Critique the Community
Color Grading
Submit your best color graded image for your chance to win a free Fstoppers tutorial
Congratulations to the winners!
We had an great variety of submissions for our color grade Critique. Check out our selections and let us know if you agree with the ratings.
Congratulations to our two winners, Radisa Zivkovic and Andreas Mattisson. Radisa submitted the highest community rated image and Andreas was the random entrant to win a free Fstoppers tutorial. We will be in touch with both of you via your Fstoppers profiles to make your prize selections.
If you weren't able to participate in this episode, we invite you to submit your images to the next Critique. In honor of Valentines Day we will be accepting image submissions that touch on the romantic theme for the day, remember to keep it classy.
Rules & Prizes
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.
Wed, 02/06/2019 - 23:45
This contest has ended.
586 people have cast a total of 42,022 votes on 638 entries from 414 participants
Contest Submissions
Click on the thumbnails below to comment and rate each image.
Click here to learn about the Fstoppers rating system and what each star value means.
76 Comments
As much as I hate to admit this.......50(sigh)years ago our instructor lead off the coarse with "if you can't handle and accept rejections, or criticism, you don't want to be a photographer/artist". Let me also add........a lot of peoples work was never recognized or appreciated until they were dead............
With all that has been said I do ask for criticism and ask that you tell me what is wrong and also what is right if anything is good about my photo. I want to be the best I can be at photography. Please look at my photos and critique them, I know damn well they need a lot of work. As I have said before what my eye sees is not what comes out of my camera. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Could I make a suggestion from here on out, that could both make your jobs easier and have a more consistent contest? Have both a topic and theme for the contests, as opposed to just topic. Comparing colour grading from a high end landscape to a professional studio portraiture doesn't really give fiar grounds to play on. Maybe do something like:
1. Colour Grading - Lamdscape
2. Colouring Grading - Couples Photography
Etc. Etc.
You'll have more consistent submissions and a better standing for the community to vote on. We'll always have those people rating all 1's to better their photo's chances, but at least we'll all have a scale to work with. A great shot of architecture and a great shot of a pet while travelling could both be great photos, but overall it's hard to compare since they are very different shots.
As far as making a fair competition, I think that that is a thoughtful suggestion. However, I feel you’re losing sight of what F stoppers uses these competitions for. That being, to collect various interesting images for them to review on the YouTube channel. I feel that I would be less interested in each competition if every single photo had the same subject. Sure, it would be easier to compare the images, but do you really want to sit in rate 500 landscapes with bridges in them? I love that by rating The images in this competition I see types of photography that I would never go searching for, or otherwise be exposed to. So I think you made a very helpful suggestion. And perhaps on some competitions it would be interesting to force a particular subject, Just not every competition. Fair?
That's a great point! I don't want to sit and look at a landscape with mountains and bridges all evening, so for that, you're absolutely right. There is however some themes they could use that will still give variety, but also even the playing field. I've always found the Fstoppers community automatically adds 1 star to any long exposure, HDR landscape or composite with the milkyway in the sky and sort of drowns out some better submissions (not talking about any of my own) that maybe deserve that higher spot. I also thought that maybe ratings shouldn't be anonymous and that we should be able to see what someone has rated in their profile. It would be an easy way for moderators to sift through entries and see who is rating fairly and who is just handing out 1's to boost their own submissions.
I don’t know if I would want everybody to know exactly what rating I gave their image, simply because I would never want to have to justify to each and every person why I rated their image that way. But, I certainly do hope that the moderator of the competition has the ability to see if someone is Rolling out 1stars in mass. I generally tend to be a more optimistic and trusting individual who assumes that this community would never have anyone that would do something that is deliberately despicable as poorly rating images simply to boost their own. Also it doesn’t make sense to do that. The images that are picked to be on the show, are not always the most highly rated images. So unless you’ve already submitted an image that is so good that it is already likely to be a contender to win the competition, it doesn’t make sense to Nerf everyone else’s submissions. There’s no prize for winning second place. So hopefully people in this community are just smart enough to know that if you want a free tutorial submit your best image.
Hi everybody! I really would like constructive criticism on my submissions. I understand not everybody appreciates comments and critiques, but if you are a person who is seeking the opinion of others, like myself, I would ask that you please critique my images, and I will do the same for you. Of course always being positive and constructive, with an eye for improving each other’s art. Thank you!
Like I said on one of my entries, color is a hard thing to get right, because we all see color differently, so what I see, may not be what another person sees, just like black and white shots.... To me I have to add a little warmth to my black and white shots so they are Tru black and white for my eyes and what my brain processes! Good luck everyone in color grading contest!
.. 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
This would create the risk for revenge low ratings, and hence self-censoring due to fear of such revenge. Doesn't seem like a way to have truer ratings, just higher ones in average.
I want visible grades. I want transparent grades. Even "revenge grades" would become obviously visible.
please check out my work.
Happily. I’d appreciate your input on my images in return.
I think you should do a swim wear critique next! You have the sun wear tutorial, it would be good to see if the fstoppers community is doing well at it!
Alternatives I am still pushing for Arial photography!!!
Mermaids? or animation?
I just want to thank everyone who I had the pleasure of interacting with during the course of this competition. Especially those who took the time to rate my images and give me feedback so that I can improve. This was my 1st CtC, and I have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this expriance. I hope that as I continue to learn from each of you, that you can begin to see it reflected in my work. I am happy that I have joined the Fstoppers community.
I am new here...why is there no exif data on contest photos?
You can use a browser extension such as EXIF Reader if you want such information. ;)
When do the contests close and have the CTC posted to youtube? This is my first time participating
Jesse........there seems to be no set procedure. I'm sure time will be found.........
When will this go live?
Duuuuuuuude! When does this video come out? I am pumped to see this CtC. I understand that I have a super minuscule chance of getting a photo on the show, but since this is my 1st CtC I’m allowing myself to be crazy optimistic that I’ll get a critique. I know I have a ton to learn so I’m really hoping to get constructive criticism every time I submit an image. Until then, please critique my image and I’ll hapily return the favor.