This contest theme is similar to the Pictorial competitions, but is only a digital competition.  Meaning the contestants need to upload their photos, to have the judges score the photos prior to the club meeting.

"Lilly Pond"

2012-03-09 - "Lilly Pond"

Category: B&W

Contest Score: 22/27 - Did not place

Location: Terra vista Natural study area (http://alltrails.com/events/2013/06/walk-terra-vista-natural-study-area)

Camera gear:

- Canon Digital Rebel XTi

- Promaster 11-18mm

- Can't recall if I used any on-camera filters or not

- Handheld

Photo Specs:

Raw Image > Converted to JPEG for uploading for the contest

Focal Length: 13mm

Aperture: f/5

Shutter Speed: 1/1000

ISO: 400

Software used:

- Photoshop

Print medium: Digital

Lessons learned:

-  I should have used more contrast between the colors.

- Some of the areas were underexposed, which means I should have payed more attention to all the details in the photo.

- The photo itself was far too dark...

"Wha wha what happened to Fluffly"

Category: Color

Contest Score: 22/27 - Did not place

Location: The Cleveland Animal Protective League (https://clevelandapl.org/)

Camera gear:

- Canon Digital Rebel XTi

- Canon 50mm f/1.8

- Handheld

Photo Specs:

Raw Image > Converted to JPEG for uploading for the contest

Focal Length: 50mm

Aperture: f/3.5

Shutter Speed: 1/80

ISO: 800

Software used:

- Photoshop

- Noise reduction software

Lessons learned:

- I did an extensive amount of "noise" removal.  The original photo had a lot of grain in it, but not a lot of "hot pixels".... Once again, I did more than I should have.

- I also used the dodge tool in Photoshop to a substantial degree in order to lighten the image.  I should have used the Camera RAW tool to lighten the image, and bring up the shadows (the problem was that I didn't know it existed at this point).