POTN G-series Speed Challenge #158 - Gloom

[CJinAustin]

THE WINNERS:

3rd Place - News of Hitler invading Poland (Marie) -- Great show; brings back some awful gloomy memories of the **** invasion; makes it easy to imagine the people in the picture going through the process all over again.

2nd Place - Midnight Oil (Boutty) -- Nice Angle, Nice Exposure,,, Nice B&W conversion, this could certainly be used as a stock photograph... I think you nailed the picture and as always you have entered a great picture.

1st Place - Al Fresco Lunch (Bottom Bracket) -- I love this shot; it has a nice film like quality. The muted colors, the good dodge and burns and most importantly an individual who represents everything I would consider a gloomy future for myself. I like the way he is surrounded by light but never in it... Like the old bugs bunny cartoons where he just can't escape the little storm cloud. ;)

I look forward to participating again. Everyone did a great job. Let's have 20 entries next time!


Challenge #158 - Gloom

I won't taint your originality by making suggestions; I will supply the definition for the word and you can just run with it.

Have fun and good luck!

Gloom:
–noun
1.total or partial darkness; dimness.
2.a state of melancholy or depression; low spirits.
3.a despondent or depressed look or expression. –verb (used without object)
4.to appear or become dark, dim, or somber.
5.to look sad, dismal, or dejected; frown. –verb (used with object)
6.to fill with gloom; make gloomy or sad; sadden.
7.to make dark or somber.



________________________________

To submit, click "Post Reply" and put your Photo Name in the Subject Line. Don't forget your Camera Model.

Post until Monday noon GMT, 18 February 2008.


Photo Submissions

1. Camera -- Canon G-Series Camera (G1, G2, G3, G5, G6, G7, G9) or Pro 1 only.

2. Time -- any on-topic photo taken at any time is eligible, although photos that have won other competitions should NOT be entered.

3. Size -- photo must be EXACTLY 640 pixels on the longest side, with NO BORDERS.

4. Post-Processing -- do whatever you like and the host will decide if it works.

5. Posting --
* One photo per photographer in each challenge.
* Photo Title in the message subject line.
* Camera model.
* EXIF data, if you like.

6. Commenting -- No commenting on photos by anyone, including the photographer. Once the winners are declared, photographers can add comments to their images and everyone is invited to discuss.

7. Photo Display -- Photos must appear in this thread to be eligible.

Time

One challenge every week, on the following schedule:

New Topic ... As soon as possible after winning.
Posting Starts ... Right after topic is announced.
Posting Stops ... Monday noon GMT
Winners Announcement ... Tuesday noon GMT.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please consider turning on Private Messaging in your profile.
This will allow the host to contact you about winning or ineligible photos. You turn this feature on by clicking "User CP, Edit Options, Enable Private Messaging" (about a third of the way down the page). Thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click this sentence for Hosting Rules and Winners List. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=926762#post926762)

Click this sentence for Discussion of Rules thread. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=59640)

[spg]

Canon G9

ISO 80
Aperture 4.8
Shutter 1/20

[edited to resize photo, sorry]

[jhoesly]

G9 Dusk Snow

[teekay]

G1
http://community.netidea.com/teekay/temp/Pilings.jpg

[rickinto]

First post....thought I would try out the challenge ...

Canon G9
ISO 100
Aperture f/2.8

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa90/rickinto/gloomy/gloomygarage.jpg

[BottomBracket]

Canon G6

[ToddSpoth]

"On A Wire"

Canon G9
ISO80 1/30th @ f8

http://toddspoth.com/birds.jpg

www.toddspoth.com

[Boutty]

G6 | 1/60 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 50

[Kevan_G9]

G9
Tv:1/125
Av: 4.0
ISO: 80
7.4, Panorama (3):

[Hotfudge]

Storm brewing
G9 auto

http://i32.tinypic.com/29z3dzr.jpg

[lukeeesteve]

G9
f3.5
1/3s
ISO100

[macroshot]

G7 (handheld) 1/6 sec f2.8

245481

[rpolitsr]

http://www.geocities.com/r_polit_5/pictures/potnentries/158_gloom_5_IMG_0723_filtered.jpg

powershot Pro1

[andrewaaa5]

g3....

http://www.butterpeanut.com/canong3/gloom_vento_IMG_8223b.jpg

[Broomer]

G7
F4 1/160

[marie]

pro 1
1/40 f3.5

http://www.pbase.com/image/93066639/original.jpg

[Car]

G7
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc306/biya_photos/Sulking.jpg

[Maureen Souza]

Pro 1

[ErikB]

G9. f/4.0, shutter 2.5s, iso80

http://ebaudio.com/tmp/cal_seal_sm4.jpg

[drasp]

http://delaraspelle.com/misc_pix/potn_158.jpg

Canon G9

[CJinAustin]

The Challenge has Closed! Thank You for Participating...

[Tucker]

Wanted to submit this, but it was taken with a Sony Cybershot :mad:

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n35/clickfortucker/43-1.jpg?t=1203275855

[rpolitsr]

Congratulations BottomBracket, Boutty, and marie

This was the challenge of B&W (or almost). The theme calls for B&W, it seems.

BB was your picture desaturated ? I am curious because my picture, except for the ad at right, was ‘naturally’ desaturated and I increased the saturation in post production (now I think it was an error).

Apart for the dictionary descriptions and the use of the word in some books I read, I have never used gloom in a real phrase of my own, so it was an additional difficulty to figure it out all the implications of its meaning. :(

I used to work in B&W with film, but my conversions in digital are not convincing examples. Some tips from the participants?

There were many great entries this time, congratulations to all.


I look forward to participating again. Everyone did a great job. Let's have 20 entries next time!

Almost! They are twenty if you count the cybershot image by Tucker. :)

[ToddSpoth]

How does the voting or decision process work? If it's just one person who votes, who is it?

[macroshot]

Todd -- see the sticky on the first page of the "G-Series" camera forum for the details of how the speed challenge works. Basically, the winner of the previous week's challenge is the one who gets to decide theme/subject, and also is the sole judge for their respective challenge.

Good photo by the way. I really liked that image of the birds.

[macroshot]

Wow -- nice job to everyone on what I thought was a really tough subject. Looking forward to the new challenge. Congratulations to BottomBracket, Boutty, and Marie for their winning entries.

[marie]

:cool:
Congratulations to Bottombracket # 1 and to Boutty # 2
terrific shots

:)
many thanks for hosting and judging the challenge CJ
and for third placing
: )

thanks Rafael and Macroshot
Congrats everyone, enjoyed all the entries very much


:)


Rafael, I made my picture 'old look' like a shot (excuse the pun):rolleyes: from the war years ........so its not so much bl/wh

but as you mention re bl/wh (hints) will say (in case its helpful in other cases) that I usually use psp9 when converting some shots (to bl/wh)
> in psp9 , adjust/ colour balance, / channel mixer ... bl/wh points etc
ending up with levels to even things out accordingly.
sometimes all goes well ,sometimes not, a lot depends on the original shot and how it is photographed
by the way ,meant to say it last week Pink Lady apples are my favourites (Boutty mentioned them after you posted your lovely shot of the buds):cool:

and best wishes to the challenge for its Birthday Celebrations this time of year , thanks for the info. and reminder Rafael and also for your help every week in adding on the names to the winners list etc .
its much appreciated

[CJinAustin]

Congratulations BottomBracket, Boutty, and marie

This was the challenge of B&W (or almost). The theme calls for B&W, it seems.

BB was your picture desaturated ? I am curious because my picture, except for the ad at right, was ‘naturally’ desaturated and I increased the saturation in post production (now I think it was an error).

Apart for the dictionary descriptions and the use of the word in some books I read, I have never used gloom in a real phrase of my own, so it was an additional difficulty to figure it out all the implications of its meaning. :(

I used to work in B&W with film, but my conversions in digital are not convincing examples. Some tips from the participants?

There were many great entries this time, congratulations to all.



Almost! They are twenty if you count the cybershot image by Tucker. :)


Don't be discouraged; Basically the winner of the last challenge judges the next. If someone else would have judged the entries it may have turned out completely different. It was hard to choose the top 3 as there were about 5 or 6 I really liked, let alone put them in some sort of order after I did. The results were my interpretation of the art. It does not make your interpretation or anyone elses art wrong or bad. These 3 just spoke to "me" the most.

[rpolitsr]

Thank you marie!

The complete quote then is as follows:

Originally posted by macroshot
I look forward to participating again. Everyone did a great job. Let's have 20 entries next time!

Originally posted by CJinAustin
I look forward to participating again. Everyone did a great job. Let's have 20 entries next time!
:) :) :)

It is nice you enjoyed the pink ladys

About the Challenges ‘birthday’ I was wrong, challenge #155 was the closing contest of year 3 and Challenge #156 was the first of the fourth year, but the important thing is that people is still posting and, still better, that there are many new participants these days. Welcome all.

Although teekay summoned the ( whisper: ) Title Fairy calling me Mr.Statistics Keeper, I have one more bit of them: :)

The three participants with the highest count as first place winners so far are Boutty, marie and teekay, Their job is a big support to the challenges!

How does the voting or decision process work? If it's just one person who votes, who is it?

As macroshot said. The basic rules are always posted on the first post of each challenge and the hosting rules in the fist post of the above mentioned sticky:

Sticky: POTN G-series Speed Challenge Information (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=926762&postcount=1)

A remainder to all:

The size of the images for the challenges is different than the maximum allowed image size of the forum, check the linked rules.

[lukeeesteve]

G7 (handheld) 1/6 sec f2.8

245481

I really like the effect on this picture.

AND Congrats to the winners......very nice pictures!!

[rpolitsr]

Oops! Your post was not there when I started mine.

Congratulations CJinAustin you did a good job and chose a nice topic.
Part of the fun here is that every host has his own criteria for judging .

[marie]

Thank you marie!

The complete quote then is as follows:

:) :) :)

thanks Rafael, I got it wrong and had just taken that info. off my message to you (oops) before your reply came in now :eek:



About the Challenges ‘birthday’ I was wrong, challenge #155 was the closing contest of year 3 and Challenge #156 was the first of the fourth year, but the important thing is that people is still posting and, still better, that there are many new participants these days. Welcome all. yes, and a few newcomers this week
welcome
:)



As macroshot said. The basic rules are always posted on the first post of each challenge and the hosting rules in the fist post of the above mentioned sticky:
Sticky: POTN G-series Speed Challenge Information (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=926762&postcount=1)
A remainder to all:
The size of the images for the challenges is different than the maximum allowed image size of the forum, check the linked rules. I was thinking, maybe the sizes could be allowed to 800mm on the longest side ?
but no worries if its not a good idea
or any hassle (at all)
:confused:

thanks Rafael

[marie]

Oops! Your post was not there when I started mine.




ha ha ha ha ha
I only saw this now after I posted that last post
{last post} {:shock:}

we both were saying ooops

:lol:

[rpolitsr]

ha ha ha ha ha
I only saw this now after I posted that last post
{last post} {:shock:}

we both were saying ooops

:lol:


he he!

If all of you start posting in Spanish I will be certainly a bit faster posting here. I need an extra step for grammar and spell checking :(

[BottomBracket]

Hey I am pleasantly surprised with the win. Thanks CJ and all, and congratulations to Boutty and Marie for making the winners circle. Heck congratulations to everyone who participated, I really enjoyed the various interpretations on the theme. Thanks too to CJ for being an excellent host. It is great coming back to this challenge after a hiatus of sorts. I remember my very first post on this forum, long ago, it was an entry to the first G-series challenge. So this is certainly like coming home again.

I consider myself a street photographer more than anything else, and it dates back to my film days. I find that the G-series cameras, (I use a G6 and G3's) are excellent street cameras, as they are unobtrusive and people don't mind then as much as a big black dSLR. This shot of mine was taken with the G6 held low at the waist, with the swivel screen acting as a waist level finder. I am not sure if the subject noticed me taking a photo of him, if ever he did, I would like to believe that he saw me bowing politely to him as I took the picture. This was taken by the way in Brooklyn, under the M train railway. In this part of town, the subway is actually elevated above the streets.

PP was a workflow that I have been working on these past couple of years. Among other things, it involved desaturation and some artful dodging and burning to achieve a gritty film noire look that I feel suits urban street scenes well.

Anyway, thanks again all! Give me some time to formulate the next challenge.

[BottomBracket]

By the way, Marie beat me to it, I was thinking too that maybe we can increase the size of the photo to 800 pixels on the longest side. The larger image would have a bit more impact, I would think.

[lukeeesteve]

By the way, Marie beat me to it, I was thinking too that maybe we can increase the size of the photo to 800 pixels on the longest side. The larger image would have a bit more impact, I would think.

Second that...what is the limit we can upload to the forum library?

[rpolitsr]

I thought about the size too, but I am still wondering if an 800 pixels vertical or square image is a bit too large even for a moderately sized monitor. For 4:3 horizontal images certainly 800x600 is better, I think.

[CJinAustin]

Hey I am pleasantly surprised with the win. Thanks CJ and all, and congratulations to Boutty and Marie for making the winners circle. Heck congratulations to everyone who participated, I really enjoyed the various interpretations on the theme. Thanks too to CJ for being an excellent host. It is great coming back to this challenge after a hiatus of sorts. I remember my very first post on this forum, long ago, it was an entry to the first G-series challenge. So this is certainly like coming home again.

I consider myself a street photographer more than anything else, and it dates back to my film days. I find that the G-series cameras, (I use a G6 and G3's) are excellent street cameras, as they are unobtrusive and people don't mind then as much as a big black dSLR. This shot of mine was taken with the G6 held low at the waist, with the swivel screen acting as a waist level finder. I am not sure if the subject noticed me taking a photo of him, if ever he did, I would like to believe that he saw me bowing politely to him as I took the picture. This was taken by the way in Brooklyn, under the M train railway. In this part of town, the subway is actually elevated above the streets.

PP was a workflow that I have been working on these past couple of years. Among other things, it involved desaturation and some artful dodging and burning to achieve a gritty film noire look that I feel suits urban street scenes well.

Anyway, thanks again all! Give me some time to formulate the next challenge.

Do you know why that guy was sitting on the chair or what he does,,,? That pic was really gloomy to me... not in a way the others were.. A very uncomfortable gloom... I don't want to get fat, lonely, bald, ugly, have heart disease eating sausage everyday sitting in a chair on the street, etc.. Looked like the opposite of what I hope to achieve and I must think that it all turned out different than he wanted as well.. Great Pic, and matched the word perfect for me...

[Kevan_G9]

Congrats to the winners and to all who contributed. I have to say...these weekly challenges do wonders, keeping me motivated, to find the best out myself as a photographer. I certainly can't blame the camera, it works flawlessly, everytime.

Oh, and watch out for that Tucker character...I have it on good authority, he's going to be (might say, he already is) quite the photographer.

So what we got lined up for this week's test?

[BottomBracket]

OK, new challenge is up here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=4945745#post4945745). We can keep discussing about the larger image size, I think 800 pixels is good enough and can be handled easily by old monitors. I agree with marie's suggestion.

[BottomBracket]

Do you know why that guy was sitting on the chair or what he does,,,? That pic was really gloomy to me... not in a way the others were.. A very uncomfortable gloom... I don't want to get fat, lonely, bald, ugly, have heart disease eating sausage everyday sitting in a chair on the street, etc.. Looked like the opposite of what I hope to achieve and I must think that it all turned out different than he wanted as well.. Great Pic, and matched the word perfect for me...

I see that man often, as that place is near a supermarket that I go to regularly. He is a street vendor who sells shoes, actually a pretty nice guy who goes about his business. But one can tell that he is a bit down on his luck. His job isn't easy, I have no doubt that he would rather have another one if possible. The other day I saw him scratching a lottery ticket; I hope that he wins big sometime.

[rowdyred94]

Fantastic shots, everyone. It's always interesting to see which themes bring out the most participants.

I'm also in favor of increasing the image size limit. This page (http://www.thecounter.com/stats/2007/December/res.php) shows recent 800x600 monitor resolution usage at below 10%. I'd guess that the number is even less among digital photographers. Anything larger should display an 800 pixel image well, though some of us may need to shrink our list of browser toolbars to fit vertically. ;-)

[macroshot]

Considering the S- and A-series people are using 800 pixels, the G's should certainly be keeping up!! I concur: 800.

[teekay]

Considering the S- and A-series people are using 800 pixels, the G's should certainly be keeping up!! I concur: 800.

They also use a max file size limit of 200k, to keep quality on a level playing field and also to benefit (I assume) those people still on dial-up. On that forum the 200k limit does cause trouble with the less experienced not knowing how to vary compression to keep within limits (and often not knowing how to resize to 800, either).

I concur with changing the rule to 800 pixels exactly on the longest side. But what about a 200k limit here, too?

[rpolitsr]

In order to complete the discussion of the proposed new size rule, I pasted all the posts about size in the Discussion of Rules thread

Can we continue posting our opinions there?

Thank you

[Boutty]

Sorry for late response. After a couple of sweltering days in Melbourne, at last I could turn on my PC in my garage typing this. :evil:

Congrats to Pio (BB) and marie for your both great connection and emotional pictures. thanks CJinAustin for liking my picture - a lot of other participants could have easy top mine. Nice work to ALL; Let's make it over 20 entries this week in BB's contest. :p

My picture was shot the day I received the peanut trigger purchased from ebay. My model and work Colleague Jeff was found working alone in a dark meeting room. I asked him for permission to disturb him a few shots practicing and experimenting my off camera lighting. I named the image after the group Midnight Oil, Jeff's favourite group. :oops:

[BottomBracket]

Thanks John (Boutty)! Funny that you mention Midnight Oil, it is one of my favorite bands as well. I love their songs, which delve on social and environmental issues. "Beds Are Burning" and "Stars of Warburton" run through my head right now as I type this.

Kung Hei Fat Choy, my old friend.

[Boutty]

Thanks John (Boutty)! Funny that you mention Midnight Oil, it is one of my favorite bands as well. I love their songs, which delve on social and environmental issues. "Beds Are Burning" and "Stars of Warburton" run through my head right now as I type this.

Umm... Need to borrow Jeff's CD to listen to "Stars of Warburton". I learnt how to dance from "Beds Are Burning". :lol:

Kung Hei Fat Choy, my old friend.

Wishing you have a wonderful Rat year too! Big brother. :p

http://media.smh.com.au/?category=Breaking%20News&rid=35573