Sep 2024 POTM Voting Thread

[maroun.c]

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The subject for Sep 2024 POTM contest was black and white
It is now Time to choose the winner!

The poll allows multiple choices so choose the ones you like from the numbered entries below. The voting thread will closed on Oct 5th 2024 at 11:59 pm EST.

As always, we thank Avast Marine for sponsoring our POTM contest. Visit their website HERE and be sure to take a look at the great products they have to offer.

Winner will be determined by this R2R Member voting by poll. In order to be eligible to have votes counted in the poll, voting members must have at least 25 meaningful posts and have been a member of R2R for at least 1 month by the time the poll ends (votes that do not meet this criteria may show in the poll but will be disregarded in the final count). In case of a tie, Team R2R will assist in picking a winner. Rules, deadlines and terms are subject to change at staff discretion at anytime.

PLEASE REMEMBER, YOU HAVE TO ENTER YOUR VOTES IN THE POLL, NOT VIA COMMENT IN THIS THREAD. IT'S GREAT TO COMMENT, BUT PLEASE USE THE POLL TO VOTE. YOU'LL NEED TO BE ON THE WEB VERSION OF THE SITE IN ORDER TO SEE THE POLL.

So let's vote for the winner of Sep POTM
#MODS #POTM #POTMWinners

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[Reefing102]

Voted!

 

[Slocke]

Most competitive yet!

 

[IntrinsicReef]

Voted. Great looking group!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

voted! nice job guys! i didnt make the cut, but there are some great pics!

 

[Slocke]

voted! nice job guys! i didnt make the cut, but there are some great pics!

Choosing the finalists must have been so hard because all the ones submitted were great

 

[Hunna’s Stunnas]

Why was my entry not counted or included? It met the criteria and had like 14 reactions.

 

[JoJosReef]

My vote is pretty useless, because I'm just going to tick off all the boxes. Gorgeous photos, everyone!

 

[tbrown]

Voted and Vetoed!

 

[Slocke]

Voted and Vetoed!

We can veto??

I voted evil Dunkin’, vroliks, and that unique hermit crab vignette but it was such a hard choice.

 

[tbrown]

We can veto??

I voted evil Dunkin’, vroliks, and that unique hermit crab vignette but it was such a hard choice.

We can veto all day. Not sure our vetoes count, but our votes do!

 

[JoJosReef]

Tried to do a top 10 vote but failed. Will keep trying to whittle down. I loved the bTA with reflection on the surface. Loved the staring hermit crab. The angel is just gorgeous.

And who doesn't love a clown taco?

 

[smitten with ocean life]

exactly!!

 

[Fish_Fry]

They are all great, but I particularly like some of the abstract ones, especially when someone outside the hobby might not know what they are looking at. There is something about when texture & shapes can appear to be different things the longer you stare at them that I enjoy.

That and a clown taco, always a clown taco.

 

[maroun.c]

Choosing the finalists must have been so hard because all the ones submitted were great

Indeed I can only say there more pictures worthy of winning a POTM than what we could keep in the finalists list.

 

[maroun.c]

Why was my entry not counted or included? It met the criteria and had like 14 reactions.

I just answered your PM thanks for your understanding abd good luck with coming POTM.

 

[Hunna’s Stunnas]

Someone able to explain how this didn’t make it to the voting round? Apparently it didn’t “fit the theme as well as others”.

 

[tbrown]

Someone able to explain how this didn’t make it to the voting round? Apparently it didn’t “fit the theme as well as others”.

I've had plenty of very good photos not make the cut. It happens. They can't always let every picture in for voting.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

great shot! but i guess we cant all be in! they gotta make the cut somewhere

 

[maroun.c]

Someone able to explain how this didn’t make it to the voting round? Apparently it didn’t “fit the theme as well as others”.

Willing to share the reasoning and hope you will take it as a constructive criticism.
I'll start by saying it's a very good picture anyone would be proud to take, and the o ly reason for it not to be on the finalists list is the sheer number of other pictures that fit the theme maybe a tiny bit better, some of my comments will be nitpicking bit with the need to drop the number of pictures so heavily one needs to nitpick unfortunately.
Starting with the picture before looking at the black and white side:
-picture is rather soft and better sharpness would help a lot here not sure if its the processing or the lense, not on PC to check the exif data to tell what camera or lense was taken, but normally this tends to happen with use of magnification lenses or shooting wide open on a lower quality lense, or it could just be the processing....
-Central position of the subject isn't really flattering, This is a bit cliche and many center framed subject look nice but imagine this site taken from a bit of different angle with the shrimp at the upper left corner of the shot looking at the viewer top down for example.
-You caught goodd eye contact so the moment was there however missed on focusas the focus hit on the coral right in front of the shrimp and the eyes are really soft so you don't really look at them and in such a shot focus has to e dead on the eyes to take ones eyes right there. more detail (smaller apreture) was needed to see more of the shrimp at the focus point and that all went missing.
- Air bubble between the arms takes the viewers eyes away from the center of the shot which is the eye.
-The antenna at the righ side showing flat horizontal and cut in the middle while the one on the left side of the picture is deleted from motion leads to an unnatural unsatable or unbalanced feel to the overall image, cutting the antenna in its middle didn't help as well.

Going to the black and white aspect

Black and white images were notorious and still are for grain whic even the best newest pro mirorless cameras can't replicate or come close to IMHO.
so basically looking at a black and white image histaorically these were very sharp pictures with high levels of grain (close to noise) which in a colored imge wouldn't be accepted. Quality black and white fim used to give very contrasty results which with the built in grain was a very specific appearance. the contracst allowed to see a quick shift from black to white and where near black would turn dark black so there was always a stepp contract in the pictures.

-I'm not sure if your shot was shot in black and white or converted to black and white, I presume it was converted as the conversion is overall flat due to lack of contrast, its almost flat gray hich doesn't really match the black and white theme. there are many black and white conversion actions or tools and some do provide a flat conversion but its not what black and white photographers recognize as a good black and white scale.
-Image as said above is too soft for black and white mostly because of the focus not being where it should, use of a large aperture or maybe jsut from distortion from glass I'm not sure however end result is far from the sharpness of a black and white pic.
linked to the softness i don't see noise to mimic Grain and that is the most aspect i would expect in a black and white shot. I'll allow myself to use an example from the submissions Picture 14 and 17 have crazy noise and that hard to describe feel for picture 17 where the pctopus suckers look so noisy to the point of annoying you , might be abit overdone in pic 14 but still fitting the theme perfectly. that would make it a bad picture if it was in color but for a black and white theme it shows that the photographer knew the needed points to match the theme and executed them rather very well.
its stil a reefing community and POTM stills trugles at time with people choosing to vote for the nicest or rarest aquatic subject so many would vote for your picture I'm sure. and all above is not to say your picture isn't nice on the countrary I pretty much love it despite the nit picks and even as is its a worthy picture, yet looking at all the above rationale I believe the correct choice was for other pictures to make the final cut.

I hope you take it as its intended as a constructive criticism, I thank you for participating and for the clear passion you have for that shot which is critical its one of the few shots that were very close to making the final list but which had to be removed to limit the number of pics in the voting thread.

Whish you good luck in future POTM submissions.
Maroun