A few weeks back, I posted a full behind the scenes blog about my Robocop photoshoot. I had such a fun time with the shoot and final images that I figured others may enjoy playing with my Phase One MF raw files as well. I posted a contest on my personal photography blog that challenged people to re-interpret Robocop using up to 8 of my supplied Phase One RAW files. There was hundreds of entries from across the globe a handful of star-studded judges to review the entries.
First, a little bit of background on the contest...
THE JUDGES:
We were VERY lucky to have a panel of my extremely talented retoucher/photographer friends to sift through the entries and choose the honorable mentions as well as the grand prize winner of some great photo gear/software! Pratik Naik, Clint Davis (previous retouching contest winner), Justin Paguia (my own longest time retoucher), Julia Kuzmenko, Glyn Dewis, and myself were the judges. I am honored that they are agreed to help in the fun! They are all so incredibly talented and good people to boot!
THE ORIGINAL CONTEST RULES
- You have approximately 9 days. Deadline is 11:59PM (East Coast US Time) February 14, 2014 to submit your images. You can either email me directly or post a link to your edits as a comment on this post. Make sure to include your name and a link to your webpage(if you have one) so I can include it in the post if you make the finals or win.
- Grand prize winner and honorable mentions will be announced by February 21, 2014. Stay tuned to this blog and my Facebook page for updates.
- Go nuts. Create the coolest, wildest, most creative retouching job on these photo…but keep it clean please! Put Robocop in any serious or wacky scenario that your mind can create. I’ve included 8 files with different elements for you to combine as you see fit! You can use 1 or elements from all 8 files as you wish. You can also combine elements from your own or legally acquired stock imagery as long as you include elements from at least one of the Robocop files supplied below.
- This is an international contest, so anyone on this planet can enter.
- Submitted images should be at least 1000 pixels on its longest side.
- The fine print: I still own the copyright of these images so no going and using this in advertisements you crazy kids, but you are welcome to post your entry in your online and print portfolios as examples of your retouching work, of course. I’m a kind fellow, but my lawyers are not
- Have fun!
THE AMAZING HONORABLE MENTIONS:
David Bjorgen ("Thought I'd have a bit of fun with it and incorporate ol' RC into a classic Nintendo Entertainment System game from the 80's. I'll be buggered if it didn't take forever to draw all the pixels in vector format." Awesome!)
Kyle Burdg of Burdg Photography http://burdg.com (A late entry, but funny enough that it had to be mentioned. Another example of the contest entry variety)
Lukasz Kwiatkowsi http://500px.com/lukaszkwiatkowski - This was another judge favorite: "I wanted to create a dynamic and proud impression of the character Robocop represents.
He as the main subject of the scene and the background giving an impression that he is involved in the action happening in the background. Blue+Red lights represent police, dark, night atmosphere revealing the magic of city during night. I also wanted to make him shiny/pop out of the background. Thus i tried to maintain correct DoF by blurring the objects in the background. (with the respect to their distance and motion (if exists)). Also a kind of small story in the background (2 helicopters and and explosion) to bring more action into the story told. There was nothing said adding original logo of Robocop is prohibited - thus by adding it i somehow created a poster of the movie. I took the inspiration from many police-oriented movies:) (I didn't know there is a new Robocop movie until i saw the logo;) )"
Christian V Photography (Love his sense of humor. He made it on here twice!)
Israel David Groveman Photography (A friend and great photographer)
Tales Henn Fotografia (says he lost track of how many backgrounds he combined to make this environment)
Aaron Ford www.aaronford.com.au (I really liked this one, very clean)
Jonathan Hurtarte (No website given. I'm a sucker for cyborgs and zombies!)
Lenin Lavina http://www.silentmanstudios.net
Christian V Photography (All of us got a really good laugh out of this one. Nice work!)
Peter Steven www.design-dps.com
Sector Conception (Nice 2000SUX billboard and Detroit in the background!)
Josiah Moore - Josiahx
Per Ellstrom (Entitled "Robocop .. the nude preventer ....")
Harmony McKinlay (Another judge favorite)
Roy Fritz (No website given)
Shaunessey Smith - Studio Peck Photography (No website given)
Nico Socha http://nicosocha.com (Nice use of the new ED-209 design!)
Jamie Maison https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamiemaisonphotography/12396024683/
Davide Vesentini from Italy! www.dvphotographer.com
Kristjan Jarv http://www.kristjanjarv.com/
THE CONTEST WINNER:
Jeff Whitlock (http://www.jeffwhitlockdigitalartist.com/).
Congrats Jeff Whitlock! Excellent, creative, and clean execution. There were so many awesome entries, but your retouching work really stood out among us judges. You should be proud!
I hope everyone enjoyed all of these creative entries! There was such wonderful variety and creative energy that came through in this contest. I honestly didn't expect to see such a wild variety of images. You guys are so creative. It was really hard to choose the winner and everyone should know that we appreciated and reviewed every image.
Are you one of the finalists mentioned listed above? Comment below and share more about what into creating your final image!
Which is your favorite image and why?
YAY! Congrats Jeff!
And congratulations everyone, whose collage made it to this announcement!
These are all awesome in their own right :)
Douglas mine is the submission without credit above which can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamiemaisonphotography/12396024683/ . I feel honoured to be amongst all these efforts, each of which are incredible in their own right! I loved this contest, can't wait for more in the future
Congrats Jeff :)
Thanks Aaron! I REALLY liked your entry and as a result checked out your site. You do really AMAZING work. Would love to connect with you on facebook (if you are willing)... https://www.facebook.com/jeff.whitlock.357
BTW Aaron, Not sure if you are aware but Julia Kuzmenko Mckim has started a Facebook “Retouching Academy”. Julia is a world class photographer/retouchers (and a first class LADY as well) The site is first class, very cool and open to digital artist of all types (retouchers, photographers, compositors, etc.). It would be a great place to post your work and build your audience/fan base. It’s a closed group but go to this address (if you are interested) and apply for entry: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RetouchingAcademy/702992903074531/?notif... No reply to this needed: Just wanted to alert you to something I thought you would benefit from (and of course EVERYONE else will benefit from you being a part as well). BEST! Jeff
Thanks Jeff appreciate it, sent a friends request over your way
Got it and thanks Aaron. I like to surround myself with people more talented than myself -- it forces me to grow. I'll be following your work from now on... : )
Congratulations Jeff, clean and awesome as always!, great contest Aaron.
Wow so proud to be in this selection! there's some crazy entry here!
Super fun to be a judge and see all the varied submissions. Indeed it was hard to choose a winner, but Jeff stood out just a bit more. Well deserved! I can totally see that as a 10' tall cardboard-standup at the cinemas :)
Thanks Clint, I really appreciate your comments! I would love to get into doing movie posters if i could find a "connection" for doing that. BTW, I completed a TRILOGY of posters for this contest. If you would like to see the other two, "friend me" -- I'll be sharing those on my facebook page over the next couple of days...https://www.facebook.com/jeff.whitlock.357
It was really fun to participate. It is an excellent exercise. Have been mentioned is an incentive to keep practicing so I could get, maybe one day, at the level of the other participants.
Thanks Guys, I'm very proud that you liked my Tron Version of Robocop
Congrats to Jeff. Also a tip of the hat to Christian, as the pool pic gave me quite a laugh. I wish I would have had time to submit another more serious image, but I had fun nonetheless.
Thanks David, I appreciate it!
Sweet! Hey all, mine was the one attributed to Harmony McKinlay (my wife) which was my fault because I submitted it from her email. I wonder which one of the judges was its favorite? :)
nice! so cute, some of these :)
Wicked awesome! Congrats to Jeff! =)
Lenin, thanks so much. I have two more posters that I did for this contest. If you would like to see them, "friend me" -- I'll be sharing those on my facebook page over the next couple of days...https://www.facebook.com/jeff.whitlock.357
Congrats Jeff, great job!
Cheers for the opportunity Douglas, and thanks for the mention.
Big up everyone involved, some wicked entries here :))
Thanks for hosting and to the Judges for taking the time to do this contest. Im proud to have made it in the list of honorable mentions. It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the next one. www.StudioPeckPhoto.com- Shaunessey Smith
Congrats Jeff.. nice composition ! Good job.
I Was hoping to at least make honorable mention... oh well next time..
this was mine..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rikervp/12529869155/
this simple one was mine )
this simple one was mine ))
few very funny images +) and few looks fantastic )
Congrats Jeff - when I saw that image I said "that's the winner"
Excellent concept and composition!
Lot's of WOW factor.
I have officially placed your name and image on my fordable adversaries list.
Just
kidding ... but I do keep a file of the winners and images of contests
to use as a measuring stick to try and kick my composites up a notch for
the next time.
Great win!
I dropped in a copy of my entry per Dougs request
You can find me on Google+ and on Facebook
I'm off to seek out yours and Aaron's website
Congrats as well Aaron - I enjoyed your image a lot.
Cool Concept and Lighting.
Lots of WOW factor as well.
I'm off to check out yours and Jeffs websites
I agree, this was a lot of fun and definitely appreciate the opportunity. I actually screen recorded mine start to finish and will be making a cool process video out of it. I'll post it as soon as its completed.
Congrats to the honorable mentions and winners! My actual website is http://www.idgphotos.com - I've also linked a higher res version of my final piece! Mine was composed of over 20 different photos and I posed as all the bad guys in my own studio.
for some reason the color changed quite a bit when I uploaded this thumbnail to FStoppers - you can see a high res version on my FB page here:
https://www.facebook.com/idgvisual/photos/pb.13816142221.-2207520000.139...
Great Looking Image Jeff congratulations on the Win, so many great images some twisted minds out there with a great sense of humour
The article banner image is magnificent. I really wish I'd had the time to make a submission to this, it's the most ridiculously brilliant idea I've seen in ages.