Okay, I'm going to try and continue the trend and used, and give some comments about why I chose what I chose, and some (hopefully) constructive opinions on what could improve.

Honestly, there's quite a few shots that I just had to nit pick with my personal taste, because they could be real advertisements. Here's my commentary on the ones I eliminated from my "finalists" :

mtnbearhug (Pencils): I really love the concept, a good message and a decent photo. I would have liked to see a better color background, however - the green table is unflattering. A suggestion: stand them up (stick them in a foam block or something) and use a large aperture to throw the background out of focus, and do it vertical.

reknelb (Pentax Flash): a nice group of pictures, nice logos - I don't know that there's anything that could improve it. Very well done, could easily be a little ad seen in popphoto in the back.

xs400: Polaroid camera: A quirky message, and a nice shot. Technically a very solid shot, nice blur in the background so the text stands out. Well done. This could have easily been in the finals. let me just say judging isn't easy! Always wanted a ruger .22 pistol. *sigh*

atupdate: (Coffee Cup): I love the flame - is that cup about 2 seconds from caving in on itself, or is this a few combined pictures? (the top right edge looks a little dark as if it's starting to burn up). Certainly worthy of a lawsuit when it spills in someone's lap whilst driving!

jmbower (Nike): the only B&W entry, a nice action shot at the peak of the jump for the ball, but their backs are turned toward you, and the background is totally cluttered. If you had an angle where you could cut out the background stuff, and get the expressions on the faces both clutching for the football, it would be a winner.

paden501 (Captain Morgan): another nice shot and quirky slogan, but the background is a little too up close to the bottles. If you have a really fast lens (like the 50 f/1.4) perhaps you could move the background back a little and maybe play with the positions of the bottles so that only the Captain Morgan bottle would be in focus, with the rest of the "nobodies" around and out of focus.

daacon (Visine): It gets the red out, for sure! But that bottle looks yucky - some sort of crud/fungus on the cap, and the background on the red version is too close/flash making the shadow of the bottle stand out.

betsypdx (Jewelry): - I would love to see a composite shot - this close up of the jewelry and another shot, a closeup of a neck with the necklace on...

djm (John Deer) - I'd have said ask the guy if you could take a picture when he goes on lunch, get a closer shot with the John Deer logo up close and personal.

m8o (Poland Spring bottle): Has to be the funniest entry for sure... And not so far off, for some of of the companies that basically sell "purified tap water". (I think I feel sick!)

Bramela (Sydney Symphony): would love to see the (cello?) vertical so you can see more of the strings. Nice background using the music sheets, but if you can try a shadow effect on the text so the musical notes don't make it all run together.

Finalists and winner in next post...

[khardur]

The Finalists:
There's really not much I can say about these pictures other than, "Bravo". If I could pick a bunch of winners I would. These all are standouts in different ways, and on another day I may have picked a different winner.


roentarre (Inner Peace): Beautiful, creative background (how did you do it?) - I can find no fault with it other than to be nit picky and say crop a little of the excess "blank" space off the bottom.



leadbelly (Pentax camera shot): Could easily be on the cover of a camera magazine, touting the "latest features."
This is a beautiful shot, certainly harkens back to Pentax's heyday perhaps.


Mr Hyde (Zune): excellent shot, a theme we've seen a few times in this challenge.
(sorry I can't seem to get this photo attached here. my bad!)


ftpaddict (Nokia): wonderful lighting, I really could see this in a computer magazine or something similar.


The Runner up: Peter Zack (Campbell's Soup) - You must share with us how you "levitated" the can, and got the soup dripping as well! Wow! Beautifully done!
Attachment 8153

The Winner: Workingdog (Balvenie): - Amazing - (two different images right? - I see a ceiling light in the reflection behind the bottle) But this could easily make it on the pages of a fancy fishing magazine. I wouldn't mind seeing a tad more space above the bottle (it's a hair too close to the edge). But it's my choice anyway.
(Sorry, I'm having trouble reattaching some of the "attached" images from the entry thread. here's the link
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/168813-post9.html

Thanks everyone, I'm impressed by the effort everyone put forth, we've got a ton of talented people here on the board.

-Dan

[Peter Zack]

Ah Dan Must I tell all? Thanks for the placement and I'm honoured to be chosen. This was fun and I definitely learned a lot by trying this. It's something I've wanted to try and you gave me the reason to build the box. I should have taken a bigger picture of the setup but basically it was the same idea you posted.

The can was suspended with a pair of long metal BBQ skewers. I tried using fishing wire but just couldn't get the can to orient right. So I put a piece of duct tape on the back side of the label and slid the metal rod into the label. The soup drops were a bit harder. I think I took 60-70 shots to get it the way I wanted. Camera on tripod with cabled remote, flashes(2) fired via optical triggers with camera onboard flash at -2Ev and diffused. I cut a small hole in the top of the box and took a turkey baster to drop the soup. The tricky part was 1) catching the drop in the right spot (not much room between the lip of the can and the bowl) and 2) lining it up so it looked like the soup was coming off the lowest edge of the can. So the remote was in one hand and the turkey baster bulb in the other. Just added drops and fired away.

Not much PP at all. The light tent does a nice job of a good even exposure. All that was needed was to clone out the metal rods and crop the image and do a little shadow recovery. I've fooled around with it more since then and have a better idea on how to get smoother light and almost no shadows. A lot of fun and a great learning experience.

Here's the original RAW image (kinda takes the "magic out of it)



BTW if you think the K10D can't do high ISO shooting, have a look at the EXIF. I wanted to see what the camera could do under the right conditions. The other reason for the high ISO was to turn the flash output down as much as possible to minimize the light reflections off the exposed metal can parts.

So Workingdog, the torch passes to you. great shot and well done. A much deserved win!!

[m8o]

All I can say is WwwwOW! And to think I thought it was composed in photoshop. Thanx so much for revealing your secrets to the benefit of all. When you came to the turkey baster I just started laughing and imagining what an onlooker must have witnessed.

[Workingdog]

Dan,

Thank you so much for awarding me the win especially since I'm a relative newcomer to the forum and digital SLR photography. I'm really flattered and a little surprised as there were some really great shots submitted.

It's unfortunate that I will be out of town for a long weekend and I don't want to hold up the next weekly challenge until I return, so if nobody minds I would like to defer to Peter Zack as runner up with his totally cool Campbell Soup can to host the next challenge. After all of that effort to get the shot, he deserves it!! After all, I just took a picture of a bottle of Scotch on my wife's old blanket chest in our dining room Well, maybe a little more than that. The background was taken on a steelhead fishing trip and the whole thing merged and postprocessed in Paint Shop Pro. I really like the "feel" of the finished image.

So, Peter since yours was one of MY favorites please help a brother out and host the next challenge.

[roentarre]

Background (how did you do it?) - I can find no fault with it other than to be nit picky and say crop a little of the excess "blank" space off the bottom.

The bottom bit was supposed to be cropped out but then I forgot about it.

Thank you for the compliment and you are the first person who actually likes the background.

Most of the critics turned it down, calling it distracting, messy, wrong mood, unnatural etc. But I liked that style anyway (for a period).

The background is very easy to create. Believe me - this only takes me 10 minutes in photoshop.


My original shot was a sky with stars in it shot with Fa 300mm f4.5. The photo is first duplicated with adjustment gradient using black and white graduation. This was successively added with 2 filled gradient layers: yellow and blue (you chose the directions of gradient with arrows).

At various stages, I added soft light and vivid light, mixing with clipping masks.

Then, the buddha shot



Was added to the background, using overlay mode.

Speaking of the pencil patterns, it is easy to create in photoshop (apparently a basic technique for most digital art people).

Create a new image and draw a line. Then select the white page and inverse - the line itself will be selected. Choose edit - transform with various forms of distortion you want. This is my version



Distort and warp it into a shape, then add it to the original image.

A little more touch up here and there. Then you got the final image.

There are a lot of ways to play around the images to get the desired effects. But I had been told that a "good" photographer shall be able to get a good photo first time with absolutely no image manipulation or post processing.

Congrads to everyone that made the weekly competitions more fun each week.

Peter, that shot is really interesting until you reveal the "bigger" perspective! Really cool.

Workingdog, it is not about simplicity of the shot. It is more about the effectiveness of the photo. Your work conveys a sense of familarity - friendship mixing well with what men love - alcohol. Typically men

[Bramela]

Congratulations to winners. Good judging, I fully agree with choices.
Thanks for the comments as well, just a note (and this is NOT a gripe) actually its a Violin and does stand up as acello would. I concur with your comments, nevertheless.
I do agree that writing needed a backround but in this case a hastened a little too much.
Thanks a lot and well done!

[Bramela]

Congratulations to winners. Good judging, I fully agree with choices.
Thanks for the comments as well, just a note (and this is NOT a gripe) actually its a Violin and does stand up as acello would. I concur with your comments, nevertheless.
I do agree that writing needed a backround but in this case I hastened a little too much.
Thanks a lot and well done!

[khardur]

sorry, Bruce! I suppose I'm no music major that's for sure. Thanks for the correction.

Peter: Looks like next challenge is up to you. Thanks for the tutorial on "how you did it".

James: I never would have guessed that was an actual photo of stars for the background, though now that you mention, it hits me in the forehead.

I'm still amazed by the amount of effort put into many of these images - I have to say again that there were a lot of really top notch shots in this bunch, I was very impressed, and again if I could have picked multiple, I certainly would have.



Thanks again everyone for participating,

[Peter Zack]

Well OK, I'll host the nest one. I don't want to steal Workingdog's much deserved win. It was a great shot and the mood captured for the "Ad" idea was great as was the execution. Again congrats to all and the work that went into each shot. Thanks for the info on your's James, great job on that shot as well. It works perfectly!

The more I learn here, the more I realize how little I know....

I'll have to think about this next one.....

[Peter Zack]

New challenge is here:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/mini-challenges-games/20344-weekly-challe...tml#post173316

[ftpaddict]

Congratulations to all the winners.
Participating was awesome fun, and I can only be honoured that I made it into the finalists!

[Mr Hyde]

Thanks for selecting my shot as a finalist. I'm totally flattered. So many good shots in this contest. I had fun doing this shot. My daughter is a total Zune nut and she wants me to print my photo so she can hang it on her locker at school. I had fun and learned a few things in the process.

Edit: Since you had some problems attaching my photo I thought i'd just add it here

[Peter Zack]

Scott, You should email that shot to Zune. it's funny and a great visual pun- Zune stands out against the crowd. I sent my Soup ad to Cambell's and they responded that they liked the concept and someone from advertising would contact me sometime soon....

[Mr Hyde]

Great Idea. Thanks!!