Okay, it's really National Airport in Washington, DC. I've been looking for a challenge to try this "fake miniature" look. I'm not sure I succeeded, but it's been fun playing with it.
Basically, you take a normal shot and blur in editing to make it look like much shallower DOF. Here it is as I shot it, and you can see that it just looks like a normal image, not something you could buy on eBay.
I intended to use this effect specifically to turn a normal-sized scene into a miniature for this challenge. What I didn't consider when I shot this was that it's not an infinite horizon across the frame. With a landscape shot, for instance, you can just blur everything above and below some horizontal lines. But with the wall on the right, I had to think more carefully about which parts would be clear vs. blurry. I probably should've left the bit in the upper left blurred out, but to be true to what natural DOF looked like, I kept it clear.
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Place: 19 out of 87 Avg (all users): 6.1728 Avg (commenters): 6.5714 Avg (participants): 5.6250 Avg (non-participants): 6.3525 Views since voting: 1664 Views during voting: 366 Votes: 162 Comments: 27 Favorites: 0
My first impression upon looking at this image was a great one! The colors and the lights really stand out and all of the architectural lines really draw the eye through the entire scene. I also loved the miniaturized look of the shot. After reading your photographer's notes, here are my thoughts.
Upon first glance, the effect used for this shot is well done. The viewer certainly almost instantly thinks of a miniature scene, so kudos on that! After looking for a few more minutes, I started to notice some of the difficulties you commented on as well. All in all, I don't think that they really hurt the shot, but the walls on either side are certainly an obstacle when using this effect. In particular, there is a section in the upper left hand corner that should perhaps be more blurred...it tends to draw my eye away from the central part of the scene. However, the unblurred section on the right doesn't bother me...in fact, I feel like it gives me a nice anchor and compliments the walking figures.
It's a great shot and I think that the top 20 finish here certainly reflects that! I think you've really got the hang of this technique!!
Jeffrey, congrats on the top 20! You never shared this in our team thread, and it's a good thing. I voted this as my pick for the blue. I thought you used the effect very well here.
It's a very pretty photo, but I really don't see the smallness. I read your notes and understand what you did, but still can't see the optical illusion of a miniature.
It's a solid shot, but I don't see the necessity of the selective focus, and I think it detracts from the photo. Great sharpness where it is sharp though.
In all honesty a really nice try...a really clever attempt but I think you just fell short in that it doesn't totally convey the new miniature scale - it almost does and I can really see what you're trying to do but I think the Xmas tree maybe gives away the scale (or perhaps something else, I'm not sure what it is exactly). It also looks very photoshopped with unsubtle/unnatural DoF changes all over the place. I know it's intentional to convey a new scale but it needs to be more subtle and more uniform imho. Nice try though.
Massive DOF going on - its almost too much though. The upper floor on the left hand side is a bit distracting as it is in focus but distracts the eye away from the three people and the tree which is the main area of interest. Perhaps would have been more effective to crop out the left hand side altogther leaving you with a more portrait aspect ratio to complement the the high ceiling and the feeling of the people being small - even in a miniature station.
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