Photo Contests?
- Thread starter Stangman98
- Start date
Fred Kingston_RIP
Senior Member
You do understand that Ansel Adams never burned a print straight from negative, right? He dodged and burned every one of them... 
BackdoorArts
Senior Member
You do understand that Ansel Adams never burned a print straight from negative, right? He dodged and burned every one of them...
Sssssshhhh, Fred!! While they keep trying to figure out how to get a "perfect" exposure in-camera we'll be fine after a couple minutes in Lightroom.
Browncoat
Senior Member
I'm aware of what your question is. What everyone is trying to make you aware of, is there is no such thing. Image editing is part of photography, and is part of the skill of the photographer.
Any monkey can press a button to take a picture. Only a photographer can turn it into art.
I get where @harleridr is coming from. Lemme 'splain.
I thought about posting the question a few days ago, "What's fixable and what's not?", in reference to post processing. I know from my own fiddling with PSE and now LR5, that there is the photo that requires minimal post processing, the one that needs some more attention and the one that probably is beyond fixing.
I also see great value in thinking before the shot as opposed to after the shot (every time I forget to think before). So, I see the benefit in contests that stress before the shot skills.
I thought about posting the question a few days ago, "What's fixable and what's not?", in reference to post processing. I know from my own fiddling with PSE and now LR5, that there is the photo that requires minimal post processing, the one that needs some more attention and the one that probably is beyond fixing.
I also see great value in thinking before the shot as opposed to after the shot (every time I forget to think before). So, I see the benefit in contests that stress before the shot skills.
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Browncoat
Senior Member
Let's think of this in context outside of photography...
No, none of the above. Because in a competition, you put out your very best completed product. Be it a car, a gadget, an apple pie, a dog, or a photograph. Contest judges don't care about the process, it's only the end result that matters.
Does JD Power & Associates give out their Best Car of the Year Award to cars that are still on the assembly line?
Does Consumer Reports grade products that are not assembled, still in their boxes?
Can you win a blue ribbon at the fair for an unbaked apple pie?
Does the Westminster Kennel Club hand out Best in Show to a puppy?
Does Consumer Reports grade products that are not assembled, still in their boxes?
Can you win a blue ribbon at the fair for an unbaked apple pie?
Does the Westminster Kennel Club hand out Best in Show to a puppy?
No, none of the above. Because in a competition, you put out your very best completed product. Be it a car, a gadget, an apple pie, a dog, or a photograph. Contest judges don't care about the process, it's only the end result that matters.
Google "SOOC photo contest" might give you some ideas of the clubs or entities that do them or where to look of more info.
You may not be interested in it, but every time you look at a photo it has been processed in some form or another.
It's like saying that I only want to hear music that has not been processed.
Trust me, it will sound pretty awful.
Most people don't care how a photo or a piece of music was processed to end up with the final product you look at or listen to.
Do you think that when the Beatles were recording Sgt Pepper they were worried about what some purist might think of their heavily processed sound?
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I believe there is a big difference between music and eye candy but then most of you people here are of the digital age and never used a real darkroom. I started with plates, then large film then around 1959 started with a 35mm argus c-3 up grading until my first nikon f-3 hp
Pssssttt.. No I'm not of the digital age.
Browncoat
Senior Member
No, we're all just a bunch of digital noobs who shoot in auto mode here. What is it that makes old film guys so grumpy? Is it from huffing all those emulsion fumes for so many years?
Say what???
Did you not do exposure test strips in the dark room to get the right contrast? To a degree I used to think like you BUT then a friend reminded me of things we did in the darkroom, like masking, using neat developer in places etc. I do believe however that with the digital age some people do too much as they haven't thought the shot out and then try to change it.
However as my father said " You cannot make a silk purse out of a pigs ear".
However as my father said " You cannot make a silk purse out of a pigs ear".
I think you deserve an answer to your question.
1. My origional question was Is there a contest without the use of Photoshop or other programs?
2. Eyelight was the only person who gave me an answer. Thanks again to eyelight.
3. The rest of you went off on a tangent telling me the hows and whys of digital dark rooms and and how I don't understand this.
4. All of this had nothing to do with my question.
5. Does this answer the question to your satisfaction? Readers started answering without reading my question first.
1. My origional question was Is there a contest without the use of Photoshop or other programs?
2. Eyelight was the only person who gave me an answer. Thanks again to eyelight.
3. The rest of you went off on a tangent telling me the hows and whys of digital dark rooms and and how I don't understand this.
4. All of this had nothing to do with my question.
5. Does this answer the question to your satisfaction? Readers started answering without reading my question first.
