The third and final NDPS digital image competition was upon us.
This is an open round of two images.
I thank my photography friend Ian for taking some notes down as I could not be there in person for this round.
Image 1 – Underneath the Arches
I chose this shot because it received a favourable review in a club critique evening.
This scene is from a very enjoyable London shoot with two friends where this was a surprise capture.
The advice from the critique evening was to reduce the brightness and especially for the buildings on the right, and also to add some ‘grittiness’ to the underside of the bridge.
I did all of those things and used a Nik Silver Efex filter to achieve it.
Some more detailed adjustments were done and this one was ready to submit.
Self-critique (pre-judging)
I’ve liked this shot since the day I took it. Simply because it’s different, and also because I grabbed this image on only my second shoot trying out a new fisheye lens.
I think it does carry risk of being a marmite shot, something random. It could scrape by with a 7.5 or it could get a 9?
Judge’s verdict
The judge liked the bridge framing the London landmarks beyond.
They remarked that there was “wonderful detail in with the rivets etc in the bridge”.
They said the image works well and they liked it. The judge awarded a score of 7.5/10.
Post-judging thoughts
I am a little disappointed in the score, but as usual, more so with the lack of feedback as to why? What could I do better?
If it just didn’t float the boat of the judge, please could they declare it? So frustrating!
Image 2 – Solitude
I chose this next image as a second choice.
I had been looking at some images from a sunrise shoot at Caister-on-Sea, and there was one specific image which I was obsessed with and determined to get it ship-shape for competition.
However, it transpired that the image was blurry due to my tripod moving. I spent an embarrassingly long time trying to correct it, or modify it but to no avail, and I had to abandon it and find something else from that shoot.
I’m still gutted about that and will not be describing it as I want to try again one day in future to nail it, although I’d be lucky to get the same sunrise colours we had on that morning.
The chosen shot was sharp and relatively clean but I’ve run it through Nik Color Efex and cropped it to get the post and fisherman both on the thirds.
I’ve also played around with the colours to try and edge towards a pastel tone.
I have Kathryn to thank for the title which met with little resistance from me.
Self-critique (pre-judging)
I like the simplicity of this shot and the colour tones, although I do wonder if the sky is a little ‘off orange’!
I also think the image tells a story.
The shot meets all the composition ‘rules’ (rule of thirds) and leading lines.
What’s not to like?
I have high hopes of this image achieving 9+ and hopefully more to be shortlisted.
Judge’s verdict
The judge said the title referred to the lone fisherman / fisherwoman.
They said it was a simple image and these can work well.
They said although there was sea and sand in the image, the dominant feature was the post and the depth of field as “reasonable”. The judge scored the image as a 7/10.
Post-judging thoughts
Wow! I massively over estimated the score on this one!
I can’t help but be disappointed. A 7 is a real let down given my results over the last two seasons.
Again, I have little to go on. I assume the depth of field comment is critique that the background detail wasn’t sharp enough – of course, sharpness wasn’t what this image was about. If the judgement is about sharpness then I accept that.
The dominant feature is the post, and that could be interpreted as solitude as well. My take was that the fisherman being so small enhanced the feeling of solitude but that obviously didn’t come across. I could’ve cropped a chunk off the left hand side to make the fisherman more dominant.
I wonder if the dreaded odd number of subjects judgement has got me too? There’s the post and the fisherman but no third subject.
I could’ve chopped the fisherman out:
Or, I could’ve lost the post?
Or, I could just accept (well, I have to really!) that this image is just not good enough!
This image tanked big time. Oh well, at least I’ve learnt something…? 🤔
Reflections
With an overall score of 14.5/20, I have scored very poorly this round.
For my mono shot, I knew it would be marmite so not such bad feelings but the Caister shot does disappoint me. Even if there are flaws, it’s got be an 8 surely?
I’ve seen some dire images this season in competitions which get ripped apart and yet are given a score of 8 or 8.5.
I would’ve expected to pull in at least 16/20 overall, so I feel I’ve sunk to a score I was getting 2+ years ago.
Having said that, from what some of my fellow club members have fed back, the scoring overall was harsh but also, the standard images overall was lower than previous rounds.
Something of a bump back down to earth this round. Time to dust down, and go again!
This round concludes the individual image rounds. If there was a POTY competition and I had any hope of winning it, that’s blown that aspiration out of the water!
The song choice for this blog that springs to my mind is below:
I’ve seen and done things I want to forget, Coming from an unearthly place,… these, these, these are the words, the words that maketh murder… this was something else again, I fear it cannot explain, these words that make, the words that make murder. (2011, PJ Harvey, The Words That Maketh Murder).
The club now moves on to a panel competition, and lastly an image of the year competition. The former being very new to me, and the latter being open to even more randomness than individual rounds.
Onwards and upwards…