Post Processing Challenge

I ventured over to Pentax Forums for a butchers. I like their monthly voting competition, which seems very well subscribed, so it's a shame that the voting competition here went to an early grave. But one idea I found there that I really like is the post processing challenge, which I had a go at. Someone makes a photo available, the various processing interpretations are submitted, judged and the baton passed. I think it's fun and a great learning process.

I would suggest it run fortnightly.

We did have something like that for a while but it sort of died a death.

Yes, why not! I think the success is partly dependent on people putting forward images that have scope for creative PP work... I remember on previous attempts some of the images were a bit 'what on earth do I do with that?'

Why not have a short preliminary selection for a day or two chosing your victim image from a set of noms.

I think Stefan dealt with that, but he doesn't seem to be very active here any more.

I don't think he felt welcome.

A consideration that might become important is that post-processing is software dependent.

So while someone may have excellent Photoshop skills with which to weave their magic, it may not necessarily translate / equate to something doable in Aperture or Gimp (or even Lightroom for that matter).

Maybe, but not necessarily. Just something simple like choice of crop will often make the biggest difference.

Plus I don't think the important thing is to 'win' the challenge - that really is just a mechanism to keep it going. The thing I find interesting is simply the different interpretations, often completely distinct. It would certainly teach me a lot.

I recall a critique thread, but that was a little different. This wouldn't be a critique, simply make the most of whatever the photo is. It could have been before my time, but given evolution of membership maybe it's worth another shot.

I agree Adrian - perhaps all it needs is guidelines about those very aims then.

Worth a shot.

Something like this needs careful thought and proper planning. It's IMHO a pity about option 3 in the poll, which sort of undermines the serious question. If you want a serious competition, then maybe it should be serious questions from the start, otherwise you may attract flippant responses.

How would you post the original? It doesn't need to be a full sized file, so maybe a simple post in a thread of an 800px wide but unmodified image would suffice. It can be right clicked to copy it, then new versions can be posted. This feature is already offered at EPZ in the gallery though, so you can do this right now but not of course with a PU audience exclusively.

What was unsatisfactory about Stefan's competition was the secrecy of the entries. That's the same as sending images in physically to a magazine and removes the interactive advantages of the web. Watching the entries come in and the competition unfold is one of the fun parts of the process.

Anyway, having got the modified images in the thread, what do we do with them? Surely it does need an appraisal. The voting thread for best image could also be done, but it might run into problems if there are too many options. I'm not sure offhand if there is n option limit in the software.

DrOrloff has suggested this in this thread, so should be the first to post an image perhaps? Try it if you think there's a demand. Better still, do it in the Gallery as a competition (there can be more than one running at once) and just do the voting thread here if there is one. That way, the competition itself will gain from having an automated process.

My preference is for very little PP, but thats just me. Would be interested to see what people come up with though.

I think this is a good idea, that way people who only "monitor" the gallery will see the shots, and maybe join in.

Votes could be a simple scale of 1-20 say, then average out etc.

The camera club which I attend, is doing something like this tomorrow night as an in house competition, so will report back on the outcome and way it was received.

Yes, I thought Gareth was involved in starting it? The problem as I recall it was that some of the photos posted in that thread were unsuitable for alternative crops, or simply weren't interesting enough to make me want to spend time doing PP on it. One very tightly framed photo of a bush sticks in my memory ( Gareth )

I'd be up for it, as long as the original photo is open to a range of different crops and treatments. PersonallyI think it's important that it was a photo was technically sound to start with, it's no fun attempting to make the most of a soft photo with lousy DOF and blown highlights.

PS I think the original should be much larger than 800 wide. I would vastly prefer to have the full resolution original, but would settle for something in the 1500-2000 pixel range.

I would be willing to participate too, subject to the provisos Tim made, ie that the picture was worth editing in the first place and had room for cropping it if we wanted.

Surely it could be done by posting an 8oo pixel copy on here, and a link to the full size origial? After having a go at it we could then post an 800 pixel version of the edited pic back on here.