Third Digital Image Competition 2020-2021

This is the third of four individual digital image competitions that replaced the Bracknell Club’s Print League. This is an open competition with up to two entries allowed.

Certificates will be awarded for 1st place (Gold), 2nd place (Silver), 3rd place (Bronze), two Highly Commended and two Commended.

Autumn and Winter reflected

What is a diptych in photography?:
The diptych—two images combined into a single frame or presented together—originated in art as a drawing or painting in two parts. … In photography, the diptych has become a popular format where pairs of portraits, images or themed pictures are used together to complement one another. (from Google search)

Judge’s comments
An interesting thing to do, it would seem that you’ve taken the same picture on two occasions within those two seasons and one you’ve flipped it such that it provides a mirror reflection of the other and that is a pretty interesting thing to do and I applaud you for trying that out

When we examine the actual pictures that we have got , you have gone for a black and white representation of each scene

If we take the left hand one on its own we have got a little bit of a path that is reasonably delineated as it runs into the distance and it disappears off into nowhere and we don’t really know where . But to some extent that is OK as sometimes a path leading to somewhere mysterious raises questions and gives ambiguity which makes the picture interesting in a way but it is not disappearing into nothingness, we just don’t know where it goes. Overall the tonal range in the picture is fairly monotone and not that exciting

Then we jump to the snowy picture and then obviously we get our contrast and stronger blacks and whites because we have got snow on the ground and if we look into the trees in the distance we have got deeper blacks than we have got on the left

So I think the snowy picture has got a bit more interest a bit more life in it, but it is still rather dull lighting even in the snowy picture and even more dull on the left

So I think the idea is great, I do wonder in fact whether just bringing back the colour might have given it a little bit more of a lift and a little bit more interest especially in the left hand picture. And perhaps bizarrely a bit more contrast between the two pictures than you’ve generated purely by having the snow on the ground

A nice try

White on black

This image is from  a Creative Flower Photography Workshop in Wimbledon held in 2018. The workshop was hosted by Polina Plotnikova.

Judge’s comments
Ok we have a more or less a trio of really visible orchids coming down from the stem in the top left hand corner, that’s quite nice. It forms quite a nice hanging chain of the orchids

It is a very strong kind of powerful image in so far as it is an example of the images we have looked at tonight where we have got a really dark black disappearing background with no delineation in it whatsoever.

So again it just resonates as if it is a studio image where you have hit it with some powerful lights as well as we have got some very strong reflective light especially on some of these areas at the back, perhaps almost backlight coming in, and that makes for a kind of graphic representation to the orchid

The orchid is a very subtle and beautiful kind of flower and I am not entirely sure it merits being blitzed with such powerful light and rendered against such blackness

So it seems to be a little bit unsympathetic towards the flower itself, because of the harsh lighting it makes it slightly harder to get in and appreciate some of the subtleties of the details in the flower itself where it starts to curl around, there you get these tendrils.

If we look into the middle of the flowers there’s some of that detail and subtleties lost because of this blackness surrounding it and the whiteness of the petals is being drawn out

So it is an interesting idea but I don’t think that it is quite works to best effect.

Mask 2 – For comment

Judge’s comments
In this instance we have got quite a tonal range we are going from fritzy black through to pearly white, almost pure white in some instances, and all points in between

Now that is not necessarily a bad thing, I think in black and white photography one of the things that sets lots of pictures apart is to use the full tonal range but it is a question of where those tones are sitting within the image is to how successful the image is.

So we end up with the arms and the gloves with a very much silhouette effect and then it goes very bright as we move up into the top left hand corner

I think that some extent the heavy dominance of the blacks of the gloves is proving that very dominant, especially the right hand arm and glove that is in the vertical position, that really does drag me over towards there an awful lot. Normally we would go for bright spots in images and we are told that the dark areas are the things we are not going to focus on. When you flip it and get an almost silhouette kind of thing it obviously the blacks that we go for

So, the hand position and everything is very intriguing but I think that is just dominating and dragging us away from where the main supposed focal point [which should] be the face and mask.

I think if you were to introduce some more shadow and detail and lighten the gloves a bit I think it might balance the picture a little bit more.

 

The original images

‘White on black’: