Latest climb pic.

[Wep159]

HOLY SH#T!!

That wall looks INSANE!! Hope to go there very very soon!!!

Big up to the guys for finding this gem!!

[PaulB]

Oh! Sweet Crag! So what happened to the drill Andrew? Kaput?

[klimkop]

The 80's climbing look is much more interesting and entertaining than the boring fashion of current times.
dayglo is awesomeness!

[wasatchgirl]

Oh wow! I love this 80's climbing pic. Hehehehe. Spectacular!

[Sam]

Is this like a contemporary climbing version of the Where's-Wally picture books?

Honestly, I think you can actually over-photoshop a picture.

Trippy, but not for me.



ps. or maybe I'm just jealous of the grade being climbed

[pierre.joubert]

No Sam, that is not photoshop but a technique called HDR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging

http://www.google.co.za/images?q=hdr+ph ... 80&bih=576

Where are your pics?

[Bubblyworld]

Crikey, the new pic's a bit psychedelic. Awesome, but it makes the crag look like a ball of putty .

[Justin]

I think its pretty cool, something different! A bit Lord of the Rings like

[mokganjetsi]

or like something from "300"..... looks nice when its blown up. on the home page its this funny little blob thingy - thought it was a painting 1st look.

[Turtle]

Mordor meets Picasso. Loooov it!

[fridge]

Nothing wrong with HDR if it it nice and subtle
I am gonna be a prick now sorry.
I believe a photo should show the viewer a moment of reality caught in time.
And the processing following it should en be used to enhance the emotions and story caught within it.

Not make it look like a kid tripping on acid trying to make finger painting with bright neon colours.

I rate if you wanna try something funky get a roll of slide film and cross process the sucker mabey even double expose.

I would actually like to see the non HDR, over edited version of this picture i find the actual moment caught in time lost

.... Here is an idiee.
Lets start a small little challenge where we each build a pinhole camera take a couple of pictures (climbing related). I will give the winner of this a roll of film..... hey if we get enough people to enter i might even put up a development tank for the winner.

[Warren G]

Fridge i agree it would be col to have a climbing photo comp and stipulate the pics must be undoctored. on many decent cameras there is a "RAW" option. RAW images can't be edited and so this format is used by most photographic competitions already.

[Justin]

Ok, photo comp is on

I'll post rules and prizes later today.

With regards to posting RAW photos, RAW images can be manipulated (much more than .jpg images), they are also very large in size (too large to want to put up on a website for display).

[fridge]

Do we get brownie points for using cameras older than ourselves or homemade cameras and for using film ?

[pierre.joubert]

Yes, and extra points if you take your picture standing on your head... and double points for every verse of God Save The Queen you can whistle through your nought while doing so.

I believe a photo should show the viewer a moment of reality caught in time.

Isn't it rather that a photo should show whatever the photgrapher wanted it to show?

[fridge]

Yes, and extra points if you take your picture standing on your head... and double points for every verse of God Save The Queen you can whistle through your nought while doing so.

I believe a photo should show the viewer a moment of reality caught in time.

Isn't it rather that a photo should show whatever the photgrapher wanted it to show?

um would this whistle consist of the entire song or just the chorus?

o and as for the photo a lot of times a photgrapher gets something they did not entend to show but just as awsome if not more ....... now here is the question do you still show it cause you did not intend to show it.

In the en of the day it is all a matter of opinion. and yes every one is entitled to one but that does not mean that they are right ..... (oooh i hate this saying but like using it).

Cools we have a challenge (i am so gonna loos).

[zabullet]

No Sam, that is not photoshop but a technique called HDR

....that's extremely borderline. HDR is a massive manipulation of the original. As someone who has coded HDR plugins I can tell you that you are very much altering the image. When used correctly it allows you to produce a picture that is closer to what the human eye can capture.

Its also extremely dependent on two things.

1. How the HDR algorithm is implemented and most, including photoshop plugins, allow a huge amount of "tweaking" of values as input for the algorithm.
2. That the photographer correctly takes images with f-stops above and below a reasonable center point.

Considering that the aim in many respects is to correctly capture the dynamic contrast of the human eye I fail to see how the picture in question was correctly HDR'd. Unless the creator was in fact the Predator, there is no way that is an accurate representation of what is being seen.

zb.

[pierre.joubert]

Oh sigh...
Let me explain: It is not photoshop in the common use of the word - as in "That photo is not real, you can clearly see where the artist photoshopped the Durex in Jacob Zuma's hand".

However, if you mean photoshop to be any manipulation of anything in a photo, then ok, that is photoshop. For interest' sake: what would you qualify as 'photoshopped'?

Adjusting the brightness?
Contrast?
Colour saturation?
Cropping?
Straightening the horizon?

Considering that the aim in many respects is

your book tells you what the 'aim' of a photographic technique is? Isn't the aim of a photo(graphic) technique/tool to make something that looks cool?

correctly HDR'd

that's as good as saying Monet incorrectly painted The Garden at Giverny.

there is no way that is an accurate representation of what is being seen.

duh, that would make it art

[zabullet]

I understand what you are saying and of course "photoshopped" is subject to different interpretation. If you are asking what my personal definition is, then; photoshopped: "To manipulate an image so that it bears no resemblance to any sort of reality".

How about that?

To be honest I don't particularly mind the shot, I was just pointing out that HDR is a massive manipulation of the underlying image.

If we are being all artsy and esoteric, would you have preferred me to say "Its not photoshopped, its just ugly"?

zb.

[Justin]

Its been a long day... Photo comp is on, unfortunately I'm out of office tomorrow morning.

Details on the comp will be out on Friday

[NckT]

photography as a form of ART should have no boundaries....the manipulation of images (ie photoshop adding something or removing something from an image) is frowned upon by the 'professional' photographic community....I dont know much about HDR but from what I can see it is simply a way of creating a different lighting effect through layering the same image taken at different aperture settings...why is this 'frowned' upon??? the digital revolution is (sort of unfortunately and not) revolutionising photography...one is able to apply various different effects and manipulation techniques to what was an average pic and change it into something better...this has made photography far more easily accessible and now any tom, dick or harry can take a hundred pictures, get lucky once or twice and then make it look better on their pc...its a tough time if you want to be a professional photographer nowadays...

lets get this comp going...

[JonoJ]

Lets start a small little challenge where we each build a pinhole camera take a couple of pictures (climbing related). I will give the winner of this a roll of film..... hey if we get enough people to enter i might even put up a development tank for the winner.

Cool challenge!

If I can get a rusty old Brownie with no innards to work, could that qualify as building my own?

[fridge]

If I can get a rusty old Brownie with no innards to work, could that qualify as building my own?

I say hoora to that.

Do you still get film for these ?
Or are you making use of photographic paper

[micky]

Correction to Warrens statement about RAW being a format that cant be edited. RAW is a format that is in fact the best for editing. You can change color, exposure and a number of other things with out degrading the image unlike if you edit JPG. Thats a very rough explanation...

For those who think that photoshop is cheating... i would say that all digital photographers photoshop their images, its a part of digital photography the same way that changing chemicals in the dark room affected analog imagery. All those awesome cover shots you see on glossy climbing mags are photoshopped, they are just done well. If you want to be a serious photographer, understanding post production is almost as important as understanding your camera...

[Justin]

Climb ZA Photo Comp starts on Monday morning
The subject is rock climbing, submit your two best photos from 2010
More info soon...

[JonoJ]

If I can get a rusty old Brownie with no innards to work, could that qualify as building my own?

I say hoora to that.

Do you still get film for these ?
Or are you making use of photographic paper

It will take 120mm film, which I have a few b/w spools of...... the trick for me will be figuring out how to wind the film with no inner workings. I'm sure I can McGyver something though.

[JonoJ]

Oh, and Micky's 100% correct. All images you see nowdays have had some degree of digital manipulation done. Photoshop (or equivalents) is the dark room of the digital era. The better the digital manipulation the less the image looks edited..... unless of course you're going for an over-processed look.

Ask FHM for their unedited originals and you'll be horrified!!

[Justin]

Ask FHM for their unedited originals and you'll be horrified!!

Prizes for the comp are:
1st place: Wild Country 'Wild Wire' Quickdraws x10
2nd place: Wild Country'Vision Adjustable Harness'
3rd place: 2 x bottles of Rusticus fine wine

[Warren G]

and we submit on this Forum?

now to think of good climbing pics i shot this year **wonders off, scratching his head**

[Justin]

Submissions will be done via email.

The judges requested this as the gallery does take away some quality from the picture (in the same way that facebook does).

Pictures should ideally be sent in the following sent sizes
950pixels Wide for landscape
750 pixels Height for portrait

If you're not sure how to resize photos, we'll teach you how here

More details to follow on Monday...