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DPChallenge Forums >> Current Challenge >> Graduated filters in Advanced Editing?
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05/14/2009 01:06:54 AM · #1
My image was disqualified in the recent Darkness challenge. Here is the original (sorry- it uploaded sideways).

The biggest thing I did during processing was to apply a graduated filter with the darkest at the top of the image. It was my understanding that you could use digital versions of normal photography filters as long as they were applied to the entire image. Besides that I did a little dodging on the swimmer's body and adjusted levels and hue/ saturation, resized and sharpened. The result was:


The ruling I got from DP was:
"You may not use ANY editing tool to move, remove or duplicate any element of your photograph that would change a typical viewer's description of the photograph (aside from color), even if the tool is otherwise legal, and regardless of whether you intended the change when the photograph was taken."
I did not move, remove, or duplicate any elements of the image.
From the rules for Advanced Editing :
You May:
*apply filters, effects, dodge & burn, and other tools to all or part of your entry, but NO new shapes or features may be created in the process.
*saturate, desaturate or change the colors of your entry or any existing object within it.
*use layers, layer masks, and alternative layer modes.

I guess I do not understand the reason my photo was disqualified. The upper portion could also have been made darker by burning or using a layer mask- also allowed proceedures.

05/14/2009 01:22:44 AM · #2
I think the filter "changed a typical viewer's description of the photograph", im guessing if you woud have burned the top and still allowed the water texture to appear it would have been ok.
05/14/2009 01:29:33 AM · #3
I'm guessing it's not the fact that you used the graduated filter, it's the extent to which it came out in the final pic. I think if you'd had it such there was still some water detail left at the top, that would have been OK. The philosophy with advanced editing is that it's results-based, whereas basic editing is tool-based. It's not so much what you do, but how it comes out.

To be blunt, if you have to edit it to make it meet the challenge (as I don't think it meets the challenge on it's own) as opposed to editing to make it look nice, then you're doing it wrongly.
05/14/2009 01:30:51 AM · #4
I don't think that it is the procedure that dq'd you. It is the removal of water and replacing it with black negative space. For some other challenge, it may have been overlooked. (If the challenge was e.g."water" or "swimming" it might not have been a DQ). Since the challenge called for darkness, and there was none in the original, you have changed/swayed the ordinarily skilled viewer perception as fitting the challenge.

05/14/2009 02:18:05 AM · #5
I think that srdanz summarized perfectly. The post processing procedure created the element that was the theme of the challenge in this case, there really wasn't any 'darkness' in the original shot. Cool shot, but it pushed the DP rules too far for the theme of this challenge. I'd have to say that in this case, it was a fair DQ.
05/14/2009 03:52:40 PM · #6
Thank you for the replies. It makes more sense to me now. I had a photo I was excited about and was disappointed with the DQ but it is not really that big of a deal in the long run. It is not like I lost out on any money in it- just a friendly competition. I did get some excellent comments on it during the challenge and even picked up a couple of favorites on it. Thank you again.
05/14/2009 04:45:51 PM · #7
Originally posted by srdanz:

I don't think that it is the procedure that dq'd you. It is the removal of water and replacing it with black negative space. For some other challenge, it may have been overlooked. (If the challenge was e.g."water" or "swimming" it might not have been a DQ). Since the challenge called for darkness, and there was none in the original, you have changed/swayed the ordinarily skilled viewer perception as fitting the challenge.


This is unlikely to be accurate; there's no provision in the rules for connecting legality of a manipulation with the topic at hand. The manipulation is either legal or not legal. While the gradient darkening can be (and often is, by me for example) used legally, if it's used to create a whole new graphic element, especially one that dominates the image the way this does, it's definitely not legal. That this was accomplished with a gradient is neither here nor there; had it been done by "hand" via burning-in, it still would have been dinged. The water has been completely replaced with a yawning cave of darkness that wasn't even implied to begin with. If there'd been, say, a horizon and some sky there, and the extreme darkness were where the sky had been, then this would have been darkening an existing element (the sky) and that probably would have passed.

R.

Message edited by author 2009-05-14 16:47:37.
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