POTY Digital League Round Two (Theme: On The Street)
This round’s theme is described as being broadly within the theme of street photography as a real and imposed moment. This means the image should not be staged but be chance encounters and random incidents within public spaces.
Images do not have to be in an urban environment or include people though their presence should be suggested by the subject.
Themed Image (On The Street): Classic Lisbon
Why this shot?
This shot was one of the first I took on our first night in Lisbon earlier this year – blog post here.
My Wife really likes it – that’s good enough right? I’ve written before about how she has a good eye for a composition and what is appealing on the eye.
I’ve a few ‘street’ shots in my collection but I’ve always liked this shot in that for me, it is Lisbon. Most folks would probably guess that from the trams.
It has a very pleasing colour palette and appears to fit the brief.
As always, I have doubts about most images I submit. Is this a ‘documentary shot’? Is it a postcard? Is it a ‘snap’? Probably, but it could be a scene you see in a travel brochure.
Post-production editing
The image was taken on a Fuji and I did crop in a bit so the Topaz suite was used to denoise the shot.
I used the Nik collection to enhance the detail and tried to apply some specific boosts to some coloured area such as the front of the tram.
There was an area on the building top centre that looks like the highlights are blown – they weren’t but it looked very bright. I tried my best to tone that down without it being obvious.
The sky isn’t great as this shot was taken early evening but I’ve done my best to bring out some detail – it’s not great but will have to do.
Judge’s Verdict
The judge said this was a technically OK image and liked the diagonals of the composition. However, they asked “What is the image?” and suggested that as we progress as photographers, we need to think about what it is we want to get across in our images.
The judge liked the colours in the image. However, they said that we need to ask ourselves what was our intention when we took the image, and what makes it different to a shot other people would take?
The image was scored at 8/10.
Free Choice Image: Alligator Rock Norfolk Coast
The increased number of photo shoots is paying dividends this year, not just in terms of practice but also in adding keepers to my catalogue.
Once again, my Wife Kathryn selected two or three shots and we both agreed on a shot from a recent sunrise trip to Hopton – blog post here.
Why this shot?
This shot was a real surprise when I took it, and it’s hard to believe but I didn’t notice the alligator shape until my Wife said so when she first saw the shot! Since we both liked this shot, and I wanted to get the images submitted early, I went for it.
Post-production editing
Also, as I reflect on the editing of this image post submitting it, I’ve realised that I did not use either Topaz or Nik suites in the edit. With such a ‘clean’ image, it might be worth considering as one of my LPOTY images if I enter next year.
I reset the image back to the Raw, did my preset then cropped to a 16:9 letterbox, tidied up some distractions in the foreground and played around in Lightroom.
The usual sky selection didn’t work accurately so I used two grad filters to make adjustments, then I adjusted the rocks for more contrast, and I boosted the large rock at the front of the image.
One tricky element was a black brush-like stroke on the left most rock so to reduce the distraction of that, I pushed the image into Photoshop for a more accurate content-aware replacement.
Judge’s Verdict
The judge liked this image, the smoothed out water and straightforward theme and the textures in the rocks. They liked the curvature and shape of the rock.
The image scored 10/10!
Two images in my league scored 10 in the free choice round and the other top mark image won the round overall.
Any image that scores 9.5 or 10 should be eligible for the club’s Image of the Year competition at the end of the season.
Reflections
Classic Lisbon
With the Lisbon shot, I do totally agree with the judge. Yet another image which was never going to score a 10. It’s a postcard shot really, maybe even documentary. I stated this concern upon entering it.
I’ve once again gone for an image I liked which had an emotion moreover what I think a viewer or a judge will like.
I probably have a better street shot from last year or from the recent trip to Naples but it’s done, I did OK and learnt a lot.
Alligator Rock Norfolk Coast
For Alligator Rock from Hopton-on-Sea, of course I’m delighted to get top marks and very pleased.
This image is straightforward but it’s also clean and has some depth to it with the rocks curving away from the eye.
A couple of fellow club members asked why I didn’t convert the image to monochrome.
The reason is that I liked the warm colour tone throughout, but especially the colour of the sand in the grooves of the main rock in the foreground. I describe this in more detail and offer up a mono version for comparison in the blog post here.
That rock caught me eye when I saw the scene and captured the image, and so much so I deliberately emphasised that rock in particular in the edit.
Final Thoughts
I’m ahead score-wise of where I was at this stage in both of my first two seasons and 18/20 is my best round 2 score to date, so for two consecutive rounds, I’m beating the previous round score compared to previous years. That has to be a big positive to show improvement.
It’s taking a while to sink in properly that I must view an image in terms of what a viewer sees rather than just my own pride and satisfaction that the image is “good”.
Overall, I have accumulated 34.5/40 or 86.25% which is a measurable improvement, and I’m still learning.
Onwards and upwards…