Photography contest/assignment #1 (UPDATED 05.22.09: VOTING BEGINS PG. 11 - please VOTE!)

[yamakazi18]

Originally Posted by rizobs

circles

these are great product shots! with just a little bit of tweaking and tricks known to only product shot photographers, you could sell these, seriously. theywould go for about $100 each at a restaurant; i did something similar a month ago for some cupcake business, and got about that much per photo, per year of useon their website.

anyway, while they are good product shots and delicious looking, they are NOT pattern photos!!! they are product photos. so i will not critique them, because idon't have much to say about them academic pattern wise, sorry. (they are oh so good looking though)

 

[desent]

Originally Posted by thinkinFRESH

Cant wait to get my DSLR to throw myself into the wild with the great photographers of NT , good luck

 

[missinpieces]

 

[Fong$tarr]

Dude putting in mad work. Crazy......but good stuff.

 

[j paycheck]

Yama my man, my dude... I don't know if I speak for everyone but we appreciate the effort and work your are putting into reviving your idea and thread(after you couldn't respond to it)... its appreciated. The feedback and C/C specially! Although, you haven't got to mines (please do so). BUT Idon't think we expected you to go back and comment on everyone pics (or maybe you just going through a couple). But I would say just go back and pick outthe top 3 you like and CC those (but its too late) and in addition I think the overall decision by those that contributed was that having a "winner"isn't needed.

I guess, what I'm saying, don't feel that you have to go back and CC all pics (please do mines though

even if its on PM).

Let's just start over and fresh... with a new assignment and take it from there.

Peace

 

[tree4twenty]

Thanks for the CC. I guess I should have made it B&W, huh?

 

[rizobs]

i guess good things come to those who wait. that was some great effort put in during the late hours. now i can understand the 2 week delay. he just made up forit in one night.


now i know what this thread is going to be ran like, i am itching for the next assignment

 

[mjbetch]

appreciate it bro!!!

 

[ii2cky]

yo, thanks alot for the reviews, i been waiting patiently for few days but im glad i did

great work on the c&cs, much more than what i expected it, now i cant wait for the next project!

 

[yamakazi18]

Originally Posted by Kickmatic23

almost forgot about this thread..

the first photo - the sign, has its merits and downsides. the downsides are that there is text, which is not in a repeating pattern (either inwords or letters), which detracts from the strength of the given assignment. the merits are that it is a sign with texture which is patterned, something ithought i would see more of from people. the black slash on the lower left and the bolt in the front right also are distracting to the overall photo, but theidea itself is very good.

adherence: 2/5
creativity: 4/5
technique: 2/5
overall: 3/5

the second photo, of the tree, has a lot of issues seen with other tree photos. while the tree texture is very good, the shallow depth of field and thebackground distracting elements (branches) kill the photo as a candidate for a strong pattern. i would suggest taking a closer crop of the tree, or get thetree to line up to be perfectly symmetrical in a photo, without all the distracting branches in the back (or clone them out later in PS). otherwise, i actuallyreally like the use of negative white space in the background, adds pop to a pattern.

adherence: 3/5
creativity: 3/5
technique: 2/5
overall: 3/5

the last photo is very, very interesting! trash and foam in the sea? i can't really tell what it is, which is a GREAT thing when it comes to patterns,because it leads the eye everywhere in the photo trying to find a focal point, while it cannot! i would extend or crop the pattern of white stuff so that theupper right would be filled with them too, and make it so that the shapes have approximately the same luminosity. if it's the sea then it's probablyimpossible to get a top down shot, which would be ideal, but the higher the angle the flatter the plane of field, so would work better.

adherence: 4/5
creativity: 5/5
technique: 3/5
overall: 4/5

 

[yamakazi18]

Originally Posted by nikefiend68

the first one - i really like this! the texture of the water was something i didn't expect so much, but it works very well here! thebuilding's pattern of windows also shows up very well, i just wished that there were more buildings in the back (upper right) to continue the pattern!otherwise it's brilliant!

adherence: 5/5
creativity: 5/5
technique: 4/5
overall: 4.5/5

the second one is a symmetrical lamp - while there is a single "pattern" here, it is not a conglomerate of patterns, meaning more than 1 totalrepetition. this detracts from its strength, which is why earlier i talked about symmetry not being synonymous with pattern. however, nice idea still and veryclean photo/technique.

adherence: 2/5
creativity: 3/5
technique: 3/5
overall: 2.5/5

the last one is a pattern of a city, and b/w makes it a bit clearer as to what i am looking at, so kudos on that part. however, there is not so much repetitionas there are leading lines; i see a central one leading up, then the highest point of contrast in the grove of trees which leads my eye to the left, to thecontrasted white building. a pattern leads an eye around, and this one does not do that so well. i'm guessing a different part of the city would be moreideal, one that is more homogenous with its surrounding neighborhood areas.

adherence: 3/5
creativity: 4/5
technique: 2/5
overall: 3/5

 

[yamakazi18]

Originally Posted by GSDOUBLEU

My first entry
Looking down the Barrel of a Gun

hmm this is an interesting idea, but does not quite fulfill the idea of a pattern assignment, simply because there isn't much of a pattern here. maybe ifyou stacked up a bunch of guns and had a photograph of all the barrel ends, it would be a great photo, but this one simply does not scream "pattern"to me, sorry. this is one of the rare photos though that DOF does work with creating an illusion of patterning, if only he had more barrels.

adherence: 1/5
creativity: 2/5
technique: 2/5
overall: 1.5/5

 

[chi ill]

Ah man ... I love this one .

But ... I think the winner is going to be the dude with the lowest quality camera .

Just goes to show you that you don't have to have a high-quality camera to come out with a good picture .

 

[yamakazi18]

Originally Posted by J PayCheck

I wanted to participate but couldn't think of nothing creative to take an image of displaying patterns AND it's been raining for the last 5-6 days now (DMV) so going out with the cam hasn't really been an option...

Anyways, I remember this was due today, so I whipped up a few ideas quickly (of a couple buildings I drive by daily AND my fence)... as always feel free to C&C or visit the Flickr... more importantly Enjoy!

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^ I tried to really display this cloudy grimey weather that the all mighty has been blessing us with this week (not a joke, I don't mind, clean my car off, clean the pollen, help my grass, wash off my pup poop from the yard too, among other things)... sorry went off on a tangent!Peace

well it seems that you haven't missed out on much and were just bottling good ideas inside while it rained outside! these are very very goodexamples of patterning, and clean too!

the first one of the building and walls - i love it, EXCEPT for the fact that i would have liked a closer crop, so there isn't the distracting triangle ofsky in the upper left, and the turquoise overhang in the foreground, which are both extremely distracting. otherwise, i think this is an example of a rareinstance where a repeating object from small in the back to large in the front really works to display a proper pattern, since we all know that the back wallis just as large as the front wall.

adherence: 5/5
creativity: 4/5
technique: 3/5
overall: 4/5

love it! except for the tiny crack in the fence, this is VERY good! i also do not care for the slight tilt of angle (i can tell from the nails), but man...thisis one of the best i've seen in this thread so far. the uniform and soft bokeh of the background, combined with the repeating tops of the fence, therepeating nails, and similar grain structures of the wood (which is slightly off but doesn't matter overall because it's not distracting), this isbrilliant.

adherence: 5/5
creativity: 5/5
technique: 4.5/5
overall: 4.5/5

i like the idea presented here, but i think the execution could have been much better if a bit more time was taken with it (but i guess you can't withimpending rain!). the rooftops i see as a clear pattern, the windows as well, and the little barriers in the front. however the puddles and sky and bird makefor some distractions which confuse me as to what is actually going on, and what it's trying to say.

adherence: 3/5
creativity: 4/5
technique: 2/5
overall: 3/5

 

[yamakazi18]

Originally Posted by victorjames

Planned on hitting the city after work tomorrow but I see the edit now,
so the assignment ends tonight.....heres my work...Enjoy!
Some of these are older but nonetheless you see my pattern.

#1


#2


#3

i've already critiqued the first one on page 8 or 9, so please check that for comments.

the 2nd one - again this is a common problem, that there is extra space left on the upper right. the pillars are obvious in repetition, but do not seem to bethe main focus, rather it's the top of the structure with the stone carvings. to correct this you'd need a better crop of the pillars. to improve inreal life, try shooting with a prime lens, aka a lens that has a fixed focal length. not only will you learn to see photos in a much more consistentcomposition, your vision will vastly improve and you will stop try to "take it all in" in a photograph.

adherence: 3/5
creativity: 3/5
technique: 2/5
overall: 3/5

the third one is very good though, a perfectly diagonal and symmetrical photo of your blinds! (i think i have the same blinds as you because i have a verysimilar photo myself, haha). i love this, and this is so solid, so back to the fundamentals that there is not much to say about it. the only things i have todenounce it are the gradients of light which lead the eye from upper right to lower left, which undermines a pattern's circular motion of eye movement, andthe ratio of the photo itself - a square crop would work very well to lead the eye in a circle as opposed to the 2:3 that we are used to.

adherence: 5/5
creativity: 5/5
techinque: 3/5
overall: 4/5

Originally Posted by Mr Fongstarr

Another pattern one.....

this is an obvious and well composed pattern photo! however there are some issues with it, mainly with color densities and luminosities. again this photograph(like your other submission of the metal plating) gives my eye a focus point, something not desirable in a pattern. when you look at a pattern of let's sayyour pajamas or something, is there something for your eye to focus on? or on a suit pattern, there should not be something for us to focus on, but rathermoves the eye around, and take the pattern as a whole to be evaluated. for example, you are not going to pick out one polka dot on your PJ's to talk about,out of the hundreds that are there, right? but this photo gives me something to pick out, namely the middle grouting or whatever it is.

adherence: 3/5
creativity: 5/5
technique: 3/5
overall: 3.5/5

 

[yamakazi18]

Originally Posted by norcalballgirl23

nice stuff everyone

got caught up studying in the lib, almost forgot to add

the first photo - are you sure it's yours? it's got a weird watermark not on the others! haha. well i like the symmetry of it, but the patterning is abit "off." to explain, one side is light while the other side is dark, so we don't expect them to be the same, yet they have similar"textures" in that their window shapes are the same. this is confusing for a viewer, and add in the fact that there is text (always something the eyegoes for) it makes it more about niketown and not about textures. maybe a closer crop of the building without the niketown signs there (like just 1 side of thebuilding) and you will have an excellent photograph showcasing architectural patterning.

adherence: 3/5
creativity: 3/5
technique: 2/5
overall: 2.5/5

the second one i really like , love the repeating shapes that are strong enough to stand on their own. the colored background is a bit distracting though, asis the word jewelers once you've looked at the photo for more than 5 seconds.

adherence: 4/5
creativity: 4/5
technique: 2/5
overall: 3.5/5

the last one of the candies - very nice! as i said previously the grocery store is an excellent place for patterns, and this is no different. however as usualwith this type of angle, composition becomes very important. you've left some distracting elements up on the upper right, and the DOF does not help inproducing a steady pattern from foreground to background. i really like the lids of all the cans, they provide a very good focal point for me to run up anddown the line of cans.

adherence: 4/5
creativity: 4/5
technique: 1/5
overall: 3/5

 

[dj bana]

thanks for the great CC! I guess i should focus more on the assignment and less on distracting subject. i will pay attention to that in our next one. keep itup with these critiques, tear us apart!

 

[yamakazi18]

Originally Posted by phaze1123

Hope it's not too late.

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the first one is great! however it's soft at the corners, something that is distracting to my eye (probably because i've seen too many ofthese photos, haha). however this top down view of god-knows-what is brilliantly executed, and the colors here provide very good interest and actually ADD tothe pattern effect. i love the black space overall in the depths of the background. to be critical though, you need to be further away while taking the photoso there is less distortion which is making the middle seem larger, and blocking out some of that creative black space that you could be having if shot fromfurther away. still, a great photo.

adherence: 5/5
creativity: 5/5
technique: 4/5
overall: 4.5/5

2nd one is cool stuff too, but not as good as the first. there are distracting color gradients here, and not everything is at the same plane which leads to thebreaking of the pattern. there also seems to be a "hole" of sorts at the middle bottom. it needs to be cropped closer and without that hole, andhopefully with a single colored shell thingy or whatever that is.

adherence: 4/5
creativity: 4/5
technique: 3/5
overall: 3.5/5

3rd one is not as good as either above, because it runs out of the pattern! it was a good start in the middle, obviously of some hermit crab's sand balls,but then it just stops. there is no repetition around the frame at all. to make this much more effective, you'd need a macro from a P&S camera or anexpensive macro lens on a dSLR and focus on just the sand balls.

adherence: 2/5
creativity: 2/5
technique: 2/5
overall: 2/5

 

[j paycheck]

Man I like this dude. *pause* I appreciate you taking the time to C&C. Looking forward to the next assignment.

 

[tony23retro]

Wow... Yama is putting in work.

When is the next assignment?

 

[victorjames]

yep thanks for the CC....I have learned alot and my cloud shot was through my closed sunroof.....thought it made for an interesting shot and yep digital.thanksagain.

 

[yamakazi18]

Originally Posted by ireminisce

well . . i thought the mavericks played tonight & i wanted to use my 1k post on creating a game day thread at midnight but they don't play until saturday.

i know it's may 7th . . but i took some quick pictures at work to participate in this thread.

so to continue the last batch of photos...

the first one i really like, because it's just carpeting! simple and elegant, and works well. the lights up top also add to it. BUT, the sides havedistractions, in the forms of chairs, spotlights, and other shenanigans. it could be much better as a pattern motif photo simply by pointing your camerastraight down at the carpet.

adherence: 3/5
creativity: 3/5
technique: 2/5
overall: 3/5

the second one would be very, very good if taken at a simple, straight on angle, however right now it suffers the same problem as the previous photo - too muchstuff on the top and bottom! even though it serves a good photo for infinite boxes, it is not a good angle for a pattern motif photo.

adherence: 3/5
creativity: 3/5
technique: 3/5
overall: 3/5

Originally Posted by kolombianstyle

i would concider this as patterns, hope im not too late....im new to the forum

hmm this one needs some work...welcome to the forum by the way! humans usually are not the best subjects for patterns, especially if it is the main subject ofa photograph, as is the case in your submitted work. without her, it would have been a better representation.

adherence: 1/5
creativity: 1/5
technique: 1/5
overall: 1/5

 

[yamakazi18]

Originally Posted by elboricua 6

recycle

the first photo is nice because it is a decently creative subject, but again - it's not a photograph of patterns, but of symmetry. i'vediscussed this on 2 other occasions, on page 8 and 9 each once i think, so please refer back to those posts if you want to read what it is about symmetry andpatterning that don't mix. to make this stronger, you would need a better crop, and not as much color (this looks like pseudo-HDR to me, especially thecolors, but the blown out sky in the back prevent me from commenting with certainty here). the background elements are also very distracting.

adherence: 2/5
creativity: 3/5
technique: 3/5
overall: 3/5

the second one of the clock - i am not sure what is going on here, pattern wise. i see very few patterning that is consistent throughout the photo, which issomething to work on in the future - don't be afraid to get up and personal with your subjects, especially if they're not even human! people when theystart out photographing things have a tendency to try to want to fit in everything in their photo, which results in clutter and mess, leading to weakphotographs. maybe if you were to take that sundial from the top down, it would look much stronger as a pattern.

adherence: 1/5
creativity:2/5
technique: 2/5
overall: 2/5

Originally Posted by nigel1256

this is an interesting photo. in it, there are people - but they are so small and nondescript that they serve to blend in to the surrounding pattern ofmachines and lines. however, i just wished that the bottom thingy were longer and lasted all the way until the right edge of the photo. i am not sure what elseis going on here, it seems that you may have intended for a photojournalistic style, but it is not strong enough by itself to sustain such critique without asimple accompanying description.

adherence: 2/5
creativitiy: 3/5
technique: 2/5
overall: 2/5

 

[realxfresh]

my triptych:

 

[yamakazi18]

Originally Posted by KlassSickFresh 87


Still a newb but ehh whatever. Nice photos yall!!!

i like the first one! very solid and simple. however i would crop closer so the table edge does not show, which detracts from the focus of thephoto being a pattern or repetition of objects. try not to do selective focusing but stop down your aperture and get everything in your DOF to enhance thepossibility that all the bottles are equal in importance.

adherence: 4/5
creativity: 3/5
technique: 2/5
overall: 3/5

the second one has been done but is still really interesting, and one of my favorite patterns - negative space of fences! the cars in the background addanother layer of brilliant patterning, however the airport and air traffic control tower distract us from the pattern of cars. otherwise, it is a really greatshot, minus the slight angle =)

adherence: 4/5
creativity: 5/5
technique: 3/5
overall: 4/5

the last one is different from the other two, in that the repetition itself already moves in a circle! brilliant! however, the negative space in the middle hasa smaller circle which detracts from the bigger circle. the numbers also assign unequal weights to each lighted block, which detract from the circular movementof the eye and the pattern of the blocks themselves.

adherence: 3/5
creativitiy: 5/5
technique: 3/5
overall: 4/5