January 07 Contest Discussion

[T Paul]

Add your comments, questions or general discussion about the Contest entries here. This is also a great place to share your techniques or ask others about theirs.

Most members are eager to hear comments/suggestions about their entries, so please take the time to help each other out.

[T Paul]

Contest will be up and running later today.

[Marthig]

I have always had many explanations about this colour so I checked Wikipedia ... this is what I got :

There is some difficulty in defining the eye color "hazel" as it is sometimes considered to be synonymous with brown and other times with green.[32][19][25][27][30][33] They have been described as light brown or yellowish brown,[34] or as a lighter shade of brown.[35] Hazel eyes have also been described as being equivalent to blue/grey.[36]

I am among those who thought that hazel stood for brown, but while viewing your original photo, the colours were too light and made me think I might be wrong. So I think I will consider the "hazel" you mention as "hazel green" or "hazel grey" unless you could give us a colour within the possible hazels

I know about understanding the instructions being an important factor, but I think there is no clear way to understand it in this case ?

Sorry, TPaul I know you are busy, but had to ask

[BobJones]

Marthig,

There is no single "Right" color for hazel eyes. Hazel eyes are multi-toned and there is quite a bit of natural variation. I have hazel eyes as do my daughters. Mine are gold/green/brown, one daughter is blue-grey/brown, another gold/green. The color balance can vary with lighting as the iris opens or closes.

Hazel gives you room for interpretation. I think the key is to go for multiple hues within the hazel natural range and not go for a monotone look as in solid eye colors such as brown.

[T Paul]

Originally Posted by BobJones

Marthig,
Hazel gives you room for interpretation. I think the key is to go for multiple hues within the hazel natural range and not go for a monotone look as in solid eye colors such as brown.

That is the great thing about hazel eyes...many variations!

[Marthig]

Thank you T Paul and BobJones for providing the response to my query.
See you at the "arena"

[T Paul]

Some pretty impressive eyes so far! Keep them coming!

[NancyJ]

I was always under the impression that 'Hazel' eyes were brown with green flecks - guess you learn something new every day

[Lorraine]

It's good to see this discussion about Hazel eye color. I've been going back and forth among brown/yellow, brown/green and blue-gray/yellow.

Thanks Bob, Marthig and Nancy for your input. It helps to know that others have the same questions.

Lorraine

[Kraellin]

using google's 'define' feature, the only reference i came up with on hazel eyes was this:

of a light brown or yellowish brown color
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

[Marthig]

YW Lorraine about my part in the clarification

Hi there Craig, long time no "talk"

[Kraellin]

hi marthig yes, i've been too busy cursing the computer gods lately to talk much. hopefully, they've heard me and run away now

[Gary Richardson]

Won't be entering January contest unfortunately, as I will be away for my annual skiing holiday on the week of judging.

My apologies to T.

Tough I know, but I'll just have to bear with it. I promise I'll be thinking of you all as I'm gliding down the slopes.

[Janet Petty]

Have fun Gary. Errr...don't break a leg.

Janet

[Lorraine]

Enjoy your vacation, Gary.

Lorraine

[Gary Richardson]

Thanks Janet & Lorraine, I'm sure I'll have a great time.

Skiing is my true passion in life, so a week on planks is my idea of heaven. Didn't manage to get away last year, so I'm looking forward this very much.

[Marthig]

Good Gary enjoy your skiing vacation ! Though something tells me that you may not always be able to remember about us while swishing down those nice white slopes

Craig, yes I followed with great sympathy your woes with the bl**dy PC and program.

[Gary Richardson]

Thanks Martha,

Though something tells me that you may not always be able to remember about us while swishing down those nice white slopes

Well the good news is, the slopes will at least be white.

Snowfall in France (where I'm going) has been pretty sparse so far this season, but on New Years Day it started snowing in the resort I'm going to (I get daily e-mails from the weather centre there), and they've had fairly constant snowfall since.

Now if it can just keep it up for another 7 or 8 days or so, I'll be a happy bunny.

[Marthig]

Ohh OK then, I am not religious but can make some sort of offering to the Weather Channel gods in My Yahoo! page ...
Seriously, hope it would keep on snowing then

[Gary Richardson]

You've got to be careful when invoking the Weather Gods, last time I did it I was heading for a ski holiday in Whistler (British Columbia), and it snowed without break for 14 days (except for a 3 hour break on Thursday).

Didn't see my knees for a fortnight, and we were told afterwards that approx 20ft of snow had fallen during our stay.

[Marthig]

OK then Gary will have to dosify my request (I promise not to keep on replying to avoid being "scolded" for spamming )

[Gary Richardson]

Yes, I think we'd best let this thread get back on topic.

[Lorraine]

Gary, sorry that I'm a little too late ---

But I wanted to say that I've skied at Whistler. Luckily, when I was there we didn't have as much snow. It was more the Northeast USA (when we used to get snow ) -- packed powder. Whistler's a beautiful place.

Lorraine

[lilsip]

Hmm, how to put this without "asking for clarification"? I'm really just interested in what everyone is thinking on this contest. It says colorization "and nothing else"... so how seriously are you guys taking the nothing-else? Just use color blending modes? I'd love to add some catchlights and enhance some contrast in areas, but this is my first contest and I'd hate to go outside the bounds of the rules. Thanks for your opinions in advance!

-A shy and overly-rule-conscious Newbie-

[Doug Colwell]

I can't remember any disqualifications apart from image size and filename rules, but I'm guessing that those who submit 'nothing else' pics would tend not to vote for a 'something else' pic. If someone wants to do a bit more maybe this discussion thread would be a good place to post them?

[Lorraine]

lilsip,

Doug's given you excellent advice. In ths contest we're colorizing, and not retouching, the photo. Changing the original might possibly work against you in the voting process.

Lorraine

[T Paul]

So what do you think is the most difficult part about this colorization...skin tone...hazel eye....?

[Kraellin]

well darn; i was going to make it blink and avoid the whole iris color altogether

[lilsip]

Thanks, guys! Yeah, I was thinking votes might sway toward eye-catching (no pun intended) "extras", but didn't take into account that you can only vote if you've submitted one of your own. Too bad about that blinking one, though, huh?

[Lorraine]

T,

It's the hazel eye color. I'm still not sure about that. The second most difficult decision was to remove or not to remove those stray flakes of masacra on her skin under her lashes. I decided to remove them.

Lorraine