Here is the complete schedule for the August - Panorama Contest Submissions and Voting.

Submissions starting Saturday 8/15 for one week or 30 entries.

Voting to Start Sunday 8/23 to be managed by Solly Mac.

Good luck and have fun.

Puppy Bismark.

Everyone:

Based my post asking for input on the August competition, it appears as if none of the suggestions rose to the top, so I have picked panoramas. I have looked at the topics for the past few years and have not seen any thing of this sort, so since I really like taking panoramas and it is different, I have selected this as the topic for the August competition. This means ANY subject is allowed, the image just has to be a panorama. We will also relax the size requirements to allow for wide or tall images.

I will publish a contest schedule in the next few days. I will be unavailable the end of the month, so Solly Mack has agreed to help on the Competition.

Panoramas are made up of more than one image stitched beside or above each other to make an image that cannot be made with a single picture. For the past ten years a number of digital cameras can do it or most all image processing software such as Photoshop or Lightroom can create them.

In addition, there are free software packages that will do the work for you too. One of them is Hugin available at http://hugin.sourceforge.net/ They have good tutorials and I expect that there are many in uTube.

Also, many digital cameras can produce panoramas right in the camera. I had one about ten years ago that could do that.

Below are a couple of my panoramas all of which were taken hand held, not with a tripod. (Tripod panoramas will come out better)

A couple of my guidelines

1. Take the images in portrait orientation for landscape panoramas, or the opposite for portrait panoramas.
2. If possible, take the images in manual mode to assure the exposure is consistent across the images.
3. Make sure the images overlap.

Here are some example panoramas:

Bow lake in the Canadian Rockies. It was one of those days one could not help but take great images. This one is made up of six individual portrait exposures:

link:

Pretty building in Calgary. This one is made up of three landscape images.

link:

Both of these were generated in Photoshop.

I would like to start the process quickly for the August Photography Group Contest. Below are three topic suggestions. Please let me know which sounds best to you.

1. Panoramas. Panoramas are made up of more than one image stitched beside or above each other to make an image that cannot be made with a single picture. For the past ten years a number of digital cameras can do it or most all image processing software such as Photoshop or Lightroom can create them.

2. Summer Landscapes. Self explanatory.

3. Tall Things. Buildings, trees, people, etc.

Please let me know which one of these appeal to you or if none of them do, what would you like to suggest.

I need to get the contest underway in early August because of my schedule for the end of the month.

Thanks,
Puppy Bismark

The June Results are now posted at:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023143454


SollyMack, our winner, it is his turn to run the July Contest.

Thanks to all who entered!
PuppyBismark

And the winners of the HDR Image photo contest are …



First Place
Soar! by SollyMack



Tied for Second Place
Made in the USA by justiceischeap




Tied for Second Place
Modern Restrooms by JohnnyRingo




Tied for Second Place
Out in the barn by MichaelSoEb





Note: there were three entries tied for Second Place!


SollyMack it is your turn to run the July Contest.

Thanks to all who entered!
PuppyBismark

Everyone, please vote in the final June Photography Poll. The Poll in in the General Discussion Group at:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023121524


Thank You,

PuppyBismark

JUNE PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST Final Vote

These are the final entries selected as the top three vote getters in each thread along with the next four highest vote getters overall.

The theme of the June photography contest is HDR

Submissions are limited to any HDR image. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. To create an HDR image, one must take multiple shots of the same scene at different f stops and use the appropriate software to combine all shots into one final image.

Use of Photoshop or other computer image manipulation is also encouraged. All the general rules for past competitions applies.

To learn more, I would invite you to go to http://www.hdrsoft.com/ which is one of the vendors of HDR software. In addition Adobe Photoshop and NIK Software market software for HDR processing. To see some examples of very good HDR images go to: http://www.hdrsoft.com/gallery/index.php


Please share your comments and help to keep this thread kicked.

NOTE: Skinner has authorized this contest be run in GD.

Thanks,
PuppyBismark

Soar!

Time Shift


Made in the USA


P40 - Dawn Patrol


Modern Restrooms


Out in the Barn


The Bridge


Lily Pond Near Dusk

Hi,
I've run two photography contests and would like to ask if the number of poll entries in a thread could be increased to 30. That way we could have just one contest instead of having three ten image polls and then another with the top ten images. Perhaps a poll over 10 could be restricted some way that only authorized individuals could conduct them.

Not a big deal, but it would be nice.

Regards,
PuppyBismark

Everyone, please vote in the June Photography Poll. There are two threads at:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023088802

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023088803

Thank You,

PuppyBismark

The theme of the June contest is HDR

There are only 17 entries, thus the top three vote getters in each thread will advance to the finals along with the next two highest vote getters overall.

Please vote in this thread and in thread:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023088802

Submissions were limited to any HDR image. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. To create an HDR image, one must take multiple shots of the same scene at different f stops and use the appropriate software to combine all shots into one final image.

Use of Photoshop or other computer image manipulation is also encouraged. All the general rules for past competitions applies.

To learn more, I would invite you to go to http://www.hdrsoft.com/ which is one of the vendors of HDR software. In addition Adobe Photoshop and NIK Software market software for HDR processing. To see some examples of very good HDR images go to: http://www.hdrsoft.com/gallery/index.php

Preliminary Round will run for 72 hours.

Finals will be posted shortly thereafter and will run for 72 hours.

Please share your comments and help to keep this thread kicked.

Thanks,
PuppyBismark



NOTE: Skinner has authorized this contest be run in GD.

High in the Andes


Need A Lift?


Modern Restrooms


Out in the Barn


Summer by the Seaside


The Bridge


Lily Pond Near Dusk


Rest for a Moment