Punisher: Show Your Airsoft Arsenal RESULTS ARE IN!

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Postby hippothefish » Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:31 pm

I agree, I'm a little dissapointed. Not that I lost; there were a couple other pictures with great photography. It's that the top three pics all look pretty amateur to me. Good guns, but not great photography.
I think the problem is that it's more about how many friends you can talk in to voting for you; I'd be willing to bet that plenty of people who voted didn't even see the pics.

Enough griping; good contest everyone, I had a good time.
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Postby CommieHunter » Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:38 pm

Yes, the winner was the one with the most friends who voted.

I did like the 1st place winner. I liked Beran's photo as well, it was very well done. Hippothefish, your pictures were good to, but, again, it was how much traffic you could drum up, since each person got one vote, instead of a rating.


Good Contest All, though.
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Postby The Duke » Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:49 pm

I believe first place deserved it, not so much on the other two (I mean, really, a backwards sight and a person with a paintball mask with dreads...bah!), they werent even punisher-related although that wasn't explicitly stated. Oh well, I believe this will teach us not to use texting as a means of voting.
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Postby Hoff » Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:58 pm

I liked the first one, the others not. I mean the 3rd... come on.
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Postby Bigfoot » Tue Dec 16, 2008 10:22 pm

Wait this is over already? Damnnit!
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Postby TM1 » Tue Dec 16, 2008 10:54 pm

Hi, guys. I'm the photographer for the winner's photo.

A little background on me and the project. I actually do photo and recently video work for most of what little income I can bring in while also being a student, haha. Most of my photography work has been actor's headshots for the Hollywood market along with action/portrait work for martial artists (in this case, Jeff). My video work has been commercials for private clients and short indie action films: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5eH9gc8A1A&fmt=22

I'm very open to constructive criticism and if anyone truly felt it looked too amateur I wouldn't mind hearing about what made you feel that way. When Jeff approached me about the project I originally wanted to go all out and have the session in an alleyway with a larger crew and more controlled lighting, similar to the one in this photo for another actor:
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m145 ... 6_8839.jpg

Jeff insisted on not bothering me since this was a "fun project," and so I spent about an hour setting up lighting and test framing in my roommate's room, instead. Most of what you see in the entry photo was pre-visualized, including the post-processing work. Everything from the torn poster in the background to the crumpled paper bag on the left side of the frame was meant to break empty space and add texture for what I wanted to be a "comicbook" look that still looked clearly like a photo rather than a drawing. The diagonals of the table line and rifle, wide-angle lens distortion, framing of the door, color of the thug's jacket, etc. The lighting setup was a single speedlite, snooted, and remote triggered to my camera.

The most difficult thing by far was the angle of the lighting. The reason being that since it was a very tight room and I didn't want to make Jeff feel uncomfortable by creating a more professional setup that screamed "I HOPE YOU FEEL PRESSURE CUZ I SPENT SO MUCH TIME ON THIS." Instead I had my roommate, Talia, stand on a chair and aim the snoot in the direction I called. Anyone who works with flash photography (without a modeling light) will understand how insane this decision actually was, and it showed. The majority of the shots were simply way too flat with the light bouncing around the room, especially when the light would hit the table square-on, as the it had a gloss coating. The one entered was one of the few where the lighting hit in the way I wanted. I was not the most happy with the framing (especially how the distortion and stacking of the pistol to the thugs neck hid too much of the pistol), but lighting came first.

In the end we had fun and some fun shots. This was the other entry we considered (and that I liked best), but decided that the final choice was more appropriate in accordance to the "show your arsenal" theme. http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m145 ... _7731b.jpg

Some outtakes that were not chosen mostly for the reason of missed lighting (and some where it simply wouldn't show enough weapons or the punisher chest):

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m145 ... G_7864.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m145 ... G_7852.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m145 ... G_7930.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m145 ... G_7948.jpg

If you felt that the entry was "too amateur" it does concern me a bit as I try to never display any serious work that didn't feel professional. My classmate's first reaction was literally, "It looks so professional! Oh, YOU did that?" which gave me confidence in my decision. I do understand that many frown upon the use of photoshop, but I believe any serious photographer by this time will understand its use as a tool in the workflow just as any other tool before the digital era. Film was post-processed for commercial display just as it is now. Nor did film ever record true to life colors for the simple reason that you would never want it to if you were after art (as opposed to simply recording an event). Because of the nature of headshot work I rarely did much post-processing on those. Here are some samples:

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m145 ... 6_1629.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m145 ... 4_7372.jpg

This project was a lot of fun and a learning experience for me as it was the most "creative" photoshop I'd ever done. For the record I shoot mostly film for my personal projects and digital for my professional work. =)

So yes, if you felt it was amateur it does cause a little bit of concern for me and if you could elaborate as to why it would help me keep these in mind. I do understand that several of you are professional photographers and videographers and so just know that your critiques will be well received. =)

Thanx to everyone who took a look and gave positive comments!
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Postby Fred » Tue Dec 16, 2008 11:02 pm

TM1, your photo is fine. I would of liked to see more "arsenal" but otherwise fine.
I think the concern is the 2nd and 3rd place honorable mentions and that is really DOES show this contest is a popularity contest based.
That said, everyone is questioning the results, including yours.
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Postby CommieHunter » Tue Dec 16, 2008 11:07 pm

I thought it looked good. (I'm no Photog, though).

I liked the setup. Instead of just a guy with a gun or a bunch of guns, it looked like he was out there doing Punisher's work. (i.e., bullets flying and a gun to the guys throat)
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Postby Beran » Wed Dec 17, 2008 1:15 am

honestly, i am very happy with the winning photo. its one of the few that actually deserved to win in my opinion. good job, my only suggestion would be a little less photoshop. the effect was cool, but being an avid 'shopper myself i see obvious PS work and start to inherently doubt the photograph itself. i know what the software is capable of, and how much effect it can have.

again though, the first place winner deserved it.
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Postby LiquidSnak » Wed Dec 17, 2008 1:29 am

I am happy with the winning photo. Unfortunately, the third place one looks like a paintballer to me, and the second one is just a tripod photo in his dorm room or whatever with a bunch of guns with paper labels, because we obviously don't know wtf they are.
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Postby Pulsipher » Wed Dec 17, 2008 6:41 am

I dont think that the results based on # of votes is skewed



But i think that is bullshit



Josh Beran had hands-down the best photo submitted it was on theme it had a good display of arsenal


bullshit
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Postby thejeff » Wed Dec 17, 2008 6:55 am

Wow. I really wasn't expecting so much controversy over a fun event like this one. But in spite of all the posts above, I'm really happy that I could reach out to a lot of you airsofters out there and share some of these cool experiences with you guys.

I just wanted to say that I had a really good time taking these photos with my friends and I wanted to publicly thank my friend tm1 for coming through and providing me with his expertise to pull off this project in just a few short hours.

I also want to note that I appreciate all of the positive comments about the photo from those of you who saw it. I'm not going to say that I was disappointed in the results, but I really appreciate the guys who really did put in an effort in taking a themed photo in efforts to win this competition, as opposed to taking a previous photo and posting it as an entry in the competition.

Once again, thanks you guys
hope to see you guys on the field.
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Postby thejeff » Wed Dec 17, 2008 8:00 am

Also- in response to hippothefish... funny story.
In fact. of the friends that I did actively try to get to vote for me, I think they were the most skeptical of the bunch. While they were happy to help out, they insisted on seeing the photo and the Entire competition listing. I even had someone vote against me. lol
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Postby Matt » Wed Dec 17, 2008 9:11 am

Well, for everybody who thinks Josh's photo is the best, you probably should have voted for it. For those of you who didn't vote because you didn't want to text, 43kix's privacy policy says they don't sell phone #s to companies or send unsolicited texts. I mentioned that previously, and I also would not run a contest with them without first knowing this. So, if you didn't vote for Josh, you fail!

Anyway, yeah, it's a popularity contest. What part of "vote for your favorite" doesn't sound like a popularity contest to you? Also, 2nd and 3rd places weren't far off from several other photos. It was a close match. If we didn't want it to be a popularity contest, we would have had judges and rounds of finalists, right? Well, we didn't do that this time. Maybe next time we will, we'll see. We take your feedback to heart and we want everyone to have FUN participating in these contests, but of course I also know you can't please everyone. That's impossible.

TM1, thanks so much for sharing your story about the photography. Those of us photo geeks can definitely appreciate that. Saying that a photo is "too photoshopped" in this digital age is silly, in my opinion. You apply a treatment to a photo based on the look you want to achieve. Obviously you were happy with it, and it won the contest, so I'd say you did exactly what you needed to do in photoshop.
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Postby DMitri » Wed Dec 17, 2008 9:47 am

Matt wrote:Saying that a photo is "too photoshopped" in this digital age is silly, in my opinion.


http://airsoftpacific.com/viewtopic.php?p=337705#337705 ;)
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