Well I may not know everything I´m doing with the out of focused thing, but think I´ve passed the other stadiums.

I try and think in a impressionistic term.
I want the viewer to see the bigger part, and not the details, to capture the essence more then I care about every tiny detail..

Guess we drifted away from the compo-rules/guidlines.

I understand what you mean with the I like it, it´s a good picture, and putting it that way u got a good point. =)

I got one question about the technical part, cause I´m at the moment experimenting with focals and out of focus as a way to create photos, cant they ever be great cause per definition a great shot must allways be sharp or?

Do I think one should study the rules at one point or another in life, well yes if your desire is to work with images in any kind, it is important. 
Are the rules a must for everyone to know.. well for me, the answer is no. 
What I know of there aren´t any specific rule for any given object or subject, and if rules are only general, then are they not guidlines instead of rules?

Oliver 158 said that the rules are ancient and that the greeks and romes defined them, and I don´t argue with that. But the use of perspective that came around much later redefined the way we create today. Maby, just maby there is more to be discovered and defined in the way we create images and composition, but too find this we have let go and not always stick to the old.

Oliver158 you also said that we should make a diffrence between I like it and it´s a good work, but isn´t it a good work they´ve done if I like it ? We all look at picture from our base of knowledge, and I can´t say that one is better then the other.

I read somewhere about a new function in photoshop that place a id hidden and that somehow u can get a function that searches all over the net for any copies of the image.

Like u said, the chance of finding out about the theft is so small, but I don´t worry to much about it, I do what I can to minimize the risk. =)

Yeah back to the thread..

If you have a good chance of selling the image, then don´t enter a contest with it.
Is it a good picture that stand a chance at winning?, well maby it´s worth it
Is it´s a bad pic, why not try, maby they give stuff out on random and if it´s a no good photo they´ll proberbly not use it anyway, and most likely wouldn´t you either.

Then there is another aspect off it, and that if one would choose to support a organisation that use this kind of methods. Someone before said, like if adobe would like to use my images for advertising their products, I would be honoured the first time,  but since they get it for free the first time, they´ll proberbly want it for free the second time or they´ll choose another artist´s image.    Beacuse the second time I would like to be paid.

So is the chance of getting in the spotlight worth giving up one of your images?
I guess it depends where u are in life and as a artist and what u see as important at that point.

I just remebered a contest we had in sweden with the same condition, but where u actully had to pay to enter the competion. Like I said before read the terms before entering.

I understand what you mean I wouldn´t want anyone else to make money of my images either.

I haven´t what I known got my work stolen, but I safeguard a little when posting, since i always shrink the image, i keep the original full size while the posted version almost allways get something cropped out. In case I see my picture anywhere I can prove it´s mine by showing the fullsize image, wich I heard helped win copyright lawsuits. But then again I´m not sure my work is good enough for anyone to steal.

I don´t really think it´s a fair deal they set up, but on the other hand, many people never get a chance to sell any of their images, and what good does a image do taking space on the hard drive with out ever getting seen by anyone or just family and close friends.

For me sometimes getting my images displayed is worth more then the amount of money the image could possible produce. On the other hand it´s the first time I´ve seen anyone stipulating the right to sell it on to a 3d part.

I´ve learned to always read the terms and rules before entering any contest.
My advice, if u hesitate don´t enter.

For me it´s about my artistery, I wanna know how my images are used, and to what purpose.
/Benny

In my bag, there is almost allway some spare money, to get a bottle of water or something like that on the way to a shot or on the return trip, otherwise pen and papper, cleaning stuff for the cam, spare battery. oh and the must not forget plasticbag covered newspaper as to be able to sitt down anywhere without getting wet or cold.

To me it´s about how u choose to display the choosen subject, There are many diffrent guides as to how u can do this and when I studied digital imagemaking at university we got a bunch of papers with rules as to how u can work with composition. There are of course some general rules you can use, like the rule of thirds, the 3 rooms: fore, middle  and background. But these are not rules as such that you allways have to use them. I got a comment awhile ago about the lack of focal point in one of my images, it made me think since there was not a shap focus anywhere in the image, but for me there was a focal point that invited the eye in to the image so I guess that we all see according to our image-base. For example, I draw alot and looked at images of da-vinci and that type of images, when coming across picasso I couldn´t in anyway understand how people could raise him to the skies as one of the greatest painters. But getting to know the history and by seeing other artist that bridged the gap between Da-vinci and Picasso I can understand and appreciete both.

In some way I guess that is true for photos and compositions too, the more images I see, the more I can appreciate images that break away from my normal preference.

To sum it all up, there is no sure compositionsalway to get a good picture, but a good picture has allways some composition

I think this is a good feature, even if u think u look thrue whats been uploaded since u´r last visit on the page, This shows that u miss out on so much. Anyway glad to hear u thought I made the cut.

/Benny

Ive got the first one, are there any major diffrences?? Guess I have to go and find out.

Gongrats Lary, Think you did a very nice job here, the clarity of that eye is incredible. I dont feel too sad about being beaten by this high quality banner.

The advise I can give is to use what you know about 2d, coulor setting, macthing the background with the object, composition, To me it seems like your handeling your cam, better then most of us.

Congratulations Sentinal I think you are a wothy winner of the challange.. And its a picture just like yours i had in mind when giving the instructions for aprils contest.. Anyway, I think you did an exellent job.. Best wishes.. Benny aka Bonker

Yes, Renderosity has my permission to use my artwork from my art gallery for promotional use only".