MPC #68 - ATMOSPHERE - VOTING - (6/20-6/22) - VOTE NOW

[mtcham]

it's pretty clear that no two of us would come up with the same top 5.

These MPC's have always been a lot of fun and seeing the different takes on each theme is awesome.

I'm not seeing the point in questioning the winners choices. This forum has never been heavy into critiquing as far as I remember. If someone wants to either be a critic or get good subjective advice there are lots of photo specific forums for that.

I vote to sit back, drink a beer and enjoy all these great adventures and places the maggots take us through their cameras! This forum is unlike any other just for that reason.

[powdork]

Thank you!
So if you were to draw a line from a certain point of the ceiling and have it intersect with the floor you would notice a consistent focus on that plane...

i'm thinking the camera was maybe angled upward too, so that the focal plane would run from closer up high and further down low?

[Lonnie]

Lonnie for what its worth, that is visually one of the more stunning sunset photos I've seen. Excellent work.

Thanks, truth be told I put on a lens and walked out on the back porch. Mother nature did the the work. The fact I didn't make it in, really isn't what I'm on about here, but that's lost on most of the folks here. There is a difference between validation and self awareness, and I'd like to think I crossed that bridge sometime in the past.

However, I've resolved to keep my big mouth shut with regards to all of this until the voting is over when I may or may not expound on why I appear so butt hurt to some of you. (Part of it is that we've got a 7 week old here and I've been running on 4 hours sleep for that entire time (Hell it's 3:50am here and I've been up 1.5 hours and have to get up in 1.5 to go to work), but that's just an excuse.) Stay tuned....

[Lonnie]

i'm thinking the camera was maybe angled upward too, so that the focal plane would run from closer up high and further down low?

Yes. The way the image is cropped/framed also adds to the illusion. The oof part of the roof (due to the shallow DOF) has been cropped out by the framing of the image.

The "trick" here is that in the vast majority of shallow DOF photos, the background is OOF. Advres did the reverse. He blurred out the foreground and more of the background is in focus.

A useful tool in seeing how this works is the Depth of field Calculator (I have this one bookmarked on my phone....)

If you play around with it, what you'll find is that at large apertures (smaller f numbers), the closer you focus to the camera, the smaller the area in focus becomes. The fact that the point of focus was some where on the roof of the car a good distance from the camera allows a bigger portion of the background to be sharp, and the foreground to be blurred. Very creative/savy use of DOF.

[skiingislife]

Chainsaw, Bean, and Advres had my favorite shots this time.

[FreakofSnow]

Well said. I vote for less whining and more fun.

These MPC's have always been a lot of fun and seeing the different takes on each theme is awesome.

I'm not seeing the point in questioning the winners choices. This forum has never been heavy into critiquing as far as I remember. If someone wants to either be a critic or get good subjective advice there are lots of photo specific forums for that.

I vote to sit back, drink a beer and enjoy all these great adventures and places the maggots take us through their cameras! This forum is unlike any other just for that reason.

[outabounds]

As long as nobody's getting upset, I see nothing wrong with discussing the five choices. Talking about things is how many of us learn more about what we're doing.

Looking at these five, it's immediately obvious that I won't be choosing the second or fourth because photographs where nothing seems to be in focus don't do much for me. Not sure why they were included, but the only thing that matters is that they moved Dromond.

[Altmanator]

I was a little disappointed that there weren't more creative takes on this theme, my own entry included. I voted for Advres because he actually got creative with his subject matter and interpretation of the theme. That's not to say the other entries and finalists weren't great photographs, but they weren't as interesting or captivating to me.

We've all seen a ton of great sunset images but at some point they become kind of like baby pictures, they're really only interesting if it's your image/kid, unless it's a truly unique take on it.

In these MPCs I think it's really cool that there are folks with a wide range of photographic knowledge and experience. When you're judging photos that are no greater than 1000px in size it's not the best idea to make it a technical contest. I've always weighted my votes to the images that are taken with the most creativity in composition and take on the theme. This makes it a level playing field as you can still take a compelling photo with a P&S and it will compete against one taken with top of the line equipment.

That said, I voted for Advres because he took a shot that kept my attention and was a creative take on the theme that fit. Nice work!

[Lonnie]

I was a little disappointed that there weren't more creative takes on this theme,

Given the finalists, I think a better title for this MPC might have been "mood", a synonym to "atmosphere". This isn't a good or bad thing, it just an observation based on the way Dromond interpreted it and picked the finalist (which is his call). Most folk took pretty basic, literal take on Atmosphere, and they weren't selected. Let's be clear, that's our fault, not his. So, rhetorically, what would you have submitted if the subject for #68 had been "mood"?

Outabounds comments do a good job of summing up my "frustration"/lack of understanding from yesterday and the votes seem to bare that out.

[Dromond]

Personally I'm interested in the intersection of the two and picked accordingly. The two being "stuff in the air" and "a pervading mood."

at·mos·phere
–noun
1.
the gaseous envelope surrounding the earth; the air.
2.
this medium at a given place.
3.
Astronomy . the gaseous envelope surrounding a heavenly body.
4.
Chemistry . any gaseous envelope or medium.
5.
a conventional unit of pressure, the normal pressure of the air at sea level, about 14.7 pounds per square inch (101.3 kilopascals), equal to the pressure exerted by a column of mercury 29.92 inches (760 mm) high. Abbreviation: atm.
6.
a surrounding or pervading mood, environment, or influence: an atmosphere of impending war; a very tense atmosphere.
7.
the dominant mood or emotional tone of a work of art, as of a play or novel: the chilly atmosphere of a ghost story.
8.
a distinctive quality, as of a place; character: The old part of town has lots of atmosphere.

I hear atmosphere and think along the lines of items #2 and #6. I don't have a singular passion for astrophotography (I'm not even sure what the term does and does not encompass) and I think atmosphere is a great theme since it has several meanings and is open for interpretation. Something that is a great picture of the sky with not much else going on feel like a more flat interpretation of a theme that you can do a lot with.

[Chainsaw_Willie]

This was definitely one of the best contests we've had recently as evidenced by the quality and range of the submissions and all the discussion that's been generated by Dromond's choices.

I don't see much point in criticizing his choices - he chose the best pictures to his taste and interpretation of the theme and it was his contest to define and run. This stuff is all in good fun, why take it seriously?

Just in case anyone cares, here are the thought processes that went into my submissions. The one of the moon was shot through some thin, wispy clouds. I felt this fit the more literal interpretation of atmosphere - you can see the Earth's atmosphere getting between you and the moon. This, of course, added a bit of the mood=atmosphere component as well. I took another shot that night that had better wispy clouds covering the moon and that I actually like better from a composition standpoint but I have an extremely crappy tripod and the moon was motion-blurred slightly in that one. The next night was crystal-clear so any shots of the moon that night wouldn't fit the theme of this contest since it's not titled "moon shots" or "astrophotography."

The second pic was obviously more of the "mood" component than anything else. The subject matter was probably too personal though - The outdoor party/camping trip it depicts is something I've been doing with some old friends in the first couple weeks of June for 22 years. The party is just getting rolling in that picture, just after sundown.

[Todds]

Lots of great photos this time around. It must have been hard to pick the 5 best.

At this point 823 people have viewed the photos, but only 53 have voted. Why don't more people vote?

[Lonnie]

At this point 823 people have viewed the photos, but only 53 have voted. Why don't more people vote?

'cause it's the same 53 people checking out the drama in this tread about 15 times each... lol.

[uglymoney]

There were a lot of great sunset shots here because there was a lot of great sunsets and they happened to fit into the theme. Taking a picture of a sunset or sunrise when everybody else was doing the same thing should be clue enough that an entry is lacking enough creative thought to make it a bit of a longshot.

Serious, great MPC and great discussion. Some seriously good picture takers here and I'm always just happy when I have a picture I think worthy of entering a MPC.

I voted for #4 just because that is what did it for me. I let the judge worry about the theme.

[Altmanator]

Nail biter. Someone better cast the deciding vote here

[Dromond]

Allright, y'all are asleep. I declare phattypowpow the victor!

[advres]

Congrats phattypowpow! Nice shot. Was pretty close all the way, good battle.

(in before Lonnie comes back in and starts crying)

[Todds]

phattypowpow,

Congrats on the win. I assume that was an IR shot. Was the camera modified or is the S95 IR sensitive?

[Lonnie]

(in before Lonnie comes back in and starts crying)

Cry? That's who I voted for! :P (sorry!)

[DJSapp]

phattypowpow,

Congrats on the win. I assume that was an IR shot. Was the camera modified or is the S95 IR sensitive?

Based on his other submission, could it be a HDR-> B&W conversion? His color shot looked HDR-ish to me.

[phattypowpow]

Thanks, guys! There were a ton of killer shots and it was really fun to see all this great stuff. Whether I submit or not, I'll be paying close attention to these contests in the future. In addition to there being some really great photographers here, the submissions have a different vibe than you see at some other photo sites. Probably because of the things we're passionate and places we like to go. I'm honored that so many of you liked my picture - thanks for voting.

The winning shot was actually a bit of an accident. I was driving back to Jackson across eastern Idaho a couple weeks ago and it had been raining all day (pretty much every day this spring). The clouds opened up in the evening, creating some great contrast on the landscape and clouds. I didn't have my DSLR with me but I've learned that I should always keep the s95 close by, just in case. This shot was just a RAW image with no filters, IR, or anything else fancy. The scene was so amazing that all I really needed to do in Lightroom was desaturate and crop the image and then bump up the contrast a bit my adjusting the black point. The weather did all the hard work!

My $0.02 on judging: photography is an art so everyone's perceptions are different. There is definitely more of a technical aspect to it than most artistic media, though. IMO, technical expertise is part of the game but vision and creativity is what separates the good from the inspiring. For a couple years, I was much more focused on learning the technical side of things and most of my friends/family thought I was a good photographer, based largely on having vibrant/sharp/contrasty shots from good equipment, some post-processing, and modest technical expertise. One of my friends is a pro, though, and looking at his stuff has really made me believe that what makes a great shot is vision and creativity - expressing a feeling, mood, or experience to someone who wasn't there. Don't get me wrong, I'm still dazzled by technical acrobatics and the folks who have the skill to capture them, but my favorite shots are the ones that I connect with emotionally somehow.

I love (non sour grapes) discussion of submissions since it reveals the different perspectives that folks see when they look at the same picture. A lot of times, I get inspiration or ideas from other folk's comments and observations.

I'm on the road right now but will try to get the next contest set up in the next day or two. Thank again, everyone.

[phattypowpow]

Indeed! It's always fun comparing two shots that address the same theme but in very different ways. I'm keeping a copy of your shot on my computer - beautiful and completely unlike most of the pictures I'm used to seeing.

Congrats phattypowpow! Nice shot. Was pretty close all the way, good battle.

(in before Lonnie comes back in and starts crying)

[phattypowpow]

Actually, both shots were just RAW with a little PP in Lightroom. On the color shot, I added a little vibrance, cropped, and moved the black point. The low sun was just saturating everything and selectively highlighting sections of the clouds. Better to be lucky than good, I say.

Based on his other submission, could it be a HDR-> B&W conversion? His color shot looked HDR-ish to me.

[Fuzz]

IMO, technical expertise is part of the game but vision and creativity is what separates the good from the inspiring. For a couple years, I was much more focused on learning the technical side of things and most of my friends/family thought I was a good photographer, based largely on having vibrant/sharp/contrasty shots from good equipment, some post-processing, and modest technical expertise. One of my friends is a pro, though, and looking at his stuff has really made me believe that what makes a great shot is vision and creativity - expressing a feeling, mood, or experience to someone who wasn't there.

My EXACT thoughts. When I advanced beyond basic point-and-shoot, everyone (including myself) loved my shots. But really, it was a matter of being at the right place at the right time, using the right settings (sometimes automatically), and doing some processing. Yes, they were nice shots, but didn't require much vision, much "seeing". As I've improved (I like to think!), I try to "see" differently, beyond the usual scene, to bring out a personal vision/mood. And I've also become much more selective in liking shots (either by myself or others) -- the shots I like best are the ones that have something unique, a certain perspective, angle, vision, mood, whatever. While sunrise/sunset and long-exposure waterfall/stream shots are nice, they don't really do much for me -- after a while they all look alike and don't show much unique vision (there are obviously fantastic exceptions, ones where the vision does shine through).

This topic of what makes a good photo might be worth its own thread.

[Dromond]

I was just going through a series by this photojournalist which made me think of this discussion. The reason being that the photos are an explosion of grain and very lo-def but at least in my opinion have fascinating content and imagery.
.




Here is a link to the article and whole series: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0...n-villages/?hp

And here is his portfolio: http://www.mattblack.com