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

DPChallenge Forums >> Current Challenge >> magazine cover CANNOT be in landscape orientation
Pages:  
Showing posts 76 - 100 of 110, (reverse)
AuthorThread
 06/11/2003 04:21:01 PM · #76
Originally posted by Swashbuckler:
If you're compelled to vote down a photo, do so for the "right" reasons.


The right reasons according to who? You? I choose a score for the right reasons according to me! Works for me!

Message edited by author 2003-06-11 16:26:40.
 06/11/2003 04:44:16 PM · #77
As I've already done, I'd like to say, "It really depends on the magazine". IF I'm familiar with the magazine (or look it up for whatever reason) and IF their tendency is towards portrait-orientation/full-bleed photographs on the front cover and IF I can't see how as a layout & design person I'd fit text in, I might hand out a lower vote than if those things weren't true. I might not, if I look at the photo and easily see how a crop would fix that. Assuming the photo is at least reasonably well-shot and fits the magazine topically, this means that I might give it a 5 instead of a 7, but it certainly doesn't mean I'd give it a 3 instead of a 5.

If the photo is for a magazine where typically it's a shot of a person (and there's a few of those), all of those things matter far less, as typically those magazines add a great deal of space around the person in a suitable background colour and work with that. I might be looking at clothing choice vs how hard it would be to add text over it, but only if the clothing is particularly colourfully patterned, so there's a chance it wouldn't affect my vote at all.

If the photo is for a magazine where they often include photos that only take up a portion of the front cover, it doesn't matter at all, because the compositor is simply going to add a lot of neutral space around the photo and lay out the words and photograph as they see fit to make it all look good.

If the photo is for a magazine where I have no clue, and I can't be arsed to look it up so I can see a typical cover, I will assume that the photo can be manipulated such as to fit the cover.

People submitting photos in rough magazine dimensions may get a slightly higher vote from me because it's easier to tell what it would look like on a magazine, but it's not a given. It depends on how hard a time I have visualizing a suitable crop.
 06/11/2003 07:11:24 PM · #78
Kavey, I did elaborate on the "right" reasons to vote on an entry. Please read the second paragraph. Things like - It's a good picture; Focus/lighting/composition; the challenge in very general terms.

I've found myself guilty of "troll" voting. Did a quick reality check and found I was in the wrong and changed my scores. I find these discussions about "did it fit the challenge" a bit tedious. It's like holding water in your hands - yes, you can do it for a while, but eventually you find your all dried up. Finding excuses to vote down a group of pictures is on the narrow minded side. I know I don't know everything in this world and I know I don't always see ALL sides of a disagreement - I'm not perfect. Is anybody? What's wrong with giving a "benefit of the doubt". I'm the first one to say that my photo for Home Sweet Home was off the challenge, I knew it and I'm fine with the score. BUT, could anyone really be certain that MY photo wasn't taken out of my front door and on my property? (as to be my home sweet home)
Nobody could say that with any certainty either way.
This thread has discussed portrait vs. landscape (proven to be moot by many examples); leaving space for text (also proven moot) and real vs. imaginary magazines (too much research to prove either way).

Bottom line: please keep an open mind when voting.
06/11/2003 08:43:41 PM · #79
You are right! I have changed my opinion. I believe you should always fill the frame with your subject, dont waist space by leaving it empty. Editors hate to make decisions so dont leave any room above your photo or down the side so they dont have to decide if they want the name to show. And most importantly, because your time is more important than theres, NEVER turn your camera on its side. Heck its just uncomfortable sometimes. Go ahead and use DARK colors too, bright colors are just to wild and out of control.

Tim
 06/11/2003 09:15:13 PM · #80
Originally posted by Sonifo:
If you want a ribbon you will do what the voters want and if you don't, then carry on.


Well, if that's what matters most, I guess we will all be DPC material only. One photo who appears technically "perfect" to a fellow photographer may appear "poor" or just "average" to the vast majority of non-photographers out there.
 06/11/2003 11:26:43 PM · #81
Originally posted by shadow:
i wonder if you guys/gals have ever submitted anything for a magazine cover for leaving comments like that? just as someone (Jim?) has shown in another thread, magazine cover photos do NOT have to be in potrait (upright) orientation. The graphics editor takes care of that.

EDIT: when I say graphics editor, I'm referring to a person who's job is to make sure the cover of the magazine looks attractive, not a graphics software! LOL


I personally have submitted photos for magazines, their guidelines specifically state that if you want your photo to be considered for the cover that you should submit it in Portrait format with room on top and on the left for text. So with that in mind, I personally would have submitted a photo to this challenge in that format. It surprises me how many people didn't even consider format when submitting, I guess that this can be a hard learned lesson for those that didn't :)

06/11/2003 11:46:49 PM · #82
Just getting home from work and looking at some replies to my comment earlier about a photo should have empty spaces for text. I must admit I was wrong. True, some magazines lay out there covers differently, and, after looking at some other examples, my views have changed. I will revote on a few of the photos I voted down for this reason.
 06/11/2003 11:56:59 PM · #83
Originally posted by briphoto:
Just getting home from work and looking at some replies to my comment earlier about a photo should have empty spaces for text. I must admit I was wrong. True, some magazines lay out there covers differently, and, after looking at some other examples, my views have changed. I will revote on a few of the photos I voted down for this reason.

That's just it, SOME is the word, the vast majority uses the vertical format with room for text. So if you wanted to please the masses in a public forum/challenge, then this is they way your shot should have been submitted, IMHO :)
I think that subconsciously my brain will not be able to view a shot as a magazine cover if it is not in the format that it is used to seeing, therefore I may vote it lower than a shot that has the same merits otherwise but is in vertical format.
 06/12/2003 12:37:31 AM · #84
I'm one who submitted a photo in landscape. In my haste and hurry i did not remember to crop the original to portrait size. I realized i had goofed when i started voting on others submissions... D'oh!

Having said that, the challenge clearly stated "Magazine Cover" and not "Magazine Photo". In my opinion, all the challenge submissions should be in portrait in order for it to a be considered as a cover. I goofed on my submission and willing to admit it. Next time i'll pay attention.
 06/12/2003 12:53:37 AM · #85
Originally posted by brumos:
In my opinion, all the challenge submissions should be in portrait in order for it to a be considered as a cover.


I can only guess you have not followed this thread in any detail. There have been so many examples of landscape images used as coverwork that your statement is clearly mistaken. However, you are, of course, welcome to your view.
 06/12/2003 01:05:07 AM · #86
Not one of the examples shown is a magazine I have ever heard of.....
 06/12/2003 01:07:52 AM · #87
You have never heard of Time magazine? The examples I posted below were of Time magazine's award-winning cover in 1999. Perhaps you missed that.
 06/12/2003 01:11:14 AM · #88
Did you all do your research before submitting? Go to a book store and look at all the magazines.
06/12/2003 02:51:05 AM · #89
You know, I'm pretty sure everyone here is too busy being sure they're right to read my posts, but I'm going to try again:

IT. DEPENDS. ON. THE. MAGAZINE.

Why are we still arguing? It DEPENDS on the MAGAZINE. IT depends on the magazine. It depends ON THE MAGAZINE. IT DEPENDS on the magazine. IT DEPENDS on the MAGAZINE. It DEPENDS ON the magazine. It DEPENDS on THE MAGAZINE.

ON THE MAGAZINE, it DEPENDS. THE MAGAZINE, it DEPENDS ON.
MAGAZINE DEPENDS IT ON THE.

It DePeNdS oN tHe MaGaZiNe.

Enizagam eht no sdneped ti.

Dependo del periodicó. Das kommt derauf auf die Zeitschrift an. Il dépend du magasin.
 06/12/2003 04:48:33 AM · #90
Originally posted by Swashbuckler:
Kavey, I did elaborate on the "right" reasons to vote on an entry. Please read the second paragraph. Things like - It's a good picture; Focus/lighting/composition; the challenge in very general terms.


I read your entire post. My point was that, your priorities in voting the "right" way are just that - yours.

I vote on whether I think it's a good picture, whether I think it's well taken etc AND I am also taking the challenge into account in the way that I see fit. That's how voting works. Otherwise we might as well have one person vote and just leave it at that.
 06/12/2003 10:58:42 AM · #91
[quote]
I can only guess you have not followed this thread in any detail. There have been so many examples of landscape images used as coverwork that your statement is clearly mistaken. However, you are, of course, welcome to your view.[/quote]

You're absolutely correct, i have not been following it. I don't have the time to sit here and read every response to this thread. I only read the first few.
 06/12/2003 11:21:23 AM · #92
Hey, look, I was RIGHT. Everyone's so busy being right they DIDN'T read my post.
 06/12/2003 12:06:07 PM · #93
Originally posted by Jak:
You have never heard of Time magazine? The examples I posted below were of Time magazine's award-winning cover in 1999. Perhaps you missed that.

Yes, I have heard of Time mag. I missed your post on it. How many Time magazines do you think there have been in horizontal format?
I bet if you all went to the market right now and counted the magazines in vertical format compared to horizontal that you might be a bit surprised. Maybe 1% would be horizontal format, if even that.
Gachyk, yes it does depend on the magazine and if YOU read my post you would have seen that " the vast majority uses the vertical format with room for text. So if you wanted to please the masses in a public forum/challenge, then this is they way your shot should have been submitted"
06/12/2003 12:54:26 PM · #94
Originally posted by Paige:
" the vast majority uses the vertical format with room for text. So if you wanted to please the masses in a public forum/challenge, then this is they way your shot should have been submitted"


a) "the vast majority" is a hideous overstatement. A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER of magazines -- including but not limited to Time and Newsweek, both of which probably have been seen by nearly every person in the U.S. and probably a large number of those outside of it, not sure how they handle international editions -- do NOT (necessarily) USE full-cover photographs, which means orientation varies on any given cover. What's more, nearly every single magazine that features a person on the front as a general rule features that person and some neutral background, whether it's neutral via focal blur or via the use of a solid colour. That means it matters not one whit what the original photo looks like.

How many Time magazines have been in horizontal format? Or 3/4 of the page? Or 1/2 the page? Or a tiny portion of the page? Why, LOTS. I've been reading Time for nigh on 15 years and I've seen that their cover art varies A GREAT DEAL. As does Newsweek's, which makes sense as they're competing directly with Time. Another one: Scientific American varies -- their current issue is line art, but past photographs have taken up somewhere around 3/4 of the page and have CLEARLY been cropped to suit the editor, or been taken out of their original context. Scientific American is very widely-read.

2) Maybe if 'the masses' are reading the forums, it helps to point out that it varies by magazine, so they can keep that in mind when voting, and if people would stop saying "Yes it is, no it isn't" and concentrate on the "depends on the magazine" they'd be less confused.
 06/12/2003 01:17:20 PM · #95
O.K., lets agree to disagree and leave it at that :)
 06/12/2003 05:15:55 PM · #96
Originally posted by Jak:
You have never heard of Time magazine? The examples I posted below were of Time magazine's award-winning cover in 1999. Perhaps you missed that.


But the cover was cropped to a portrait format. It was suggested that there were borders added at the top and bottom - go back and look at both shots, they both, in fact, appear to be cropped versions of a larger original! On the magazine cover, a light can be seen above the M in "TIME" that was not in the "landscape" version, and in the landscape version there are clearly more people to both sides that were cropped.

I haven't voted yet, and I don't think this discussion has really changed my view. If you submitted a landscape shot that I can easily see could be cropped or otherwise used on the magazine you named, I don't think I'll give the issue too much weight. I have browsed the submissions though, and there are a few that I noticed are landscape and have so much relevent detail that I'm not sure cropping would be possible.

FWIW, I've often seen comments about OK shots concerning the fact that it didn't appear the photographer put enough thought or effort into setting up the shot, even though it was a good idea. (And I generally agree with that view.) And that's what I think would have made a difference here: If you wanted to "sell" your shot as a potential cover for a given magazine, you should have taken the extra effort to show as much as possible how it would have worked as a cover shot. A picture that was just thrown up in whatever format it was taken in, the photographer didn't put enough effort, IMO, in finishing up the submission.
 06/12/2003 05:19:18 PM · #97
Originally posted by qachyk:
You know, I'm pretty sure everyone here is too busy being sure they're right to read my posts, but I'm going to try again:

IT. DEPENDS. ON. THE. MAGAZINE.

..................

Dependo del periodicó. Das kommt derauf auf die Zeitschrift an. Il dépend du magasin.


LOL!
Sorry, what is it you're trying to say???
I read it, and am glad someone has kept their sense of humor!
 06/12/2003 05:33:21 PM · #98
Wow how can you tell people that their submissions should have been Portrait, not landscape?
- there is no such thing mentioned in the challenge description...

You must agree on the fact that a landscape picture can be used on a magazine cover...

Could it be that people are understanding the challenge description differently?

well, I don't care for this thing on in my voting, and I hope that my DPC fellows will be a little bit more open minded in their thinkings, doings, and votings.

v.
 06/12/2003 05:51:46 PM · #99
did u c this issue of french photo....the cover is landscape ... it is folded in...that is done a lot...so the photo takes over 3pages...btw a great issue....the photo of the two guys "vacuming" on page 10 is great
 06/12/2003 06:12:23 PM · #100
Originally posted by ScottK:

Sorry, what is it you're trying to say???


Don't tempt me to break out the Russian and Japanese versions. :) I can do it. I have DICTIONARIES.

("Stand back! She has a dictionary!" "Oh, no! Everyone get down! She's pulled out the OED!")
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 08/03/2025 12:44:24 PM

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: 08/03/2025 12:44:24 PM EDT.