The week just gone was competition night at the club. "Man-Made" was the subject which, as you can imagine, can be pretty much anything as long as it isn't natural. This of course meant a lot of head-scratching, as the possible entries were so wide.
Today I thought I'd share not only the photos I entered into the competition, but also the issues that I deal with when printing them, as well as the selection process itself.
Let's start with selection. I make use of Lightroom's Collections so that I can easily group images without removing them from their original locations. This is simply as case of creating a new collection (in this case called "Man-Made - PRINT1"), and then going through my archives looking for things that may be suitable. Simply selecting the image and hitting the B key adds it to the collection - and then move onto the next image.
In the end, I have a "virtual folder" of candidate photos for the competition, some of which work, and some of which don't. You can remove them from the collection be just selecting them and pressing B again. (Note that the example below is for a future competition titled "A Moment in Time")
With them all on screen at once, it gives you an appreciation for what works and what doesn't. In a way, it mirrors how the prints are displayed prior to judging, where all the entries from the club go up on a rack for all to see and compare.
I look for the photos which "pop", which draw the eye, and gradually whittle down a collection of a few dozen to four or five photos.
You can enter two shots into the competition (I always do, as why throw away the chance for another +20 points?), and so at this point it becomes a choice of both preference and how I feel it would be judged. One has to bear in mind that a judge may not care how difficult a shot was to take - they're not going to know how cold it was while you sat atop a cliff to get a sunrise, or how long it took you to process an image in post. All the judge cares about is the finished article, and how it compares to the rest of the images shown on the night. It really is in the eye of the beholder.
I also tend to choose different shots if they are for print rather than projected image. Prints really show-off details and sharpness, and a dramatic well-printed photograph is one the truly has people getting out of their seats to go and view. And so I will also rather save my "best" shots for prints.
You also have to tweak a photo a bit in post for prints. A judge will be on the look-out for burnt highlights or lack of shadow detail, so getting the exposure right and altering the highlights and dark zones can work in your favour. I usually apply a +0.60 exposure compensation in Lightroom for printed images as default, keeping snapshots for my original "Flickr upload" processing and another for "print" - this also allows me to quickly choose the right setting depending on how I'm displaying the image.
In the end, these are the shots I entered for "Man-Made" - a SAAB Gripen fighter jet from RIAT 2018, and the Big Shed at Chatham Historic Dockyard.
"Big Shed at Chatham" was held back for further scrutiny, and ended up with a 19/20. Which I was incredibly happy with. But I was worried throughout the competition, as during the Development group section, the exact same site and composition was the first print shown. This can go either way - the judge either decides that they've already seen this picture, or they score it similarly (as they don't want to seem stupid in front of everyone).
Luckily for me, the first print scored a 19 too. So well done to whoever entered that one, and thanks!
No one else entered an airshow photo, so I was in the clear with it. The judge was impressed by the sharpness of the image, well-aware I think of the difficulty in achieving a sharp picture during panning, and particularly at the speeds involved. It scored an 18/20, which I was also very happy with.
Today I thought I'd share not only the photos I entered into the competition, but also the issues that I deal with when printing them, as well as the selection process itself.
Let's start with selection. I make use of Lightroom's Collections so that I can easily group images without removing them from their original locations. This is simply as case of creating a new collection (in this case called "Man-Made - PRINT1"), and then going through my archives looking for things that may be suitable. Simply selecting the image and hitting the B key adds it to the collection - and then move onto the next image.
In the end, I have a "virtual folder" of candidate photos for the competition, some of which work, and some of which don't. You can remove them from the collection be just selecting them and pressing B again. (Note that the example below is for a future competition titled "A Moment in Time")
I look for the photos which "pop", which draw the eye, and gradually whittle down a collection of a few dozen to four or five photos.
You can enter two shots into the competition (I always do, as why throw away the chance for another +20 points?), and so at this point it becomes a choice of both preference and how I feel it would be judged. One has to bear in mind that a judge may not care how difficult a shot was to take - they're not going to know how cold it was while you sat atop a cliff to get a sunrise, or how long it took you to process an image in post. All the judge cares about is the finished article, and how it compares to the rest of the images shown on the night. It really is in the eye of the beholder.
I also tend to choose different shots if they are for print rather than projected image. Prints really show-off details and sharpness, and a dramatic well-printed photograph is one the truly has people getting out of their seats to go and view. And so I will also rather save my "best" shots for prints.
You also have to tweak a photo a bit in post for prints. A judge will be on the look-out for burnt highlights or lack of shadow detail, so getting the exposure right and altering the highlights and dark zones can work in your favour. I usually apply a +0.60 exposure compensation in Lightroom for printed images as default, keeping snapshots for my original "Flickr upload" processing and another for "print" - this also allows me to quickly choose the right setting depending on how I'm displaying the image.
In the end, these are the shots I entered for "Man-Made" - a SAAB Gripen fighter jet from RIAT 2018, and the Big Shed at Chatham Historic Dockyard.
"Big Shed at Chatham" was held back for further scrutiny, and ended up with a 19/20. Which I was incredibly happy with. But I was worried throughout the competition, as during the Development group section, the exact same site and composition was the first print shown. This can go either way - the judge either decides that they've already seen this picture, or they score it similarly (as they don't want to seem stupid in front of everyone).
Luckily for me, the first print scored a 19 too. So well done to whoever entered that one, and thanks!
| "Big Shed at Chatham" Picture info: Lumix GH3, Olympus M.Zuiko 9-18mm @ 9mm, ISO200, f/7.1, 1/320 sec* (HDR) |
No one else entered an airshow photo, so I was in the clear with it. The judge was impressed by the sharpness of the image, well-aware I think of the difficulty in achieving a sharp picture during panning, and particularly at the speeds involved. It scored an 18/20, which I was also very happy with.
| "Swedish Hi-Tech" Picture info: Lumix G9, Panasonic Leica 100-400mm @ 195mm, ISO200, f/7.1, 1/500 sec |
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