Weekly Competition No.49 DECAY & DERELICTION

No49 Decay & Dereliction

I am a bit sad that my top three are all colour, but thanks everyone for having a go, not an easy subject, it has been an interesting journey!

NATHAN: I presume this is Highgate cemetery, I place I have always wanted to visit. Great subject and atmospheric, a nice choice of tone but the first thing I feel is a tilt to the left and to sky is too white and empty so the eye drifts up and out and does not remain in the picture. More contrast would help.

GARTMORE: Abstract and texture, the most interesting bit is the Gothic arch which holds no glass but a story of what went before. There is again a tilt to the left and just part of an upright on left distracts the eye. If it was mine I would have cropped to centralise the doorway.

PREINI: Like it! I think this may be a bit of HDR decay? I love the unusual perspective leading the eye up to the spooky house with decaying leaves lending texture and interest. I want to enter this house. A story unfolds..

ALPHAFOXTROT: Practically a monochrome, I like the colour and the subject, an abstract that could do with a little more punch with more contrast with levels and curves. If you can manage to adjust the converging verticals it would improve the image. I love the quirky enamel lampshade at the top.

YELVERTOFT: Initially I liked the light coming through the roof lights but the burnt out areas in the foreground are quite distracting. I think you have got too much ground space, a more interesting viewpoint would have been to angle up more to the roof. This would really have been a great mono conversion with lots of dodging and burning to bring out interest and texture.

SERENDIPITY: I like this, lots of angles and lines going on, nice mono, I like the roof and the poles and the light entering is of good quality if a little burnt out, but overall a good viewpoint.

JUSTGETOUTNRIDE: a minimalistic approach which demonstrates thinking a little differently from the obvious. The reflection in the ripple water makes this image and I love the texture of the sharp vegetation. I think this could have been improved more by applying a nice tone to bring out the tonal range that is lurking there.

MONTCARLO: when I first looked at this my eyes were racing around trying to focus on a point of interest, racing because there is really too much out of focus areas. The only point the eye settles on is in the bottom right corner of the not so interesting brick wall. Contrast is lacking also.

HYRAM: Correct me if I am wrong but did you use flash and if so why? The lighting has killed all atmosphere of the shot which would also have been a perfect candidate for mono as there is texture and tonal range there, don’t be afraid to try it – it doesn’t hurt honest! My eyes are going either side of the cupboard, what to settle on?

MALO1961: Nice abstract approach for a richly textured and well saturated image. I like the contrast of the wood backdrop and technically well done.

IKILLROCKNROLL: Well I would have preferred mono for this, because like Ken has said before sometimes too much colour = too much information. Plenty of action though and nice reportage feel to it.

DEECY: A subtle degree of dereliction but a great view point, good conversion which gives the shot atmosphere and a light touch of colour popping gives it a quirky touch, but minimal decay and dereliction.

ICEBLINKER: As soon as I converted this to mono it was 10 times the picture than in colour, converting to mono and applying an aging sepia tone would have made it gorgeous, had it all there but colour dilutes the theme. See my version: http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u193/lillymermaid/original.jpg

BEAKYNET: Well you were on to a winner here with one of my most favourite subject matter – angels. Sorry but there is not enough D & D in the image for it portray the theme, By adjusting the curves you could have brought out more of the tonal range, a little flat as it is.

AMORIGELLO: love the colours in this it is almost monochromatic but the aging green mould gives the image atmosphere and a sense of time and the aging process. My only quibble would be my eye drifts to the right. It is a shame you could not have got more in of the right hand side to balance it better. Nice quality of light and fascinating subject.

FATHER TED: I shall tell you a secret, I have set up an ACTION in PS CS3 for a basic yellow filter conversion, it is very quick and useful to test the possibility of mono shot quickly and effectively at the touch of one button. Your boat looks good in mono, I have tried! But as a colour shot it lakes depth and contrast, I would have darkened down areas of the image sky foreground dodged some light on the hull and trimmed a bit of the sky as my eye goes skyward here. : http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u193/lillymermaid/Docks.jpg

GALOOT: Classic, like it abandonment, decay, etc etc.. well produced and sums up the brief, I wd have loved to see a mono version too!

CABSTAR: Rusting chains, well focused and framed but does not excite me greatly as a subject but technically well produced.

BELINDA: Flash again used? To me is spoils the atmosphere of potentially a great subject. The eye is drawn downwards to the over bright area. With a tripod and careful exposure it would look more gritty, decayed & neglected.

DR MHUNI: An in yer face shot Doc, nice abstract great tones and very gritty. Did you happen to use a PS filter poster edges ever so slightly?
I like the colour saturation you have used also; it attracts the eye but does not overload it.

TERJE-l: In this case I don’t think the colour popping works and it detracts the eye from all the wood and decaying timber. Need to improve the tonal range with curves to bring it more alive. A tighter crop on the left hand side too to get rid of part of timber upright.

EPIPHETMAN: I do like lichen and lichen is part of the decaying process of inanimate things, thing is you do not show the beauty of the colours it brings. Nice DOF but in this entry I do think colour would have been appropriate! PS- the bird shit on the leaf is a distraction, embrace digital and clone it out!

TIMBO: a very very nice sensitive romantic landscape image and mono is good. I love the way you have developed the sky, cropped and the format you have selected and finally the cross which catches your eye at the end. Lovely, makes me want to be there.

HEFTY: A Rapunzelesque tower, very pretty, almost completely shrouded in vegetation that masks the towers sad decline. Technically a well exposed image but not enough decay and decline for me really.

NIMITZ: When I first looked at this image I wondered what it was that bothered me. I know now, too much space on the LHS, if it was mine I would crop right up to over the extreme left edge of the metal plate, which then focuses the eye to the metal and the lichen.

MIKEW: Sure it counts Mike, a little mild compared to JR’s tho! It is a gorgeous architectural view with lush colours. It all looks real good to me but sorry the peeling paintwork is not heavy enough focus for the theme.

JOHNRILEY: This is a shocking graphic image of decay, you certainly had the subject matter but the harsh lighting conditions and shadows ruin the sensitivity of these decaying bodies, I think it wd have been better in mono which would have disguised such harsh lighting.

UNLOCKER: Perfectly exposed, great colour saturation all technically spot on. The choice of subject is well thought and different and seems to have two dimensional stories going on here. The crisp foreground of the fence in its own state of disrepair and the out of focus aged home that looks like it may be coming back to life. DOF is so important in what you see and how the mind interprets.

UTOPIAPOPPY: I do not like the composition the tree appears to be growing out of the middle of cart and part of a barrel LHS is distracting, The most interesting part of the cart is the left hand side wheel and I wd have altered my view point to get that. The foreground highlights would be less distracting if you had burned them in a bit.


FIRST goes to AMORINGELLO moody & atmospheric
SECOND goes to UNLOCKER different approach
THIRD goes to GALOOT abstract & in yer face

HC to both Prieni & Dr Mhuni ‘cause they were too good not to mention

Thanks for the priviledge of judging again, over to you Amoringello

Excellent (and fast!) judging once again Lilly - you're getting quite a dab hand at this aren't you?

Congratulations to the winners, especially Amoringello - some really nice photos again this week.

Congrats to Amoringello.

Thanks for the interesting conversion of my picture, Lilly.

Mono images are certainly often more instantly impressive than colour ones, but personally I generally prefer colour. It is a very tough challenge to make ordinary subjects appear interesting in colour, and obviously I didn't do well enough with my competition entry, but still I would generally rather try with colour than mono. I liked the subtle colours in my original anyway.

Having said all that, I do very much like many of the black & white entries in this competition. It's just not really the thing that I want to do myself (for the time being anyway).

On second thoughts, Lilly, I think I'm preferring your version to mine now!! Thanks very much.

Well, thank you very much for the honor!
The photo was taken through the open doorway of an old crypt, so the roughly darkened edges were as photographed. I got several creepy photos that day.

Hmmm, never really expected to win regardless of how much I liked my image. Caught totally off guard, I have no clue what to do next. Thinking....

I have to tend to visiting relatives tonight, but I will post a new category as soon as possible.

Thanks again.

Very well done, we'll look forward to the new subject!

Nice judging by the way.

Fast judging - well done.

Interesting and high quality top 3 this week. Well done all.

Well done to the winner!

And I got some positive comments

Thanks for the 3rd, Lilly.

I did try a mono, but to get the contrast I wanted, I started to loose detail in the trolley, couldn't get it just right. In fact the whole picture started to look 'muddy'.

Thank you for the constructive critic, Lilly.

The cropping is obvious, once you think about it. For mono conversions, I just need more practice, I think.

Thanks Lilly, for the fast and very good judging. Congratulations the winners. Well deserved to all. Again,..... the entries were of a very high standard this week.
Martin.

Thanks for the HC and the ultra-speedy and considered judging, Lilly, and congrats to the winners.

Re. the photo – I actually don’t have PS, but use Silkypix for Raw conversion and then Picasa for adjustments to the jpeg as I haven’t managed to get my Silkypix functioning fully yet (only downloaded it successfully a few weeks ago, and it seems that most of what it offers – including Sharpening – isn’t operational for some reason). I used a film grain filter in Picasa, which was quite subtle in this photo (it can appear too obvious) and I thought complemented the pic (and the theme) well. I did very little with the colours – used a film colour filter in Silpkypix and made a slight adjustment in Picasa. I think the understated nature of the colour has something to do with how little space the saturated colours actually occupy in the photo.

Congratulations to the winners and to Lilly for such fast and good judging!

I knew my entry wasn't on the spot but it was the best I could find at the time.

I do enjoy these competitions as it gives me something to go and take shots for which is (almost) always nice..

Mike

Congratulations to all the winners, and many thanks to Lilly for the well thought out judging, your comments are much appreciated.

Thanks for the advice, I will give curves another go, it is one of the tools I don't seem to be getting to grips with

I was interested in your comment about not enought D & D, I though the fact it was set in a grave yard implied one of the 'D's !

Great judging - For one, I think it will help push my pictures (especially B&W) forward. I took the image for this comp and I am more inspired to do more B&W as a result - Job done I would say!