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The Bad Guy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 2, 2007
1,141
3,539
Australia
With that said, you're still reading this thread right? Right!??

Good, because this is gonna be awesome. Well, it might be awesome. ****, the awesome is up to you…I take no responsibility for it.

I've noticed in this little sub-forum that (perhaps because we're more creative?) we tend to try our hand at little challenges, competitions etc. Stuff to keep ourselves entertained.

Well, I've had an idea. Hear me out. It's good. I er…don't think it''s been done here before.

**The background**
So I've been scrounging through my Lightroom catalogue recently, determining keepers and trashing the rest (DO IT!! It's cathartic). On some of the keepers I've been trying different PP techniques.

I posted one of my edits to a photo of the day thread and this happened:
The top half is subtle and well executed. The legs however seem a bit heavy handed on the shadows.

Good call and true.

I'd already lost interest by then…you can finish the legs if you like. ;)

Nothing too exciting. Just some tips between forum members. All friendly banter.

BUT THEN I HAD AN IDEA!!


**The Idea**
Let's post photos we want other members to edit. Or heck, nominate a particular member to edit a particular photo.

Can't think of a creative direction and need inspiration?
Post 'em up!

Like someone else's creative flair and want to see what they do to your image?
Post 'em up!

Just stuck and need somebody to help out / fix an image (and willing to pay for services rendered of course)?
Post 'em up!


Get the idea? Want to play along? Don't want to play along but really need that photo fixed? Well that's handy, this is the thread to do so:


**The Thread To Do So**
Post 'em up!
 

TheDrift-

macrumors 6502a
Mar 8, 2010
879
1,400
I think there is a thread similar to this on POTN which ran for quite a while, their rules which seemed to work were:

Start person posts up a raw/dng and invites edits, gives 1st 2nd and 3rd place awards...but is encouraged to comment on every edit...and posts their edit up after judging.

person who comes 1st then posts their raw/dng and process starts again, and judges results..etc etc

If for some reason person who comes 1st is not available or doesn't post, then on to 2nd, place, 3rd place etc
 

needfx

Suspended
Aug 10, 2010
3,931
4,247
macrumors apparently
Just stuck and need somebody to help out / fix an image (and willing to pay for services rendered of course)?
Post 'em up!

**The Thread To Do So**
Post 'em up!

the snip above has been in my mind for about two weeks now and I was going to ask the mods to consider setting up a relevant marketplace thread for digital services.

amazing idea altogether, I am in for one!
 

Meister

Suspended
Oct 10, 2013
5,456
4,310
Sounds like a really fun idea :)
But wouldn't this belong more in the design and graphics part of the forum?

I have Lightroom and also some Photoshop "skills".
 

needfx

Suspended
Aug 10, 2010
3,931
4,247
macrumors apparently
Forum rules stipulate that self promotion etc is prohibited, hence ,my thought of suggesting a 'services marketplace' thread.

https://macrumors.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201265337-Forum-Rules#advertising

Advertising/soliciting/self-promotion

Your purpose in joining MacRumors or posting should not be to promote, advertise, or otherwise call attention to your site, blog, product, or business. See this page if you want to advertise at MacRumors.

Self-promotion is not fair to our paid advertisers. Forum posts should be free of ads and promotions that benefit the poster. Legitimate recommendations and requests for help are permitted, but in ambiguous circumstances users without a previous forum track record will not be given the benefit of the doubt.

Rules:

Advertising. Using the forums for advertising, site or product promotion, or for business deals and offers. You may not make posts to promote commercial, personal, or not-for-profit websites, products, or services. Threads will be deleted if their purpose is to advertise, announce, or promote products, services, or organizations, build traffic at other websites, carry out business activities, or for similar purposes that do not benefit our forum community.
Shilling. If you pretend to be a consumer who recommends your own product(s) or favors your own product(s) over others, without admitting your affiliation, you will be banned. Vendors who post in threads only to criticize a competitor's product while promoting their own will also be banned.
Soliciting. You may not use the forums to solicit donations, votes, or participants for surveys, contests, petitions, or product testing. Employment requests/offers are limited to the Marketplace forum and subject to the Marketplace Rules.
Self-promotion. Self-promotional links to your blog, video channel, product, business, etc. are limited to your forum signature and your user profile, even if you have a wonderful and useful site, blog, product, or business.

Not trying to steal the jam out of your doughnut, but having a mass ban is not fun.

Maybe a admin could lean in on this subject, or tell us a thought on a services rendered marketplace. Maybe only for members with 500 posts or more? In a subforum categorized in the same manner of visual media, audio & programming, governed by similar rules of the existing markeplace, and potentially just one thread per individual named after his name and service provided. Bumping should be allowed once a month or two months. Paymens & Tax formalities are the sole responsibility of the collaborating parties

Sorry The Bad Guy, not trying to steal your thunder AND your jam on that specific aspect of your suggestion you made in the OP (Just stuck and need somebody to help out / fix an image (and willing to pay for services rendered of course)?
Post 'em up!) but I've been really thinking about this as a suggestion and hadn't went through the trouble of putting it down in writing.

So, those were my 2c, I hope the MR team could consider this. This would be really cool to promote international partnerships & collaborations
 
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Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Feb 21, 2012
55,250
52,995
Behind the Lens, UK
I'm good with Windows 95. Anybody need help with that?

Seriously, this is a good idea. Just have to see if it's permitted. I quite like multiple edits of the same file to see what different people do with the same picture.
 

The Bad Guy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 2, 2007
1,141
3,539
Australia
For the record, I was kinda kidding about the charging for services bit. Although, hey...I'll take your money if you're giving it away.

Anyway, somebody somewhere must have a photo to edit. Post 'er up! :p
 

Alexander.Of.Oz

macrumors 68040
Oct 29, 2013
3,200
12,499
Tweakers Hotel

Okay, I'll kick it off then. I was sure someone else would have posted something by now, but since no one has, I'll throw this into the lion-pit.

Ever wanted to do a spot of urban exploring in the dead of night, in an old CBD shopping centre building that's been gutted for renovation? Where the junkies that call the place home are twitching and tweaking, whilst you're taking your happy snaps? Me neither, but I did, with a couple of other fellow photography friends a few months ago! Well I wanted the images, I just didn't want the junkies roaming around whilst I did it.

This place is five stories high and stripped back to its core, apart from the crack-heads and meth-heads that call it home every night. This image was the very last I took in there for the night and was overlooked by me, until I just trawled through this batch (with this thread in mind) and thought it could actually be kinda cool with the right finishing.

I have no individual in mind to do the work on it, so it's up for grabs to any that wanna play with it.

I've posted it as a zipped DNG file at full size, with the lens distortion fixes already in place, but no other adjustments. Which should allow everyone to have a crack at it, regardless of which image editor you use.

Go crazy, be conservative, do what you want to it, I look forward to seeing others takes on the place.

Download it here
 
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The Bad Guy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 2, 2007
1,141
3,539
Australia
Okay, I'll kick it off then. I was sure someone else would have posted something by now, but since no one has, I'll throw this into the lion-pit.

Ever wanted to do a spot of urban exploring in the dead of night, in an old CBD shopping centre building that's been gutted for renovation? Where the junkies that call the place home are twitching and tweaking, whilst you're taking your happy snaps? Me neither, but I did, with a couple of other fellow photography friends a few months ago! Well I wanted the images, I just didn't want the junkies roaming around whilst I did it.

This place is five stories high and stripped back to its core, apart from the crack-heads and meth-heads that call it home every night. This image was the very last I took in there for the night and was overlooked by me, until I just trawled through this batch (with this thread in mind) and thought it could actually be kinda cool with the right finishing.

I have no individual in mind to do the work on it, so it's up for grabs to any that wanna play with it.

I've posted it as a zipped DNG file at full size, with the lens distortion fixes already in place, but no other adjustments. Which should allow everyone to have a crack at it, regardless of which image editor you use.

Go crazy, be conservative, do what you want to it, I look forward to seeing others takes on the place.

Download it here

Now THAT is the spirit in which this thread was created. Nice capture too. If I weren't at work right now, I'd take a crack at editing it.

Related Sidenote: I've also found MethHeads don't like having their photos taken. Weird. :confused:
 

Alexander.Of.Oz

macrumors 68040
Oct 29, 2013
3,200
12,499
Now THAT is the spirit in which this thread was created. Nice capture too. If I weren't at work right now, I'd take a crack at editing it.

Related Sidenote: I've also found MethHeads don't like having their photos taken. Weird. :confused:

You are welcome, I really love the idea and think it's a powerful thing for those that want to push their editing skills. We get too attached to our own imagery and see it with blinkered eyes. But given someone else's image, I don't think we are quite so self-limiting in how we explore it. Well, that's my thoughts on it anyways.

Dude, this place would provide you with a myriad of perfect backdrops for your style of imagery!

It was a pretty unnerving experience for me. Having been held up at pistol point by a couple of junkies some twenty odd years earlier, where I was repeatedly shoved in the forehead with the barrel of the gun and head butted for good measure over about a ten minute space of time whilst they got around to actually taking my wallet and worldly goods I had on me at the time.

I'm still not sure if it was confronting my fears or stupidity, going into this place at night. It sure was worth it for the plays of light that only night time and long shutter speeds could bring.
 

acearchie

macrumors 68040
Jan 15, 2006
3,264
104
I think this is a great idea.

Should we start it as a proper thread so people can get the jist of it from the first post and skip the discussion.

Maybe enforce a no comments rule to keep the thread tidy.

Also, maybe the winner should then post a screen grab of the edit so we can see how it was achieved.

What about just limiting the changes at the moment to LR/Aperture to be appealing to a wider audience without letting the odd person with photoshop spend hours manipulating the shot and then winning?
 

The Bad Guy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 2, 2007
1,141
3,539
Australia
I think this is a great idea.

Should we start it as a proper thread so people can get the jist of it from the first post and skip the discussion.

Maybe enforce a no comments rule to keep the thread tidy.

Also, maybe the winner should then post a screen grab of the edit so we can see how it was achieved.

What about just limiting the changes at the moment to LR/Aperture to be appealing to a wider audience without letting the odd person with photoshop spend hours manipulating the shot and then winning?

You're overthinking this, brougham. ;)
 

Melizard

macrumors 6502
Jun 4, 2011
328
69
Canada/Germany
This is a great idea, because it allows people to get critiques on their post-processing alone, which is probably my biggest weakness right now.

Is there a better way of uploading it rather than to my flickr? I don't want people to think it's my photo.

Here is my edit, simple conversion to black & white:

 

kenoh

macrumors demi-god
Jul 18, 2008
6,506
10,850
Glasgow, UK
The reason I think this is good is as usual, from a learning perspective. I find that often I get attached to an image and I struggle to think of what I could do to it.

An example is that I took a picture of the christmas tree at Gleneagles. I cropped it and sent it to my friend who likes his camera. He then further processed it and cropped it and sent it back.

The resulting image looked worthy of a Hallmark christmas card.

So I think this is a good thing not only as the "help me fix this" but also as an aid to learning for the relative newbies here to see and learn from those more adept at post than we are, to see what can be achieved with some effort.

Lets be honest, LR and Aperture etc have more features than I know of and I dont know how best to implement them and in what order, so someone who is skilled at this can help me a lot.

We often will fail to see the wood from the trees too so this gives us perspective.

If that is the intention of this then I think this is great.

Ken (not Rockwell) :)
 

Meister

Suspended
Oct 10, 2013
5,456
4,310
A bit over-processed and gritty:
AlexOz_zps46ab837a.jpeg

More subtle and clean:
me-6_zpsca32fb68.jpg
 

steveash

macrumors 6502a
Aug 7, 2008
527
245
UK
_MG_7582.jpg


I like the photo (thanks Alexander) so had a play with it. I could see it working well as a background for a Joel Grimes style portrait.

I had to straighten it and remove a couple of distractions as I'm OCD like that. Other than that I played with the colours already in the file and did some subtle dodge and burn. I have nunchuk and long bow skills (movie reference) but didn't really get chance to use them here...
 
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