Challenges and Contests

[chas3stix]

Hi all,
You know I've been so busy learning new things to do with PSE that I haven't gotten to the challenges and contests part of the forum. I know I'm not the only newby to this forum and speaking for us newbies, could someone please explain just how that part of the forum works. This just might spur some us to join in.
Chas

[NMarti]

Each week there are two new ones. (Alice is on vacation now)

Grant's challenge consists of a photo that he posts (usually submitted by a forum member) that everyone takes any part of from a single element in the photo to the whole thing and makes their own creation. Grant posts them on the Challenge page for everyone to view. It is updated daily and changed weekly. You have to send your entries to Grant for posting.

The Weekly Photo challenge is covered by Will. He gives us an assignment on Sunday and we have until the following Saturday to submit that photo. It is open to interpretation and also photoshopping. For example, this week it is feet. If you look at the entries, there is a couch foot, baby feet, dog feet (gee I wonder who posted those?:p ) and I'm sure there will be much more before the week is out.

Anyone can participate in either challenge.

[billz]

Chas - Please join in!

There are a couple challenges that post weekly.

Grant's Challenge (They show up on the forum as 'Challenge #---' ) posts a picture every Thursday. Open the forum thread and you'll see that Grant has added links to follow. The object of the challenge is to download the weekly photo and let loose with your creative ideas and Photoshop skills. When your entry is ready there is another link for you to email your entry to Grant. He posts all of them and there are no prizes, just friendly participation.

There is also a weekly photo theme (They show up on the forum as 'Photo Theme #--' ) which posts every Sunday. On this one you are the photographer. A theme is presented and the object is for us to get up off of our big green recliners (ok that's just me) and get familiar with our cameras. Post photography Photoshopping is allowed and encouraged. Entrys can be posted in your gallery or on Pixentral.com. Again no prizes, no pressure, just friendly participation.

If you or others have questions, please speak up ... all of the challenges are more fun when there are more participants.

Hope you'll join in.

Bill

[chas3stix]

Nancy,
And I thought the eyes had it....:)
Thanks.
Chas

[billz]

Nancy - Nicely put. You taking a speed typing class??:)

Bill

[NMarti]

You're welcome!

[chas3stix]

Bill,
This fits in with Paul's slogan....shoot more....shoot more often.
Chas

[NMarti]

Bill
Nah - just said less.:p :D

[billz]

Chas

Nancy and I agreed to double team you in an effort to convince you to join in. ;)

Bill

[Ellen]

Chas- Bill and Nancy are right - it is what you should do, you will learn more about using elements just by doing something you might not have done on your own. You most likely will become a sort of addict but a challenge makes one grow. One hard part about the challenge section is drilling down through all the threads above and then having time for all those pesky things that real life demands.

[Bayla]

Chas,

And Alice has just started a Mini-challenge which is a bit more informal and where we are encouraged to make things from scratch in PSE rather than photograph them. There's only been three so far....a mug, a box or a frame & a button. I think they are being posted every other week but with no cut off point.

Bayla

Edit: Nancy has now taken over this particular challenge but it is on hold until September....but you can still post on the past topics.

[chas3stix]

Hi all,
Oh my gosh.....what have I gotten myself into? Maybe I'll have to ease into this challenge stuff....
Chas

[Grant]

Chas

Go ahead jump in the water is fine and there are a lot of us in the pool. ;)

--

[Pauline]

Chas there's no easing in. Just lift both feet and jump right in there! Don't be intimidated. They are a lot of fun and you learn a lot. Look through tutorials that you could apply to the image. That way you have something to follow and you are learning at the same time. Some pictures will give you inspiration, others won't. At least that's the way it is with me.
Go with it and have fun. We all learn from each other and it's amazing what some people come up with all using the same image (Grant's challenge)

[troush]

There is also a photo challenge here. http://www.colinwalls.com/challenge/

Colin participates over in the adobe.com forums. Grant used to do it, but he decided one challenge was enough. It's monthly, and you would have to follow the forum over there to keep up with comments.

This month I'm the contributor of the idea for the challenge.

-Trish

[chas3stix]

I'll have to inflate my floaties....:) The kid floats like a rock......!
New one on Thursday,huh?
Chas

[Wendy]

Chas ...

Looking forward to seeing yout challenge entries :) :) ... don't worry about it ... its all good fun and you will be fine !! :)

Wendy

[Ward Grant]

A warning on the challenges:
The first week you will look at your entry and say, "This is not good enough" because you think you don't know enough about Elements.

Six weeks later you will look at your entry and say, "This is not good enough" because you think you should add just one more layer, one more shadow, one more little technique that someone explained last week and you want to try.

I think you will be amazed how much you learn by doing something different each week. Everyone here is very willling to share tips or techniques and explain how they created a certain challenge entry.

[Grant]

Ward

Truer words have never been spoken. I have been sort of following the Challenge for a little while now :) I see it time and time again, people put there first image in and apologize. There is usually no need to! Often their work only scratches the surface but the ideas are all good. Then a few weeks later the depth of sophistication is incredible and they are confident enough to join into the on-line discussion and are giving information that is noteworthy.


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