"Retire Early"

[Heather_L._Smith]

Okay, I've been sitting on this print for a couple of years and started thinking it was time to dust it off and try it in competition.

Would love your very honest, brutal comments... I'm tired of 78's and 79's, so if it's not going to cut it, please tell me.

Cheers,
Heather

[Dave_Cisco]

I don't think so...the first thing I saw was that the horizon goes through the middle of the imageand colors not saturated.

[Heather_L._Smith]

Dave - thanks for your comments.

Yeah - I've had a problem with that horizon. The boat sits in the 3rd quad now - would it make a difference if I moved the boat up to the 1st quad so that the horizon doesn't cut through the middle? Would that matter?

I'm surprised about the saturation - it was pretty saturated to begin with, and I even bumped it up a bit.

Cheers,
Heather

[Heather_L._Smith]

Here it is with the image moved... although I don't think it helps.

[D._Craig_Flory]

Dave - thanks for your comments.

Yeah - I've had a problem with that horizon. The boat sits in the 3rd quad now - would it make a difference if I moved the boat up to the 1st quad so that the horizon doesn't cut through the middle? Would that matter?

I'm surprised about the saturation - it was pretty saturated to begin with, and I even bumped it up a bit.

Cheers,
Heather

Hi Heather;

Moving the subject layer does not move the horizon line. It still goes above the wheelhouse. Dave was talking about the sky horizon.

I think if you present this well it can go high 70's Who knows, if a judge loves to fish you might get someone fighting for it. Here is my version.

[Betty_Huth]

Heather,

I liked the image the first way best. It is a cliff hanger, but I wouldn't give eup on it. Move it down so that the amount of mat is the same on the sides and bottom, maybe try different underlay colors and/or maybe try sizing the image just a little smaller. The resizing and moving down takes the horizon out the middle. If you try to saturate it more, be careful not to lose the detail in the body of the boat.

You can always use this image as the filler for a case and see how it does, or try a more local competition before you send to National.I would not give up on it totally.

[Betty_Huth]

D.Criag's Silhouette looks good and that was the size I was thinking. Maybe move it all down and to left corner. Would do high 70's and maybe even squeek over into 80. Like I said, use as a filler if you need one.

[Heather_L._Smith]

Thanks, guys! I'm not okay with high 70's anymore, so I may put this one aside and save it in the event I need an extra to fill a case. Like I said, I've been sitting on this for a couple of years, and I must say that I'm really glad to get the feedback via this forum rather than hearing the dreaded '78!' called out.

Thanks for the feedback. I just haven't gotten competition figured out yet, so we'll keep working on it!

[Dan_Leary]

Heather,
I am just the voice of sympathy here... last year I got FOUR 79's and two 78's. And every image that got a 79 pretty much had the judges divided right down the middle. I think all but one was challenged and re-scored. Misery I tell you. I can tell you one thing that helped was a Super Monday class on competition prints. I'm sure their has to be one close to you. For what it's worth, keep pluggin' away... eventually things will go your way.

[Jerry_W._Kelley]

Here it is with the image moved... although I don't think it helps.

Heather,

Compare this image with the one above, you should be able to see a difference in color satuation, al I did was to change the color space to sRGB from Adobe RGB. When you post your photos on the web and you want them to show the same as they looked in PS you need to convert to sRGB color space.

Jerry