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Archive 2014 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?

  
 
Photo GeekMan
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


All,
This is more of an experiment than a critique, so forgive me if this is the wrong sub-forum.

I took the following shot while in Hawaii. At the time I thought it would be perfect; beautiful background, slow shutter for silky water effect, interesting rocks in foreground, how could it possibly go wrong?

Well, you can easily see how wrong it went.

Luckily, I realized what was happening and managed to address many of the mistakes while I was still out there, and I captured much better images later on during the same outing. This weekend, as I was going through my vacation photos, I came across this image and, instead of simply throwing it into the discard pile, I thought I'd share it here as a kind of group learning experience. I'm providing the image as it came out of the camera, not even adding sharpening. I'd like to ask all of you to see what, if anything, you can make out of this horrible fiasco to maybe turn it into a photo worth keeping. Everyone here has different vision, and a different process for realizing that vision with their own work. I'm really curious as to what each of you can do with this, what kind of imaginative cropping, editing and/or processing can people come up with to turn dreck like this into, well... something approaching ART.

Good luck!





The original image... YUCK!



Edited on Sep 29, 2014 at 11:05 AM · View previous versions



Sep 29, 2014 at 09:16 AM
andrewsk
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


This may be kind of fun. What caused the vingette? Its only on one side.

As a side note, I just picked up a loupe that I can attach to my viewfinder to review my shots. It had really help me notice mistakes before I get home.

Looking at an LCD screen in sunlight, you can miss a lot of issues.



Sep 29, 2014 at 10:39 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


This is what I call making lemonade. Maybe you should title it the "Lemonade Challenge" ...

To make good lemonade, you gotta start with good lemons ... after that, it's all a matter of taste.

Nothing too "Artsy" ... just some rough tweaks (could use a bit more refined work, but you get the gist) to try and "save" what I perceive might have been the original intent.






Edited on Sep 29, 2014 at 11:52 AM · View previous versions



Sep 29, 2014 at 11:01 AM
Photo GeekMan
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


Rusty,
Great idea regarding the post title! And yes, I know you need good lemons and this is a decidedly bad lemon. However, I thought it would be interesting to see what people on the forum can do with something that COULD have been good, but just... isn't.

Everyone has their favorite "tricks" when working with good images to makes them amazing. Forgotten B&W tonal adjustments, color correction secret techniques, Instagram-ification, PS plugin overbaking, etc. I'm just curious what some of the amazing photographers on this board can do with this image and also how well their personal tricks will work on something that is so... un-good.



Sep 29, 2014 at 11:14 AM
Photo GeekMan
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


andrewsk wrote:
This may be kind of fun. What caused the vingette? Its only on one side.

As a side note, I just picked up a loupe that I can attach to my viewfinder to review my shots. It had really help me notice mistakes before I get home.

Looking at an LCD screen in sunlight, you can miss a lot of issues.


The vignette is from my lens hood, which became slightly detached on one side while I was setting up the tripod. I was seriously thinking about a loupe, but I've just discovered recently a little app called DSLR Controller which I've installed on my Nexus 10. I think this little app and I will be getting along very, VERY well in the future!


Rusty,
Very nice processing of the photo! Almost looks like a keeper now!



Sep 29, 2014 at 11:34 AM
Bob Jarman
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


My go at it.

Bob







Sep 29, 2014 at 12:56 PM
Oregon Gal
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


I have had the same thing happen with my wide angle lens, it rotates too easily and with a slight rotation you see the lens hood. I don't use the lens hood anymore.


Sep 29, 2014 at 02:42 PM
Bob Jarman
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


Regular filters can cause similar result - best to get thin for WA and FE.

Bob



Sep 29, 2014 at 02:43 PM
Photo GeekMan
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


Bob Jarman wrote:
My go at it.

Bob


That's great and it's actually pretty close to what I did when I was trying to "salvage" this lemon.

---------------------------------------------

Oregon Gal wrote:
I have had the same thing happen with my wide angle lens, it rotates too easily and with a slight rotation you see the lens hood. I don't use the lens hood anymore.


That's exactly what happened to me. It had come slightly loose and thus turned to cause the vignette. I took maybe 6 shots before I realized it.

---------------------------------------------

Bob Jarman wrote:
Regular filters can cause similar result - best to get thin for WA and FE.

Bob


Stacking filters can cause all sorts of issues on WA lenses. I try to avoid stacking if at all possible.



Sep 29, 2014 at 02:48 PM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


You could go for the "day for night" look:












Sep 29, 2014 at 04:30 PM
beanpkk
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


Just for fun, I'd like to see an enumeration of what's actually wrong with the original, beyond the lens hood problem. It might put us all on the same starting page?

keith



Sep 29, 2014 at 06:02 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


Something a little more playful.







Sep 29, 2014 at 06:46 PM
Photo GeekMan
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


AuntiPode wrote:
You could go for the "day for night" look:


Great work, as always!

---------------------------------------------

beanpkk wrote:
Just for fun, I'd like to see an enumeration of what's actually wrong with the original, beyond the lens hood problem. It might put us all on the same starting page?

keith


To me, there's a lot "wrong" with the shot (camera focus, vignette, composition, etc.), but the most glaring thing is a lack of meaning, or story. As this was one of the first shots of the series, I rushed into it without fully understanding what I wanted to capture besides the "everything". In essence, the shot doesn't have a story to tell which, to me, makes it boring, flat and uninspired. You can see what I was attempting; near rocks for detail and drama, leading to silky water effect and finally distant landscape and sky for drama. Unfortunately, this photo has too many rocks making a jumbled mess, with water so silky that it's become uninteresting smoke and a distant landscape that just doesn't hold interest.
All of this is my personal judgement of my own work, which is by necessity, very harsh. Unfortunately for me, I've begun moving beyond just taking a nice photo, to wanting to tell a story within each photo. I don't often succeed in doing that (YET!), but with each new photo I take I think I'm getting closer to what I hope to accomplish.

---------------------------------------------

RustyBug wrote:
Something a little more playful.


Very nice! Did you use any plugins to create this?



Sep 29, 2014 at 09:33 PM
Photo GeekMan
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


In the spirit of fairness, here's my attempt.







Sep 29, 2014 at 09:34 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


Photo GeekMan wrote:
Very nice! Did you use any plugins to create this?


Thanks ... no plugins ... mostly a little selective application of "oil paint" filter (and tweaks) in PS



Sep 29, 2014 at 09:46 PM
lylejk
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


My hopefully better view of the runes.




Sep 30, 2014 at 12:50 PM
Photo GeekMan
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


lylejk wrote:
My hopefully better view of the runes.

http://imageshack.com/a/img537/7081/q9Vq9h.jpg


Nicely done! You managed to get a lot of color out of the horrible shot.



Oct 01, 2014 at 11:44 AM
beavens
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


So far my favorite is definitely PGM's BW rendition, with Kent's oil touch up a close second.

Cool thread!!

Jeff



Oct 01, 2014 at 12:12 PM
Shasoc
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Lemonade Challenge - What can you make of this?


Here is my take
Socrate




A bit more punch






A bit more artsy




Oct 01, 2014 at 01:17 PM





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