Screenshot Community Event: The Final Presentation

[radbeetle]

In response to post #69290336. #69291926 is also a reply to the same post.

radbeetle wrote: Excellent shots by everyone! I have to admit, part of my excitement about this contest was waiting to see the jury selection, and the commentary that comes with it! Some very talented folks out there.

Congratulations to all the winners, and to everyone whose shots were featured here!

NotWord2 wrote: Really great entry, mate. Subtle and effective in delivering the idea. ^-^

Thank you! I had the idea in mind from the instant the theme went up, it just took a little bit to hash out all the details!

[PatrickTheDM]

A lot of neat interpretations. :thumbsup:

[ajhardy]

I really appreciate all the work you put into this event! It does show how much you want to encourage this community. I especially want to praise the volunteers, DV and Rick. It was great to look through all of contributions. I know how difficult it was to make a set of selections from such an astoundingly superior set of contributions/entrants. I will patiently await your next event.

[Clanggedin]

That event was fun. I'm a little disappointed to not be on the final selection, but hey ! We were around 100 for 15 places !

 

So, now that the event is over, i can finally say my remark: i enjoyed looking at the screens, but unfortunately, i think that too many people focused on the physical fight aspect of the theme: gunfights, swordfight, duels, etc, and it is can be seen in the final selection where most of the screens are only about fighting and killing. I wish more people would have focused on the others aspects of what constitute a conflict and struggle: feelings, psychological fight, etc.

 

I hope to see more diversity of interpretations of a particular theme in the future.

 

Also, many screens had nothing to do with the theme, but maybe their author simply made a mistake when uploading those and were in fact not participating in the event, so i'll give it. (I'm still talking about it because it seemed weird to me when i started to look)

 

On the photoshop controversy, i can rejoin Fyrcynn on his comment: the vast majority of the screens featured in the final selection are blatantly and heavily photoshoped.

Without talking about their merits and the quality of the work which for me doesn't constitute any debate: they are extremely good and desserve every praise they got.

But, seing so many photoshoped screens and big names (most of the people featured here are well-known members on this website, they are popular and have many followers) can send a wrong message to newest members and make them think they have no chance to shine because the only think who leads you to win is being a big name or proposing heavily post-processed shots.

 

Should we forbid the use of photoshop and others tools to post-process images? I don't think it should be the case, after all, it's work and dedication too; should we disable the endorsements for the contest screens? I saw several people talking about that in some comments, frankly, i don't know, it can be frustrating to see your screen being ignored while the screen posted by the big name next to you is receiving 50 endorsement in less than one hour, but should we change the tool for that? I don't know, the system is not perfect, far from it, but any other system put in place would inevitably end up being broken, so why bother?

 

Anyway, congrats to the winners.

 

Edited my post after realized my sentence about the photoshoped screens wasn't very clear.

Edited April 12, 2019 by Clanggedin

[Remhac]

http://i.imgur.com/NNcim1v.jpg

 

This was a great event, can’t wait for the next one...

 

Shout out to all the winners, and participants

[hammersmcp]

In response to post #69290631.

vronykah wrote: Wonderful image work on display here. I appreciate the commentary. Sometimes it lined up with my own perspective and other times was different. As always, art is intriguing in how if connects with people in different ways - and also draws us together. Well done to all.

Agreed. Looking at the full list of entries from the link, I believe the judges had a difficult task. :)

[BigBizkit]

In response to post #69290631. #69295566 is also a reply to the same post.

vronykah wrote: Wonderful image work on display here. I appreciate the commentary. Sometimes it lined up with my own perspective and other times was different. As always, art is intriguing in how if connects with people in different ways - and also draws us together. Well done to all.

hammersmcp wrote: Agreed. Looking at the full list of entries from the link, I believe the judges had a difficult task. :)

Speaking for myself there were 1-2 I knew I would want to pick. But then, I still had around 40 tabs open and had to pick only 3 of those. It wasn't easy ;)

[MagdalenaA]

Congratulation to everyone! It was really nice to go through all these different contribution. Many thanks to Excellentium, napoleonofthestump and Nexus staff who organized the event.

I like the way in which the summary was presented: the comments for each selected screenshot and links to all participants of the event. :thumbsup:

[napoleonofthestump]

In response to post #69294731. #69296531 is also a reply to the same post.

Clanggedin wrote: That event was fun. I'm a little disappointed to not be on the final selection, but hey ! We were around 100 for 15 places !

So, now that the event is over, i can finally say my remark: i enjoyed looking at the screens, but unfortunately, i think that too many people focused on the physical fight aspect of the theme: gunfights, swordfight, duels, etc, and it is can be seen in the final selection where most of the screens are only about fighting and killing. I wish more people would have focused on the others aspects of what constitute a conflict and struggle: feelings, psychological fight, etc.

I hope to see more diversity of interpretations of a particular theme in the future.

Also, many screens had nothing to do with the theme, but maybe their author simply made a mistake when uploading those and were in fact not participating in the event, so i'll give it. (I'm still talking about it because it seemed weird to me when i started to look)

On the photoshop controversy, i can rejoin Fyrcynn on his comment: the vast majority of the screens featured in the final selection are blatantly and heavily photoshoped.
Without talking about their merits and the quality of the work which for me doesn't constitute any debate: they are extremely good and desserve every praise they got.
But, seing so many photoshoped screens and big names (most of the people featured here are well-known members on this website, they are popular and have many followers) can send a wrong message to newest members and make them think they have no chance to shine because the only think who leads you to win is being a big name or proposing heavily post-processed shots.

Should we forbid the use of photoshop and others tools to post-process images? I don't think it should be the case, after all, it's work and dedication too; should we disable the endorsements for the contest screens? I saw several people talking about that in some comments, frankly, i don't know, it can be frustrating to see your screen being ignored while the screen posted by the big name next to you is receiving 50 endorsement in less than one hour, but should we change the tool for that? I don't know, the system is not perfect, far from it, but any other system put in place would inevitably end up being broken, so why bother?

Anyway, congrats to the winners.

Edited my post after realized my sentence about the photoshoped screens wasn't very clear.

Fyrcynn wrote: It would also seem that criticism about photoshopped images is not allowed, because all of them get deleted on sight.

I'm just gonna jump on in here before any more steam builds up on what is, apparently, something of a touchy subject.

First off, if you ever want to workshop a shot or a set and get some constructive feedback on what works and what could be improved upon, I'm always willing to lend my eyes and my words. Hit me up and we can dissect precisely why your shots didn't make it to the juried selection, and how you could improve upon your strengths to rock the house next time around. Your work shows great promise; don't ever stop creating.

Regarding Photoshop, as far as I can tell there are only two 'shopped images in the final cut here, both of which I selected based almost entirely on their strength of composition compared to the vast majority of entries (plus what I said in the image commentaries). Both selections are cropped, multi-image collages of raw, unedited, direct-from-the-screen shots. Yes, people really are that skilled with just ENB and ReShade.

Big names are big for a reason- they're good at what they do. Practice, solicit constructive feedback, push your creative comfort zone, and maintain a pleasant attitude and anyone can be as big as they please. We are all amateurs here.

I have quite a lot to say about 'shopping/post-process editing, but the place to lay out that soapbox is, for me, not here. Stay tuned for a detailed 'Photoshopping 101' tutorial/polemic coming to a media section near you... soonish. In the mean time, thanks for all your support and feedback.
Edited April 12, 2019 by napoleonofthestump

[napoleonofthestump]

In response to post #69290631. #69295566, #69295616 are all replies on the same post.

vronykah wrote: Wonderful image work on display here. I appreciate the commentary. Sometimes it lined up with my own perspective and other times was different. As always, art is intriguing in how if connects with people in different ways - and also draws us together. Well done to all.

hammersmcp wrote: Agreed. Looking at the full list of entries from the link, I believe the judges had a difficult task. :)

BigBizkit wrote: Speaking for myself there were 1-2 I knew I would want to pick. But then, I still had around 40 tabs open and had to pick only 3 of those. It wasn't easy ;)

Word.