Picture It - July/August - Voting Thread

[escimo]

Digital Photographers United - Picture It
July/August - Theme: Serene

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About this month's competition:

First Digital Photographers United photography competition has advanced to the voting phase.
Originally the idea was to hold the competition in the similar manner as Artists Alike and From Afar drawing competition, with two phase voting. First phase in group to determine the top three and then public vote to determine the winner. However at the end of the original deadline we had just three entries so the first phase was skipped to allow more time to submit entries. In the end we ended up with five entries which are now posted here.

Competition Rules:

Only your own work!
The picture must be taken by you and the processing of it must be done by yourself as well. Joint entries are allowed but in this case all the participants must be credited. If you get caught posting stolen works, the entries will be rejected and you'll be excluded from the current event. This means that you won't be allowed to re-enter to the competition with a different entry.

Only photographic elements!
While composing your final entry out of several photos is allowed. All the elements in your entry must be photographic. You can combine several of your own photos into a single image and process it as you wish but no artificial elements are allowed. So no rendered elements, brushes, vectors, drawn elements. etc.

Technical regulations:
Submit your entry as a JPEG image. Maximum dimensions are 1600x1600px. Filesize is unlimited.

Changes to the next competition:

Submitting an entry will no longer be limited to the members of Digital Photographers United, instead it will be open for all the AnimeSuki members. However competition's discussion thread and entry thread will remain in the Social Group. More information on how to enter the competition will be posted at the end of the voting period. These threads will also be linked at that point.

Entry phase and voting phase:

The competition is held bi-monthly. From now on there will be 7 or 8 week entry phase and 1 week voting phase. Voting phase will be public poll here in Fan Creations.

Schedule for the rest of the year:

September/October entry phase: Aug 31st - Oct 18th
September/October voting phase: Oct 18th - Oct 25th
November/December entry phase: Oct 26th - Dec 20th
November/December voting phase: Dec 20th - Dec 27th

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Entries:
You can view larger versions (if available) of the entries by clicking them.
Entries listed in alphabetical order.


Aoie_Emesai



escimo



GuidoHunter_Toki



Ledgem



RadiantDreamer

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About voting:
Voting is done by single option, public poll.
You're not allowed to vote for your own entry.
Comments about the entries and the competition as a whole are more than welcome.

[escimo]

*reserved*

[escimo]

*reserved*

[Mon Cheri]

Hmm... Escimo or Ledgem? Escimo or Ledgem? Escimo or Ledgem?!
DAMN! Okay, Escimo get's the vote! But damn Ledgem, that is one nice photo!

[Miko Miko]

I voted escimo, its brilliant but they're all lovely!

[Evil Rick]

"Rises hand"

Voted RadiantDreamer! It's just... Radiant!

[Katocchi]

my Vote goes for RadiantDreamer ..

[ganbaru]

Voted for escimo because of the colors, bt it was a hard choice betweem him and Ledgem

[KholdStare]

Lol, to me, this is like picking a favorite anime from two different genres. I guess this is why there is always a theme in SoTM. But I will have to choose Ledgem for the beautiful reflection of the sky in the water.

[NorthernFallout]

Well that was certainly hard to choose one, especially when it involves snow AND sunset. I think I have to go for... Ledgem. I love the vibrant colors and peaceful reflections.

It was tight though, escimo and Aoei was extremely close.

[Delitesco]

Voted for RadiantDreamer. Good luck everyone!

[Daniel E.]

Originally Posted by Delitesco

Voted for RadiantDreamer. Good luck everyone!

Same here!

[Nosauz]

Here's one for Ledgem, seems so serene

i will say escimo's pic reminds me so much of raxephon... god damn sakura are sooooo pretty

[The Chaos]

my vote go for escimo

[Drake]

Oh my how did I not see this sooner.

My voted goes to RadiantDreamer.

The use and choice of prop is quite interesting and adds an unusual dimention to the photo. Aswell as that its quite a beautiful schene.

Not an decision mind you and because i'm quite keen on taking to odd photo snap myself so I can appreciate the effort involved so well done to all those who submitted entrys.

[Death Header]

You can combine several of your own photos into a single image and process it as you wish but no artificial elements are allowed. So no rendered elements, brushes, vectors, drawn elements

Regarding to this rule, I believe that RadiantDreamer's photograph breaks this rule a bit since the model in the picture seems to be rendered into a different photograph (aka. yes, you are able to do this with photoshop). Unless that you are allowed to edit images a bit with Photoshop that is.

My vote goes to:
Aoie_Emesai
Eskimo

[Ledgem]

*shakes fist at escimo*
IR filter hax!

[escimo]

Originally Posted by Death Header

Regarding to this rule, I believe that RadiantDreamer's photograph breaks this rule a bit since the model in the picture seems to be rendered into a different photograph (aka. yes, you are able to do this with photoshop). Unless that you are allowed to edit images a bit with Photoshop that is.

My vote goes to:
Aoie_Emesai
Eskimo

To clear up the confusion, this refers to 3D, fractal etc. renders, not photo cut outs, as far as they're your own photos. Photoshopping the entries is allowed and encouraged, since it's a very integral part of digital photography.

As in:


So there's no problem with RadiantDreamer's entry.

I'll rephrase that rule in the future events.


I'll have to reject GuidoHunter_Toki's vote.

About voting:
Voting is done by single option, public poll.
You're not allowed to vote for your own entry.
Comments about the entries and the competition as a whole are more than welcome.

[escimo]

I had a hard time picking the one to vote. A few notes about the entries:

Aoie_Emesai:
Much of the basics in this are bang on. However it feels a bit unfinished. A bit of photoshopping would have done wonders to it. The biggest issue in my opinion are the levels. The fact that it lacks all and any highlight makes it look a bit bland. I bet it would look spectacular in high key, but with just a tad of S-curve in the shadow end.

GuidoHunter_Toki:
The picture is a bit busy and lacks clear focus point. Basic composition is still OK, just that it didn't fit the conditions very well. One thing about photographing people that's worth of careful consideration is the line of sight. The most natural/neutral angle would be about on the eye level of the subject or a tad below it but still with a completely horizontal angle. Going with a low or high angle adds message to the picture that you might want to consider. Proverbial looking up or looking down on people actually works in reality just the same as far as photography is concerned.

Ledgem:
Vibrant colors, good composition and a very calming feel to it. A great capture. This fits in all of my three categories of a great shot. Timing, location and execution. Had a hard time choosing between this and RadiantDreamer's entry. Ended up voting for this.

Radiant Dreamer:
I really like this one as well. And I do have to say I'm in awe of the sheer skill required to combine two photos so seamlessly. Made choosing the winner very, very hard but what can I say, I'm just a sucker for great scenery photos so this ended up extremely close second.

[Risa chan]

Voted for Ledgem for the peace and warm colors of the picture.
Great job to everyone ^^