WPPC (Weekly Post-Processing Challenge) - October 19, 2014

[AJHingel]

<p><em>""Complexity, artistry, and profoundness are irrelevant in the challenge image"" (Bill)</em><br>

The challenge might be intended to follow such a claim, but in general I could not disagree more. Contexts (intended, perceived, objective) are always the main inspiring rational for post-processing like they are for shooting photos - unless they are automized without human intervention - and yet !<br>

Ken's take on postprocessing this weeks photo of Michael above is a good example. <br>

But maybe that is a discussion, which lies beyond these weekly discussions.</p>

[jordan2240]

<p>Anders,</p>

<p>That sounds like an interesting topic for the philosophy forum, though those posts generally get a bit involved to hold my interest for very long. No one would ever take me for an intellectual.</p>

<p>I agree that, for our own images, there has to be something compelling about them for us to want to post-process them, whether we see them as artistic, making some kind of social commentary, telling a story, or simply 'pretty.' But for the challenge, there is no requirement that an image be any of those, and it might prove even more challenging to take one of your throwaways and see if others can find something in it you couldn't or didn't. Or, you might take one that you think does meet one or more of the aforementioned criteria, and see what ideas others have for it.</p>

<p>In short, there is no specific guideline for the challenge photo, and no one should feel a certain subjective standard needs to be met to offer one. </p>

[michaellinder]

<p>Sarah - I truly appreciate your honesty. In no way did I take your comments as critical. And even if I did, the criticism was constructive. In my opinion, our brief dialogue was about postprocessing. Glad you liked the B&W.</p>

[AJHingel]

<p>Thanks Bill, I agree that when it comes to choosing a photo for the challenge, there are no specific demands of <em>Complexity, artistry, and profoundness.</em></p>

[Glenn McCreery]

<p>I like the above conversions of this photo to black and white, but find the details in the image rather too complex and distracting. Here is my attempt to simplify the image to accentuate what I regard as the most appealing geometric shape, that of the turn-styles. Unfortunately, the resultant cropped image is only 245 pixels wide, so starting with a larger image would be necessary to produce anything of quality.</p><div></div>

[Glenn McCreery]

<p>Here it is resampled in Photoshop, sharpened, and stretched to 700 pixels wide.</p>

[Glenn McCreery]

<div></div>

[William Michael]

<p>I took the opportunity to allow the man to be eaten up by the metal monster.<br>

The light and dark either side of the turnstile/entry area was the first attraction to my eye.<br>

I enhanced the mid-tone contrast; boosted the colour saturation; burnt the background; dodged the last little bit of light on the man; cropped to 2:1 to simulate a frame from a movie and to align with the story of the man walking into something metallic and perhaps sinister.<br>

It needs some melodramatic music . . .</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17888010-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="361" /></p>

<p>WW</p>

[KenPapai]

<p>That's brilliant, William, as I had the same sinister thoughts -- this poor dude is giving up his "earthly soul" to meld with the machine. He's about to meet the new Tech Overlords and compensate his biological weaknesses with steel, titanium, carbon fiber, and 1 TB RAM and the fastest CPUs that he can afford to enter his cybernetic future.</p>

<p>In his backpack are platinum coins in which to feed the true machine that will remake him.</p>

[William Michael]

<p>Thanks Ken . . .<br /> . . . the turnstile on the right is only an ominous glimpse of its intended purpose – it is not really the “way out”, but in a later scene it is used to munch up the non-compliant ones . . .<br /> My possible excuse is the several childhood nights spent secretly listen to radio plays - when I was supposed to be asleep.<br>

Please send me a copy of your short story!</p>