I use photomatix lilly, and just adjust it to my tastes, then sometimes i boost it slightly with highlight/shadows tool in photoshop. Its just a playaround till you get the results I find, and depends on the photo you start with.

Taken in dubai.
HDR used. I should really buy myself a grad ND, but this works just as well most of the time..

I love the photo by the way Lilly, the candid shot of the customer is superb, and once again the black and white contrast is perfect

http://www.met.police.uk/campaigns/counter_terrorism/ct_camera_2008.pdf

The police's new posters may explain the occurence..

Yeah, thats one of the reasons I cant decide what macro lens I want really
But I think im going to go for one around the 100mm range

Maybe consider not using it as just a macro, but as a 35mm prime or 100mm prime...

a 35mm would also provide more depth because of angles, telephoto lenses give a "flatter" view, and also, do you want to get right up to an object (35mm) or a few inches away (100mm)

Hope my opinion helped

Thanks for your nice words will, and the joint-fifth place And well done to Amilner; incredible colours. That one you posted from 1/2 an hour before is something special too, I love the neutral pastel and earth colours!



You are right, about a 10minute walk from my house in the dunes north of liverpool. Its interesting, we have some incredible sunsets, but turning away from the sun I saw the mix of colours, went into the dunes from the beach and took a few shots. The sharpness and light on the grasses is produced by a HDR composite; Kind of cheating one may say, but even with a GND i wouldnt have got the depth in the grasses.

About 90deg to this shot was



It was quite a impressive sky that night

grasses,
K100D DA18-55

If you are complaining (perhaps you just dislike the idea, this is just my advice), try downloading trials of software, or the free GIMPshop; search google. It is a modified version of GIMP suited to the photoshop names and layout, so if you do ever upgrade, you will be reasonably close to knowing your program.

Judges can pretty much judge as soon as one has been submitted, the order in which they come can be decided very quickly; the bulk of the work can be done beforehand because the critisicms aren't relative to other photos.