Anyone up for an AnandTech Forums Summer Photography Contest?

[yllus]

The Idea

I need to kickstart my photography for 2007, so I figured "Why not make it into a friendly competition?" We've got a load of talent on these forums, so let's put it to use.


The Theme

This is what we need to initially decide upon. Since we're all spread out, we need a fairly general theme that each of us have the opportunity to capture. So far, I have three theme ideas:

[*]Morning in the Summertime
[*]Summertime in Bloom
[*]This is what Summer is like 'Round Here

The first is obvious. The second would focus on nature reawakening after the winter. The third would focus on showing other AnandTech Forum members what spring means to the place in which you reside (the variety of locales should be interesting).


The Judges

I have faith that we can assemble an all-star cast of AT members to fairly judge the competition. We'll have a point system and judge on a variety of different criteria, such as Relevancy to Category Topic, Composition / Arrangement, Focus / Sharpness, Lighting, and Creativity (I just stole these from a site I found on Google).


The Rules (As They Get Thought Up)

[*]Pictures must be taken within the contest period (the month of April) in order to qualify.
[*]One picture submission per person, per contest.
[*]EXIF information must be retained within the picture.
[*]Minimum photo resolution of, um, something x something.
[*]Photoshopping of entries is disallowed other than for the adjustment of white balance, contrast, levels and sharpening.


The Prize

[*]Boasting rights in your signature as winner of first annual AnandTech Forums Photography Contest.
[*]Maybe Anand will be willing to part with some schwag the site accumulates as a result of doing photography articles.


The Deadline

We'd want to going as of June 1st and end on the last day of that month.


What We Need To Decide Upon In This Thread

[*]State your interest in such a contest. Obviously if that doesn't exist this can end quickly.
[*]Please contribute some additional contest theme ideas. We'll put it to a poll in a second thread.
[*]If your line of work deals with photography and you can contribute some prizes, contact me so we can sweeten the pot a little. That should make this even funner.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Aharami]

sounds like a good idea. Im guessing this is a pic we'd have to take between now and when the contest ends, i.e. no pics taken previously. Thus we'd have to provide unaltered pics along with EXIF data intact, right?

photoshopping allowed? and how would the judges be able to tell if the pic was photoshopped or not if it wasnt allowed?

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: Aharami
sounds like a good idea. Im guessing this is a pic we'd have to take between now and when the contest ends, i.e. no pics taken previously. Thus we'd have to provide unaltered pics along with EXIF data intact, right?

photoshopping allowed? and how would the judges be able to tell if the pic was photoshopped or not if it wasnt allowed?

Correct, the photos must be taken within the contest period. EXIF information must remain intact (I know, it's easy to push in there, but I also learn a lot by looking at that info).

Photoshopping... Hmm, do you figure that's an all-or-nothing sort of decision? Doing some sharpening and such seems vital to good digital photography, but I wouldn't want to see a massive amount of Photoshopping occur on pictures.

 

[arrfep]

I am down, and I think it's a great idea. Lotsa photo sites do this, and often if there's no real "prize," the winner gets to pick the theme of the next contest. As for the Themes, all yours sound good. The only other thing I can think of right now would something along the lines of "Where I Live." Since we have so many people from so many places, I think it would be a neat theme to see the picture that each ATOTer can take to best capture where they live.

 

[tfinch2]

I'm in.

The only editing that should be allowed is WB, contrast, and sharpening.

 

[montanafan]

I'm interested.

I think basic photoshop like levels, sharpening, etc. should be allowed because it's pretty much the same thing to digital photography as developing a film photograph.

The deadline for the theme would be a little close for me since it doesn't really get to be Spring-like around here until late in April, but I could probably come up with something.

 

[nsafreak]

What about folks that do not have a DSLR? I'd love to get one mind you but I'm still doing fine on my Minolta using Rokkor lenses & FujiFilm Provia film. I do have a very capable slide scanner in my Epson Perfection 1670 so would I be able to participate by taking pictures, developing them in then scanning at high resolution?

 

[ElFenix]

The second would focus on nature reawakening after the winter.

how about those of us without winter?

 

[Aharami]

I think this would be a good prize. If we wanna do a prize that is. I havent tried it myself, but it got good reviews and Phil over in dpreview seems to like it a lot.

Downloaded the demo, seems pretty neat

I dunno how we'd go about allocating the funds for it though ($45). Maybe we can ask the creator of that tutorial software for a discounted price

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: Aharami
I think this would be a good prize. If we wanna do a prize that is. I havent tried it myself, but it got good reviews and Phil over in dpreview seems to like it a lot.

Downloaded the demo, seems pretty neat

I dunno how we'd go about allocating the funds for it though ($45). Maybe we can ask the creator of that tutorial software for a discounted price

If someone is able to win a photography contest, I don't think they need a basic book on photography.

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: tfinch2
The only editing that should be allowed is WB, contrast, and sharpening.

Originally posted by: montanafan
I think basic photoshop like levels, sharpening, etc. should be allowed because it's pretty much the same thing to digital photography as developing a film photograph.

:thumbsup: Added to rules.

Originally posted by: nsafreak
What about folks that do not have a DSLR? I'd love to get one mind you but I'm still doing fine on my Minolta using Rokkor lenses & FujiFilm Provia film. I do have a very capable slide scanner in my Epson Perfection 1670 so would I be able to participate by taking pictures, developing them in then scanning at high resolution?

Hmm. I think we could hold to the EXIF rule for the sake of providing that info (I know I pretty much always take a look at it), and do a case-by-case granting of entries for people whose gear resemble yours. I have confidence that the vast majority of people who enter won't try to scam a win anyhow.

Originally posted by: ElFenix

The second would focus on nature reawakening after the winter.

how about those of us without winter?

I guess that won't be our theme then.

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: yllus
Photoshopping... Hmm, do you figure that's an all-or-nothing sort of decision? Doing some sharpening and such seems vital to good digital photography, but I wouldn't want to see a massive amount of Photoshopping occur on pictures.

I agree that basic photoshopping is essential. But my question is how would the judges know if the submitter went beyond the basic allowed rules. I guess we'd have to go by an honor system.

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: Aharami
I think this would be a good prize. If we wanna do a prize that is. I havent tried it myself, but it got good reviews and Phil over in dpreview seems to like it a lot.

Downloaded the demo, seems pretty neat

I dunno how we'd go about allocating the funds for it though ($45). Maybe we can ask the creator of that tutorial software for a discounted price

If someone is able to win a photography contest, I don't think they need a basic book on photography.

good point

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: Aharami

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: Aharami
I think this would be a good prize. If we wanna do a prize that is. I havent tried it myself, but it got good reviews and Phil over in dpreview seems to like it a lot.

Downloaded the demo, seems pretty neat

I dunno how we'd go about allocating the funds for it though ($45). Maybe we can ask the creator of that tutorial software for a discounted price

If someone is able to win a photography contest, I don't think they need a basic book on photography.

good point

Prize: Afternoon shoot with guest model LolaWiz?

I think we may need iamwiz82's clearance first.

 

[yhelothar]

I'm up for it!
So who's going to start off with the entries?

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: astroidea
I'm up for it!
So who's going to start off with the entries?

What do you guys think of keeping all entries private until the last day of the contest, and then revealing them all? Too often I see early entries not given a fair shake when later ones come out, or vice versa.

 

[montanafan]

Originally posted by: yllus

Originally posted by: astroidea
I'm up for it!
So who's going to start off with the entries?

What do you guys think of keeping all entries private until the last day of the contest, and then revealing them all? Too often I see early entries not given a fair shake when later ones come out, or vice versa.

That's the way it's done on the photography sites I visit.

 

[ed21x]

i think it might be better to decide the winner by a poll, as that allows more people to participate.

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: yllus

Originally posted by: astroidea
I'm up for it!
So who's going to start off with the entries?

What do you guys think of keeping all entries private until the last day of the contest, and then revealing them all? Too often I see early entries not given a fair shake when later ones come out, or vice versa.

good idea. Also if possible, judges should only be presented with just the picture - not the EXIF data. Camera make and model might bring in bias.

 

[The Stigenator]

i am down.. my friend and I were thinking of something similar.

Along with the photography information.. we have a 'survey' that needs to be filled that says where its taken, lighting conditions, fstop.. etc etc.

I might have my friend join in on this crusade.. I will ask him to post the file for the survey.

 

[Imported]

Sounds interesting.

 

[MazerRackham]

Yeah I'd like to join too.

 

[The Stigenator]

well my friends idea was to limit a few things.. like limit it based on lighting or by Fstop or ISO or white balance.. so regardless of what you use, you can still do the best that you can.

 

[TheGizmo]

how about geting someone trustworthy to create a non-CC paypal acct, and each entry... say 5 dollars each. then whoever wins takes it all? makes for better competition. i mean even if only 20 entries, at least the winner walks away with a hundred dollars. you could buy a hooker for that!! hooker did I say hooker, I meant mp3 player of course.


i'm not entering, nor am i creating the acct... but I thought I'd throw my two cents out there.

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: TheGoodGuy
well my friends idea was to limit a few things.. like limit it based on lighting or by Fstop or ISO or white balance.. so regardless of what you use, you can still do the best that you can.

That's a dumb idea.