Almost half of the year has gone by already?? It's that time for voting again..... Remember I take one choice per person and any new suggestions for a themes or technical specific challenge is welcome... I've added Gerhard's idea for soft focus to the list as he suggested in his most recent gallery upload this morning... 1. Opposites 2. Circles 3. Warm 4. Hot 5. Vacation 6. Sexism 7. Enlightenment 8. Contentment 9. Outrageous 10. Laughter 11. Prized Possession 12. Speed 13. Life 14. Self-Portraiture 15. Red 16. Public Service 17. Winter Wonderland 18. Food! 19. Spring Marches In 20. Mornings 21. Disposable Camera 22. Similar 23. Soft Focus

I thought about GLASS! You could then have reflections, still life, scenes/people through windows, broken glass, stained glass or bottles etc..

I would like to see each of those choices with an option of No postwork, that way what we see is the pre post worked version of whatever the theme is and they can post the finished work in their gallery. I think it would create some rather interesting discussions on what post work the finished product required. I just personally like to see pure photographic art is all! And the no postwork thing seemes to have gone over quite well this month! Not voting yet btw! ;) Did that make any sense to y'all?

Life . !!!!!!!!!!!! #:O) !!!!!!!!!

personally i think the "no postwork" was too easy & difficult to view all the entries... just as in the real darkroom, the "processing" is part of the art of photography... glass sounds cool :]

The option to not postwork is always there.... there's never been a rule that said you have too or not have to (except for this months challenge). :~) Some people do it some people don't as par for the course... it's a personal preference as far as I'm concerned.... The only real rules we do have is that all the work must be your own (from your camera), and with no 3D embellished into it or clip art type stuff or tubesie things... Other than that pretty much anything goes, I guess.... I was very nervous at the beginning of this month, but I agree Nilla this month was really nice indeed! And there were a lot of entries... Personally I'm going to throw my vote for "soft focus" ... although if this were what we did my preference would be to see this done in camera and not with blur filters... not sure how others feel about that...? So Soft Focus for me......

Once again, there are too many choices for me to decide which I want.. so I'll just wait and see what you guys pick :D

Soft focus no soft filters! I like that too! It gets my vote! :) Grabs Michelle and dances around the room

I vote for FOOD cause I am hungry.;) or any of you can buy me some food and toe me along their line;) wink wink;)

In the subject of (not my vote yet) soft focus without filters: There can be an issue there. What is the difference between soft focus with a filter on the camera vs one in Photoshop? Personally I prefer PS because at a later date I may want a sharper version, of a softer one. This way I have more control over the final details AND, it makes it harder for someone to reproduce my art. In the same vain, I could use filters on the camera to create the same effects but I choose not to most of the time.

If we start going with challenges like "Soft Focus without E-filters" and "No Post Work", will we then get into "B&W but only B&W from the camera"? or "Film, no digital"? If so I am screwed. My film camera hasn't been used in over year. Add to that my D100 doesn't have a B&W option, it does have Sepia though!

Magick Michael

Message edited on: 05/27/2004 17:45

Personally I have nothing against PS or any other program, and I certainly don't restrict myself from using it....

But.... my thinking on this is it is far more of a challenge to try and create soft focus within the camera rather than clicking the blur button afterwards....

Also if you are out taking pics with the digi there's no reason why you couldn't shoot both? Shoot what you want in sharp focus and then play around a bit with creating dreamy images using only the lens focusing....?

That's the whole point (at least I think) of what these challenges ought to be... using the camera creatively....

You said...will we then get into "B&W but only B&W from the camera"? or "Film, no digital"? If so I am screwed.

smile No.... you sound like you're worrying over this, but rest assured I wouldn't want it to be like that either...and I don't think those sort of restrictions would be fair.

But everyone who hangs out here and posts images has a camera, and anyone can do soft focus... you don't filters in front of your lens and you don't need to do it in photoshop.... It is however more challenging to try using your camera to do it.... which was what I was going after...

Here's an example of an image I took.... no prize winner for sure, but this was done strictly in camera, no filters on the lens, no PS.... soft focus, blurry on purpose. My point in doing this was to make the viewer focus on the prisms of light reflecting in the wine and on the glass, so I purposely threw the glass out of focus to draw attention to what I wanted the viewer to see.... the light.

Message edited on: 05/27/2004 18:35

Aw, Gee!!!! You mean now I have to use a camera?

I vote for soft focus !!!!!!! :) :) :) :)

Glass 2 Life 1 Soft Focus 3 Food 1 More votes, thoughts, ideas? Keep them coming.... we'll keep voting open until Monday evening.

similar gets my vote.

soft focus!

I would like a vote cast for three (because I can't narrow any further - there are too many options) GLASS CIRCLES RED That way I can flick my secret little unpostworked red glass marble picture across the web whichever of my three candidates get in!

Alright!!!! GLASS!

Glass 3 Life 1 Soft Focus 4 Food 1 Similar 1