Monthly Photo Competition - June 2008

[CJ Swartz]

Entries are now being accepted for this month's competition -- make a post in this thread and attach your entry.

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The theme for this month's competition has been chosen by the
1st Place WINNER of our May 2008 competition -- CathyH

CathyH has chosen the theme "Flowers / Gardens"


Deadline for submitting your image: Friday June 27th, 2008 at 2 am EDT/ 11 pm PDT.
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Each member may submit only one entry for this competition. You may change your entry (or submit another entry in its place) up until the deadline.

The goal of these friendly competitions is to inspire members to grab our camera and actually use it. New photos are our goal, but we also accept recently photographed/recently processed images that fit the topic also. Honor system applies.

We'd love to hear any shooting info you have (shutter speed, ISO, f-stop) as well as any regular photographic post-processing -- cropping, levels, saturation, dodge/burn, etc.
Note: This is NOT the forum for photo art filters or art programs - let's keep the photos looking like photos.

Entries may be deleted if they do not meet criteria (nudity, photo art, etc.), but we do not encourage arguing about entries -- the voters will decide which images they prefer.

What does the winner get? The winner gets to choose the next assignment PLUS gets all the nice accolades that come from being chosen "Winner". (No, a Brinks truck does not arrive with a large check...)

Post your photo submissions in this thread, and we'll have a separate thread for discussion of this assignment and your comments regarding any of the entries that strike your fancy.

All RetouchPro members may take part in the competition and all members may vote, whether they have submitted an entry or not.

[AFrazier]

I shot this at the Biltmore house the other day.

Taken with a Sony Alpha 700
F-Stop 4.5
Shutter Speed 1/200
ISO 250
White Balance set to Daylight

60 mm focal length using a 28-300 F3.5-6.3

[K_GiMiNi_M]

hope you like this photo.

[charlbury]

Took this picture specifically for this comp. The Tulips are just past their best but still look good as a group.

Was going to go with this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iboogaloo/2255245887/

But it's not my garden!

[Fedje]

Nothing fancy, just my 'Black Eye Susan's'
Maybe I should have used this one last month. I never thought of it until just now! Getting to old, memory is going. ;>)

[Blindv]

Here's an image I took while visiting my mother's house. I'm not sure what type of flower it is, but it's eye catching!

I didn’t really do a lot to this version of the image. I masked the bloom of the flower and modified the curves to give a pretty strong S curve to increase the contrast – I also added a bit o saturation to the yellows and reds as well. I adjusted the hue of the background to give a green offset to, (hopefully), augment the color of the bloom. Also used a pretty minimal high pass layer to recover some of the image clarity.

I have an altered version of this image also HERE, but I wasn’t sure if it would be acceptable as it isn’t an accurate representation of the actual photo that was taken.

Good luck all!
-Cheers.

Camera: DSLR Rebel XT
Shutter Speed: 1/1000s
Aperture: F/5.6
Focal Length: 48mm
ISO: 100
Original Res: 2304 x 3456

[Janet Petty]

I'll probably change this out before the end of the month. But here is one I quite enjoyed.

Early spring bloom - Trillium
125th second
F 3.5
ISO 100

Chigger bites were free.

Janet

[skauskas]

here is my try

[SWADE23]

Here Is My Winner (or I Hope To Be) Lol

[dweekley]

had to try out my new Canon G9 and i love flowers. I don't know much about photography, I'm still trying to just hold my hands still! Anyway, iris's are one of my favorite flowers and this is from my dad's garden where i am currently visiting.

camera is Canon G9
ISO 80
F2.8
1/640 shutter
I did crop the photo a lot and also adjusted the color a little with curves.

Doreen

[nebgranny]

I have tried to resize my photo so it is a little bigger. I hope this works. Thanks for the help. Nebgranny

[DiamondsDr47]

Here is one from me.Neuschwanstein.jpg

[CathyH]

Hi
Here is what I took today. It is not perfect, I didn't see the leaf that is hanging straight down until I looked at the pics on the computer. I tired cloning it out but it looked fake to me, so I'm leaving it in. I also think it could be sharper.
But I really liked the lighting, it was evening and the sun was back lighting the petals nicely and the color was good.

Apature Priority 125 F5 using the 55mm -200mm zoom.

[Martin K]

Ok so this is my first post after my intro thingy. Shot this in the studio last Friday. Not sure what they are. Look like cabbages. Someone told me it is kale. Perhaps it is, whatever kale might be. Not sure if you cook it, put it in a salad or in a vase. Anyway, lets see if I can attach the file.

[CJ Swartz]

As of 11pm PDT, entries for this month's contest are closed - the voting thread is now open.