Welcome to the voting thread for February's official "Orange" photo contest (#53)!
You can vote for up to 15 photos.
Good luck to all participants!

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.


9.


10.


11.


12.


13.


14.


15.


16.


17.


18.


19.


20.


21.


22.


23.


24.


25.


26.


27.


28.


29.


30.


31.


32.


33.


34.


35.


36.


37.


38.


39.


40.


41.


42.


43.


44.


45.


46.


47.


48.


49.


50.


51.


52.


53.


54.


55.


56.


57.


58.


59.


60.


61.


62.


63.


64.


65.


66.


67.


68.


69.


70.


71.


72.


73.


74.


75.


76.


77.


78.


79.


80.


81.


82.


83.


84.


85.


86.


87.


88.


89.


90.


91.


92.


93.


94.


95.


96.


97.


98.


99.


100.


101.


102.


103.


104.


105.
[IMG][url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/31979162@N08/4275588226/]

106.


107.


108.


109.


110.


111.


112.


113.


114.


115.


116.


117.


118.


119.


120.


121.


122.


123.


124.


125.


126.


127.


128.


129.


130.


131.


132.


133.


134.


135.


136.


137.


138.


139.


140.


141.


142.


143.


144.


145.


146.


147.


148.


149.


150.


151.


152.


153.


154.


155.


156.


157.


158.


159.

[dinneenp]

loving number 93. whoever 'owns' it- do you have a website?

[fredlewin]

Disappointed with shot selection. I expected more fantasy. There just must be someone in an orange country who could make a pic with those fruits and ex. a nice woman/girl/lady isn't it?

[Leana]

I wondered why it was 15 votes this time, then I saw the number of entries. I really thought I had a shot this month,....until I saw everyone else's. I'm way out of my league.

I hear ya buddy! My thoughts exactly! Oh well there is always next month.....

[chromo]

A few ingenious photos here. I'll just vote those that really tickle my fancy.

P.S. I thought the boss said "The color not the fruit: be creative!"
How'd the oranges get through ?

[VegasPentax777]

What about the obvious use of filters? Some you can tell are just color enhanced. Is that artistic license? Oh and Jayson, mine was a sunset :-D[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Karin/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-5.png[/IMG]

[jays0n]

@VegasPentax777, sorry, your sunset is nice (as are the others) its just there were so many of them that the theme could very well have been Sunset, and I am saving my sunset photos for that for sure.

@dinneenp, I am so with you on that 93, great catch and well done.

[Marlboroman]

may i ask where my submission went, did i make a mistake?

[akovach]

I feel like a peasant at a King's feast with my photo amongst these. :? Fantastic creativity!

[jonhock]

What about the obvious use of filters? Some you can tell are just color enhanced. Is that artistic license? Oh and Jayson, mine was a sunset :-D

Mine is a sunset also and to look at it you'd think I beat it with a saturation stick. Actually, all I did in photoshop was try to sharpen it because I had copied it off one of my K1000 slides that I shot several years ago.
As far as artistic license goes, in my opinion, that's what the name of the game is. Photography = art, be it straight from the lens or bent somewhat with a computer. Nature (IMHO) does a fine job of providing photographical scenarios but a little push and a little pinch here and there merely serves to bring these photos to the level that the artist (photographer) perceives them.

[TOUGEFC]

I only 2 photo's got my vote's.

[RXrenesis8]

Maybe this contest will merit a runoff between the 15 highest-picked photos?

[VegasPentax777]

@Jonhock

I am the first to say the Photoshop or Lightroom does its part in taking an extraordinary shot and giving it that extra oomph to make it perfect. I shoot sports and landscape, so plenty of room for it there. But I guess I'm just thinking that for contest purposes, an unretouched photo reflects the pure capability of the photographer. It's rather like the Tour de France. If the winner is found to be using performance enhancements, they lose their title. Pure is more honorable, in competition.

At the very least, it might narrow down the number of entries.

[kcmadr]

...

At the very least, it might narrow down the number of entries.

Maybe there should be a limit on the number of entries then, like say 200 and no more? It doesn't take long to sort through 200 pics and select your favourites. Any less is... well, less.

[grey goat]

I am the first to say the Photoshop or Lightroom does its part in taking an extraordinary shot and giving it that extra oomph to make it perfect. I shoot sports and landscape, so plenty of room for it there. But I guess I'm just thinking that for contest purposes, an unretouched photo reflects the pure capability of the photographer. It's rather like the Tour de France. If the winner is found to be using performance enhancements, they lose their title. Pure is more honorable, in competition.

At the very least, it might narrow down the number of entries.

I understand what you're saying, VegasPentax777, and we all have the right to not vote for an image we don't like, for whatever reason.

But . . . just what is "an unretouched photo"? What is "pure"? Is judicious sharpening impure? Altered color balance? Exposure adjustment? Higher contrast? Noise reduction? Cropping?

Where's the line between pure and tainted?

As for the Tour . . . well, that's a team effort. One could consider the lesser riders on a team analogous to all the tools a photographer can use not only in the field, but in Lightroom and Photoshop. There's no one who rides without a team: that much purity gets you nowhere in a hurry. And if a team does it right, the cyclist who does win gets all the acclaim, while his teammates don't get much besides a contract renewal.

In the end, it's the image and its maker that wins these contests, not the use of any one particular Photoshop tool or technique. But I'd bet that most winning images aren't JPGs straight out of the camera--though even they would be less "pure" by virtue of the processing applied in-camera.

But really, this is an argument or discussion that's been done to death on the forum--on every photo forum, most likely.

Truth is, we all have different criteria for what constitutes a superior image. It's easy enough to withhold our vote from an image that doesn't fit our criteria.

I'll add that after seeing some of the images in this month's competition, I'll be lucky if my image winds up in the upper half. (And no, it's not a sunset. . . .) ;>

[DanielT74]

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/site-suggestions-forum-help/129667-questi...ml#post1347715