Color grading is a great way to set your images apart from other photographers. Have you refined this part of your post processing? Submit your best color grade now and see if the community approves of your techniques. Between now and February 6th at 11:45 PM, we invite you to submit up to two of your best color graded images for your chance to be critiqued by Lee and Patrick and win one of two free Fstoppers tutorials. The first winner will be chosen by the highest community rated image and the second image will be chosen at random. When making our selections, we'll be looking for images which have clearly had adjustments to the colors and tones, similar to the featured image taken by Bill Larkin.
Once you've uploaded your image, let us know what you think of the rest of the community's submissions by scrolling through them, rating them, and if you see an area where an image could be improved, leaving an encouraging and helpful comment.
On most images posted here I have no idea if it's been color graded or not. Could people please explain what they've done to the image ?
https://fstoppers.com/lightroom/refined-color-grading-lightroom-and-phot...
fstoppers has plenty of articles on color grading :P
Way I see it if there is no apparent color grade especially for any artistic purposes i’m Rating low, even on otherwise fantastic images, because it seems like people aren’t actually reading the rules or think “it’s in colour i’ll Post it”
That could be a poor way to judge, considering you can't see the raw file to know how much work went into it. I'd recommend looking at the image as a whole and if there's a cohesive colour theme. If something clearly doesn't even look altered, that's different, but to rate great shots low because you don't know the difference, is a little ignorant.
However, the video presentation of the contest theme asked for color grading bringing the picture “a little out of the ordinary”.
In addition, color grading is not color correction. If the colors are truthful to the subject (despite having to work on the raw to compensate environmental light), it is color correction. And there are a lot of case where we know what are the subject colors, and so where we can see if there is color grading and not just color correction.
(Personally, currently, I simply do not rate out-of-theme images.)
Haha Nick i can't believe you are still trying to fight the good fight for this side of the site you know quite well by now that this side of the site is so skewed
I love color grading so I of course had plenty for this :)
In talking with a good and very creative friend today, she said she abhors these contests because they only discourage people from enjoying their works and aims to promote popular over quality or even emotion. She compared it to the response on instagram for people who are really good at creating compelling pieces but get little attention or buried in the mix. I told her that I don't do it for that reason, my photos are for my pleasure and that I'm simply glad to share them, see what others did and I'm inspired by the variety of ways people express themselves. I like the FStoppers community (mostly) and the reason for doing this is less about competing that participating. Cheers to all those who submit their works for criticism, review, praise and slaughter. Don't be discouraged by 1s or 2s on your work. I have voted 3 and 4 on many pieces that have low ratings but they spoke to me.
Well said. I’m a relatively new photographer, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t get in the mix and learn how to improve. I hope to get constructive criticism out of this. I’ve found that people on insta are simply too nice. Not generally willing to tell me what they didn’t like or how they would have enjoyed my image better if only I’d ( fill in the blank). I 2nd your applause of all who put there images out there for us to learn together from.
I agree with you, but your friend is absolutely right, too. Sometimes you do not notice how quickly you lose the view for doing the photo as YOU like it and not the others...
I totally agree with you (and also your creative friend). Although I kind of understand the concept of "should this be in your portfolio", this criteria seems to suggest that there is a certain standard type of portfolio content you have to achieve in order to be sucessfull. Although this might be true in a certain way, the downside is that many people will tweak their images just to fit that standard or criteria, thus loosing their own creativity (or loosing the ability to find their own creativity).
Well said Chris!! You could not have said it better. This is my first contest and trying to just take everything with a grain of salt and enjoy the creativity that's there. Appreciate the art. Not at all for these popularity contests.
I see your point, it can be overwhelming at times. But in a sense, I still need a creative community to engage with and compare results, plus I'm in the process of learning. We had done photography classes and workshops going on where I live but now it's pretty hectic so I said, why not? Either way I'm watching the critiques, might as well join and get some advice (or get bashed to the ground) :D
I would like to see why some give 1 or 2 stars, what do they think needs improvement. I am also fairly new to this and really trying to take good photographs and would like feedback on those.
Considering your submitted pictures, it seems quite plausible that some downgrade because they feel you are not meeting the theme of the contest. (I must admit, I'm not sure you do.)
Also, unwanted opinions are not fine for everybody, so people avoid to do that. They avoid to pinpoint "oh this thing is bad". Maybe you would have more details by adding something like “constructive criticism welcomed”?
I'm not sure I meet the requirements but these really did not have much in the way of color to them at all when I started.If they are not meeting the requirement then they will not even be looked at in the end. I am not just putting my pictures up to get noticed. Some people here I feel are just learning and are not professionals such as yourself and are trying to learn and getting criticism is helpful, There are no sites where people are really helpful. I can take the criticism and will use it but many seem to think if a photograph is not as good as theirs then they don't belong on that site. If my photo is bad tell me.I can take it, I am my own worst critic.
I feel that starting with not so much color is what happens to most pictures. And making them vibrant is not color grading as I understand it.
And to be honest, beside the color grading, I do think your pictures are really good (3, maybe 4 for the orchid) and I cannot find any way to improve it. ;)
Also yes, this website does feel like it is for serious photographers. Rating-wise, there is not a lot of room for the beginners and learning photographers. It's fine by me. It's a good pusher to be really selective on your work, and it's healthy.
Thank you for the feed back I appreciate it. I know I have a very long way to go. I live in Colorado and take thousands of photographs and delete a lot because what my eye sees is not what comes out of my camera. I hope somebody out there understands what I am saying. So for me to put my pictures up I want that feed back and advice whether it is good or critical it does help. I am trying the contest as a way to open up and try now styles. Maybe a new discussion board for new photographers to post on.
Doing the contests for the same reason. It was also an opportunity to try some edit I was thinking about. There are groups on this website for what you are talking about, but they do not seem very active.
Well I want to say thank you for your comments, I hope I can learn from you as well as the other photographers, I look forward to seeing your work
I think submitting work also opens up bullying. Maybe it would be better to have a vote on different aspects or qualities of the image such as composition or content or colour. Perhaps force the voter to make a brief comment on what they like/dislike/feel needs improvement.
My most popular images on instagram are of places, landscapes and aerials which are well edited and glorified snaps as opposed to images that take a lot of work through multiple images. Its what the picture is of rather than how it is executed.
.. I'm afraid even with splitting the rating system into categories, some people can still just arbitrarely cast negative votes. One thing which would really be beneficial I think in reducing the (hypothetical) number of users who may manipulate by purposely downgrading competing images would be too include the name of each user and the vote he or she had cast. If this is a "community" then why does it have to be anonymous? All profiles are in. clear view so why shouldn't the members' rating be so also?
I believe by introducing a non - anonymous voting system, it would reduce the temptation of manipulation and unthoughtfull use of the number-pad.
have a good day everyone, Heiko
You want revenge down-grades? And the fear of revenge down-grades?
Either way Paul........you're gonna get wannabe ass holes posting bogus votes............This is posted respectfully.............
I want visible grades. I want transparent grades. Even "revenge grades" would become obviously visible.
I like any approach to a community that allows the members to benefit and contribute in positive ways, so your outlook seems as good as any, Chris. I've been a long-time viewer of the FS YouTube channel, but only recently joined this site and am really glad I did.
With regard to the scoring of photos, while there may be a degree of gamesmanship, I think a more practical reason for the wide range of scores may just come down to our familiarity with certain techniques / subject matter. I.E., I am new to portrait work and am blown away by work that seasoned portrait pros may recognize as easily achievable / duplicated. As a result, the scores will always be sliding scales.
While the photo ratings give us fun metrics to debate, I have gotten the most value from the qualitative feedback. Compared to Flickr, IG (as Richard mentioned), and similar social media platforms where feedback is often superficial, the critiques that I've read from fellow members here are detailed, constructive, and actionable.
This is unfortunately a very over-the-top community when it comes to judging. They will rate great shots low to boost their own submission, or if it isn't bright and dramatic landscape/long exposure, then it's automatically a snapshot. I realize that isn't the case for all, but a lot of these people put their personal tastes above what's a great image otherwise and miss the point. Take everything this community says with a grain of salt, as they aren't the greatest bunch at critiquing.
So far it doesn't seem like most of the photos uploaded actually belong in this category.
Checking back in. Each time I log in to view this competition I'm left more and more confused as to why most of these photos were uploaded. Little to no color grading on most and almost all of them lack the "beyond normal" aspect the Fstoppers team (and myself) were hoping to see. I'm sitting this competition out since it is outside of my style, and I can't comfortably rate these images because of my previously stated concerns. Good luck to those who are participating. Can't wait to watch the video.
Not sure about most of the photos, but I would agree for a significant part of them.
As a reminder, the details provided in the last video introducing the contest were:
"We're going to do color grading images. We're not just talking about boosting vibrance or saturation. We're talking about really going into the shadows and the highlights and doing something interesting that is beyond normal colors. But it can be a picture of anything at all, and you can go wild with the color grade, or it could be a subtle color grade, but again we want it to be a little out of the ordinary."
But then I guess it's subject to interpretation.
Yea, something out of the ordinary yet some of these are ordinary and a lot are arguably the slightest change in either highlights or shadows. I see a few people have completely thrown the category requirements out of the window and decided to upload their best landscape shots. Which obviously are great photos, they just don't belong here.
This happens quite a bit in here with each contest..........David needs to make sure the images selected adhere to the chosen theme, that includes the "highest rated"!...........of course I say that knowing full well that I wouldn't want to be the one to do the choosing...........
I'm actually guilty of posting a nicer photo, with a nice grade and the before and after results are quite nice. I however did not watch the video before entering (and should have), because my photos are certainly... normal :P. They should have maybe written that in the contest submission description, so we all have fair ground to run on, but most of us eventually watch the video anyway, so to each their own. With that criteria in mind, I'm hoping for consistent 2's on my submissions and nothing more. Good luck to everyone!
people are usually confused about the fact that color grading is a different story than color correction. and here I feel I'm the only one who explained my intention behind my color grading in details.
however, some members considering these platforms to showcase their work and they are not really participating for the actual purpose of this contest. we can not blame them since its free and open for everyone and there are no minimum requirements or pre-selections from Lee and Patrik for example.
Do you consider processing as a bad thing? Or are you thinking that “to good” pictures might not be the participant's?
Wow. I'm a non-native English-speaker, and I just forgot a "you". You could learn to be a bit respectful.
He was saying do you consider processing to be negative. Also, do you think the higher quality photos were purchased rather than taken by the person who uploaded it.
Honestly wasn't hard to understand what he was saying.
Well, no. “So processed” can be negative as well as admiring. (“It's too processed” vs “The work on this picture is so great.”)
And in the first case, I am asking why? Because post-processing has gone too far (over-processed)? Because you think photography must be simpler and closer to what you get in camera? Because you think the processing is too professional in many of these pictures?
My second question is what lead you to assume pictures are purchased? Because they are too good? Good pictures are also done by actual photographers, and it seems there are great photographers in this website. Why assuming dishonesty?
And for the supposedly “edgy side” of my questions, I was actually genuinely trying to get your point. You look like complaining because the pictures are too high quality, and I wanted to be sure it is the case, as well as initiate an actual conversation on the matter.
No “edgy” in that. (As opposed, seemingly, to a few of your comments.)
I fear I might be at a disadvantage because I submitted my photos in the 1st 100 images. I fear that most people won’t scroll past 400 pictures to rate mine. Do you think, in the future, I should wait a little later in the competition before submitting my photos?
Its a pretty common complaint in past CTCs. I've been going the route of submitting one earlier and one later.
In the last CTC, there was about a 40 vote difference between my two photos.
I always wished they had a different rating System. Maybe just a simple like and dislike, and only allow the judges to give an overall percentage rating. Have 1-20% be snapshot, 20-40% to be needs work, etc. Then have the judges give a percentage rating in which they can vote in increments of 5%. That way they can rate high or low 3's, etc.
Also wanted to add that contests should maybe have a topic and theme, like Colouring Grading - Landscape. That way we could have better grounds to vote on, since a picture of a couple or model VS a long exposure landscape are hard to compare. There's a lot better ways to even the playing field and get more consistent ratings overall, than the way they do it.
Has anybody submitted the same image in the same competition at two different times? I wonder if scoring is consistent.
I haven't done that, but I have submitted one which was selected as photo of the day on 2017, and the result is really interesting. because I received almost the same amount of votes here and on the actual image, and here the score is half of what it is on my portfolio !
and you should also consider two other factors. one is that longer your image stays in the contest will receive more votes but might fairly get lower rating. and if you submit on the last day you might receive less votes but if you are lucky you might get higher rating due to the calculation system which is the average of all votes on a single image.
I was curious. So I did the statistical analysis (based on Winter, Black&White, Landscape, and Irreplaceable contests): the time of submission has apparently no effect in the final rating.
(I did not do the analysis for the number of votes, because the data would be a pain to obtain.)
Gary Campbell Color grading is a process that photographers use to change the visual tone of an image. In simpler terms, it is used to manipulate the colors of a video or photograph. Once color grading is applied, the aesthetics of an image will completely change. Just saying.
yes, you are right there is a lot of photos that are just color corrected, but people vote and dont explain why they are giving low ratings. I would would love to hear any feed back on the images ive posted. I thought this was a critique. I can say for sure the pictures ive post have been color corrected and color graded.
I wonder what rate people would give on some images, if they were posted anonymously by some famous photographers... People here are just brutaly jealous... Some of the photos are for 4-5 stars, and they got rating like 2,5 - 3 max. That says a lot about these contests.
Am I the only one who thinks all the entries should be good photos IN ADDITION TO being color graded in some way? Why am I seeing some that are obvious snapshots with a little bit of color processing? Am I being too harsh?
Everyone starts somewhere mate.
That's fine, but I also see comments that people are too harsh in their critiques on some photos. I don't think people who are new should be coddled like a child. I never learned so fast as when I started hearing my work sucked from peers whose work I admired instead of hearing that everything I made was "beautiful" from friends and family. If you only want constant praise, ask you mother what she thinks. If you want to become better, ask someone who knows what they're doing.
To be fair, I never just say something sucks. I will always attempt to give suggestions for ways to make a photo better if I can see some way to salvage it. If there is nothing remarkable about the image, the photographer needs to know this, too.