April 05 Contest Votes

[T Paul]

Voting will run from 24 April to 30 April. Deadline for votes is 5pm EDT 30 April 2005.

Only those that entered the contest may vote. All other votes will be deleted.

Vote for the 5 best entries in order.

Note you cannot vote for your own image. If you do, your votes will be deleted.

Example Vote:
Pick the top five contest entries and list in order...

1. Entry X (First Place)
2. Entry A (Second Place and so on)
3. Entry Q
4. Entry S
5. Entry P

[T Paul]

This thread will remain closed until it's time to vote (24 April to 30 April).

Voting will close at 5pm EDT on 30 April so that the votes can be tallied.

[T Paul]

Why your uploaded images may not look the same.

Internet Explorer 6 has taken steps to improve Web browser flexibility. A new and innovative capability that offers you more Web options is Automatic Image Resizing. If pictures are too large to display in your browser window, automatic resizing makes them fit. You no longer need to scroll horizontally or vertically to view large pictures. In addition, if you browse to pictures that fit within the browser window, but then change the window dimensions, Internet Explorer automatically adjusts the pictures to fit within the new window size.

The downside to this is that the resized image may look distorted or pixilated. To view the full size image, move the mouse pointer over the lower-right corner of the image and wait a few secs. An icon pops up with four blue diagonal arrows. If you move the mouse pointer over the icon it says "Expand to regular size." Click on the icon to return the image to full size.


Turn Automatic Image Resizing On or Off
Automatic Image Resizing is turned on by default. But you can turn it on and off by using the Advanced tab on the Internet Options dialog box.

1. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then scroll down to the Multimedia section.
3. Select or clear the Enable Automatic Image Resizing check box.

If you choose to keep Automatic Image Resizing on, you can easily resize a picture as mentioned above.

Learn How to Use Automatic Image Resizing

[T Paul]

Judging will come down to your own opinion--what do you think of the photo and how it met the contest challenge:

Your challenge was to transform the wedding photo (portrait.tif) into a polished wedding portrait. You were also suppose to add a smile to the bride and remove the groom’s five o’clock shadow. Then it was up to you to decide what else needed to be done in order to create a wedding portrait that the bride and groom would be proud to hang on their wall. The finally note was that the photo must remain as a photo.

A few things I would look for:

Composition: Does the photo emphasize the bride and groom. Are the horizontals horizontal and the verticals vertical? Has it been over/under cropped?

Retouching: Noise removal, object removal (things that are distracting), color correction (is there a color cast), tidying up (gaps, clothes wrinkles, yellow teeth, dull eyes, crooked ties, hot spots and so on)

Manipulation: Does the added smile look natural? How does the groom’s face look? Do any new elements looks unnatural/out of place?

Final Appearance: Would you be happy with the work if you were the bride or groom?

[Caitlin]

Hi Paul, et al,

In case it is useful to people I have made a web album of all the entries: http://www.tv83.net/retouchpro/aprilcontest.html

Having all the retouch entries on the one page really makes you realise what vast range of options you have when doing retouching work! Such a variety of interpretations!

The thumbnails are a bit blurry I'm afraid, but if you click on one, you can cycle through them all at full resolution. ie. You can move through all the images with the next/previous buttons, without going back to the thumbnails page.

ps. I included the original image as the last thumbnail for comparison.

[Neve]

VERY useful, thanks Caitlin!

[righthanddesign]

I loved this contest and I had great fun. I was looking for the small things. One thing that most people missed was her eyebrows. When you increased the levels you loose the sides of her eyebrows. Also the mans hand on her side. It is very dark and even purple looking. Few people fixed that. I also looked at the mans skin. But the number one thing I looked at was the womans face. Was her mouth real looking? was it the right size? was it the right angle? was it the right color? Did the person use the right nose ( the downtturned one) that matched her face. Did they brighten her eyes? did they keep her laugh lines? The last thing I looked at was the cropping, did they crop it so it was overall balanced. Would it look good in a picture frame small or large. Overall I looked to see if it was a real looking picture. if nothing stood out then it was successful in my book. That is what I tried to accomplish in mine. Good luck to all. I included what I liked and thought needed work. Please don't be offended by what I say. Just trying to help out. I expect people to tell me whats wrong with mine in their mind also. you stare at this thing so long you miss stuff.

1. jaime - Perfect crispness very nicely done but the skin tones seem a little flat and corpse like. Mans checks seem a little muddy or smudged. The veil may be a little bright. But overall great job!

2. soleah - A little hazy and washed out, skin tones are dim also. Great job though very crisp and clean and smile looks real and part of her face. Maybe could have cropped it a little better.

3. caitlin - Clean and nice. Looks real and the smile is believable. The only issue is the coloration of the lips.. Maybe a little dark

4. alteredimage - Some alignment issues with the mouth but other than that great skin tones and I love the cropping and the artistic background. Most artistic of the bunch I think.

5. JohnMc - Liked the cropping, overall tones are good. Could have been number 1 The womans face is believable but for some reason it doesnt look like her. mouth and eyes are just a bit off, cant put my finger on it.

Cedwar could have been considered but his was soo big it was bitmapped to bad. maybe if it was 800X600 it would look better

[Neve]

This was so hard to judge, dare I say a little stressful
It was a revelation to view the variety of submissions. A learning curve and thanks to all of you.

1. jaime
2. RonDon
3. Dreamypix
4. righthanddesign
5. TPaul

[Caitlin]

Well this was really hard to judge - particularly for position 4 & 5 where I had quite a number of entries I liked for different reasons.

Some of the key points I was looking out for:
- Realistic looking smile
- Good facial clarity
- Removal of dark shadows under eyes
- Good balance of emphasis/focus/lighting between background and foreground
- Removal of distracting light cords in b/g (those who cropped didn't need to worry about this, but I notice a lot of people missed it!)
- Stubble removal while maintaining 'strong' chin.

1. Jaime
I think this entry is beautiful. Stunningly clear, facial features look great. A nice subtle contrast between background sharpness and brightness to the figures. I'm impressed that Jamie managed to get such a clear image out of a wide shot - I didn't think it would be possible!

2. alteredimage
I particularly like the artistic background effect on this attempt. The overlay is well suited to the subject - nicely subtle and adding a warm glow. It doesn't distract from the couple though. I thought what let it down a little though was the groom's face - I would have liked to see the dark shadows under his eyes removed, and overall his face is a little blotchy. Also his clothing has lost some detail and is a bit matt black. The bride looks natural and her retouch is effective though.

3. righthanddesign
Very believable facial features, though not as sharp as no.1 & 2. I found the stained glass positioned directly behind the couples head a little distracting and too vibrant, and the veil has been lost from the right had side of the bride’s face.

4. Dreamypix
This was a tough one. I really liked this retouch. The use of the stained glass behind the couples head is very successful - it both made it a feature, but was still toned down low enough that it didn't distract too much from the couple. What brought it down to 4 ranking for me though was that though the bride's facial features looked good, I didn't think they looked like her. The mouth simply seems too wide for her face. If I could combine righthanddesign's couple and Dreamypix's background it would have been great.

5. Soleah
This was a very close call – in fact I changed this vote as I was typing! The main shortcoming I had with this image was the recolouring of the flowers. This to me is a huge no-no particularly in a wedding photo, and in fact in any retouching of a family memory. If I had chosen a bridal bouquet I’d want the colours to be the ones I picked, not the taste of the retoucher! *lol* I decided to put that objection aside though as I thought that the facial retouching was good, and the overall tone and finish was successful. The groom could do with a spot of dark eye shadow removal.
*edit* I just realised that the bridal bouquet in one of the supplimentary photos has pink roses in it. How very odd!

Finally: I’d like to give an honourable mention to endymi0n. He/she didn’t follow the clients request of giving the bride a smile, or removing the groom’s 5 o’clock shadow, and the image is rather noisy, so I didn’t feel could be ranked. But I really like the artistic effect that has been produced with the background. Again very appropriate, not too distracting, and quite beautiful. Just needs a tidier couple!

What an interesting competition. Look forward to reading everyone elses comments!

[corel]

Here are my top 5 picks and it was not easy!
My criteria for making the selections are:
You should be able to recognize the bride and groom
hanging on the wall from several feet away.
And would I pay for this portrait.

1. philbach (#12)
2. grafx (#34)
3. Hephaestos (#29)
4. righthanddesign (#50)
5. Dreamypix (#43)

[Duv]

There was such a tremendous range of ideas that it was difficult to choose. I was surprised more didn't try to adjust his arm which I thought a bit awkward or tilting her head a bit to make them more intimate.

1) RightHandDesign: Heads are nicely framed in the window. Great job on the hands. Really liked the window showing thru the veil. It was really hard to pick out any veil detail on the one side.
2) Jaime: I had a tough time choosing between this and Soleah. Jaime' s is natural with nice light. Pants were fixed but I was disappointed that so many distractions were left on the walls and not removed.
3) Soleah: Really nice job. Edges pretty straight (not perfect), natural coloring except for skin tones which were flat and overdosed with Cyan.
4)TPaul: Very natural but didn't like the removal of the hand as it took away a bit of the intimacy IMHO.
5) Veniveci: I picked this for the Wow factor. Loved the light and the placement of Jesus and his hands. Thought the couple looked a little cutout and could have blended with the background a little better.

Honorable mentions go to Endymion, Alterdimage, Grafx, Dreamypix and Caitlin.

Cheers
Dave

[T Paul]

Just a heads up, I will be tallying the votes as they come in, so edits (votes changes) will not be allowed. Once you vote, that's it.

[cazubi]

Congratulations to everyone that entered and did such a fine job with the portraits. I found it hard to narrow my choices down to five, as there were so many nice entries.

I feel that my five choices all have good composition, look natural, and have good color. The bride and groom are presented in a pleasing way and are the focal point of the portrait. I quess it just came down to personal preference of what I would like on my wall.

My choices are: 1. soleah
2. grafx
3. philbach
4. 1stlite
5. JohnMc

Cathy

[venivedi]

Please take consider of my poor expression skill in English.

And comments are based on my personal taste when viewing on my monitor setting.

composition
1. endymi0n 2. righthanddesign 3. Jaime 4. soleah 5. caitlin

facial expression
1. Racca Iria 2.righthanddesign 3. Caitlin 4. soleah 5. Jaime
(because they want a smile face, especially a matter of 'line of sight' considered)

lighting
1. Jaime 2. endymi0n 3. soleah 4. Caitlin 5. righthanddesign

Overall sharpness
1. soleah 2. Jaime 3. endymi0n 4. Caitlin 5. righthanddesign

skin tone & atmosphere
1. Jaime 2. endymi0n 3. righthanddesign 4. soleah 5. Caitlin

& etc.


Finally...
1. righthanddesign
2. Jaime
3. soleah
4. Caitlin
5. endymi0n

p.s. It took me more than half hour to write down these comments. (already time to go to bed )

[cardmnal]

First, I want to say thanks to Caitlin for posting the photo album . I know it made the job of evaluation a lot easier for me.


I found it difficult to come up with a number one or even a top 5 there are so many good entries. So here they are:

1. Jaime
2. 1stlite
3. Dreampix
4. Grafx
5. philbach

Honorable mention: This distinction goes out to everybody who entered this contest. I think you all deserve a round of applause!!


AP

[Hephaestos]

Started with the guidelines for the contest. ("Client specs" if you will.) By eliminating those way off from the requested 800x600 dimensions (presumably for the client's picture frame), I narrowed the field down to 36.

Applying the "keep it as a photo" spec further reduced the field to 26.

It's really a shame to do it this way, as I think some of the best actual retouching was eliminated. However I don't think customer specifications are something to be lightly tossed to the wind.

Out of the 26, the main criterion I used was "does the photo look like it's been doctored". Based on this (picking the ones that look least doctored to me), out of those that met spec, I picked these five in order:

1. caitlin - The main objectives (smile for the bride and shave for the groom) were done seamlessly-for all practical purposes flawlessly. Skin tones are very well done.

2. JohnMc - Same as above, except the bride's face is almost imperceptibly off somehow that I can't quite put my finger on. Excellent work aligning the background.

3. pjulich - Also very realistic and on a par with the top two except for the washed-out quality and the slight yellow cast.

4. righthanddesign - excellent color balancing throughout. Bride's face is perhaps a bit low and groom's face perhaps a bit too smooth on the cheeks, but this is almost imperceptible.

5. T Paul - Same as above, between 4 & 5 here it pretty much came down to the background and overall feel to me. Bride's face is possibly a pixel or two bigger than it ought to be also, but it's hard to say.

[chrishoggy]

I found voting on this very hard, and at one point didn't want to vote at all. This was mainly down to the number of entries that went beyond retouching. There were some entries that had the couple very clear, but ran away with background changes, effects and boarders. This to me made the entry photo art, rather than a plain photo (as requested). One of the main things I look for is a photo that looks as though it hasn't been touched. When I say this, I mean that anybody looking at it would say "what a great photographer" not "what a great retouch job".
Here are my votes:

1/ Soleah. This one stood out from all the rest for me. The only fault I found was the picture was still slightly leaning to the left. Other than that I found the lighting colours and composition excellent and natural. I would be proud to hang that picture on my wall.

2/ Gary Richardson. Although the picture is a bit noisy, the brides smile looks natural and was blended well. The background change was well thought out, but needed to be straightened. Again it looked like an untouched photo.

3/ Racc Iria. This one has only one problem for me, and that is the noise created by the brightening of the photo. With that noise removed, this would have been a very nice picture.

4/ righthanddesign. This one has been thought out well, but the window seems very bright and draws you away from the couple. The skin tones are also a bit bright, but I like the composition.

5/ Doug Colwell. This was one that I had trouble deciding on. The photo itself looks well, but the brides skin tone lets it down. The golden brown toned skin makes the brides smile stand out too much for me, and makes her look fake. If the skin tones had been more natural, this would have been a close run for first place.



Good luck to all

[T Paul]

Don't forget when voting, to include some things you especially liked about your choices…what made them stand out, what impressed you, etc. This is a learning experience!

[Caitlin]

Can I please request that no-one posts links to the photo album of entries elsewhere? It uses up my bandwidth un-necesarily, and I think is also not completely fair to entrants to have their entries displayed out of context.

Thanks!

[Legacy~Art]

1.venivedi (wow what an atmosphere!!!)
2.Dreamypix (very clean and crisp i like this one)
3.neve (very natural!)
4.Racc Iria (the smile is very natural on the girl)
5.Ms-Bay (Love the atmosphere feel!)

Caitlin thank you for doing the gallery your a credit to the forum!

[righthanddesign]

I think we should let the Bride and Groom vote also. That would be very cool in my book!

[Caitlin]

Originally Posted by righthanddesign

I think we should let the Bride and Groom vote also. That would be very cool in my book!

Brilliant idea! I don't know if there is something similar in other countries, but here in Australia we have a national portrait competition that also has a 'packing room prize'. Always tends to be more the 'common man' vote. If this couple still exist (and are still together ) a final vote from them of what THEY would put on their wall would be great. But I think it would have to be after all our votes are in and tallied so it doesn't impact anyones voting.

[Ms Bay]

This is a very hard contest to judge from all of the wonderful entries that came in. Congrats to all who entered!

I judged from:
a.) the ones that followed all of the directions
b.) the most natural looking
c.) the color balance along with the creativity used
d.) emphasis on bride and groom
e.) the ones that I would most like to keep as my wedding portrait

The finalist were:

1. Alteredimage - beautiful
2. RAcc Iria - the dreamy look was nice
3. Jamie - teeth a little too white, but contrast of colors was lovely
4. righthand design - bride and groom emphasized excellently
5. soleah - great contrast with couple against the background

[thomasfoo]

My vote:

1. Venivedi - Great composition, very creative, nice overall color tone and balance
2. Righthanddesign
3. Caitlin - I guess a tigher cropping will improve (And thanks for the web album. It helps a lot)
4. Grafx
5. JohnMc

Thomas Foo

[Gary Richardson]

First, my thanks to Caitlin for the Web Album, this made the first stage of judging easier. I did my first viewing using her site, then copied the ones I'd narrowed down to from RP to a folder on my PC for closer study.

With the exception of Soleah's entry, this was not an easy contest to make a decision on. The standard of all the entries was high, and there were a lot of different interpretations to choose from.

My final choices were as follows.

1st Soleah, This was the easiest choice for me to make, IMO it stood out from the rest. The colour correction was excellent, perspective and levels had been dealt with well, and the lighting and contrast were beautifully done.

2nd Jaime, Another fairly easy choice. My reason for placing this second, was the slight magenta tone to the image, and the couple were a bit too contrasty in respect to the background, to make the image look natural.

3rd Racc Idia, Like Jaime's effort, this too had a slight tint, but I liked the overall feel of this one, could have done with the facial features of the couple sharpening slightly, but I liked this one a lot.

4th Hephaestos, The faces of the couple did'nt look quite right in this one, (hard to say why not). Colour correction was good, and levels and perspective had been dealt with well.

5th T Jacobs, Slight colour tint on this one, but again, I liked the feel of the image.

[Lorraine]

Thank you, Caitlin, for the posting the album.

It was extremely difficult to narrow the entries down to the final five. I liked so many of them.

These are the five that I chose as winners:

1. righthanddesign - Excellent color and clarity. Seamless integration of the new facial features. The portrait is very natural looking. I like the slightly desaturated background that makes the couple stand out beautifully.

2. Caitlin - Excellent restoration work on the couple. The overall golden tone is a nice look.

3. JohnMc - Very natural looking restoration. Good integration of the new facial features. Good positioning of the couple.

4. Soleah - There is a wonderful crispness and yet a softness to the portrait. The facial retouching is very good and natural looking. I wish the photo had been cropped to show more of a close up of the bride and groom.

5. TPaul - Crisp, clean and natural looking. Good positioning with the crop to bring the couple into the main focus. The removal of the groom's hand from the bride's waist was the only drawback.

[MargaretM]

This was difficult. The main things I had trouble with in the entries was a magenta cast in the skin tones in many entries, the stained glass window distracting from the bridal couple,and the groom's shadows under the eyes A bridal portrait I think should have a soft natural radiance aout it so I looked for this, as well as good skin tones and a good composition. So after much going back and forth my vote is
1. Righthand design - soft natural glow about it; nice composition.
2.Graphx - a close second. Slightly warmer skin tones might have made it first.
3.Lorraine - good focus on the bridal couple; good clarity and warmth.
4.Caitlin - nice job but background seems a little crooked and has too much magenta in skin for me.
5.Cedwar - nice invisible touchup job. Skin could have had a little more warmth but very nice composition.
Honorable mentions - everybody but especially Soleah, TPaul, Twin BNJ,

[Carabell]

Great work everyone! It was tough to judge.
Everyone seems to have such different intrepretations of the contest.
My 2 cents on making edits - why not? As long as your post is in by the deadline. I make edits to am image after I think I'm done all the time. As long as I have it done for the client when they expect it back - why not try to make it better?
That is what this is about - learning from one another!

Here's my vote-

1. Cedwar
2. Caitlin
3. Jaime
4. JohnMc
5. denscherder

Carolyn

[cdudding]

Another tough one, but here are my choices:

1. Jaime - looked natural, like it was really shot that way. Crisp, clean and the subjects stand out from the background well.
2. RightHandDesign - looked believeable, nothing jumped out, which is a good thing!
3. Endymi0n - just liked the overall look even though the bride's smile was not modified.
4. Dreamypix - One of the best for the groom. Bride's smile looks a bit too big to me otherwise it would have been higher on my list.
5. Cedwar - once again looked natural on my screen.

Thanks!
Chris

[pjulich]

I saw many excellent entries. Too bad it had to come down to just 5. Here are my votes and reasons. My critiques are my own opinions and I wish that mine had turned out as good as any of these 5.
1. Lorraine - The bride and groom had depth. The skin tone was excellent. I guess the background set them off for me better than the busy background of the photo. I used the actual background myself but after seeing this I wish I had tried a different background. The smile is very natural and the translucence of the veil was very good.
2. Jaime I really liked the job you did on the dress. One of the reasons that I cropped mine was that I was not successful in getting the train right. There was good depth, the lighting was very well thought out. It brought focus on the couple.
3. 1stlite entry - I liked the cropping on this one and the clarity of the couple. The skin tone seemed a little dark and unnatural but otherwise a winner.
4. righthanddesign - I liked the cropping on this picture and the nice clean lines. The skin tone seemed to be too red for me.
5. alteredimage - I thought that this picture was very well done in terms of the detail Actually, the variation in the background I found to be distracting. Took my eyes away from the couple. None the less it was an outstanding job.