Author Topic: Results and Feedback for the "Bokeh" Weekly Photography Assignment  (Read 1587 times)

keithsnell

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The guidelines for this assignment were to strive to compose an image with aesthetically pleasing bokeh (out of focus areas in the image) where the soft colors and shapes contribute to the overall composition of the image.  There were many wonderful images submitted for this assignment, so thank you to all that participated.  

(NOTE:  I encourage viewers to use a color managed browser such as Safari to view the images, since viewing in a browser such as Internet Explorer will not do justice to the images.)

As several people mentioned during the voting phase of this assignment, this was a tough one to vote for because there were so many wonderful images submitted.

I thought Rick's Black Eye Susan image had a lot of potential.  This was a tough image to work with because the saturated yellows in the image were already clipping in the posted version; however, I worked with it a little in Photoshop, using the "brightness" adjustment to brighten up the mid-tones, and adding a bit of selective sharpening to the flower.  The version Rick posted looked like this:


Black Eyed Susan
Photographed by Rick Pepin  


The image with the brightness adjustment and selective sharpening looked like this:


Black Eyed Susan
Photographed by Rick Pepin (brightness and selective sharpening added)

The modifications increased the color clipping just a touch, but overall the modified image appears more pleasing to me.  I often work with images like this so that you can recognize the potential modifications that might improve the image.

We had a three-way tie for People's Choice for this assignment.  Congratulations to Sheila, whose The Buzz image, Lars whose Lamps Bokeh image, and Joyce whose Shredded Tulip image tied for People's Choice.


The Buzz
Tied for People's Choice
Photographed by Sheila Ancheta


Lamps Bokeh
Tied for People's Choice
Photographed by Lars



Shredded Tulip
Tied for People's Choice
Photographed by Joyce Donaldson

I've awarded Editor's Choice for Artistic and Technical Merit to Sheila's The Buzz image.


The Buzz
Editor's Choice for Artistic and Technical Merit
Photographed by Sheila Ancheta

This image had very pleasing bokeh.  I did notice that the uploaded image did not have an embedded color space, and thought I should remind folks that if you don't embed a color space in your images, the even "color managed" applications like Safari will not be able to display them properly.  I had to guess at the color space, but wanted to illustrate the difference between how an image with an embedded color space would be displayed in Safari, so I opened this image and tagged it with the sRGB color space (my best guess).  While I had the image open in Photoshop I also made a small "levels" adjustment by pulling the white point down to the right side of the histogram, and added just a touch of selective sharpening to the foreground flowers.  Here's how the modified image looks:


The Buzz
Photographed by Sheila Ancheta
(Tagged with sRGB color space, levels adjustment and selective sharpening)

I also thought this image looked good with a tighter crop:


The Buzz
Photographed by Sheila Ancheta
(Tagged with sRGB color space, levels adjustment, selective sharpening and cropped)

Thank you again to everyone that participated in the "Bokeh" assignment, I enjoyed viewing your beautiful images.

Keith
« Last Edit: August 31, 2009, 10:03:50 AM by keithsnell »

burzilai

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Re: Results and Feedback for the "Bokeh" Weekly Photography Assignment
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2009, 09:09:38 AM »
Thanks for voting. I voted shredded tulip coz i really like the way the colord blends in the background. Keith, where do I see or check  embeded color space? How do I fix that?
Shee :)

keithsnell

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Re: Results and Feedback for the "Bokeh" Weekly Photography Assignment
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2009, 09:32:28 AM »
Hi Sheila,

In the PC version of Photoshop there is a check box in the "save as" dialog, down towards the bottom of the "save" dialog there is an area called "save options" and a subcategory called "color," followed by a check box named "ICC Profile" that lists the current color space of the image.  If you click in that check box the color space will be embedded in the file when it is saved and can be read by other "color managed" applications.

I assume that MAC will have a similar selection in the "save as" dialog, but since I don't have a MAC I can't tell you exactly what it will look like.  Can you check and see if it is there on the MAC version of PS?  If not, please let me know and I will find the answer for you.

Keith