Weekly Photo Contest: July 22 - July 29 (Techniques/Manipulation)

Welcome to this weeks photo contest thread!

Theme:

Lately I've been really fascinated by interesting photography techniques/manipulations such as The Brenizer Method, tri-colour, zero gravity, tilt-shift, stereoscopic, double exposures, ghosting and planet photography; to name but a few.

This week I'd like to see a shot you've taken that utilises any technique or manipulation that creates a unique effect, this can be through conventional methods and/or digital manipulation.

Rules:

You may only submit one photo per contest.

Please do not comment on photos until after the judging has taken place.

The contest runs for exactly one week, starting NOW! (see time/date stamp at the start of this thread)

At the end of the week, The Judge (last week's Winner) will choose a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place photo, providing as much feedback as possible. (Judge has 24 hours to make decision)

The 1st place Winner will start a new thread with the topic/theme of their choice, and act as the Judge for that contest. (Winner has 48 hours to create new theme)

acearchie - Absolutely love the simplicity to this, the colours blend so well and the bokeh of the portrait helps really nail the definition.

pmxperience - Fantastic colour palette in this, the rays coming across the sky really help make this something special for me.

dmax35 - The dark nature of this works to an extent but I feel a slightly brither exposure could've really helped capture the detail in the brickwork.

ijohn.8.80 - A difficult technique! I would suggest in future being closer to the subject or utilising a tighter zoom. The way it messes with perspective is nice though, the focal point really works well.

LongSticks - As a technique that has sadly become so overdone via iphone apps this really made me stop and take a good look, the cars are framed and coloured to a point that I don't think could be topped.

firedept - I like the vibrancy of this shot, but I think the camera is a little too close to the subject, the detail is definitely interesting though and would undoubtably be lost with a wider shot, a hard call I guess.

Laird Knox - So many techniques! I really love this, there's so much information happening all at once, it's such a densely packed shot (in terms of imagery), but it works well, as someone who's dabbled in some pretty awful light painting I can only imagine how hard this was to set up.

deep diver - It took me a few seconds to figure out what technique I was looking at, which can be one of the issues with colour splash stuff, it pops perfectly, but the heavily dark background doesn't connect with the focal point. It's a highly detailed shot though and still one I enjoyed looking at.

fireman32 - Nature HDR can be so hard to pull off but I feel you really nailed it with with shot, it gives an almost soft focus effect where I guess there was the most movement or light differentiation, really well framed, kept me viewing.

imac wannabe - I like the vibrancy of this, but the HDR effect on the sky doesn't help in my opinion, the ground is so well brought out though and you've achieved that same near soft focus effect.

Apple fanboy - Holy editing batman, there's a bunch of things going on here. You may have stepped one effect too far with this, the shot seems busy with all the effects.

MacCruiskeen - I'm not entirely sure I understand this one? Could you clarify what the manipulation or technique is on this shot?

rchip - Whilst I like your use of green (plays nicely with the wind turbines), but I think the tint burnt the sky a bit too harsh, specifically the cloud has been darkened a step too far IMO.

AlexH - I like the editing in this, very gritty, the shot is pretty busy but there's enough variation to keep things interesting.

Oberhammer - I honestly think this shot would've been better without the weave texture, I don't understand the correlation between the texture and the subject.

DirtySocks85 - The silhouette / direction light is cute, but the dark shadows detract from this, a little brightening of the shadows would really help this shot, the framing is nice though, almost a fibonacci spiral.

Neur0genesis - I think this shot is a bit dark, the colours seem a bit dulled, definitely not bad, but the exposure lets this down, I think the double subject definitely gives the shot extra emotion.



So there was a real mix of submissions this week, which makes my judging only more difficult, but here are this weeks winners:

1. acearchie

2. Laird Knox

3. LongSticks (tied with) pmxperience


Congrats to acearchie!

I look forward to the next competition.