DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register
 

DPChallenge Forums >> Tips, Tricks, and Q&A >> Background and canvas resizing legalities
Pages:  
Showing posts 1 - 3 of 3, (reverse)
AuthorThread
02/08/2005 11:11:37 PM · #1
I mean this for advanced editing, of course.

First, background editing and removal. That is... not a large amount of background, but bits of background that are visible from behind the subject and seen in small bits around the edges. For example, say I have a kitten picture that I want to enter . I crop around the kitten's head, but you can (somewhat clearly) see a bit of the room around the very edges of the blanket it's sitting on. It can't be avoided, because of the shape of the kitten's head; I want to blend the blanket colour over the background, so it looks like a portrait instead of a snapshot taken by chance. Does this constitute removal of a major part of the picture, even though the background pieces are secondary and hard to discern? This is something I've wondered for awhile, and I've shied away from using the pictures I really liked for several challenges... just in case.

Secondly, canvas resizing. If a background is a pure colour of some sort, is it legal to add more matching negative space (say, to center an isolated subject or to make the photo square). If so, is it legal in basic editing?
02/08/2005 11:58:38 PM · #2
The first is more difficult to give a "real" answer for because every case will be unique -- the photo will be subject to a majority vote by the SC as to whether or not you've removed "major" elements or otherwise violated either the letter or "spirit" of the rules.

In the second case, you are allowed to expand the canvas to make a border. If it happens to be the same color as the background, I don't see where anybody could do much about that. Perhaps if the "border constituted a substantial proportion of the negative space, and not just "some" of it, it could be argued that you are actually creating an element, in that case more in violation of the "spirit" than the letter of the rules.
02/09/2005 03:05:09 AM · #3
So the safer thing would be to blur the little bits of background or something to that effect, right? :) I'm concerned with this because I have one I REALLY want to enter, and though I don't anticipate finishing even close to the top 5, I want my shot to be legal. I tried blurring the background and it almost ends up looking like it did when I just covered it up, so I can deal with that, as long as blurring would be alright.

Message edited by author 2005-02-09 03:09:23.
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 09/15/2025 09:44:00 AM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 09/15/2025 09:44:00 AM EDT.