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Evolution104

The Fledgling - comp entry

My workplace is holding a photo comp this month. Unfortunately I have almost no time to devote to this due to other commitments. Entries must be submitted by 7/31.

That said, an opportunity serendipitously presented itself and I hope I took full advantage Laughing

The rules of the comp are somewhat restrictive as to photoshop manipulations. Only generally accepted mild manipulation to the overall image is allowed - i.e. sharpening, cropping, saturation and colour balance. No dodging/burning, cloning, layers, selective mods, etc.

C&C is most welcome! (keeping in mind the comp restrictions). Obviously, at this point, I can't do much more than change the crop/saturation/exposure/etc.
Thanks!

hil26

John

opportunity ws well taken, and would say its well worth entering into your works comp - old adage that I m a great believer in, is the one that goes

"you can't win, if you don't enter" - well its a variation of that.

Image - is well strong enough considering the restrictions imposed, I have been trying to make my mind up about whether it needs a slight increase in hue/saturation but totally undecided as the colours do look right.

The crop is fine for me

Hope it goes well

Dave
creators

It looks a pretty much perfect shot to me. DoF and background set the little critter off beautifully. The colours are right as Dave said but I also think a saturation boost wouldn't hurt it.

Good luck John.
the neepster

I think it's great - the colours look good to me as they are but why not try the sat boost to see what you think?

Good luck  Very Happy
Evolution104

Thanks everyone for the comments. I haven't been ignoring you - simply too busy these days to keep up.

This image was taken in low light at a higher ISO and is rife with digital noise (for my camera, anything above 200 ISO causes noticeable noise, and it gets bad fast). Any attempt at boosting saturation or exposure results in unacceptable noise and harshness. There are ways to minimize this, but with the strict anti-photoshop rules of the competition, I can't use any of these techniques. The comp requires submitting photos as an 8x10 print, which at 300 dpi really shows any flaws in the image.

So I've thrown in the towel on the comp. I don't have the time, anything I've been able to do with it that is within the rules is unacceptable, and I'm simply so frustrated at this point that I no longer care about the comp.

I'm also realizing that my kit is not up to my expectations. It hurts to think about the investment lost, but it's very clear that to get the images I want, I need a DSLR with a full frame sensor. And Olympus does not make one (even if they did, it wouldn't be compatible with my lenses).

So it's time to think about selling off all my gear and I'm considering either the Canon EOS 5D or the Nikon D700. I'm really leaning towards the 5D, but this time around I want to "test drive" any camera before buying it.
hil26

Ouch - change in kit to full frame - expenditure will hurt the bank/credit card.

That is why I am staying with the Nikon dx format for now, as having all the money spent on lenses that will not fully function on the fx cameras is extremely annoying. Had I known 18 months back that Nikon where going to go down the full frame route I would have held off - that said the D200 is producing images that I am very happy with - like the Olympus noise is a problem at higher ISO's but I can get very reasonable results at 400 which I always try and stay below, anything higher and cropping/enlarging shows the problem.

Sorry to hear that you couldn't get the result you wanted for the work comp.
the neepster

That's disappointing for you - I think anti photo shop rules are pretty stupid personally. It's still a great image!

I like the look of the D700 but it's way out of my price range at the moment.
peteski

Evolution104 wrote:
So it's time to think about selling off all my gear and I'm considering either the Canon EOS 5D or the Nikon D700. I'm really leaning towards the 5D, but this time around I want to "test drive" any camera before buying it.


Try and hire them, I belive places like Calumet do a day's hire.
Evolution104

the neepster wrote:
That's disappointing for you - I think anti photo shop rules are pretty stupid personally. It's still a great image!

I like the look of the D700 but it's way out of my price range at the moment.

Thanks - I think the image will work well for my website, just not the comp. I did an early version using masking layers, so I could deal directly with the noise without softening the bird. That worked pretty well. Worth another try now that I don't need to worry about the comp rules.

Full frame is pretty much out of my budget now too, and I will take a big loss on selling my Oly kit. I'll probably ease into it over the winter by selling off the lenses first. Depending on budget, it may take a while Rolling Eyes
Evolution104

hil26 wrote:
Ouch - change in kit to full frame - expenditure will hurt the bank/credit card.

Sorry to hear that you couldn't get the result you wanted for the work comp.

Yup - it's gonna hurt But I'm starting to see and understand the limitations of smaller sensors, and where I want to take my photography will be difficult to do without good kit (Keith knows how important technically good photos are to me Very Happy ).

Maybe some good news on the comp - today they announced a deadline extension to the end of August. So I have a little more time to come up with something else Laughing
Evolution104

peteski wrote:
Try and hire them, I belive places like Calumet do a day's hire.

I haven't dealt with Calumet, but I think B&H Photo rents cameras and lenses also. Definitely something I'll consider. Thanks.
GREENWIZARD

fab shot
Evolution104

GREENWIZARD wrote:
fab shot

Thank GW Laughing
I've been playing with this in Photoshop, and think I can do a lot more with it. But I need to find some time to do it right. I'll eventually post up version 2 when I have it ready.
hil26

version 2 - looking forward to it already
jonH

John, you don't _HAVE_ to go full frame  - as dave has already demonstrated, the D300 has pretty awesome high iso performance compared to any other DX body out there, Nikon-made or otherwise. These things improve with every generation of body released - take heart, you don't have to re-mortgage your house just yet Smile
Evolution104

jonH wrote:
John, you don't _HAVE_ to go full frame  - as dave has already demonstrated, the D300 has pretty awesome high iso performance compared to any other DX body out there, Nikon-made or otherwise. These things improve with every generation of body released - take heart, you don't have to re-mortgage your house just yet Smile

The D300 would probably be a big improvement over my E500. One thought that keeps nagging me is that as soon as I get used to a new camera like the D300, I'm sure to be wishing for better again. But when the time comes, I'll be sure to check out the DX lineup also.

In any case, it looks like any new purchase will be postponed as work has announced more layoffs yet again. When you can't count on a financial future, you shouldn't be buying new toys Confused

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