Contest #30: Voting! (CLOSED)

The first rule of voting. Please please please leave a comment when you vote. This contest really comes alive when people just drop in,say hi and perhaps tell us why they voted for a particular photo. It makes the contest more fun and gives really great feedback for the photographers.

Other stuff:

• The poll will remain open for 7 days.
  
• You can vote for three photos. Your vote will be public
  
• Please don't vote for your own photos!
  
• As before there will 1st, 2nd and 3rd place positions.
  
• No prizes, sorry
  
• I will be announcing the names (aliases) of the people who win. Send me a PM if you don't want your name to be announced.

I'm away on buisness all next week so I've asked MattyB to run the next contest. He'll be posting the contest thread in the next day or two so keep your eyes peeled!

I voted for #39 because it tells a story and use dof very well.

#37 mainly because I play golf myself.

As good as the rest of the photos are I think only a few of them meet my interpretation of the subject. I have a feeling that some of the photos are photos that have just been pulled from the archive because of the use of dof.

A few comments on some of the photos:

#22: What is the hand in the front doing? Its as if the hand is just there to have something in the front of the kid. Looks staged.
#25: I don't get that one?
#35: Great photo but in my opinion fits better in a "best bokeh" contest.

I should have read the rules before I voted I only voted for one...

#38 because although it is a common item the photographer did an excellent job of making it look interesting.

Lots of nice pictures here. DOF has been used in some way in all of them - in a broad definition. Only in some of them DOF has been used to draw attention to a particular detail and simultaneously combine sharp and unsharp parts to tell a story or explain the entire scene.

My votes go the following 'good use of dof' pictures:
#4 - Humorous picture
#24 - A different kind of wedding picture. Nice.
#39 - Tells a very strong story...


G3owner

I vote for #33 because of the mood it sets. There are multiple DOF layers if you look closely in the picture even tough it's dark. There are a few of which I consider to be more of a macro pic than a true DOF picture. I like #18 and #35 also. #37 also gets a special mention as you can clearly see a true DOF.

Hey all,

Some great photos again in this competition, clearly getting better submissions each week,
The ones that i liked most were:

36: Great use of DOF like this image - tells a story...
04: great use of DOF, tells a good story & makes good use of foreground and background blur.
34: great sharpness in this image, clearly focusing on the roll of hay? although lacks some foreground aspect...

And here's some comments on some of the other images, although i'd have to agree with tommy about some of the entries not fitting into the theme

05: while the photographer has made use of DOF, the picture is not exciting - kind of bland.

06: Very nice image, however it really annoys me that the bean smack in the middle of the pile is out of focus... i really believe that if that bean was sharp, the image would look different, the blur would draw your eye to a very sharp bean - emphasising the whole image. could've been a 9.5 but gave it

08: reading the photographers comments, i can empathise with him, however the lady? in the background has a strange shape? it looks as if her waist is bulging out between her top and her pants? and the sugar? in the foreground is too dark? but from the comments, maybe that's what his intention was

09: nice alternative view of a wedding picture, the lady behind the two girls doesnt look too happy to be there ?

12: I think the composition could've done better here, the top of the child's head is just out of frame and maybe i would've liked to see the whole cup? not sure though, some experimentation may have done well.

15: while very good use of DOF, the image lacks a story...

18: very nice image , although i think some fill flash would've gone a long way to make the bird stand out even more, i also would have liked to see his other foot, to complete the bird.

25: This image could have been so much better, the photographer should've really peered into the engine, pick out a spark plug and focus on it with blurry cables and the rest of the engine? or some other engine component that almost everyone would recognise and make that item sharp while the surroundings blurry...

35: Maybe a little too shallow of a DOF, a little more sharpness plane would have possibly made the butterfly look a bit better.

I voted 4 and 17 because I like this kind of pics where the focus point is between the foreground and the background.

Yacine.

38 made me laugh out loud when I first saw it, so my first vote went there.

26 gets a vote for being very creative

27 I thought was a very pretty photo although I would have liked a slightly looser DOF.

Nice work everyone

#5 gave me a chill, very unsettling picture, great use of DOF. #35 is a good play on words and the change in the bales due to DOF is striking. #30 is kind of two pictures in one, because of DOF. These "low stress" contests are great. I am inspired to submit a photo for the next one.

A reminder that I'm away all next week and won't have any internet access. I'll respond to any PMs etc when I return on the 24th Sept.

Hi all

I voted for 4 , 6 & 37
I liked the way these three showed dof as a band of focus with both foreground and background focus tailing off , I also found the subjects interesting , number 4 & 37 esp with the human involvement , in a way i think the vignetting in 37 adds to the feel.

34 was great. i loved how literal the title was.

I love 29. It's really the only one where you have a single subject that's both in and out of focus.

30 is very pleasant to look at. But I disagree with the title-- the pencil isn't dead, it just came alive (what good is an unsharpened pencil?)

I can't decide on a third pick, so I'll leave it at two.

REsults are up

http://www.photography​-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=100789