Fortnightly Competition Midnight 9 Jan to Midnight 23 Jan - Shallow Depth Of Field
 

Having racked my brains to come up with something challenging, I gave up! No, only joking. I have gone for something that I really enjoy and that is taking an image with a really shallow depth of field.

I would like to see whatever subject you choose, out of focus apart from one small focal point. Choose a subject that will benefit from this technique and experiment before making your final choice of an image to enter. Most of all, have fun. Good luck and enjoy. Make the 1st comp starting in 2014 an inspiration.

Fortnightly Challenge is open to all members of WPF. The challenge will be run on (GMT) time.

Post your photo in this thread any time from 9th Jan midnight to midnight 23rd Jan.

Then a 3 day poll will be placed in this thread for voting on the photo you like that most meets the brief.

Please give your photo a title.

The winner picks a challenge for the following fortnight and starts a new thread... in case of a draw the majority of members are happy with the 1st entry to start up the new challenge, which saves us having to do another vote.

1. One photo per member
2. To be taken during period stated above
3. The photo must include exif data with date and time
4. Post your entry as one attachment directly in this thread
5. No discussion of entries in the thread
6. Do not post any entries in the gallery until after the voting has finished

To create a poll :
* go to top of thread and in Thread Tools press 'Add a poll to this thread'.
[note: only the starter of this thread can see this option.]
* In the update options box change the number 2 to how many have entered.
* In each box put the title of the entered photos.
* In close poll, put 3 days.
* Submit new poll.

I have been a little naughty choosing this as I want to play with my extension tubes! One perk of getting to pick the theme.

Geisha Doll
 

Geisha Doll to get the ball rolling for 2014

pink flower
 

pink flower

Creapy Crawlies
 

Creapy Crawlies

Im stunned by the quality of entries so far. Wow, well done, the bar has been set so high!

The first Snowdrops
 

Back down to earth for this entry ;-)

Tomatoes
 

This is my probable entry

Voting will be hard this time. Still a while to go yet till closing too.

Measured in Thou

Get the point
 

My entry..........

Such a high standard this comp. Keep the entries coming, gonna be hard to vote.

Colured Pencils
 

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Was about to do poll but realised Im a day ahead of myself. I think it was the excitement of the football last night!!!! C'mon Sunderland.

Sinclair Calculater
 

last minute entry

Only got till midnight. Come on.....entries required

OK poll is up. Can I take this opportunity to thank everyone who entered, making this a very strong competition and a hard one to vote on. 9 entries is absolutely brilliant. Good luck everyone. Once the poll closes, don't forget to post a comment (helpful critique/comments) on the image above and below yours. If you are the first entry, your up would be the last entry. If you are the bottom entry, your below would be the first entry. Thanks.

Roll up, roll up. Come and vote in the fortnightly competition.

Nice one Trena! Congratulations.

Yes - Well Done Trena.

wow, I wasn't expecting that, so many great entries this week... thanks very much...I will sort something out and start up a new thread tomorrow. (for me)

Well Done Trena,yes it was the best one

John

I had this picked as the winner as soon as I saw it. Well done Trena.

Congratulations Trena. Got my vote.

Well done Trena - thought that was the winner as soon as you posted it. The only surprise is that it didn't get more votes.

Ups & Downs

Up - Tomatoes by DigDiva - I liked this a lot - good saturation & well chosen point of focus. I did find the out of focus highlights centre left distracting & think I would have cloned them out, along with the pale patch top centre.

Down - Get the point by Arthur53 - Again I liked this, good use in DoF to focus the attention on the point. I think I would have liked a fraction more space to the right & below the point so that it didn't take the eye straight out of the picture.

Behind the scenes

I've been looking for an excuse to make a piece of "Rudra Glass" for a while. The only challenge was that I wanted the vernier scale on the micrometer to be the point of focus both on the original & in the reflection.

However because of the angle of the camera to the micrometer, the point of focus on the reflection was further forward throwing the scale out of focus - see attached.

The solution was to take a second shot focusing on the scale in the reflection & then merge the two in photoshop ;)

Gidders, I always find your critique very helpful so thank you very much. You have a very good eye

my up is Rob's Geisha doll, perfect focus I thought.
my down was John&me, another very good shot and focus, we chose similar colours for this one....I thought all entries were really good,just a matter of choosing the subject matter that appeals to more viewers.

Gidders, thanks for the behind the scenes info,it is a very professional looking image.

My "up" was Grassface's Sinclair and my down was Arthur's knife. Both shots demonstrated the required effect but as with my effort were mightily surpassed by the winner.

Right, time for upsy/downsies... Going up is John (John&Me) with the gloriously focussed anther and filament of an unidentified flower. The question is how to critique this shot; it hits the spot that was asked for in the challenge, but for me it loses out as a stand alone picture because it has a star but is lacking a supporting cast. Nice bokeh though.

Christine (DigiDiva) has a lovely shot with those tomatoes. Looking at the exif data, it's an amazingly long exposure, was this natural light? I'd have been tempted to get rid of the spurious droplets of light. Lovely detail on the green stalk!

This wasn't natural light Graham. Thanks for feedback, much appreciated.

I haven't done miine yet, sorry. Will do it soon.

My ups and downs:
UP - Grahams First Snowdrops -lovely to see something so spring like. Filled the frame beautifully but I felt that maybe the main ocus on one drop, closer in, would have more fitted the brief.

Down- gidders Measued In Thou-lovely sharp crisp image, well balanced and grest reflection, just felt that this time the reflection detrated the eye from the focus point.