A fortnightly themed photo competition run by DPNow forum users for forum users. A curator chooses the theme and picks the winner and then becomes the new curator. It could be you!
As the (very surprised) winner of the last Salon, it's now my duty to replace Stephen as the curator of the competition for the next fortnight. You all therefore have from today (Thursday 5th Oct 2006), until Thursday 19th October 2006 at 6pm, to submit your entries.
The theme of this salon is Shooting Towards the Sun; the only criteria being that your image must feature either the sun itself or at least an obvious indication that you were aiming more or less in it's direction. The photographs themselves can feature virtually any subject matter on the proviso that the theme is adhered to. All I would ask is that you take care to avoid looking directly at the sun yourselves!
Here are the rules. Please take a moment to read them prior to shooting or uploading your submissions. Good luck
1) All photographs are to be uploaded to the photo gallery at http://dpnow.com/galleries/, they can be put in members own gallery if they wish. The resulting link generated for the photo will then be pasted into the next available space in the Salon thread.
2) One entry per user ID only please, which must be the personal work of the entrant
3) Entries should be "in line" within the thread (not as links to an image held somewhere else)
4) Comments only on entries are welcome within the salon thread itself
5) After the close the curator will indicate a winner and a couple of runners up.
6) The curator's decision is final.
7) Winners should be offered first refusal to choose the next theme and curate the next salon. If the winner is unable to curate the next salon the current curator may offer that "honour" to any willing volunteer, possibly the entrant in second or third place
9) These rules are to be copied and pasted with a new theme by the new Curator at the top of the new Salon thread with a finish date and time
10) As with all photos posted on DPNow, copyright remains with the photographer and DPNow will not use them without permission
Well that definitely meets the criteria, so thanks for that
Where was this taken, BTW?
Hi Bearface. This was taken about 3 months ago on a puffin hunt. It was when I came back to Guernsey after being around the smaller Islands looking for puffins. The towers are in the north of the Island at the power station.
Here's my effort, despite the fact that I can't enter the competition on this occasion
Taken at Crawfordsburn beach, near Belfast, Northern Ireland yesterday evening. Used a Canon 5D and an EF 17-40mm f4L (f22 @ 1/60th, ISO 100). Curves, saturation and sharpness adjusted in Photoshop.
Here's my effort, despite the fact that I can't enter the competition on this occasion
Taken at Crawfordsburn beach, near Belfast, Northern Ireland yesterday evening. Used a Canon 5D and an EF 17-40mm f4L (f22 @ 1/60th, ISO 100). Curves, saturation and sharpness adjusted in Photoshop.
Interesting and curious! Why did you choose such a small aperture? The scene looks like it was set fairly wide on the zoom, so depth of field should have been pretty secure from just a couple of feet out to infinity even with a wider setting. At f/22 the edge in sharpness may have been lost, possibly? Photozone's review of this lens shows that the sweet spot for resolution is f/8 and is dropping off by f/11, though they don't test at any smaller apertures, unfortunately. There also looks to be some vignetting at the periphery as well, which may be a consequence of the small aperture but more likely to be the full frame sensor of the EOS-5D combined with a lens not optimised for digital.
I think it's a very impressive picture, mind you, but I just wonder about the camera settings and the darkening to the periphery.
Interesting and curious! Why did you choose such a small aperture? The scene looks like it was set fairly wide on the zoom, so depth of field should have been pretty secure from just a couple of feet out to infinity even with a wider setting. At f/22 the edge in sharpness may have been lost, possibly? Photozone's review of this lens shows that the sweet spot for resolution is f/8 and is dropping off by f/11, though they don't test at any smaller apertures, unfortunately. There also looks to be some vignetting at the periphery as well, which may be a consequence of the small aperture but more likely to be the full frame sensor of the EOS-5D combined with a lens not optimised for digital.
I think it's a very impressive picture, mind you, but I just wonder about the camera settings and the darkening to the periphery.
Ian
Hi Ian,
I was shooting (hand-held - I left my tripod in England) both into and away from the sun from this vantage point, which was a narrow ridge stretching about 30 feet out to sea. The camera was set to shutter priority (@ 1/60th) for the simple reason that I wanted to capture at least some movement in the waves - which I achieved, although not to any great extent in the posted example.
Earlier in the afternoon I took this, I'd shot beach scenes at between f11 and f16 and found that the closer elements in the frame were slightly soft-looking, whereas closing down made quite a difference, even in shots taken at 17mm. Normally I'd stay in the sweet zones, but I wanted the foreground pebbles and seaweed to really pop, so I ventured beyond and it was worthwhile.
For this shot, I'd exposure-compensated by a full stop (under) and the ISO was set to 100, which left the aperture, which the camera closed to f22 to balance the exposure. Had I been in this spot for longer I'd have probably given more consideration to my settings, but the ridge was slippy, the tide was coming in and my priority was to get some shots from various angles before my shoes got wet
The vignetting is my own doing........I'm currently adding them in Photoshop to certain shots and convincing myself that it adds a certain something. I'm sure it's a phase which will pass in due course...
I was shooting (hand-held - I left my tripod in England) both into and away from the sun from this vantage point, which was a narrow ridge stretching about 30 feet out to sea. The camera was set to shutter priority (@ 1/60th) for the simple reason that I wanted to capture at least some movement in the waves - which I achieved, although not to any great extent in the posted example.
Earlier in the afternoon I took this, I'd shot beach scenes at between f11 and f16 and found that the closer elements in the frame were slightly soft-looking, whereas closing down made quite a difference, even in shots taken at 17mm. Normally I'd stay in the sweet zones, but I wanted the foreground pebbles and seaweed to really pop, so I ventured beyond and it was worthwhile.
For this shot, I'd exposure-compensated by a full stop (under) and the ISO was set to 100, which left the aperture, which the camera closed to f22 to balance the exposure. Had I been in this spot for longer I'd have probably given more consideration to my settings, but the ridge was slippy, the tide was coming in and my priority was to get some shots from various angles before my shoes got wet
The vignetting is my own doing........I'm currently adding them in Photoshop to certain shots and convincing myself that it adds a certain something. I'm sure it's a phase which will pass in due course...
Hope this answers your question(s)!
Tim (Bearface)
Thanks for that - I was chatting to Stephen about the picture and we concluded that you probably put the vignette in
And there is never an ND filter around when you need one is there?!
If the winner is unable to curate the next salon the current curator may offer that "honour" to any willing volunteer, possibly the entrant in second or third place
Well here's something a little different. 
Re: Fortnightly Salon Competition (No.2)
Hybrid Mode
