I had been planning this shot all week, but was only able to execute it about an hour before the deadline... Which explains the terrible background.
OK, to put this to rest: This is completely legal in Basic. A cutout of the kitten is inside the fish bowl. A cutout of the fish is on a pane of glass which is just in front of the camera. Trying to light both cutouts through two peices of glass was incredibly difficult in Basic. I was really hoping to have the background blown out, but this was the only lighting I could get to not show reflections on the glass. Argh.
PLEASE voters, let Site Council do their jobs. If you think something is illegal, bring it to the Council's attention, but don't vote it down just because you don't understand how it's done.
Edit: This photo is still under review for a possible DQ from Site Council. Apparently the rules about photos as subjects in an image became more strict at some point, and this photo may or may not have crossed the line. Guess we'll wait and see what happens!
Edit: 03/11/2008
This photo was validated at approx. 9am today.
Statistics
Place: 18 out of 114 Avg (all users): 5.8557 Avg (commenters): 6.2609 Avg (participants): 5.3902 Avg (non-participants): 5.9750 Views since voting: 2643 Views during voting: 491 Votes: 201 Comments: 39 Favorites: 3 (view)
Great photo Mark. I never understood the picture of art rule that seems to be selectively enforced. I believe this restriction is a bit hypocritical.. Unless it includes buildings, statues (Ones of an Icelandic boat comes to mind) and other forms albiet practical forms of art.... Keep shooting. You have a real talent.
I liked this, it's very cleverly done. Of course, I figured the kitten was actually inside the bowl and the fish was a cutout.. at least I was half right. ;-)
Very creative idea for this challenge, nice humor to it too.
As for your lighting concern that you would get too much glare/reflection in your attempt to blow out the background - it looks like your subject was fairly close to your background, and perhaps moving the background much farther back and lighting it separately with a flash would avoid the issue of reflection, or at least make it more manageable. I'm guessing, no expert advice - I've been reading up on lighting lately and that's what comes to mind when reading of your difficulty.
Goodness, I'm surprised so many people assumed illegality here. It's a cute and clever use of cutouts but hardly difficult to spot/ work out! Sorry you were voted down for it!
This would be a perfect setup with advanced rules. It's sooo cute!
Something was bothering me about the cat's feet and I finally figured out that it was because they cast no shadows, making the gravel really neon-y. In advanced you could touch that up in a moment. Would LOVE to see a re-edit now that rule restraints are off... please? :)
I gave this a 9 for creativity, and the fact that it meets the challenge...Sorry to see that you were down voted because the skeptics didn't vote on the photography and the creativity, the comments are saying you would be DQ'd, I hope this is a lesson to all those with egg on their face.
Great job, except the BG of course... Reading the comments is sort of depressing, this PARADE of people assuming it's illegal, and one even TELLING you he's refrained from voting because he's not sure it's illegal and doesn't want to vote you down unfairly... WTF? Like you say, just vote the image and let SC do its job....
Heheheh, cute use of cutouts! Creative! Maybe a shallower DOF would help lose the wrinkles in the backdrop but you could just run an iron over it before use!!
I love the idea, but the background is a bit distracting. A quick pass of an iron over the sheet and an extra light aimed at it to blow it out would clean up the background a lot! Still a very cute idea!
This may have been a contender based on the idea but unfortunatly the wrinkled background really hurts the shot. I would love to see this done again with a good back ground and the cats eyes looking more in the direction of the fish. Really creative, good luck in the challenge.
Very neat idea, and pulled off very well, especially in basic editing. Is the cat a cut out, too? I think the background here doesn't do the image any favours.
This is really cool!. Is that a cut out fish? As for the cat, it almost looks like he was copied and pasted from another image, I hope its a cut out too. I love this idea and the cat licking its mouth is priceless. The background does nothing for me, less wrinkles wouldve been good. and the shadows are really distracting, 5
I foresee high marks for originality with this image. :) Unfortunately, I also foresee lower marks for execution. :(
On the plus side, the idea itself is wonderful. It certainly fits the subject of the challenge. On the minus side, the wrinkled cloth background and lighting do nothing to improve the image. A more natural setting for a fishbowl might have worked better. The kitten and fish both appear flat and unnatural, like cutouts.
I think I'll give this a 7 because I love the concept so much.
Is this legal in basic editing??? Or, am I not understanding some "trick" to it? Are these photos of the cat and the fish that you've placed into the bowl and outside the bowl and shot it? (no score for now as while I'm skeptical, I also like it and don't want to mark it down because I'm suspicious....just want to be fair to you in my scoring)
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