Lories
by shamrock

Comment:
Wow these sure are bright! I think a slightly shallower DoF to further blur out the background would help a little here.

wintry walk
by xtine

Comment:
The grain is really effective on this shot, and I really like the simplicity.

Majesty
by Konador

Comment:
To comment on every shot I also have to comment on my own. Hence this comment. That's number 701 in the challenge! :)

Take Me To Your Leader.....
by espy2

Comment:
I feel the need to defend myself here, against the false allogations made about me.

I had never commented on ANY shot in the singled out challenge, nor voted, and I'm sure drew or lang could back me up on that. I'm only working on commenting on every shot in the Best of 2006 challenge - where I have left Rose a "nice comment" which has not been edited in any way.

I read Rose's thread, and I went to look at what comments she had recieved to better understand her point, so I could start a discussion, in the same way Terry did. After a long time on that thread, I thought I would be helpful and go back to her shot and give her some information that I thought would help.

I never changed any comment, and it is in fact the only comment I left in this challenge. It took a long time to write, but I don't think I'll bother being helpful in the future. I did nothing rash or out of order, and my comment isnt rude or mean in any way. It's supposed to be helpful. I don't know why Rose took it so badly, we even ended up somewhat agreeing about some things in the thread so I do not understand why Rose would think my comment was made out of spite.

Anyway, that's all I have to say to defend myself. Believe who you might.

Take Me To Your Leader.....
by espy2

Comment:
I think the DoF looks very unnatural here. If you are going to fake blur in post processing, you should study the basic principles.

The further something is away from the focal plane, the more it should be out of focus.

Therefore the person closest to the camera should be more blurred than the person between them and the person in focus.

Equally, the guy in green should be more out of focus than the people in blue cos he is further away from the girl in focus.

Since you have created so much blur in such a small physical area, the background, which is much further away in comparison, should be completely out of focus and extremely blurred, so detail is hardly seen. This is one of the main things that gives away your blur is fake. The background is just as blurred as the other people, no more.

Also, there seems to be very sloppy selection around the person in focus, since the trees in the background above her head are perfectly in focus! Also, some bits of her hat are out of focus despite being in the same focal plane as her.

If you use Photoshop CS for editing there is a "Lens Blur" effect which will blur different amounts based on an alpha mask you can create. Basically, in focus things are white, and everything else is darker, with black being the most out of focus. You can paint gradients and objects in different shades of grey depending on how far away from the focal plane they are. Then the tool does all the blurring for you, and also can apply lens aperture effects to highlights, which does give a very different appearance to "Gaussian Blur".

To sum up, blur is a gradual effect, not an "on and off" effect. You should try to experiment in photoshop to get the effect looking realistic before entering a shot here, or you will get a lot of people voting you down for bad editing.

Hollow
by SJCarter

Comment:
I'm not really a fan of the post processing here, but I'm trying to imagine how the shot would look without it. Its a very nicely composed portrait with a good dark feeling and nice expression.

Scottish Wild Cat
by ksymeon

Comment:
Wow, very scary looking! NIce shot :)

Boats in the Harbor
by alien2thisworld

Comment:
Great use of B&W and reflections. Great shot! 9

On the prowl.
by dickel

Comment:
Great detail here, and the DoF is really well used to isolate the head.

Connected
by just-married

Comment:
Super shot! I love it.