July - Round 7 - "The Sun" Voting Part 2 and comments

Picture of the Month?

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    32
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3 votes again from me.

Bob Fleming, Clyde and APB.

All three are interesting takes on sunset shots, and I like each for different reasons. APB is my overall winner, could have easily dished out 7 or 8 votes this month, well done all.
 
Bob Fleming and APB for me this month. APB is my overall winner too, could go on to win the photo of the year.

For my entry C&C is welcome, I just forgot to put it on!
 
Record number of entries this month despite a slow start.

I've gone for Clyde and Dublass although there were several others that were close.
 
The best month yet for quality I think?

I have just spent a little time looking at them all and have detailed why I voted below.

Mercia Blackcat - a well executed photograph, but despite the title doesn't really meet the theme for me.

Kubicki 85 - A pleasing image, but seems more like a painting than a photograph to me.
Well named but that blue splodge in the sky spoils it a little too.

Bob Fleming - 1 vote. Picture of the month joint with APB

Groofwoofgrowl - I think this is your best photo yet. I would have cropped the r/h side of the picture off (to get rid of the brown rock/fence whatever). I like the dappled
background and the way the sunlight has caught the leaves. - 1 vote

Cartman - I'm going to be a little harsh, but as I made you picture of the month last month you know it's nothing personal! The idea of the setting sun is lovely, with the light falling on the lighthouse. The overall effect is a little "yellow" though, not sure if
that is just how it was or if the colour has been manipulated ? I know about lead in lines
to a picture but I don't feel the wall contributes anything to this picture. I would have
been inclined to walk round to the left a bit and maybe have got more of the lighthouse
(title of picture) and sea? even if I had to sacrifice the sun falling on the building at the base of the lighthouse?

janiep - I think you said you were using a blackberry camera? Well I don't know if it does anything other than black and white. If it only does b/w then I shall ignore that fact (not important). If you chose b/w for your photo on purpose then "hooray" for bravery when the theme is sun! I like your unusual choice of subject, the wind blowing the flags, and your use of thirds. The only small comment I would make would be that I would crop very slightly the left and add very marginally to the right ie to have taken a second picture standing marginally to the left (but without centering the boats). 1 vote

clyde - i really like the composition of this picture, can't fault it. The picture is a
tad underexposed for me and I don't like the "rainbow square" thing top right.

not spav - I like this photo (partly because it is similar to mine). The bee makes me
laugh because it looks like a flying tailless mouse. You obviously chose to shoot into the
sun which gives the white sky effect I guess. But where the sun is it has spoilt the
picture imo causing the stalk/stem to disappear.

taipeisafc - really like this photograph, beautiful sky. 1 vote

apb - Love this photo, (when it first loads the sun comes up really big ! ) There seems to
be a slight circular effect over the whole photograph, I don't know if this is to do with
the lens/camera when taking the picture or if it it was added afterwards. Whatever, it is
so subtle and well done it adds to the photo rather than detracts. 1 vote. Picture of the month tied with Bob Fleming.

chinamackem - really like this photgraph too, would be dead pleased if I could take a
picture with such a good end result. 1 vote

Tiredeyes - beautiful picture of yorkshire. Was this a point and shoot or a dslr? If it
was a dslr, I would ask one of the photographers here on some advice about a filter for
help with sky pictures. I would have possibly taken the picture when there wasn't a cloud covering the foreground (perhaps?). (It is so green there! Have forgotten what green grass looks like, grass is the colour of straw down here. Oh and well done on the climb!)

Roger - If the picture had worked it would have been lovely (I read that you were
disappointed). I had the same trouble when I was taking my photos, ie random rays and
exposure all over the shop. Really like the composition. My suggestion which you maybe
tried? would have been to wait till the sun was either behind/partly behind the flag or
just have the flag against the sky and clouds.

Superkev - a nice picture, like the composition and the pretty colours of the flower(weed?) at the front.

Hausers-helmet - fabulous photograph - i honestly can't fault it in any way. One of the more
original picures in meeting the theme too. 1 vote.

Bigmac - I was finding it hard to judge this months pictures before saturday (so many good ones) then some good late contenders get posted to make it harder. Beautiful picture. Lovely colours. 1 vote

Keeps 21 - I am sorry but I don't really like this picture, it is a bit blurry. It is one
of those pictures that I don't like but someone else may love because I don't think there is anything wrong with it. Sorry.

Dublass - I love the colours in this picture, it is also very atmospheric and tells a story
probably better than any other entry. I don't like the "line" of sunlight that extends
across the picture though. I don't know whether planned or not but for me I keep thinking why does the sun look like a planet (instead of the sun) and it has spoilt what is
otherwise a very good entry.
 
Thanks for the comment! Yes it is very much processed, and i tend to do that alot with some of my photos, Though not always. I didn;t have a photo i felt i could use so tried to 'make' a photo that was suitable. :oops:
 
Thank you for the C&C, funnily enough I loved the fact that the sun looked alien and more like a planet :-D
 
Thanks for the comments PB but not sure why it doesn't meet the theme.

There's more sun in my pic than a good few of the entries.

Now if clouds had been the topic.....
 
Groofwoofgrowl - I think this is your best photo yet. I would have cropped the r/h side of the picture off (to get rid of the brown rock/fence whatever). I like the dappled
background and the way the sunlight has caught the leaves. - 1 vote
Click to expand...

Cheers. Yer right about the crop, but I liked the position of the leaves in the foto. Hoped no one would notice the wall hahaha.
 
Thanks Peachy, yeah, it's just a point and click digital camera thingy, no photoshop help either as I wouldn't know where to start.

I was with the kids and seeing the clouds vast shadows in the vast landscape took my breath away, that or the climb !!
 
peachbum said:
Bigmac - I was finding it hard to judge this months pictures before saturday (so many good ones) then some good late contenders get posted to make it harder. Beautiful picture. Lovely colours. 1 vote
Click to expand...

Thanks peachbum, I wasn't going to enter that photograph! Almost chose this one instead: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xsaosin/4847375186/

There are so many good pictures this month, definitely one of the best for entries.
 
peachbum said:
Ah sorry MerciaBC. Did you obtain that effect in camera or afterwards?
Click to expand...

In camera of course.

It's a well known effect caused by highlights being out of focus in the background. You see it all the time even in movies where a spherical effect is caused by the lens closing down on aperture.

There's no post processing whatsoever.
 
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peachbum said:
What lens did you use?
Click to expand...

200mm telephoto.

There's a similar effect in grrrwoofgrowl's pic but not so pronounced as the distance to the highlights must be further in his.

Also I was only about 1.5 metres from the flower and so that increased the out of focus effect for the background hedge where the sun was shining through.

A large aperture will also help the effect such as 5.6f which I used.

You can see the shape produced is the shape of the lens when closed down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

Reflex or mirror lenses create the effect much easier though.
 
Mercia Blackcat said:
200mm telephoto.

There's a similar effect in grrrwoofgrowl's pic but not so pronounced as the distance to the highlights must be further in his.

Also I was only about 1.5 metres from the flower and so that increased the out of focus effect for the background hedge where the sun was shining through.

A large aperture will also help the effect such as 5.6f which I used.

You can see the shape produced is the shape of the lens when closed down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

Reflex or mirror lenses create the effect much easier though.
Click to expand...
Yes I read the Wiki info. (thanks) I understood the blue above to be true, but thought the shape would be like a hexagon, septagon, octagon etc? the effect in your picture wasn't the shape of the lens when closed down though? Was it? :)
 
peachbum said:
Yes I read the Wiki info. (thanks) I understood the blue above to be true, but thought the shape would be like a hexagon, septagon, octagon etc? the effect in your picture wasn't the shape of the lens when closed down though? Was it? :)
Click to expand...

Yes it is, it's a three sided curved polygon.

You actually can get a circle effect sometimes as shown on the wiki page.

I'm not lying PB, why would I do that?

In fact some lenses have a true circle effect built into the bokeh effect but they tend to be more expensive.
 
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