Tips for Voting

Registered users may enter and vote on their favorite cactus picture!
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daiv
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Tips for Voting

Post by daiv »

Some of you may not be sure exactly how you should decide which picture to vote for in the contests. While the picture contests are not highly formal, some guidelines can prove useful when you go to cast your vote.

First: Review the 4 elements that you should look for in the picture as listed on the rules page and quoted below.
- Quality of the picture (technique)
- Originality (moment or the species of cacti)
- Composition (a cacti in landscape or a particular situation)
- Relevance (how well the picture represents the theme)
Rather than try to get an all at once feel for each image, break down the four elements and assign them a value on a 1-10 scale - 10 being the best. Next, total the four numbers. In this way, 40 points would be a perfect score.

For example:

One image you may give an 8 for picture quality, a 7 for originality, another 8 for composition and a 10 for relevance. This would give a total score of: 8-7-8-10 = 33/40.

Another image may get the score of 8-8-6-10 = 32/40

So while the two images may be very close, you can cast a more confident vote for the first image as having a slight edge. If it is a tie, you just may have to flip a coin! :P

As stated above, the contests are not formal and the first rule is to have fun with it!

I'd like to thank forum member Brad (paracelsus) for coming up with this scoring method. With so many neat images each contest, I often have a hard time choosing just one of them. This formula will certainly help!
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
bartab
Posts: 263
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2019 4:52 am
Location: Danville, California - Zone 9

Re: Tips for Voting

Post by bartab »

test

Image
Attachments
Mammillaria luethyi
Mammillaria luethyi
cactus (1).jpg (82.23 KiB) Viewed 11221 times
bartab
Posts: 263
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2019 4:52 am
Location: Danville, California - Zone 9

Re: Tips for Voting

Post by bartab »

Practice
Luethyi
Luethyi
E5D8EE32-4228-4475-A4EE-8F061FEA302E.jpeg (185.73 KiB) Viewed 10826 times
DaveW
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Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:36 pm
Location: Nottingham, England/UK

Re: Tips for Voting

Post by DaveW »

Second one is much better Bartab since you have cropped it closer and removed a lot of the unnecessary image, but you now have a pink colour cast on it. Either the automatic white balance in your camera did not work and if you took the plant under artificial light you needed it set for that. The white spines in M. luethyi should be snow white and so should the lava chips, but you can correct that by adjusting the colour in post processing software.

See:-

https://digicamhelp.com/processing-phot ... t-removal/

You may also apply a little more image sharpening to the image. In some cameras if you are using JPEG's straight out of the camera the degree of in camera sharpening can be adjusted if you go into the menu, but see your camera manual:-

https://www.howtogeek.com/215920/htg-ex ... -doing-it/

Keep going, it is simply practice and trying the different controls.
bartab
Posts: 263
Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2019 4:52 am
Location: Danville, California - Zone 9

Re: Tips for Voting

Post by bartab »

Ha, didn't really mean for anybody to find this. Plant was just acquired and it was taken really close to dark and taken as a favor for someone with no additional lighting prepared. Didn't do any post processing. It's sitting in 100% pumice. I don't really like such large sized pumice but not much I can do at this time of year. I'm almost thinking about repotting and keeping inside under led plant light I use for seeds this winter. What do you think?
DaveW
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Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:36 pm
Location: Nottingham, England/UK

Re: Tips for Voting

Post by DaveW »

If it's on it's own roots I envy you since I have tried to obtain one on it's own roots for years. I have had a few on grafts, but they always eventually dried up on me over winter, even though the stock was green and healthy. I have tried de-grafting them but they also seem to dry up before rooting. Being cryptocarpic it is hard to get hold of seed since it is not a commercial proposition to extract without risking damaging the plant, therefore grafting is the most common method of propagation in plants for sale.

You may encourage further growth over winter under artificial light but don't know if it will inhibit flowering next year if the plant does not get a rest. It certainly is one of the choicest Mammillarias.

http://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/MAMMIL ... uethyi.htm

Yes we all take "snatched shots" in poor conditions to record things since we do not have time to set up properly for them. Often intending to take a better one later, but never get around to it. I have taken hardly any pictures this year in spite of last years New Years Resolution to take as many plants as possible when they flowered!
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