Twitch Posted February 10, 2005 Report Share Posted February 10, 2005 *Ahem* The following is a proposal for an on-site digital photo competition for ArniesAirsoft members which would help provide funds for the site's maintainence/upgrading, and give people a chance to have some fun with their cameras. Please feel free to comment about what you think ----------- Photo Compo: Precis - This would be a competition in which member of the board submit airsoft related photographs to win a prize, support the site, and promote photography in the process. Submissions - Photos would be anything airsoft related, from a still of a single pistol, to an action shot captured mid-firefight. For practicality there would be technical requirements for qualification, e.g. a minimum size e.g. 1024x768 pixels (something large enough to allow for proper appreciation, without cutting out people with low resolution equipment), .jpg format, .exif data would be supplied etc. Post-processing would not be limited, but the emphasis would be on photography, rather than digital art, and excessive tweaking would be penalised when photos are judged. Submitted photos should be new, creative work, unpublished elsewhere, and the intellectual property of the submitting person. The period allowed for submissions would run for a suitable length of time e.g. one/two month(s), allowing plenty of time for people to have a go at their local skirmish site etc. Prize & supporting the site - The number of entries to the competition would be unlimited for a single person. When submitting each photo entry, a suitably negligible sum e.g. 50p/$1 would be sent to the compo coffers (e.g. the site's paypal account) to qualify the photo. Part of the money collected would go towards supplying a prize for the event e.g. a gbb/aeg accessory etc. The remainder, and hopefully this would be a useful (and larger) sum would go to supporting the site, and providing resources for its maintainence. Judging - A jury of seven reputable site members would be picked by Arnie (I believe a public vote system, while maybe preferable in principle, is wide-open to abuse) who would judge each photo, and decide the overall winner (and/or runners up should it be appropriate/necessary). Judges would be forbidden to enter the competition themselves. All photos would be scored (to pinch photo.net's excellent system) on Aesthetics and Originality. Once the submission period is over, a shortlist of the top twenty scoring photos would be posted. From this group, by jury vote, the winner would be selected. ---------- Thoughts/ideas/suggestions? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
greebo_Brat Posted February 10, 2005 Report Share Posted February 10, 2005 Twitch, I like the idea personally although I'm struggling to get a good shot of my M4 (white balance is off, focus isnt sharp ...). It'd also might help for reviews and general info re: airsoft, having a gallery full of pictures of the weapons or parts that forum members can refer to. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Twitch Posted February 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Good idea! I hadn't thought about that, maybe there would be a good use the resulting photos could be put to For anyone experiencing problems, maybe this would be a good chance to share tips and info, maybe the results of which could be collected together for a site article? I know some people can be a little protective of their personal technique, but there's a good few budding amateurs and point-and-shooters who could seriously benefit from a run-through of the basics of composition, lighting, ISO speed, aperture etc. without getting overly-complicated. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
greebo_Brat Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Good idea! I hadn't thought about that, maybe there would be a good use the resulting photos could be put to For anyone experiencing problems, maybe this would be a good chance to share tips and info, maybe the results of which could be collected together for a site article? I know some people can be a little protective of their personal technique, but there's a good few budding amateurs and point-and-shooters who could seriously benefit from a run-through of the basics of composition, lighting, ISO speed, aperture etc. without getting overly-complicated. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Definitely a good idea, first tip, use a smaller aperture (f9, f11, f13, I'm still experimenting to find the best combo), just remember high the f number, smaller the aperture size, less light reaches the film/sensor and the sharper the image. Dont make the mistake of opening your lens up wide to compensate for low light as this leads to a shallow depth of field, your picture will be fuzzy and not sharp at all Try and use directed light, desktop lamps for example, rather than flash as the flash tends to be a bit to much for objects that are close up, thats why the ICS M4A1 body comes out as light grey when it's a dark charcoal grey, bit like a 10 pound lump hammer to hit a nail. One thing with indoor photography is that lighting is a real pain in the behinds to get to grips with ... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sp00n Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Id enter for sure! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HaVoC Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Me too, this is a great idea Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Arnie Posted February 16, 2005 Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 Yeah I agree regular competitions and the like are a good idea. I am going to have a bit of a reshuffle here as to how things work, as with the hugely expanding readership of the site some areas need more organisation, and some need expanding and filtering a bit more. When I've got myself organised some more I can sort a few things out. Lots of ideas for things to do.. but my fingers can only type so fast these days. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
doc_newstead Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 Fantastic idea. Count me in. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
McMadkat Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 Me too!! I love photography, hmmm.. lets see, Minolta X-300s SLR loaded with fuji chrome slide film (for the extra contrast), guns... how about a boys MP5? Or I could go for the digital approach, Olympus C360 firing at 3.1MP (no point going with a higher res, as it will be cut down to 1024x768) Little application of photoshop to tweak it, and hey presto! Sounds cool! McMadkat Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Vincent Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 A good idea indeed, hmm...dont know about the paypal thingy, though i realize holding a site so big as AA eats some money, and most of all time. I dont have a paypal account at the moment , thats one problem :| But the idea is great, i would enter if possible Oh and greebo, try to get the light from something like two lightsources, and dont point them straight at the gun. That should work Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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