This was taken during an assignment for the newspaper. No staging the shot here. Took about 30 shots to get this one, then I went back to covering the game. I have high hopes this will score and finish well. Which means the mainstream voters will hate this shot. But maybe I will be surprised.
I am honestly disappointed in the final score of this image. It is was it is though.
Those that ask how I edited this...real simple I cropped it sharpened it, resized, added border and uploaded. This is basic edited as you can get. This was all equipment and photographer and luck.
Statistics
Place: 21 out of 167 Avg (all users): 6.2868 Avg (commenters): 7.5833 Avg (participants): 6.1639 Avg (non-participants): 6.3867 Views since voting: 2043 Views during voting: 328 Votes: 136 Comments: 34 Favorites: 9 (view)
Wow!
Totally underrated image.
I did not vote on this challenge, but your picture would be my choice for the blue ribbon. I agree with yanko about the tight crop, but even so the picture is outstanding.
Congratulations!!
In a bokeh challenge, the key is to get the bokeh to be the defining feature of the shot. You should be able to look at the photo and say, "The background elements contribute to the overall feeling of the photo". Is that what can be said about this shot? Well, not really.
What defines this shot IS the frozen ball. Period. It's the whole reason the shot exists, and the whole reason for looking at the photo. It's "Wow, he got a ball frozen in time during a pitch! cool!" However, we don't even care one iota about background elements. They are secondary and provide no meaning to the photo.
In a bokeh challenge, you need the BOKEH to be what's looked at and talked about. Instead, you have the ball being that primary aspect, and the ball isn't bokeh.
Quite frankly, a 6.2+ is far more than this shot probably SHOULD have got, but you scored higher than I would have thought it would have placed because you did manage to wow people with the frozen action and got them to look past the fact that bokeh plays no part. So instead of looking negatively that the score might have been higher, look positively that it's actually as high as it is.
Really? You think the person who threw that ball and the person that caught that ball has nothing to with telling the story of the ball? To me the people in this photo tell the story.
In a bokeh challenge, the key is to get the bokeh to be the defining feature of the shot. You should be able to look at the photo and say, "The background elements contribute to the overall feeling of the photo". Is that what can be said about this shot? Well, not really.
What defines this shot IS the frozen ball. Period. It's the whole reason the shot exists, and the whole reason for looking at the photo. It's "Wow, he got a ball frozen in time during a pitch! cool!" However, we don't even care one iota about background elements. They are secondary and provide no meaning to the photo.
In a bokeh challenge, you need the BOKEH to be what's looked at and talked about. Instead, you have the ball being that primary aspect, and the ball isn't bokeh.
Quite frankly, a 6.2+ is far more than this shot probably SHOULD have got, but you scored higher than I would have thought it would have placed because you did manage to wow people with the frozen action and got them to look past the fact that bokeh plays no part. So instead of looking negatively that the score might have been higher, look positively that it's actually as high as it is.
It scored lower than expected because it didn't fall into the "flower or bug" category. Voters very rarely think outside the box. I didn't vote in this challenge.
Great execution!
The only thing i would prefer is not so much blur on the actors. :)
I love it. This is the highest rated picture that does not depend on animals or immovable objects! It may not have gotten the marks you wanted but I would think it would be a very sellable picture. Nice Job!
As has been said before, this should have done better. It was actually one of my highest votes for this challenge. I have a feeling many dont understand how hard this was to capture with the ball being that sharp. Great job.
I totally agree with colorcarnival, if this shot has a a flower or a bird would be #1. This is a very difficult to shot to take thats why it would deserve higher rating, no doubt. Again congrats for the work and thank you for sharing this great work!
this is more amazing than most would imagine. Espcially being that it was not set up. Real nice image here. DPC is funny on some things though - really deserves higher placement IMO.
Completely robbed. This shot had it all and should easily have finished near or at the top. Congrats on the shot, from the persistence and luck and skill to getting it, to taking the chance that it would work.
A pretty good score, but I can also understand your disappointment. Your problem may have been that you did such a good job that people doubted the shot was 'real'. I questioned it myself, but voted on the assumption that it was not done with the ball suspended by fishing line etc. Perhaps others just assumed it was set up and voted accordingly? :(
Validated! Great shot, I'd like to read how you made this capture & process. I didn't beleieve it possible when I first saw it, how many exposures before you got it?
With a DOF so shallow as to product this amount of boken in the both the foreground and background and yet the ball so sharp, you either timed this shot amazingly well, or you set it up with the ball hanging on piece of string. :) Either way, makes for an effective shot.
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