out of my league.........

I am thinking that the controversy in the photo contests could be eliminated if Dave had two contests. One for the photographs that have been highly manipulated. And a second for those that have been shot with minimal enhancements, but still be allowed to be cropped, sharpened, and enlarged. I would love to learn to use something like photo-shop and yet I do think that its use may eliminates some people from entering future contests and has obviously annoyed some in the last contest. Not me. So if we had two contests held months apart I think it would be all inclusive and fun. Just a thought. Patti



This message was edited Jan 19, 2007 2:08 PM

http://davesgarden.com/contest/2006/image.php?rid=7004
All I did to mine was resize it. Here is the original, resized cause it's giant-sized.

I like the idea of two contests. I think that's been mentioned before, hasn't it?

I'm still hoping to hear from the winners. I think we can learn from them. I'd also be interested to know if some where just "point and shoot."

I was fortunate enough to get a 2nd place in one of my photos. What I submitted was exactly what it was. Nothing was edited in any way.

Hi, Joan. We cross-posted.

Joan coulda been a contendah, but wasn't due to a computer glitch.

You mean in the best of show? Yeah, I don't quite get that. But I did get first in landscape/sunsets, I'm happy.

My favorite Photo site is now running it's Photo of the Year contest. You can imagine all the 'editing' that goes on there.
These are the 'editing' rules.
~"Submitted photographs must not be manipulated (minor edits like color correction are OK, but things like selective color, image stitching, HDR images, and Orton effects are not acceptable). "~
Works for me.
Andy P

No enhancements or cropping on this one.

Sorry if this will sound "blunt", but I just can't understand what all this fuss is about. It is not as if there was a $1000 prize for the wuinner! The contest was just for fun and a lot of excellent photos were submitted to treat the eye.

Some people are acting like children here--whining and complaining. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! So--behold! Enjoy! Please--Grow up!

Gita

I just ran across this, had stopped reading the thread after the contest winners were posted. Egads. As has been said in the thread, photo manipulation has always been done with film. The point and shoot cameras do a lot of adjusting in camera so you don't have to have Photoshop or other image editing program.

Getting a more expensive dslr is not necessarily an advantage, at first I took far worse pictures with it than with my point and shoot. Now that I have learned something about it, for me it is an advantage.

The case could be made that a point and shoot is an unfair advantage in that it allows someone with few skills to get decent photos. Personally I don't care either way how someone gets a nice image, the whole point is first seeing and then getting that beautiful image.

The minute you convert a 3D reality to a 2D image, manipulation has occurred. Using different lenses, different cameras, different software in and out of camera, all are more manipulation. I rather think that is the whole idea of photography in the first place. So now the line gets arbitrarily drawn as to what manipulation is ok and what is not, but it is an arbitrary line always, not something naturally obvious or rational.

If color adjustments and sharpening are not allowed in future contests that eliminates all point and shoots because they do that in camera. It eliminates all slr work on automatic for the same reason. Then it becomes a contest for manual slrs, is that the desired result? And how on earth would you police that?

This contest would be far more useful if it generated discussion about the artistic quality of images instead of uninformed arguments about technique. I have seen some gorgeous photos shot with point and shoots, gorgeous photos with a lot of photoshop work and garbage done with all methods. Unless you are Solomon willing to cut a baby in half, it might be better to make the whole emphasis that of artistic worthiness, not arbitrary technical parameters.

Couldn't we just keep it as simply a Garden Picture contest and not a Photography contest? So many of us will be afraid to even enter the contest now.

Sandy

I agree with sanannie - keep it simple.

Changing the title won't help, garden pictures are photography, unless you mean to include paintings and the like. Personally I would not enter the contest again without a clear statement of what the intention of the contest is. Does not look like fun to get beaten up for not violating the unstated rules.

I assume the ideal is to allow as many people with as varied a range of cameras to participate as possible. That makes drawing a line based on techniques allowed extremely difficult, if not impossible. That is why I reccommend basing it solely on artistic merit.

A point and shoot used with a good eye can beat the most photoshopped entry in that situation. Or a well done set of adjustments in Photoshop might allow the viewer to see what the photographer intended in that photo, and if well done, it could win. It really levels the playing field so all can play.

Bad work can be done with anything and photoshopping will not save a truly bad image. It then comes down to the beauty and appeal of the image itself. The nice thing here is the judging is done by popular vote, so people can just choose what they like. People who do not care for photoshop will just choose images that are not wildly photoshopped. People who enjoy those images will vote for them. It would all work out just fine that way, room for everyone to play.

Pirl, I agree about keeping it simple. Artistic merit is simple, drawing technical lines is not simple and is extremely difficult to police. Now I am done yakking.

I feel you were very well spoken and made your point. With all the fuss about who did what to their photos I doubt I'd enter again.

I felt like Pirl yesterday, boycott the contest. Now I feel that is just as juvenile as asking the winners to divulge the extent of their 'editing' so soon after a heated discussion on the ethicasity of submitting edited shots in the contest.
Give me a break, this was for fun.
Enter the next contest with your best image, vote for the one you like the most, period.
Andy P

This message was edited Jan 20, 2007 4:44 PM

Just speaking for myself here: if I don't know what it takes to raise a succulent and don't know one from another, I think it's unfair to do anything more than just look at the photos but not vote in that category.

Mulchmania, you have made good points. I'm with you.

And I don't think anyone should hesitate to enter, for any reason. So what if there's fuss. So what if you don't win. So what if the judges like someone else's photo better. We members like to look at nice photos, whether or not they're winners, whether or not they have been retouched. Don't deprive us of your best shots. We ALL lose out then.

This is not a cut-throat competition. It should be for fun. Just like it was in the past.

Pirl, go ahead and vote, even if you don't know much about the plant. After all, your voting for the photo, not the plant.

I agree with everyone who's saying remember this is for fun--I think everyone should just vote for the picture they like the best and leave it at that. If there were prizes being given out (other than just the pride of winning) then I could see the need to clarify what sorts of photoshop tricks were allowed but this is just supposed to be something we do for fun. I'm afraid Dave's going to see all this controversy and decide it's not worth it to have the photo contest anymore, and personally I would be really disappointed if that happened, I enjoy entering my pics in the contest and looking at everyone else's (Photoshop enhanced or not!) and I wouldn't want to lose that.

Oops, I will say one more thing, ha! I did enter because I thought it was fun. I don't care that I did not win because I internalized my own standards a long time ago. There were photos entered I thought were better than mine, although some of those did not win either. No big deal, I enjoyed looking at them all.

But I don't think the technical wars are fun. It would not bother me personally to be discussed in that way as I like my mother's favorite saying, "If they are talking about me, at least they aren't talking about someone it will bother." But I see no point in doing something that is supposed to be fun that ends up something else.

Make the rules simple, understandable, and easy to enforce and people will just have fun with it. The contest is a great idea, just kind of ran into the ditch here.