So I've recently got into focus-stacking, a relatively new technique akin to HDR except stacking focus instead of exposure. My main motivation is for snowflake photography.
To keep this short and simple (as I've got a wedding to attend to), I'm feeling severely limited by the 10 photo rule for advanced editing. Why? Because when you crank up the magnification, a 10-photo stack is peanuts!
I've been mainly shooting for myself these days, but would like to get back into the challenges. Because (currently) my main interest lies in focus-stacking (at 2-3x magnifications), it seems like I'll only be able to submit my best shots to Expert Editing.. which seems a little bit extreme.
SC, is this 10 an arbitrary number? Do I have any hope in increasing this limit? The way I see it is that focus-staking is an advanced technique (and definitely not expert), and should be something that could be used in advanced editing challenges without limitations. Currently, what I will be doing when I set up a shot is shooting at full resolution for myself, and then doing another stack at a lower magnification (higher DOF) and cropping the image accordingly (which is quite silly). In addition, I cannot see any harm by increasing this limit.. ie no "abuse" of the rules..
Anyone else in this conundrum or am I the only one? If anyone else is interested in this technique, hit me up.
I think you'll find that the 10-image rule is not really so much a rule as a "moderately strong suggestion." SC will have to chime in, but I don't think you'd get DQ'd for using more. The problem it creates is in validation; you can imagine trying to upload fifty RAW files; now imagine the SC trying to validate! The solution is, they need to be willing to accept a few "slices" that represent the whole well enough.
I think you'll find that the 10-image rule is not really so much a rule as a "moderately strong suggestion." SC will have to chime in, but I don't think you'd get DQ'd for using more. The problem it creates is in validation; you can imagine trying to upload fifty RAW files; now imagine the SC trying to validate! The solution is, they need to be willing to accept a few "slices" that represent the whole well enough.
Agreed on both counts. Though I would think that the same problem already exists in expert editing.. but I guess nobody ever uses 50 shots anyway.
You may combine up to ten captures of the same basic scene. The intent of allowing multiple captures is to enable such techniques as high dynamic range (HDR), noise reduction, increased DOF, etc....
Yes, it's an arbitrary limit — there has to be one. No, it's unlikely to change in the near future — there are many items on the revision list ahead of this one ...
I think you'll find that the 10-image rule is not really so much a rule as a "moderately strong suggestion." SC will have to chime in, but I don't think you'd get DQ'd for using more. The problem it creates is in validation; you can imagine trying to upload fifty RAW files; now imagine the SC trying to validate! The solution is, they need to be willing to accept a few "slices" that represent the whole well enough.
Agreed on both counts. Though I would think that the same problem already exists in expert editing.. but I guess nobody ever uses 50 shots anyway.
You may combine up to ten captures of the same basic scene. The intent of allowing multiple captures is to enable such techniques as high dynamic range (HDR), noise reduction, increased DOF, etc....
Yes, it's an arbitrary limit — there has to be one. No, it's unlikely to change in the near future — there are many items on the revision list ahead of this one ...
silly question, but why does there have to be one? as long as the scene doesn't change, etc. it shouldn't matter (IMO)
Yes, it's an arbitrary limit — there has to be one. No, it's unlikely to change in the near future — there are many items on the revision list ahead of this one ...
silly question, but why does there have to be one? as long as the scene doesn't change, etc. it shouldn't matter (IMO)
Because indefinte rules lead to problems. At some point, the number of originals becomes too large for practical validation, which means having to make an exception to the rules for that photo ... making exceptions to the rules is a bad idea in a contest context ...
Yes, it's an arbitrary limit — there has to be one. No, it's unlikely to change in the near future — there are many items on the revision list ahead of this one ...
silly question, but why does there have to be one? as long as the scene doesn't change, etc. it shouldn't matter (IMO)
Because indefinte rules lead to problems. At some point, the number of originals becomes too large for practical validation, which means having to make an exception to the rules for that photo ... making exceptions to the rules is a bad idea in a contest context ...
How is validation done on Expert challenge entries with huge numbers of shots, like the gayaban example from earlier?
How is validation done on Expert challenge entries with huge numbers of shots, like the gayaban example from earlier?
Precisely. There is still a date requirement for Expert where the shots are potentially from very different scenes, and so it would seem a requirement to see and validate them all. Now, for Advanced, where they are all from the same scene, there seems to be no compelling reason to review them all. So the extant situation seems backward. Or at least, there is a very good case for allowing as many shots in Advanced as in Expert. But again, that's thinking rationally.
