British Wildlife Photography Awards 2015

[Emulator]

Wildlife photography awards, which would you pick?


http://www.theguardian.com/environm...e-photography-awards-2015-winners-in-pictures

The Woodland Trust (below) has some excellent images, particularly the last one. Bit like an old master.

http://www.theguardian.com/environm...and-trust-photography-competition-in-pictures

 

[3dogs]

Deleted when I saw it in the midst of @emulators post.

However my comment stands, totally utterly smulchy, overcooked trash tha lends fuel to the anti Photoshop cause...with good reason. All so sickly clean that they look to be a walnut bad taste faux bedroom setting with just too much Mr Sheen....

Please dont ask me to write what I really think of them as it would be immediately taken down by @TheHat

 

[Emulator]

Interesting, I thought you would say something like that. It was partly the reason I posted it in the first place, just to see. But you could have been more constructive!!!

It was at national level, so who were the judges I wonder.

What would happen if you had a public vote, the men & women, in the street....., what would your reaction be to that result?? (you are not the average man in the street.)

You didn't say what you thought of the last image on the Woodland Trust, I would think using your favorite HDR. I like that one myself. It is interesting to go into the image in LR and see what has been done to the image histogram. Some strange things that are rather contrary to my own inclinations, seems a lot of noise present if you bring up the brightness level.

 

[The Hat]

Please dont ask me to write what I really think of them as it would be immediately

taken down by @TheHat

3rd party insults I can tolerate but personal ones to other members are of course unacceptable.

Funny that because I taught they were all crap, give me the BBC Country File Competition anytime..

 

[Roy Sletcher]

Guess I must be the only viewer on PK that thought they were mostly quite good from a photographic point of view.

In my opinion most seem somewhat over processed, but that seems to be the style now that everybody is an instant expert in LR or CC presets.

RS
Professional cynic and contrarian - don't take it personally

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

those images are too much processed - HDR like local contrast/color enhancement, I may go that far if I would print them on average paper to counteract the lower contrast of a print on such paper, but it's too much to show on a display. There are quite a lot of similar images in nature large format calendars these days. They appear o.k. to me but I would doubt they would be winners without that postprocessing, but o.k., I'm not a judge in that contest, they don't catch me so much.

 

[Emulator]

All views are welcome. Please feel free to express your opinion. By the end of the thread we may better understand the objective of a contest..

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

I think some of them are genuinely excellent and well made. I like contrasty photos generally, although some of them fall into the category of high contrast just because we can, and not because it improves the picture. HDR is great if it quietly serves a purpose without drawing attention to itself. I guess they're all art rather than realism, although many do seem kinda trendy and overdone.

I like the clematis seed heads.

 

[3dogs]

All views are welcome. Please feel free to express your opinion. By the end of the thread we may better understand the objective of a contest..

First off Nature has always been a no go zone for PS most commentry agrees over processed, I see the white haze when kids that should still be experimenting are selected on the basis of smulch value.....bit like a mature voice singer in the finals of a singing talent contest on commercial television program, has little chance because what will be chosen... a pimple infested female freak with a squark and bump and grind that some over ripe executive somewhere in the process sees as "potential" somewhere down he road.....entretainment value only, and in my opinion these contests share that pedigree.....entertainment and circlation worthy at best.
Now had these been in a CREATIVE contest nuther story altogether...get my drift?
Just look at the contrast, sharpening and colour shifting that has been part of the overprocessing that is EXPECTED to catch the eye of a judge (muffled choking and gasps of stomach wrenching brought on by vomit convultions at the misuse of that term).
If you are going to put up an HDR image to a photographic adept panel at very least avoid halo.......image stacking and masking are indicators of talent....halos simply illustrate the inept use of a plug in.

Just for the purpose of this discussion imagine the processing as the approach of a spring board diver at the Olympics, and the image the execution of that dive......
Next select what you would put in YOUR glossy magazine.......where would it sit as part of an ad for one then as an illustration for an informative article........remember you are going to be paying a fee here.
Now judge the images....what do they convey and how much X factor have they actually got.....??

Cheers

Andrew

 

[Emulator]

The BBC CountryFile Photo Competition to which @The Hat refers is found at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0314wd7/p030sn2k

The rules etc. at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/art...the-countryfile-photographic-competition-2015

This is a well organised, long standing annual photo competition for inclusion in a charity supporting BBC calendar. It produces some of the best non-professional images each year.