NEW Intermediate Assignment #3 : Softness

Hello Dyxum friends,
This is the fourth Dyxum Photographic Assignment, the topic is Softness

The general rules can be found at here.

now, here is your task!

This is the third of the NEW intermediate assignment series

You will shoot a soft picture.
By 'soft' the following are meant: motion blur, misfocus, strange optical filters, shooting through dirty glass etc.

You will shoot your main subject 'soft' intentionally. With this you will aim to deliver an emotional impact higher than a sharp copy of the same shot would deliver. Your photo must be convincing with the emotions added by softness. Blurring your image at post-processing stage is not the intent, the softness must be achieved in camera. Other than that, you are free to use any type of PP.

If you are taking the misfocus route, i suggest you to turn off your AF, otherwise you'll have hard times with 'correctly misfocusing'.

Happy shootings and looking forward to your innovative results.

General Assignment Rules The general rules for the assignments are as follows : - clean slate, all “old” assignments will be locked (over time as the new ones are created) - no mining, shots must be specifically taken for the assignment (we trust you ) - only one assignment at the time. Once started you can only take the next assignment after having passed. - one dimension crop and minor straightening allowed (to allow different aspect ratios, but don’t crop in both directions) - max 2 pics per post/try - you can do the assignments in any order, and repeated as many times as you want - at least one moderators or admin will comment on every post and determine fail/pass. This might include general C&C as well. - all members of Dyxum can also leave comments on the shots posted - id of members that passed will be kept in a "pass post" - specifically good pictures or good examples of assignment passes will be kept in a new "assignment gallery" - instructions for specific assignments will generally stay as is (and we'll have to write new ones for new assignments). - shots posted for the assignments are eligible for selection in the weekly exhibitions

Edited by pegelli - 16 January 2010 at 20:59

Wolfger, she looks like a fairy and the softness indeed gave the picture an extra emotional impact, so it's a pass. Also the green surrounding and the yellowish auro go well together. Only I'm not sure about the distraction at the left top. Almost looks more in focus (but no contrast) vs. the girl.

I have taken a soft shot, illustrating motion blur. Slow shutter speed, with marginal hue change. Hope this passes! Incidentally, I've had problems with exif data, so would you kindly tell me if you're able to access the information, please? Thank you. Ian.

pegelli wrote: Re exif, still can't see it. I think the problem might be that flickr only passes on the exif if you post the original size uploaded image and does not when posting any of the standard resizes

Sorry about this, it's starting to become a little frustrating!

So what you might try is resize on your computer for ~ 800 pix vertical (1024 is really too big anyway), upload that picture and post the original uploaded size. If you do that I'll see if the exif stays in there

I'll try that, and thanks for the tip.

Re the picture, sorry to say it's not a pass for me. There is still a lot of sharp rock/background and even the streaks of water falling from the highest weir seem sharp. There are some soft elements, but in general I find the whole picture too sharp and not soft enough for the intent of the assignment. Nothing wrong with the picture as such, it's a nice capture.

You're a hard task master but thanks for the positive comments. I'm nonetheless a little confused! I attempted to create motion blur as per the instructions, but from what you've written would I be correct in assuming that perhaps I should have concentrated purely on the falling water and not on the context of the falling water? I have also sharpened this image to make the water movement seem removed from the sharp stone: Is this not what you want? Thank you for your consideration. Ian.

Berean: I can see the exif on your second picture (the one called *_o.jpg) but not on the first (*_b.jpg).

Re the not passing, yes we're hard task masters, otherwise it would become too easy and we wouldn't want to lower your satisfaction when passing

Need to think a bit further on your next submission, we'll get back to you on that one.

I don't know if this last one is a pass or not, but it's very cool in any case.

I'm getting EXIF where expected (original sizes).

Berean, If your wife doesn't want the pictures of your son on the internet you better take them down (now the exif test has worked). I don't think it was a pass anyway because the softness didn't add a lot to the feeling of the shot, he's looking out of the frame and there's no connection.

On the other hand I like your second submission, there the softness made it a much more interesting subject and I like the lines and shapes. Could have even passed high key , so you can go to the next one with another pass in the bag.