No Borders

We have been asked a few questions on things like HDR, filters and composits, So here’s the official extract from the rules again.

“Digital manipulation of images:

Images taken with either a digital or a film camera will be accepted. You may use digital manipulation to optimise an image but you are not permitted to add or remove key elements of the composition. Composite or montage images, from more than one original image, are not eligible. “

In other words…

The rules do leave some freedom and that was our intend when we created them. Time has moved forward and the Digital Workflow has become a daily reality. There is no such thing as “straight out of the camera” anymore. You may “grade” your images black and white or sepia or in other dual tones.

You may use dodging and burning technics. This is all fine. With filter technics and HDR things start to blur a bit. Going back to the same RAW file and using highlights and dark areas to get the ‘perfect” picture is fine. We don’t really want HDR images and creations from several images though.

Keep  the “story” and content of your images always in mind. Its far more important then the Photoshop technics you use to enhance the images. 

Whatever technics you use in Photoshop, they should not alter the content and should be used to enhance the original image rather then creating a new one.

If you do push it to the edge of the rules, thats fine with us, but you also have to be prepared for the chance that you entry might fall of a cliff

I hope that helps in answering questions around Photoshop.  Feel free to leave a comment if you have any further questions.

This competition offers 3 open categories to enter your images.

1. Faces of Earth

2. Faces of Asia

3. Faces of the Wild

Some of you may have been a bit confused of where to enter your images, so let me go through this in a bit more detail here:

1. “Faces of Earth”

sums up all those great images of Landscapes, Seascapes and other scenic images. Architectural pictures would go here, as well as Monuments. Images that show the viewer unmistakably where he is, as well as that newly discovered place, you just came across. 

It could be the Taj Mahal or Ankor Wat, The Amazing beaches of Borocay or the Aerial picture of the Maldives. The jungle of Borneo in the morning mist, or the mountain range of the Himalayas.

Whatever the choice is: Wow us with stunning views and the feel of “I wanna be there”. Although humans or other living creatures may and sometimes should be present to give context, mood or scale, they will most likely not be the main subjects in this pictures.

Ask yourself in those cases if the images fit better in category 2 or 3.

2. “Faces of Asia”

Thats where the judges like to see those amazing Portraitures and People shots. Bear in mind though, that a portraiture does not have to be a close tight shot.

There is the classical portraiture, as well as the environmental portraiture. It can go as far as capturing the intimate moment of people in their surrounding. Whatever your choice is: People and their story are the “main act” in this shots.

If you should get stuck, think about the great imagery of Olivier Follmy or Steve Mc Curry here to name some reference.

3. “Faces of the Wild”

This is a bit more straight forward. You could say its the above category, but the focus is on the animals.

Frans Lanting springs to my mind as a perfect example of reference.

Dear Travel & Photography Enthusiasts,
 
The experience of travel has inspired mankind since the beginning of explorations. To capture such experiences with images is one of the most exciting past times for many of us.
 
But how exciting are these images to others? A competition is always a good way to find out. As we all know, judging images is not a precise science, so at times we are lost and are asking ourselves: “What the heck are these judges actually looking for? Do they have the slightest idea themselves? Or are they just throwing darts at the wall, while having their eyes closed? (And of course the eyes are always closed on MY images!)”
 
Let me say this: Dart throwing may sound tempting, but there are actual criteria to make an image last longer in our heads and give them a real shot to win this competition, or just winning over any person out there looking at them longer then two seconds to begin with.
 
This blog is designed to give you a little peek into the judges’ heads and to explain some of the criteria used to sort out the better images.
 
Anyhow, feel free to ask me a question via the comments link below.

I look forward to the conversation!

www.eyesonasia.net

This blog will be authored by Felix Hug. A Professional Travel & Destination Photographer since 2004, you may have seen some of his spectacular images in regional and global publications with the National Geographic Traveler, GEO and the Asian Geographic magazines at the top of a long list.
 
Based in Singapore, Felix has also had the honour of being on the winners’ list of leading Travel Photography competitions. In 2008, his images were hot picks, winning at the “Travel Photographer of The Year Awards” and the “American Photo Image of The Year Awards”.
 
Today, Felix also runs a movement labelled Eyes On Asia, where he works not only as a photographer, but also heads workshop programmes on photography.
 
This blog will share some of his experiences and knowledge on what to look out for to get a better image when out and about and ultimately being able to judge your own images in a way that they represent lasting visuals of your trips. Perhaps in the future, they may be seen as winning entries for this as well as other photographic competitions.

- Lunita S V Mendoza, Editor, Asian Geographic