My first impression of the challenge was that it meant a grainy effect of the image, to create a special mood or feel to the picture. The idea of cereals or wood never entered my head until now!!!
So although I am a bit confused I still lean towards the special effect of grain in the photo, (Especially as we have recently had a granular challenge)but will allow that others may not agree with me and vote for either on their merit.
You know, at first glance I automatically thought grain as in how it applies to an image. After all, this is a photography site so it makes sense. However, after reading some of this thread it seems that there is room for all types of grain.
Think about this; for the Wide Angle challenge the description was prefaced with 'Technique Challenge: '. If this is only about post-processing introduced grain, why wasn't it labeled similarly with 'Technique Challenge: ', or 'Post-Processing Challenge: '?
Oh for God's sake, it's GRAIN as in little tiny dots that most people complain about when they see it in an image, not WHEAT.
"Create an image where grain is an integral part of the MESSAGE of your photo."
Grain in a photo is 99.99% of the time added to emphasize a mood or feeling in a photo....getting a MESSAGE across.
What POSSIBLE message could you get accross with Barley or wood grain? Does that really make sense if you really think about it? Especially after we just had the granular challenge? Isn't it a bit obvious they mean to take whatever subject you want but add grain to it to strenthen the message and mood of the photo???
If you take a picture of a pile of wheat, what is going to be your "message"? "We had a good harvest this year"??
Since we have this problem nearly every challenge, couldn't they just take an extra 10 seconds to word everything super-clearly so it's obvious to everyone, or is having a challenge go off in 10 different directions part of the fun?
Some of the comments here are great. I immediately thought of grain as in texture of the shot, but then I thought of corn, wheat, etc. Hmmmm I'm thinking we're going to have lots to choose from, which isn't a BAD thing. Plenty of sepia, wistful shots, which is ok by me. On the other hand, with it being fall, lots of corn and wheat too.
Let's get out shooting folks! Good luck. This should be fun and interesting to say the least.
rgo - loved your comment about the head scarf - LOL
I just thought of the perfect submission. A photo of a bowl of sugar (or salt) at supper high ISO and way to much over sharpening. This way it'll be naturally grainy and very sharp AND fit the challenge. I would have used "grain" but its after harvest season in Toronto.
Oh for God's sake, it's GRAIN as in little tiny dots that most people complain about when they see it in an image, not WHEAT.
The "D" in "DPChallenge" stands for Digital. Digital cameras do not have any sort of grain. They may have noise from shooting at high-ISOs in poor light, but they don't have grain. Since you cannot submit a challenge entry from scanned film, clearly if the challenge was about "little tiny dots", the challenge would be called "High-ISO Noise", not "Grain".
What's the point of having a challenge that is basically a "free study" where "meeting the challenge" is accomplished by a Photoshop plug-in?
Oh for God's sake, it's GRAIN as in little tiny dots that most people complain about when they see it in an image, not WHEAT.
Isn't that NOISE not grain? What's the difference? I thought noise was what you got shooting at higher ISO speeds and grain is something added to enhance an image for artistic sake via post-processing.
Originally posted by rscorp:
... or is having a challenge go off in 10 different directions part of the fun?
What would be the point of half the photos on this site then. Adding grain to an image is no more difficult or against the grain ( ha ha ) than any of the other manipulations done to photos here. Why is one filter fine and another isn't?
And typically when they want you to focus on one physical element in your photo ( metal, stone, etc) they word it like "...making sure metal is the main subject of your photo".
Here they say it should be an integral part of the message of your subject. That would imply mood, emotion, etc. Which is what grain or noise is typically used for. Pictures of wheat and barley, however, aren't.
Suit yourself though, once again they left it poorly explained and open to interpretation, which might seem amusing to them but at the end of the day, half the challenge entries, good ones, get voted down and people get pissed off.
Besides giving my opinion that I think it's worded for a film-grain type photo, I also tried to point out that it seems like challenge descriptions are often written by a circus-chimp and maybe it could be done better, especially when there are two meanings to a word.
I'd also point out that if you take MY interpretation of the challenge, it's a lot tougher than you make it sound. What's the point of having a free study where the challenge is met by a plug-in? How many photos do you think people are going to take where having grain in the pic really enhances it? It's a tough thing to do. Grain in an image often times doesn't work, when it does it's a fantastic effect.
If though it's your interpretation, my guess is the winner will be from Kansas.
Originally posted by EddyG:
Originally posted by rscorp:
Oh for God's sake, it's GRAIN as in little tiny dots that most people complain about when they see it in an image, not WHEAT.
The "D" in "DPChallenge" stands for Digital. Digital cameras do not have any sort of grain. They may have noise from shooting at high-ISOs in poor light, but they don't have grain. Since you cannot submit a challenge entry from scanned film, clearly if the challenge was about "little tiny dots", the challenge would be called "High-ISO Noise", not "Grain".
What's the point of having a challenge that is basically a "free study" where "meeting the challenge" is accomplished by a Photoshop plug-in?
um..I think I will sit this challenge out because..that kind of grain is what I am trying to avoid! I think it does nothing to a photograph. I took the challenge to mean wheat, oats, corn etc.
