Apr 06 Contest Votes

[T Paul]

Voting will run from 23 Apr to 30 Apr 2006. Deadline for votes is 6pm EDT 30 Apr 2006.

Only those that entered the contest may vote. All other votes will be deleted. If you did not enter, but would like to comment on an entry, please post your comments to the Apr 06 Discussion Thread.

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

This thread will remain closed until it's time to vote.

And as always, when you vote try to include some things you especially liked about your choices…what made them stand out, what impressed you, etc. This is a learning experience!

[aylaah]

will re-post my votes after others vote - some concern on me swaying the vote process.

[TwinbNJ]

This was the hardest contest to narrow done to ONLY 5!
I looked at overall skintone, colorcast and natural looking retouch.

1 - Artfolio

2 - Soleah

3 - Ferdverfel

4 - Gary Richardson

5 - MinnGal

[HannibalVector]

I don't get it! I thought we were supposed to PM T Paul with our votes.

[Nanls]

Wow.. great entries. What a task. I was following the discussion for the contest, and it seems that making the photo the best it could be would include things like strap and shadow removal so I gave points for the extra effort. Since it wasn't a glamor retouch I discounted images that had any obvious changes to the facial structure or features.

1. likenew - very believable "snapshot" all the way around. Good job on removing the straps and reducing the shadow.

2 - Lorraine - nice job on skin retouch - very pretty image- just enough to look natural. Good job on hair and strap removal.

3. Artfolio - really nice job all the way around; hair, strap, blemish, shadow removal, however, the skin was blotchy.

4. VeryWierd - nice skin, color, very natural, however, strap removal is obvious on the shoulders, and you left the harsh shadow.

5. dkcoats - nice retouching .. just a little outside of a "snapshot"

Too many good entries I could have picked another 5.

~Nancy~

_______________________________________________

www.fixthepixs.com

[T Paul]

Please post the votes in the voting thread...do not PM them to me. That was a typo on my part (copied an old contest and didn't catch that change). So far no one has PMed me.

[Doug Colwell]

1. Soleah
2. Bella
3. Aceman
4. Wendy Bobz
5. Artfolio

Honourable mention to Camile, Lonk, Mendensmall and Infinite Monkey.

[Frank Lopes]

This was very thought to pick...

Sorry, but I couldn't vote for anyone that gave her a new background, new eyes or a new hair style (some were very nice indeed...) because I interpreted the "snapshot look" as enhance what is there, not add to what is there.

Here are my votes:

1 - Nanls - loved it!! Great eyes... but wrong straps :-)
2 - MinnGal - hair a little to neat. Nice face color
3 - Bob Jones - nicely balanced
4 - Verywierd - nice work... slight left shoulder damage
5 - Artfolio - clipped head? what happened :-)

Honorable mentions for their "uniqueness":

InfiniteMonkey - very creative
lonK - love the look: very medieval...
Doug Colwell - loved the picture within a picture within a picture within...
Gmbun - the best hair

[Peth]

1. On Air
2. Nanis
3. Ziaphra
4. Soleah
5. InfiniteMonkey

[palomino]

I had a hard time voting this one....one would have great hair, but bad skin and so on, so I tried to base votes on achieving an overall natural look with skin and hair. Although I liked some of the new backgrounds and interesting manipulations, I tried to vote for people also who stayed with the general concept of the original shot. Thanks again aylaah.
--K

1. Bella- very nice and natural overall, maybe a bit "soft"
2. Ziaphra- I like the pink, it brings out her coloring well and the rest of
the retouch is very smooth also
3. Nanis- very natural and good tones, hair may be a little too neat around
the edges
4. Verywierd- natural and subdued
5. Soleah- Nice job on the overall retouch and the makeup is applied well if
perhaps a bit "pinky" for me

honorable mentions go out to aceman (good brows, but left the straps messy), minngal (very good and would have made top five if you hadn't changed her eye color), likenew (good job on the shadow)

[familytreephoto]

1. Bella
2. KVK
3. BobJones
4. aceman
5. WendyBobz

[soleah]

These 5 entries cleaned up the skin well but kept the skin texture intact, still looked like the model even after the retouch. And they don't look cut and pasted.

1. bella - she looks refreshed.
2. doug colwell - I like her tan coloring (on my monitor)
3. gigadals
4. aceman
5. verywierd

[Caitlin]

I could get it down to a shortlist of about 20 easy - after that it got really tough!

The way I went about judging was first off to reject any where Aylaah's features had been changed significantly. There were quite a few that had narrowed her face or chin, so she didn't look like the same person anymore. Next I looked for clean but natural skin, and subtle makeup. Finally I started rejecting entries based on hair, overall colour, background, clothing etc.

My top 5 were all quite similar, so picking between them was almost impossible!

1. Aceman
2. Bella
3. Palomino
4. Soleah
5. Bob Jones

Honorouble mentions also to: dkcoats, ferdberfel, likenew, doug cowell, onair

I was surprised how many entries left on the white bottom edge!

[Gary Richardson]

Because there were so many entries, this one was hard to judge, and I may not have given every picture the time and attention it needed. My apologies for my inadequacies as a judge.

Sadly a few entries had to be discounted because they were nowhere near the 800x600 size specification (Terivon, Cybercat, Vikibee, Likenew).

What I looked for was a picture that looked as natural as possible. There were many fine entries, but too many were over polished for what I thought the purpose of the challenge was.

The following are my votes

• 1st Gigadals Kept strictly to the brief, and produced a beautifully natural result.
• 2nd Doug Colwell Another natural looking image. Put in second place because of the "extras" added to the image. (loved the effect, but strictly speaking it was outside the brief as I understood it).
• 3rd Bella Another one with a nice light touch, lighting let it down a touch, which is why I put her third.
• 4th WendyBobz Not quite as much a "finished" result as Bella, which is what made her fourth.
• 5th InfiniteMonkey Bit of a wildcard this one. Way off base, but I loved the humour in it, and so had to vote for it.

[OnAir]

My preferred entries are following:

1. Bella
2. Soleah
3.WendyBobz
4. Aceman
5. Verywierd

Can't stand to mention Lonk and Camile unusual interpretations, as I like very much a portrait approach to face retouch.