Tag Archives: Curves

ECCG ‘Night’ Competition – 21/04/2015

‘Night’ was the theme of the third internal competition of 2015 held at the Midleton Park Hotel on Tuesday 21/4/15. Following two viewings of the twenty two entries, marks were awarded which yielded the following results:

Night Competition Results

Grade A was a very close race indeed which saw Anthony O’Connor going into an early lead only to be pipped at the post by one single point by Finbarr O’Shea in the very final vote! Fidelma Read took third place.

Night Competition Winners

Finbarr O’Shea – Winner Grade A

Kevin Day had his second win of the year in Grade B with Trevor O’Connell and Denis O’Flynn taking second and third respectively.

James Brady took first in Grade C while Catherine Millad and RJ Mani took second and third.

The overall high scores across all three Grades were a repetition of the Grade A placings with Finbarr O’Shea, Anthony O’Connor and Fidelma Read taking the honours.

Well done to all entrants and congratulations to those who occupied the first, second and third spots in each Grade who will get 12, 10 and 8 points respectively towards this year’s Photographer of the Year competition.

The image below is the overall winning entry by Finbarr O’Shea. Click the image to see all the entries. Enjoy!

Finbarr OShea - Night Competition

See also:
How I took that Shot – Finbarr O’Shea
How I took that Shot – Kevin Day
How I took that Shot – James Brady
Competition Gallery
Competition Results and 2015 League Table

How I Took That Shot – Gráinne Davies

Gráinne Davies had a convincing win in Grade A in our second internal competition of the year with the interesting image below. The theme was ‘Curves’ and this is how she made the image:

grainne davies-1

I was a bit torn on ideas for the Curves theme competition as to what to shoot for it including squiggling car trails or cocktail glasses. I had bought some props last year including coloured and silver slinky springs so I spent an afternoon taking some shots of them in different configurations to try to meet the curves theme.

I have a small portable studio box with different coloured backgrounds so for this shoot I used a black background. I lit the spring with natural window light and a desk lamp as I didn’t want to use flash. I used a wide aperture to ensure the image was fully focused. I liked this final image as from each of the individual springs there are curves!

Lens used: 60mm macro lens on tripod
Settings: F/32; 4 sec; ISO 100
Lighting used: natural window light and desk lamp

 

 

ECCG ‘Curves’ Competition – 03/03/15
How I took that Shot – Joe Keniry
How I took that Shot – Catherine Millad
Competition Results and 2015 League Table

 

How I Took That Shot – Joseph Keniry

Joe Keniry came second in Grade B in our ‘Christmas‘ competition in January last. This time around, Joe made it one better and won the Grade in our second internal competition of the year with the unusual image below. The theme was ‘Curves’ and this is how he made the image:

joe keniry-1

Having checked that my daughters were in bed and asleep, I noticed some wrought iron dolls-house furniture they had being playing with that day. The furniture had curves so detailed, that I could not miss the opportunity to take the shot.

As I was taking the shot, I noticed a dim silhouette so I tried using a torch which also created an arch in the background. After many attempts I still felt that it needed something, so with the help of two “Sylvanian Friends” who decided to have a tea party/picnic, I snapped it there and then! The torch was held in position by a €15 tripod and a G clamp. The camera was also on a tripod.

Camera – Nikon D7000
Lens – Nikkor – 18-70 1;3.5-4.5 G ED
Aperture – F 18
Focal length – 27mm
Shutter – 1.3 sec
ISO – 400
JPEG
White balance – Auto

ECCG ‘Curves’ Competition – 03/03/15
How I took that Shot – Gráinne Davies
How I took that Shot – Catherine Millad
Competition Results and 2015 League Table

 

How I Took That Shot – Catherine Millad

Having come first in Grade C in our ‘Christmas‘ competition in January last, Catherine Millad, made it two-in-a-row by winning Grade C again in our second internal competition of the year with the simple and elegant image below. The theme was ‘Curves’ and this is how she made the image:

catherine millad-1

I got the idea while looking at a vase of tulips that my sister-in-law had given me and noticed the foliage had gentle curves.

I placed a tulip in a wide neck vase on the kitchen table so it was hanging horizontally allowing the flower to droop down.  The only lighting was natural sunlight coming through the glass sliding door.  The flower was positioned so that it was in direct sunlight which was a bit harsh, so I blu-tacked white translucent back drop material onto the glass to soften the light.  About 2 feet behind the flower, I placed a black velvet back drop cloth over a kitchen chair and extended it onto the table to produce the black background.

I wanted to keep the aperture small to gain maximum depth of field so I took several shots at varying shutter speeds until I was happy with the exposure.

In post processing in Photoshop, I flipped and rotated the image so the flower was standing upright.  I adjusted the tones using the Curves Tool and cloned out the edges of the vase which were visible at the bottom.

Camera: Nikon D3100
Lens: Nikkor VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Aperture f/22, Shutter 1/6s, ISO 100
Shot in RAW format

ECCG ‘Curves’ Competition – 03/03/15
How I took that Shot – Gráinne Davies
How I took that Shot – Joe Keniry
Competition Results and 2015 League Table

 

ECCG ‘Curves’ Competition – 03/03/2015

‘Curves’ was the theme of the second internal competition of 2015 held at the Midleton Park Hotel on Tuesday 3/3/15. Following two viewings of the twenty one entries, marks were awarded which yielded the following results:

results

Grade A saw some new faces on the podium this time around with Gráinne Davies taking first with a convincing 28 point lead, Denis Barry, second and Fidelma Read in third.

Grade B saw second and third in our last competition, Joe Keniry and Trevor O’Connell, move one place up into first and second with Kevin Barry coming in third.

Catherine Millad made it two in a row by winning Grade C while Davin O’Mahony and James Brady took the second and third spots.

The overall high scores across all three Grades were a repetition of the Grade A placings with Gráinne Davies, Denis Barry and Fidelma Read taking the honours.

Well done to all entrants and congratulations to those who occupied the first, second and third spots in each Grade who will get 12, 10 and 8 points respectively towards this year’s Photographer of the Year competition.

Mouse over the image below to activate the slide show and see all entries. Enjoy!

[slideshow_deploy id=’6387′]

 

See also:
How I took that Shot – Gráinne Davies
How I took that Shot – Joe Keniry
How I took that Shot – Catherine Millad
Competition Results and 2015 League Table