Harness the Wind
by Citadel

Comment by Dirt_Diver:
You know I sat here for days trying to come up with a picture on how to show wind. I googled it and saw the wind generators but not once did I think of this. I'm giving you a 8, not only for clarity, DOF, Color, lighting but for the fact that you took something that most people couldn't think of and captured it on camera. This is a great picture.

GOOD LUCK with the challenge.

Harness the Wind
by Citadel

Comment by trevytrev:
The frame seems a little tight in this photo but still a nice picture.

Canterra Tower
by Citadel

Comment by JBHale:
Hello from the Critique Club!!

This is a very strong image, the angle is dynamic and creates great negative space with the sky. The shape of the building makes for a nice subject. Many of the technical apsects are spot on.

I think what hurts this picture is the color and contrast. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like this building was in the shade. The contrast is very low and doesn't allow for thet "pop" that people always look for. I have always found that neutral light creates more dull pictures. If you use the bright sun to light your subject your contrast will always be better. The reflection is only of the sky and doesn't allow for any interesting elements.

I love the shot, and think that with more dynamic colors and contrast, it would be very stong.

--James B. Hale

Okotoks BMX
by Citadel

Comment by VAMP_hotography:
Your focus is on the background and not the rider, us I'm sure you're aware. I would advise you to go back and def try again with auto focus on continuous.

Landing Strip
by Citadel

Comment by indecline:
Thanks for the update - I can see a few of the 'hard edged' areas now - under the armpit and where the jersey tucks into the pants seem to be the most revealing - I wonder if this is being caused by the limited color gamut of your color mode in-camera (standard RGB)? Are you converting to Adobe RGB in processing? Try setting your camera to AdobeRGB and keep that profile throughout your workflow -

My wife has a D50 and we only shoot in aRGB RAW, however, when we first bought the camera, she (unknowingly) was using the default setting of sRGB and it sure seemed like we had a lot of quirky little color problems similar to what you experienced above ... in addition to how much more vibrant aRGB is, I would suggest giving it a shot if you are able to consistently reproduce the problem that got your pic disqualified.

Good Luck and let me know how it goes,
Jason

Landing Strip
by Citadel

Comment by Citadel:
The "flag" that got my submission noticed was the hard edges transitions.
In particular, the sky in a few "inside corners" like the rider's armpit, between the right knee and the handlebar, under the seat
and within the wheel is much lighter, and shows a hard-edged
transition to the darker tones of the rest of the sky.

I was baffled at the edges myself because I honestly didn't put them there. However, I was able to reproduce it and quite well after I played with it for a while.

My steps were like I mentioned:

Crop
Resize
Levels
Saturation

What I didn't mention was the USM I did but that was my last step. That was the step that did it.
In PSP I did a Unsharpen mask with these settings

Radius 10
Strength 30
Clipping 80

Even just doing the crop and resize then the USM the effect nearly mirrored what was seen in my submission.

Not sure what's next in store but at least I know what the heck happened.

Canterra Tower
by Citadel

Comment by geahsklz:
Nicely done. Obviously beyond your control, but I almost wish that there were more clouds in the sky to add contrast and interest to the photo. Nevertheless, well done.

Landing Strip
by Citadel

Comment by Citadel:
I'm actually in discussion with SC about this. I will pass on my findings as appropriate. Thanks for your interest guys!

Message edited by author 2007-05-16 16:41:00.

Landing Strip
by Citadel

Comment by indecline:
I would like to know too ... did you do some "spot editing"? - I looked around your pic and couldn't find anything ... did you clip something out of the sky/background?

...maybe someone with a keen eye can fill us in on what went wrong here ... ?

Message edited by author 2007-05-16 14:09:57.

Canterra Tower
by Citadel

Comment by Retroesque:
The odd angles jutting out from the building make this distracting and the all over heavyness of the blue tones offer little charm.