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Shot of the Week 2019 – Iggy – Group 1

Posted: Sun 06 Jan 2019, 22:55
by Iggy
I will present my SOTW images in groups of 6 or 7 weeks: 6+7+6+7+6+7+6+7=52.
Thus I will only have 8 threads of SOTW images in Photo Sharing at the end of the year rather than 52.
This should make it easier to look back at the images as the year progresses.

SOTW 2019 – Iggy – G1 – S1
Just Jazzing in the New Year

Re: Shot of the Week 2019 – Iggy – Group 1

Posted: Sun 06 Jan 2019, 23:25
by Mike Farley
Hi Iggy

That shot looked good when you showed it to me on your camera on Friday and I am pleased to see that it has held up on the big screen as well. I like the placement of the saxophonist and that you have composed the image at an angle which helps increase the aesthetic appeal. A good start.

1 down, 51 to go. :)

Re: Shot of the Week 2019 – Iggy – Group 1

Posted: Mon 07 Jan 2019, 11:02
by Franke07
Hi Iggy, you are off to a a very good start! I like the mood of the picture it's captured the festivities.

Re: Shot of the Week 2019 – Iggy – Group 1

Posted: Mon 07 Jan 2019, 16:10
by Iggy
Hello Mike & Frank,
Thanks for your kind comments.

I circled the saxophonist when I saw him playing, taking around a dozen shots over 10 mins.
On the attached image, the crowds suddenly parted, back and front, to help me capture him unimpeded.
I was happy the second I saw the image on the camera screen.

Panasonic FZ1000, hand held, Auto bracket, Manual settings F3.3, Exposure 1/60 sec, Auto ISO 3200, quite dark at 18.51pm.

Regards,
Iggy

Re: Shot of the Week 2019 – Iggy – Group 1

Posted: Thu 10 Jan 2019, 14:57
by Iggy
Decided to test out “Just Jazzing” in our CCC DPI-3 Comp last night.
The ARPS judge liked most things about it such as placement of saxophonist and mood but suggested that the verticals could have been straightened.

Just looked at straightening verticals image in PS6 by simple rotation and crop but that puts saxophonist to the very edge of the image.
Alternatively, can straighten the right had side in free transform followed by further stretching.

So much to watch out for.

Any way, judge gave the image 9.5

Re: Shot of the Week 2019 – Iggy – Group 1

Posted: Fri 11 Jan 2019, 08:44
by Mike Farley
Hi Iggy

Well done on the DPI result. I cannot say that I agree with the judge about the verticals. Having diagonals imparts dynamic tension which make the shot more interesting. When judges make this type of suggestion, I often wonder whether they are visualising the result or merely looking for something to say.

If you are turning the camera and only have limited opportunity, it might be worthwhile not framing so tightly. That way you will have room to adjust the composition later. Modern cameras have more than sufficient resolving power to be able to discard a significant number of pixels without degrading image quality.

Re: Shot of the Week 2019 – Iggy – Group 1

Posted: Fri 11 Jan 2019, 19:05
by Iggy
Thanks for your kind comments. Once verticals were pointed out it was so obvious, but as you said probably does not detract too much from the mood and content.

Mike said: it might be worthwhile not framing so tightly. That way you will have room to adjust the composition later.

A good piece of advice that I will bear in mind. It is better to do some cropping in post production to get the final image.

Re: Shot of the Week 2019 – Iggy – Group 1

Posted: Fri 11 Jan 2019, 23:37
by davidb
Mike Farley wrote:

it might be worthwhile not framing so tightly. That way you will have room to adjust the composition later.


Post production is not always on my mind while shooting the subject! In the case of Iggy's shot I might have tried to get the verticals right in camera but wouldn't be put off by cropping the subject if need be.

Iggy, have you tried exaggerating the verticals more?

Re: Shot of the Week 2019 – Iggy – Group 1

Posted: Sat 12 Jan 2019, 09:16
by Mike Farley
davidb wrote:Post production is not always on my mind while shooting the subject!

Admittedly it takes forethought and practice, not to mention contravening the mantra of getting the shot right in camera.

davidb wrote:Iggy, have you tried exaggerating the verticals more?

That was my other thought. Personally, I like the image as presented but sometimes it does not pay to be too subtle when it comes to judges. It is necessary to make the effect REALLY, REALLY obvious so that they definitely know that is what was intended.

There are a couple of options which Iggy could consider. In Photoshop leave the saxophonist at his jaunty angle and use Transform, liquify or Warp to correct the background verticals. Given that those verticals are also behind him, that might not be too easy and more extreme measures might be necessary. Such as cutting out the musician, adjusting the background and adding him back in using a separate layer.* Alternatively, extend the image size using Crop with the Content Aware Fill option checked. (I know, using crop to increase image size sounds counterintuitive.) That might give the additional headroom required to straighten the image or increase the angle of the diagonals. Content Aware Fill has got me out of trouble a few times when I have wanted to adjust the composition subsequently.**

Adobe first implemented Content Aware Fill in CS4, but the latest incarnation in Photoshop CC 2019 is supposed to work much better. I cannot comment as I have not tried it yet, but the old version did not work too intelligently when there is a lot of detail to be added.

* The more recent versions of Photoshop have options to protect portions of the image from adjustment. See this link for further information:

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/photoshop/us ... jects.html

** Perhaps I should not admit that. ;)

Re: Shot of the Week 2019 – Iggy – Group 1

Posted: Sat 12 Jan 2019, 10:01
by davidb
Mike Farley wrote:
** Perhaps I should not admit that. ;)


It's nice to know you're not perfect ;)