[Spongefingers]

Thanks to everyone for entering! There's been a wide range of varied entries this time round, and I had quite a tough time deciding. I've got a little critique for everyone - I hope you find it useful, and don't take it too seriously.

My original image:


Most of you, as well as I, definitely went for the unusual outcomes this time. I'm glad to see that there as much scope for unusual interpretation as I had hoped.

3rd Place:
Ash - Those vivid colours! That apple is definitely flavoured artificially, some kind of synthetic, sugary confection. I can taste it now... I also like how you've brought down the dark tones and cropped to make it look like the snail is slithering out of a hole.


2nd Place:
casil403 - Almost the only monochrome image. Muted colours work well here, I think. The slightly busy background is not necessarily bad - What I really liked about this is the stony, relief-sculpture look it has, and the snail pops out nicely.


1st Place:
ozlizard - Great grungy rendition! The shell has a lacquered, almost moist look, which I like very much. Of course it's unrealistic, but the image seems to match the slimy, dark-loving nature of snails in my mind's eye. Well done!


Everyone else:
timh - Nice. I really like the handling of the orange tones, the halo artefacts around them not so much.
tackyat.2 - The slightly gone-off colours are getting somewhere, and I like the shell colour very much too. But you've really wiped out too much detail. Also, better to make a more detailed JPEG, this one is very blocky.
Voytech - The dusky pink is certainly different, but I think it could have done with a little extra variation.
jmschrei - Green is good! But The snail seems a bit too yellow and washed-out for my liking.
erkie - I like the almost mother-of-pearl effect on the shell. But the contrast of sharpening and blur is too great.
slowpez - The basic PP is nice, the extra snail is unrealistic! :3
VaughnA - I'm liking the contrasty tones, but I'm turned off by the extreme haloing. The bleached shell works well, but it looks like it needs to be done more selectively.
MikeS - You win the "Weirdest Interpretation" award this week...!
jheu02 - I actually really like the colours of the in-focus areas. It's as if there's a dusting of vivid powder paints. Would like to see a version without extra snails.
Parallax - Thumbs up to a conservative rendition - I like the creamier, relaxed tones here.

Finally, my re-working of the photo. I forgot to put one in the original thread, so I might as well show you here:


Again, many thanks to all of you for your effort and creativity.
ozlizard, it's over to you. I hope you've got something unusual lying in wait...

[erkie]

A hearty congratulations to the winners ! And Thanks to Spongefingers for your time and effort


Eric

[jheu02]

jheu02 - I actually really like the colours of the in-focus areas. It's as if there's a dusting of vivid powder paints. Would like to see a version without extra snails.

Thanks for the words and congrats to the winners! The extra snail came about as a result of "twisting" the image 42 degrees IIRC to add more to the psychedelia, and wasn't originally planned. I left it there as I felt that Alan possibly would have felt a little detached after the special apple.

[casil403]

Thanks spongefingers for the kind words, for posting a really fun and interesting photo to work with, and for some excellent judging. So many great entries here...I enjoyed them all.

[jmschrei]

Thanks for a great challenge spongefingers. I have never worked with a photo like that before, it was fun. Congrats to ozlizard, lisa and Ash. Looking forward to the next round.
-Joe

[MikeS]

You win the "Weirdest Interpretation" award this week...!

Hahaha! Thank you (I think)

Congrats to the winners. I love how there was a great variety of interpretation among the winning entries (and everyone else's, for that matter!).

Nice judging, too!

[ozlizard]

Thanks spongefingers for your kind words and a great challenge. Congratulations to ash and lisa and all the entrants. mmmmm I'll have to look through some recent stuff and see what I can come with. As I only really take landscapes, I guess it will be something along those lines!

[slowpez]

Congrats to the winners and to spongefingers for all his hard work.

[VaughnA]

Excellent job on the judging and the nice work on the photo. I've got a lot to learn from you guys.

[tackyat.2]

Interesting.

I double checked my files and they show no blockiness, except on the uploaded version. It appears that tinypic compressed the gradients really hard. The original files and even the exported files have no compression.

Unfortunately, I didn't notice the compression on my low contrast, high resolution screen. I guess I'll be looking for another image hosting service.

Congrats to the winners.

[ozlizard]

Sorry about the delay, having trouble with Mediafire, it is refusing to upload files, comes up with an error msg, can someone else check it out to confirm this, or it could be a PC related error?

[ozlizard]

Still can't upload anything to Mediafile, was hoping someone could please check it out to see if it is a site error or something to do with my PC?

[jmschrei]

I have never used mediafire before but it seemed to upload okay for me. However I am using a Mac not a PC.

-Joe

[Ash]

Congrats to you guys.
Ozlizard, if you're still having trouble with mediafire, PM me - looking forward to the next challenge.