Ashanali

2) two pups, different colours, both attached to the one placenta by separate umbilical cords, and in individual sacs

The same as in humans, they are 'twins' in the sense that they are born at the same time... the same as fraternal (non-identical) twins, sometimes the placentas fuse, sometimes they don't.

All it means is that the embryos implanted close together in the uterine wall and as the placentas grew larger, they fused. This happened with my human twins, they started off very separate and by the end it was just one massive placenta, but the babies were obviously in separate amniotic sacs.

I don't have an issue with editing the photos to that extent if it's for models or is requested but I honestly had no idea just how much could be done with photoshop; you can change someone's entire figure. No wonder there are such skewed perceptions about women's bodies out there if even women with gorgeous figures are altered so much before the image is printed.

Absolutely, which is why Girlfriend magazine now tag the images that have been photoshopped beyond the basics.

I was concerned about offending people (I've seen the "discussions" here about editing!) and it doesn't seem to be something advertised on photographers websites.

I'm helping a friend with her wedding plans and she really doesn't want anything changed in her photos; she wants the colour, light, lumps, bumps and everything to stay exactly as it was when the camera went click.

So an enquiry of, "Will you take photos with zero editing?" will be clear enough?

nope.

You actually need to be specific. If you say, "zero editing" a decent photographer will say, "But we touch all the images" as essentially MOST decent photographers will correct exposure, contrast, colour etc to enhance the photo (in the days of film, this was all done by the person processing the photos in the lab... so there is no real change to how quality images are handled.)

You need to say, "I don't want any skin smoothing or liquifying". This means they will enhance the photo but they will leave the subject looking as they are.

or you need to find a low quality photographer who has no idea what they are doing and will provide you with raw files on a disc... they're out there everywhere (but they don't necessarily have fantastic work.)

ETA: colour and light is a tough one. Theoretically I could use AWB and end up with cool toned images, but Alex could shoot on 'cloudy' and end up with warm toned images. Both are real representations of the scene but they will look a lot different even if photographed under the same lighting conditions. What you would need to say is that you don't want colour washes or filters applied to the images, you want to see real colours etc.

after a PM I thought I would add that dolers are the only people who have seen the photo above pushed that far. I did it purely as an exercise to see how far I could push the boundary. (not even the model has seen that version.)

THIS is the edit that went on the website... she still has size but the lumps and bumps have been smoothed and it's more flattering

Is it possible to find a quality photographer who will take photos as is?

ML - yep, we only push the editing if it's requested, otherwise our usual response is, "We're photographers, not panel beaters."

Just thought I would point out that the photographer has actually been in here and read this thread.

General rule of thumb - models get photoshopped to the extreme, brides are handled very delicately and only basics or really obvious stuff should be altered.

Rules we go by; moles, scars etc get faded but NEVER removed. If it's a part of someone and permanent, it stays. Skin is softened for close ups and fine lines are removed but generally lines are left, they add character and life to a person.

I don't have an issue with his photoshop... it's quite good.

Here's one I did a while ago just for fun... (she's a model, so she gets edited)

The pups are nearly 5 weeks old and they had their first day outside today.

I have photos (as a slideshow) on my blog.

http://breilla.wordpress.com/

Lol baby steps raz

Hey I'm not knocking you, Woof. I think it's great that fast food companies are getting people thinking. Good for you, but still laughing that people think they're getting 100% pure beef when they chomp into a 'two beef patty special sauce lettuce cheese pickles on a sesame seed bun. I think they're getting a little bit more than a company name that stamps it's product with beef, dont you?

You forgot the onions.

One of my dogs I had about 6 years ago was on a Canon Pixma tv ad.

Here's a scary one

straight out of camera

finished product

I honestly couldn't tell you what the processing was except to say that I went heavy on the tonal work. These were processed last year so if I had to repeat the editing, I would likely get a different result.

ETA: The green cast over the final image is intentional to draw attention to the horrible flouro lighting used in most schools.

Huga - yes.

Ok good. But they aren't very sharp and I'm pretty sure the flare across Ed's face isn't the desired outcome

You're right. Some people will put their hand up and block the sun while they focus then when the focus is locked they take their hand away. You could try that to get a sharper image.

Huga - yes.

Ash I watched one of your groups judging for a while. I found it very interesting. You were gunning for a silver distinction for the photo of the bride walking down the stairs but the guy to your left wasnt feeling it. I enjoyed watching how it all worked

Someone caught me judging, eh?

The person to my left was the great Jerry Ghionis... rated as one of the top ten wedding photographers in the world. He ended up pushing up his score and said to me across the panel, "I don't agree with you but I'll give you this one." I got what I wanted

2787 images from 740 photographers entered.

28% of images won a silver award

I can't remember how many silver distinctions there were. I think it was around 200

only 41 gold awards

and 8 gold with distinction

I'm not upset with having an image that is considered as being in the top 50 out of 2787 images (of course, Serena's gold image also.)

Thought I had better add mine.

The first four were entered at our state awards back in April only

(this one just missed out on an award.)

And these four were entered at both state and national awards

GOLD!

GOLD at state... bombed at nationals (it's just like dog showing. Different day, different judges)

I'm not a landscape photographer. I actually hung out with a landscape photographer on the weekend and tried to get them to explain to me what makes a good landscape and it was if he was talking another language.

However I was in the plane on the way home and looking out the window I saw a stark white road and a dark coloured pool of water up ahead. I quickly grabbed my camera out of the bag and had time to snap off one photo before we were too far away from the scene.

and this is it... I still have no idea if it worked. Maybe not.

I'll post mine tomorrow. I've only been home a few hours and already up to my eyeballs in work.

Ahh... home sweet home.

Serena didn't enter any dog photos. The only image of serena's that was still on display yesterday was a shot of a woman cropped across her chin, she's sitting in a chair with her hands in her lap and there was an old radio on a stand in the corner of the room. the photo below was a boy in a classroo

pulling a face... That was my photo.

Well Serena, Tess and I all had photos judged today and we rocked it!

Serena and Tess have had enviable debut to the awards with Tess picking up three silvers from three images and serena picking up one gold, one silver distinction and one silver award from her three images. I managed to bomb on my first image but picked up gold, silver distinction and a silver from my remaining images! Woohoo!

Suppose i shouldn't forget my husband who had two images up today for one silver distinction and silver. His final two are up tomorrow.

But woohoo! Yay for dolers!!! We rock!

Tess I have your imageson a print out so Rocco can chase them down for you. Also if you can still come on saturday and awArd winners will stillbe on display on the wall.

I'm in Melbourne!!!!

Excellent.

I can come on Sunday.

Between dogs and dol stuff my weekends have suddenly got very busy (and expensive) over the last 6 months.

well this is FREE (unless you wander next door for lunch) so come along!

It's only free if you pre-register at the link in the first post. If you don't register - it's $20

Is there a certain time for Mr Photoshop or will it be all day?

This is the full panel of speakers and timetable for the FREE education zone.

http://www.pmaaustralia.com.au/a/104.html

those topic are dull but there are speakers like Phillip Andrews who is a photoshop genius and many more that are accessible to the public.

Then there are the photography toys

and as an added bonus, the good food and wine show is on next door at the same time

I didnt tell there would be refreshments so close.

I will be there too so look out for a mad blonde rushing from room to room.

* Hears, "Anybody in the road gets knocked over" chanted in her head*