[Adam]

Hi guys,

Today I'm very happy to announce the winners of round 2 of the Pentax K-3 photo contest: these photographers will be moving on to the third and final round of the competition!

The winning photos can be found here, and our winners are:

• Bondezire
• BonnieB
• VE2CJW
• Atrej
• Alcazar
• DK77
• bossa
• K McCall
• candid
• damianc
• fuzzyfelt30
• bert01980
• cheekygeek
• kengoh
• Xia
• AaronDS
• Jordan217
• Paul-K5
• Sliver-Surfer
• clyde242
• mattb123
• rrstuff
• ILLmatic173
• Yank21
• r_squared
• shammy
• siropdecitron
• MarinaN
• marzio65
• MatBloodaxe
• Xilfet
• haaskids

Round 3, the final round of the contest, will determine the overall grand prize winner as well as our runner-ups. Once they are announced, we will also pick out honorable mentions from the first two rounds.

Round 3 Instructions

The theme for round three will be "back to the basics", and all you need to do is submit a single photo. While you can photograph any subject, and your submission does not have to be taken during the contest period, the amount of post-processing you can perform will be limited.

Specifically, you can only apply post-processing adjustments that would typically be found in a DSLR's RAW development/JPEG retouch menu (if you're shooting film and digitizing your negatives or using an enlarger, the same rules apply). In other words, only basic adjustments are allowed:

• Cropping
• Scaling
• Rotating
• Global exposure/levels
• Minor hue/saturation/sharpness/contrast adjustments
• White balance/monochrome conversion
• Minor shadow/highlight correction
• Noise reduction

You're also welcome to use most in-camera functionality as well as photographic accessories to be a bit more creative, such as:

• Taking multiple exposures in-camera
• Black-and-white/sepia presets
• Flashes, lights, reflectors, filters, tilt/shift lenses, soft lenses, etc.

The following post-processing and in-camera effects are NOT ALLOWED:

• Masking or anything that only applies to a portion of the image (except for removing dust spots or hot pixels)
  
• HDR conversion (in-camera HDR is also off-limits)
• Exaggerated midtone contrast and shadow/highlight adjustments
• Cloning and healing
• Composites (except for images taken directly via the multiple exposure feature)
• Image stacking or layer opacity
• Colorization and color inversion
• Selective color adjustments (i.e. muting all of a certain color channel or changing one color to another)
• Artificial effects such as motion blur, localized blur, bokeh simulation, lens flare, starbursts, smudging, reflections, shadows, etc.
• Adding text, shapes, or anything else that wasn't originally part of the photo (copyrights are OK but discouraged as only small versions of your images will be displayed)

This round was originally meant to be an elimination-style "playoff", but in order to wrap up the contest by the middle of August and get the camera in our winners' hands by the end of August, we will be changing the format. Once round 3 closes, members will collectively rate all 3 of your submissions (round 1, round 2, and round 3), and the highest-ranked photos (combined) will be our winners.

Round 3 - How to Submit

Round 3 submissions will be submitted privately and they will not be revealed until voting begins.

To submit for round 3, send an e-mail to contactpf @ pentaxforums.com with the following (preferably attached in a ZIP file, or linked to):

• Your forum username and forum e-mail, if it differs from the e-mail you're sending from
• The original unedited RAW (if shooting in RAW) or JPEG/TIFF (if shooting in JPEG or scanning) file corresponding to your round 3 submission
• The unedited round 3 file scaled to exactly 1200px on the longest edge (JPEG or PNG format)
• The processed round 3 file scaled to exactly 1200px on the longest edge (JPEG or PNG format)
• A title for your photo, and a description
• (optional) An explanation of the edits you performed, and/or your shooting technique, to avoid disqualification in case your photo appears artificial
• Your round 1 submission, scaled to exactly 1200px on the longest edge (if left out, your original submission will be shown in the final voting round)
• Your round 2 submission, scaled to exactly 1200px on the longest edge (if left out, your original submission will be shown in the final voting round)

The round 3 voting post will include the following:

• Your round 1 and 2 photos
• Your round 3 photo (with a link to the unedited version)
• Titles
• Description (for the round 3 image)

You will receive a response confirming your submission or asking you to correct any missing items. If you do not receive this confirmation within 3 days of submitting, please PM me.

Good luck everyone!

Submission deadline: Sunday, August 3rd, 2014.

Adam
PentaxForums.com Webmaster (Site Usage Guide | Site Help | My Photography)



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[DK77]

Excellent! I like the way you're doing this!

*commencing planning to shoot or find an existing photo*

Just one clarification, please: no removal of dust spots with the healing brush allowed? Has to be done "in camera", hehe?

[eweliyi]

Congrats to the winners! Didn't make the cut, sadly, I would love to do this round, sounds fun.

[Kozlok]

Wow, tough rules! Good luck everyone, look forward to another round. It has been amazing so far!

[Jordan217]

Excellent! I like the way you're doing this!

*commencing planning to shoot or find an existing photo*

Just one clarification, please: no removal of dust spots with the healing brush allowed? Has to be done "in camera", hehe?

This is a good question, was thinking the exact same thing. Surely we are allowed to remove dust marks in editing.

[DK77]

This is a good question, was thinking the exact same thing. Surely we are allowed to remove dust marks in editing.

I'd err on the side of not until I hear otherwise. Better safe than sorry. It is a tough task to avoid dust spots though (depending on aperture and subject), even if you were to clean the sensor. Whatever they decide, we'll work around.

[mattb123]

I guess I'll clean my sensor tonight!

[crewl1]

Oooh this should be good!
Good luck, looking forward to seeing your work guys and gals!

[MarinaN]

I have a question to clarify this:
Do I have to edit RAW in the same DSLR that the shot was made with, or I can do the editing in Adobe Photoshop/Camera Raw (as a very truthful/neutral editing tool)?

[siropdecitron]

I think the picture for round 3 would have had to be made ​​on the duration of the contest and to find the best photographer. But those are the rules ...

I'm very proud to be qualified in the third round.

Let's go find a photo or an idea for this round 3! Good luck at all

[Kerrowdown]

Well done to all those that took part, especially the four I voted for, you all got through to next round.

[Kozlok]

Kerrowdown is the King Maker!

[Kerrowdown]

Kerrowdown is the King Maker!

I do like to think I can spot a good image when I see one, unfortunately they never seem to be my own.

[dtmateojr]

Didn't make it to the third round so good luck to everyone who qualified. The photo contest should have used the third round rules from the beginning IMHO.

[Adam]

This is a good question, was thinking the exact same thing. Surely we are allowed to remove dust marks in editing.

Yes, removing dust spots would be fine.