Unsubmitted Triangles - DPChallenge Forums

05/11/2005 01:21:56 AM · #1

I had a hard time coming up with triangles to shoot. My ideas for staged shots seemed trite and too easy, though a quick scan of the entries shows that nobody used the idea that I thought would get overdone: 4-sided dice. I guess I should have tried that idea after all.

The shot I ended up editing but then deciding not to submit was:

Taken with a borrowed Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM lens. It's a nice lens, but an absolute monster to carry and shoot with.

From my view, the shot came out okay but not brilliant technically (I'm not entirely happy with the way the near bokeh looks, and my framing of the rear triangles inside the near ones wasn't quite perfect), and when I ran a quick comparison against the images in my collection that I like (a step now permanently on my checklist since my first disaster) I decided that it just wasn't interesting enough and has no emotional appeal. If I were scoring it myself, it would pull a 6, which means that it would probably end up with a 4.5 or so if I entered it. My cutoff for a self-score used to be a 7. Since that's what I would have rated my night shot, which tanked around 5.1, I think I'm going to up the cutoff to 8. It may be a while before I enter again, though I'm making it a point to at least have one shot ready for each open challenge that I'll post in the forums if I decide not to submit, and I keep my eye on the member challenges to see if I find something interesting that would match. I'm still waiting on something I would want to submit for one of those challenges to actually become a member, though.

Feel free to critique anyway, or post your own unsubmitted shots.

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

05/12/2005 02:50:48 AM · #2

I guess I was right not to submit. :P It's so boring, people won't even comment on it.

HBunch

HP PhotoSmart 315

05/12/2005 02:56:37 AM · #3

Maybe it could be cause it's 3am and 1. the site you have this posted on is taking FOREVER to load on my dialup and 2. I'm tired and don't feel like waiting forever to check it out. The tiny pic looks cool though. Will have to check this out tomorrow.

LevT

OM System OM-1

05/12/2005 02:57:30 AM · #4

I think it is a nice shot, I like the b/w conversion, bokeh, and the overall peaceful mood of the photo. It feels a little bit over-smoothed though (too much Neat Image?), and I don't like that is is focused on the middle of the fence and blurred both in the back and in the front. If you decided to go for a shallow DOF, you should've made sure that the front of the fence was in focus and then gragually faded into blur in the back. Just my opinion, hope it helps...

05/12/2005 03:03:17 AM · #5

Hi Zed,
I gave it another try. Got tired of waiting and waiting for the site to load and may be why the lack of responses. Finally was able to see the shot tonight, and the toning and choice for B&W was good, but he shot just in't real interesting in my opinion. DOF is pretty narrow and can only assume it was intentional. Without a central focal point where it is in focus, the DOF kinda' doesn't work partway in, and would have felt better if the foreground was sharper and focus fell away as it went back.

Message edited by author 2005-05-12 03:03:51.

tasha4paws

Minolta DiMAGE 7i

05/12/2005 03:37:21 AM · #6

[quote=Zed Pobre] I had a hard time coming up with triangles to shoot. My ideas for staged shots seemed trite and too easy, though a quick scan of the entries shows that nobody used the idea that I thought would get overdone: 4-sided dice. I guess I should have tried that idea after all.

The shot I ended up editing but then deciding not to submit was:

Same here, every shape but triangles, cept the obvious like trees,this was closest,I love it but not triangular enough, any thoughts to improve?

05/12/2005 10:43:30 AM · #7

Originally posted by hbunch7187:

I'd just like to note that I had given it over 24 hours for comment before replying to myself. I'm not THAT impatient. ;P

05/12/2005 10:46:32 AM · #8

Originally posted by ltsimring:

Interesting. I picked the center spot because I was trying to draw the eye to the hole where there were triangles perfectly aligned in the back. That didn't work out, I guess, possibly because the rear area was too fuzzy to make sense of.

Noise Ninja was run on this, but with conservative settings (ISO200 shot, strength 12, smoothness 8, contrast 14), and it barely touched how the image came out of the camera.

Thanks for the comment.

05/12/2005 10:49:23 AM · #9

Originally posted by BradP:

Hm. Thanks for sticking it out to comment. I wonder if it's just that I'm sending too much data for dialup, or if I'm genuinely having problems. It seems okay from the one other spot I tend to test from, but that's a high speed link.

It being not very interesting was the reason why I didn't submit it, sadly. See my other comment about why I chose that spot, but it seems like that was a bad idea. Thanks again.

Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical IF for Canon

05/12/2005 10:52:16 AM · #10

FWIW, I have a pretty decent broadband (DSL) connection here.

We1mx3

Minolta DiMAGE A2

05/12/2005 12:25:43 PM · #11

My unsubmitted. Hoping it's not huge... if it is, I'll take it down.

Unused Triangle

HBunch

HP PhotoSmart 315

05/12/2005 01:01:14 PM · #12

OK Zed, I said I'd come back and here I am.
My opinion? You should become a member so you can post your photos on DPC portfolio and that way they will load way faster. lol
Seriously though, I like the shot. It's definately got the triangle theme down, but I find the circle shapes behind the triangles to be a bit distracting. Even though they are blurred with the DOF, they are still darker circles surrounded by lightness, so they stand out quite well.
I like the DOF. Maybe could be a bit wider, but if not, I think it's still ok. Had the closest 'triangles' have been in focus, with the DOF going back from there, you may have gotten comments on the fact that the front ones are cropped and not 'full' triangles. That's how I see it anyway. You put the focus on the full triangles, and that's good.
I think it could maybe use a bump in contrast, although I'd have to see it to tell weather I liked it or not. This version seems a bit grey overall.
Nice shot. I would have scored it slightly above average.

SDW

Canon EOS-60D

05/12/2005 02:10:41 PM · #13

I was thinking of submitting this one but felt it was to implied.

What do you think?

05/12/2005 02:57:46 PM · #14

Originally posted by hbunch7187:

OK Zed, I said I'd come back and here I am.
My opinion? You should become a member so you can post your photos on DPC portfolio and that way they will load way faster. lol

Heh. I actually tried to become a member some time back, and ran into troubles with my PayPal account. By the time I got that sorted out, my mood was sort of into a downswing, and decided to wait until I had a shot I was willing to submit for a member's challenge. I may yet change my mind, especially since I keep getting pickier. It's odd, though: I tested again from outside my network to see if my machine was bogging down on something, clearing the cache and forcing a reload, and that page is loading pretty consistently in about 12 seconds. Not sure why it's not loading for everyone else. The image is only 100k.

Originally posted by hbunch7187:

Seriously though, I like the shot. It's definately got the triangle theme down, but I find the circle shapes behind the triangles to be a bit distracting. Even though they are blurred with the DOF, they are still darker circles surrounded by lightness, so they stand out quite well.
I like the DOF. Maybe could be a bit wider, but if not, I think it's still ok. Had the closest 'triangles' have been in focus, with the DOF going back from there, you may have gotten comments on the fact that the front ones are cropped and not 'full' triangles. That's how I see it anyway. You put the focus on the full triangles, and that's good.
I think it could maybe use a bump in contrast, although I'd have to see it to tell weather I liked it or not. This version seems a bit grey overall.
Nice shot. I would have scored it slightly above average.

Hm. When I was playing with the channel mixer, I ended up lowering the contrast slightly to avoid the light on the left turning into a harsh white glare. Possibly I overdid it (of course, possibly it wouldn't bother anyone -- I'm the only one that seems to leave that kind of comment on shots with really harsh spots or backgrounds). I may have to go back and play with it again tonight. Thanks for the feedback.

Message edited by author 2005-05-12 15:11:32.

05/12/2005 03:09:38 PM · #15

Originally posted by SDW65:

I was thinking of submitting this one but felt it was to implied.

What do you think?

You'd actually a bonus point from me for it being only implied. A little imagination adds interest for me. I also like the color and texture of the stone. However, it's doing something funny to my eyes that I don't like, I think because it's simultaneously out of focus and oversharpened. I'm not entirely sure. Certainly, the grain of the stone isn't as sharp as I'd like, considering that it's one of the points of interest of the picture, and it seems to have an oddly pixelated effect. Also, there's a twig or some such on one of the steps that is very out of focus, but draws my eye for being about dead center and the only object on the stone. The edge of it looks like it's forking to make another implied triangle, but it's not clear enough to really see, which bothers me. It suffers from the same major fault as my own image, though: no emotive appeal.

If I were scoring:

Base: 5 points
Technical (-2 to +1): -1
Subject Interest (-1 to +2): +1
Emotion (0 to +2): +0
Personal Bias (-1 to +1): +0

Total: 5

Oh, and about 2 seconds to load, so DPC definitely has a bigger server than I do. :)

05/12/2005 03:18:47 PM · #16

The other 12 unsubmitted shots I had I can't share just yet, and it drove me NUTS because I almost ended up using a dartboard to pick one for the challenge.

At least they shall their own folder in my portfolio when it's over.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

05/17/2005 10:00:44 PM · #17

Well, I went ahead and became a member, so I could share the shot I should have taken without inflicting the slow load speeds of my tiny server on the people I'd like to comment.

When I was thinking of shots for the Triangle challenge, the first thing that came to mind for a staged shot was four-sided dice. They're colorful, triangular on the side, and easy to obtain.

I immediately second-guessed myself, figuring that if this was the first thing I thought of, it would be the first thing several others thought of as well.

Oops. This reasoning was correct in the case of the "5" challenge, where my clock shot would have been buried in other clock shots had I submitted it, but in this case, not a single other person photographed 4-sided dice. I guess D&D isn't as popular as I would have thought.

That also means, however, that I probably would have scored poorly simply because people wouldn't get the reference to the RPG credo "Mages are always the first to die". Wizards use 4-sided dice for hit points and melee damage, whereas more sturdy classes use up to 10-sided dice and have certain bonuses on top of that. This unlucky fifth-level wizard has rolled up 6 hit points... half of what a lucky first-level fighter would have.

(I have a mirror of the "Always the First to Die" song available by request, as well.)

In any case, a couple days ago I decided to go back and shoot it anyway, just for the sake of practice, if nothing else. Critiques would be welcomed, even at this late date.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

05/17/2005 11:38:11 PM · #18

This was my alternate, nothing like my submission.

Later I'll post the "out-take" (differently edited) version of my entry, the one I should have at least submitted instead of the one I did ...

Zoomdak

Canon EOS-5D Mark IV

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

05/18/2005 12:07:44 AM · #19

I'm going to start out-takes in here
Re-edited from this to this in the last 2 minutes

Which do you like better (I like the first better), which do you think would have done better?

Message edited by author 2005-05-18 00:08:21.

Nordlys

Canon EOS R10

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

05/18/2005 12:15:58 AM · #20

Probably not what you want to hear, but I like the first better too. Gave the second a 6, but probably would have given the first at least an 8.

O~

05/18/2005 12:17:16 AM · #21

The first, definitely. I would have scored it 7 or 8. The second would get a 6.

05/18/2005 12:26:16 AM · #22

This challenge drove me nutso! Usually one shot to consider, but how about close to a dozen:

As submitted:

- 14th place - Thanks All!!

And now a few of the ones my dart missed:

msdoubletrouble

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

05/18/2005 12:35:46 AM · #23

still like vertigo best...discoveries are countless in that pic...triangle after triangle of glass reflections and where reflections meet...and on and on...pfffttttt