Submit your best landscape photos for your chance to win a free Fstoppers tutorial
Twenty landscape images were selected from over 1,000 submissions and two special guests were here to give their critique. Do you agree with the feedback?
As the Fstoppers team is wrapping up filming for Photographing the World 4, which will feature advanced landscape photography, it was the perfect opportunity to get feedback from Elia Locardi. Elia was joined by Mike Kelley making this the first episode that didn't include and Fstoppers team member. Their fresh opinions were welcome.
Of the twenty people whose images were chosen, we'd like to congratulate Tor-Ivar Næss for submitting the image that earned the highest community rating and Stas F for being the randomly chosen entrant to win a free Fstoppers original tutorial. Congratulations to both of you. We will be in touch via your Fstoppers' profiles to claim your prize.
If you weren't able to participate in this episode, we invite you to submit your images now to our next live contest featuring adventure photography.
Elia Locardi is going to be at the Fstoppers studio for the next week and a half filming the post processing section for the newest iteration Photographing the World. We figured it's the perfect opportunity to let him critique your images.
We invite you to submit up to two of your best landscape photos between now and September 3rd for your chance to be part of the next episode of Critique the Community. Not only will 20 entrants be given feedback from Elia Locardi, who is one of the most well known landscape photographers on the planet, two lucky winners will also win a free Fstoppers original tutorial. The first winner will be chosen based on the highest community voted image. The second winner will be chosen at random.
If you're just browsing the post or have already entered you're image, we encourage you to scroll through the submissions of fellow community members and give them feedback of your own. Please keep your comments helpful and positive and please rate in accordance with the Fstoppers rating standard which can be viewed below.
Mon, 09/03/2018 - 23:45
This contest has ended.
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.
112 Comments
Same here.I know the photo isn’t great; I got the camera last Christmas and it was taken on my first trip with the camera. It’s a waterfall. I did make sure to include objects in the foreground, used the rule of thirds, and shot in manual with a slow shutter speed to smooth the water. Not stunning, but a lot more effort was put into it than a simple snapshot. I am content with a 2 at this point, but a 1 is disappointing. I like the shot, though, and even use it as my Instagram profile.
a pic we take and love does not make the quality and again it remains a perception by people beside any rules to be applied for photography i think. the pics was long posed but also quite fuzzy , wich is understandable if you started with the camera, and in the instant probably did not have a tripod to stabilise. try it again i am sure it will feel for you much better and for assesser. a good amateur friend of mine ( i am also amateur) usually takes less than a 10th of his pics as workable when doing some small expo, by the way. enjoy photography tha is what matter at the end.
Joseph, I'll give you some short due to time constraints constructive critique on your entry here if you don't mind.
IMHO, your shot gets underrated, while it's not truly underrated.
What do I mean by that.
Your photo is post-processed well, no big mistakes in Photoshop/Lightroom, no over-cooked HDR cr@p, no halos around objects from over-sharpening / excessive usage of the clarity slider / or extreme adjustments in the Shadows and Highlights sliders.
Technically your photo editing is good.
Photographically-wise, the photograph is "well composed", following the rule of thirds, you do have some good light there, a relatively interesting sky ( it's not my favorite, but still better than dull cloudless sky, overcast gray, etc ).
What your photo is lacking is a true subject, and something that will gather the interest of the viewer.
It could've been a person, an object, an animal, or even just footsteps following the path and leading to the sea.
A statue, an interestingly shaped rock.
Whatever!
You've got the mood and the light right, you just need something to add... "value", meaning, a story, to the picture.
Keep on shooting!
thanks Bill great assessment your right i did need an object to like you said gain interest, i was relying not the light to carry the focus. shooting on the fly like i did, i didn't have a well prepped scene and as an illustrator i definitely understand the the relevance of doing so. i didn't feel like the trash can that was next to me was a very good subject to shoot lmho. and thank you for the encouragement i will only get better
Well, if it's a decently shaped and single colored trashcan, you can paint a Smiley face or a surfer on it and call it a day :p
hahahahahahahahaha damn why didn't i think of that!!!!!!
Totally agree. I just want to say to anyone who is greatly discouraged by all the negativity that they should not be. Keep doing what you love and keep an open mind for criticism but at the same time realise that no assessment / evaluation of your work is ever absolute. The best way to improve is to just shoot and experiment. You need to constantly fail in order to improve and reach a level that eventually you can be proud of. It’s a long and never ending journey imo and that’s the beauty of it. Cheers:)
It's cuz people are rating lower to hopefully get theirs ranked higher. Mine was creeping up closer to a 4 and I can tell a bunch of people voted it as a 1 cuz it dropped fast.
if it is that it is really a pity.. personnaly i vote with my guts and a bit of technique
Just can't take it too seriously. This shouldn't be stressful. You can possibly win a tutorial bit other than that it's not like we are getting paid.
i think the issue some people have is that there is no real prize and people are still giving shitty ratings without some kind of reason its pretty crappy on their part to give a poor rating in spite.
Welcome to the internet.. it's something you just gotta deal with when you put yourself out there.
I'm one day new here and a guy besmirched even my models on the YouTube page... I hope to improve but verbal assaults don't help... I have issues working in IT/Development...
I knew it was going to be harsh the time I read 'Landscape'. It's a very competitive niche..
This has been a really good experience... I've seen good shots, great shots and stuff in between... I'm glad that my photo doesn't totally look out of place in the thumbnail list...
I may try an ND filter soon, but I've found that 1/4000 and HSS does well for my genres... Landscape photography is more travel than picture taking... I'd rather do photo-journalism...
I do love that you guys take time out of your day to do this.. I actually like how Tony and Chelsea kind of choose live...
That allows people to comment specifically for chosen pics...
The "community rating" has been an issue in every internet contest ... some take it too seriously and NEED to stomp out of the crowd by any means ... That's the way it is ;)
Despite of that, good luck to the team, landscape will be an overcrowded contest I guess :p
I've spend time looking at the pictures and I'm really impressed by the level.... sometime a lake of diversity in the technique that make a lot of "good" landscapes look the same as they are using the same post processing that make the author signature disappear behind the technique.
I also feel that there are not much "in between" but a lot of really "lazy" pictures ( lack of techniques, no post at all, bad camera ) in one hand and, on the opposite, the "too much" pictures with tones of post process that remind me of the beauty pictures/portraits where the skin is transform into plastic.
I do have mixed feelings about that.
I think if you enjoy your work than a lot of the negative reviews don't really matter. I just see my old pictures and compare them with my new work and be as fair to myself as possible.
Good luck to you all.
Can I delete one of my uploaded pictures and put another one in the contest?
I don't see why not.
i believe you can put in more than one just not simultaneously i know there are people with multiple photos including myself
Hmmm, I've only been here a short while and it seems that the community is quite harsh. However, the best pictures do seem to win (more or less) so there is some sanity. Hopefully I get something better than a two this time. :)
How do you select the 20 pictures? Highest rated 20?
It's random 20
It's not really random. They do make it a point to pickout at least 10 bad to mediocre images so they can "constructively talk" about it lol. If your goal is to make the video post a mediocre image lol
I would say this comment is quite wrong in many ways. One picture is the highest rated image. All 19 left are choosen by the editors. Their selection may not always be the same. But most of he times, I think they base their selection on 2 things;
1- Is that picture unique and fit the theme or is it just another picture.
2- Do I have something to talk about it?
I think if you want to make the video, give something unique.
Thierry you make a good point in posting something unique. I guess the point I am trying to make is that 80% of everything they rate are 2's and 3's for ALL of their critiques. Posting a fantastic image gets you really less of a chance to make the video. Per the user rating system the other users have spoken in the comments.
Do cityscapes count?
First couple of contests I entered joke photos to make fun of the rating system (who enters snap shots that really look like snap shots? And really a lot of the 2’s are just snap shot with expensive gear)...but figured i’d try for real this time. The one thing thats a bit surprising is amount of people who rate photos, there’s 700 enteries but my photo only has 30 some ratings...I know it’s tough to rate all of em, but damn thats a low number...
I posted a photo which I didn't want to post. How can I delete it?
click on the photo, and click the 3 little dots at the top right then edit and then delete
Thanks for the contest, David Strauss . Lots of inspiring entries here.
I'm thinking of uploading a picture of a potato and seeing if it gets the same rating as the actual entries. What do ya'll think?
5🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Might as well go with a whole field...
... wait. That'd actually be a legit idea, need to add it to my list...
;)
Its so funny to see which comments got downrated because the Persons write true Statements against downvoter.
Wish you all a nice time and nice shoots i am out
ive never realized how harsh the community is (rating wise)
Yeah I've noticed that too.
The rating here are a lot less than I get for the same picture on other sites.
But I'm seeing were this is going, as it might be good for me.
people here got really competitive. Reading the posts above I saw some extra-large egos. Also, another trending I saw was 'if I don't like the subject it's a snap shot'. Not 100% true, but in fact, it's something that is probably happening...
people here got really competitive. Reading the posts above I saw some extra-large egos. Also, another trending I saw was 'if I don't like the subject it's a snap shot'. Not 100% true, but in fact, it's something that is probably happening...
people here got really competitive. Reading the posts above I saw some extra-large egos. Also, another trending I saw was 'if I don't like the subject it's a snap shot'. Not 100% true, but in fact, it's something that is probably happening...
Now at 1000 submission with my photos getting 40 ratings...has there been any attempts to boost the number of people rating? Last contests the winner got like 100 ratings, which is still low...
A couple of suggestions:
1) have the “next” be in random order so posting time doesn’t matter.
2) require all contestants to rate like 20-50 images
Great point of view! Would shake up things a bit if you randomize the gallery/posting time.
I posted a couple of hours after the contest opened. I collected 50 votes on one entry and around 40 on my second. Both has been inactive the last few days, I guess they are too far down in the gallery that people actually care.
...And the submitters should not be enabled to vote images each others. If you want to partecipate you subscribe first a white list and will not be able to vote, later, when submissions will open.
Posted my photos. Probably not the best ones. But, it is an experience doing so. Nice photos from everyone. Appreciate those who have looked. I look forward to the next challenge.
There are many truly lovely photographs here but am I alone in being disappointed that so few include any details of where they are taken. When you see a wonderful landscape is it not natural to want to know where it is ?
I agree with you, but at the same time a lot of these places are getting overrun by tourists and instagrammers who ruin the trails, go where they shouldn’t, and end up forcing trail closures. There’s a balance to be struck, but sometimes it’s nice to keep some of these places to ourselves. The way around that though is to go google earth hunting and trying to piece together a location based off elements in a photo. A bit of leg work, but a lot of fun when you can nail down exactly where a particular photo was taken!
nobody wants to share their secret spots..hahahaha
Here's something I've noticed. The spots that have become "iconic" for the photographic community either through tutorials like Elias' , Mads Peter Iversen, the ones ones through Fstoppers and others (because they are iconic to start with) get deluged with other photographers and photographic tours.
While that's cool, and I've met some really great people at those places (kirkjufellsfoss in march is nuts btw) I prefer to get out away from the craziness. After spending hours researching spots, either scouting on foot or using all of the tools the internet has available, I enjoy having those places to myself.
Not having people set up their tripod 6' in front of you, kicking your tripod legs or standing next to you smoking is much less stressful .
Wasn't the contest supposed to close on the 3rd of September? :-)