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05/08/2007 05:34:52 PM · #1
I got hammered in April's Free Study; my second lowest scoring entry yet.

Here's the entry


I thought it because people weren't "getting it" ... especially if blowing through images quickly to meet the 20% requirement in a field of nearly 600 photos. It has little thumbnail appeal and, if you've not seen these before, it requires some time to really take it in before understanding what you're looking at.

But, aside from a comment or two during voting to support that, it seems like others did get it ... meaning ultimately it just wasn't as interesting as I perceived it would be. Granted it wasn't going to place among the top given the quality of images submitted, but placing in the bottom 20%? *shrug*

More about the image ...

First, it is a composite based on two real photos of the Tempe, Arizona area taken from a few hundred feet up a small "mountain" looking down. The train part of the image is from a scene over Tempe Town Lake while the church part is from the center of old town.

The intent -- literally the reason I hiked the mountain and shot from this perspective -- was to create the illusion of a scale model, hence the merging of the train scene into the town shot. This is a fairly popular trend ... replicating an aerial "tilt/shift effect" making a real scene/subject look like a miniature or diorama.

The idea came to me while watching Night at the Museum which recalled this effect. And since Expert Editing rules were in place, I thought it the perfect time to try.

However, I'm guessing a number of voters wrote the image off as a crappy snap of an actual model/train set or thought DOF was improperly employed making for a less than pleasing result.

Maybe I should have went with one of my other versions?



More here
05/08/2007 05:40:54 PM · #2
I actually really enjoy the fake tilt/shift effect. You need the right shot to pull it off well and yours is a good one. Unfortunately, without actually knowing the effect has been faked it does actually look like you took a picture of a model which is kinda ho-hum. I wouldn't let it discourage you from continuing to shoot this type of picture though. I wouldn't enter it for a challenge just because if the viewer doesn't "get it" it they'll vote it down.

So um...after all that rambling I'll say I liked your submission

PS- the best was the construction shot. Its really kinda trippy!

Message edited by author 2007-05-08 17:41:52.
05/08/2007 05:45:11 PM · #3
I didn't vote. Honestly though, its a really cool effect and I'm sure it took some time. But the end product wasn't that appealing.

Message edited by author 2007-05-08 17:45:34.
05/08/2007 05:48:05 PM · #4
On the bright side your commenters gave you an average 6.8 vote - that's darn good. My own vote was a 7 for this shot. I think the scale model technique is very interesting and liked this shot a lot. One of the reasons why you got a lower score may be because some voters don't like it so much when the pp is the star of the photo, or like you have noted they may have thought you just took a really badly-focused shot of a real scale model.

Of the four others posted here, I really like the first one - the purple on the buses make them really pop out more, and the point of focus seems more uniform here than in the one you submitted. They're all done well, though, and I think you picked good subjects for the technique.
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