# Photo Challenge February '11 - "Self Portrait"



## Chris of Arabia

Hi everyone, 

Thanks to those who took part in the January '11 challenge, the   poll will be up shortly.

For this month, I have decided to set the challenge topic as *"Self-Portrait"*. This is a little different than usual, as by default, it can't be wholly anonymous when it comes to the voting. Nonetheless, let's see what you can do this month.  Can I also suggest the following guidelines  be followed:


In theory, this challenge should be easy, after all, everyone has their own subject to hand. However, doing a good self-portrait is no less of a challenge than doing a good portrait of any other type.
*I don't want to see any cameras reflected in the mirror! I will exclude them from the poll.*
Shoot specifically for the Photo Challenge - don't go raiding  the archives, that is not a challenge!
The Challenge is about making you think and helping you improve the    way you take pictures and the end results you get, so make an effort,    get out there, try something different, but most of all, have fun!
Good luck 
  The prize for the winner of the vote, as always, will be a $25.00  Amazon     voucher courtesy of the TPF owners.

For all those who wish to participate      in this challenge please take a moment to read through the   following:  

 The   deadline  for submissions is 28 February 2011
 The image can be no larger then *150KB**
 *Include your forum username* when submitting
 The attached photo must be in the form of a *.jpg*
 Please *keep your photo anonymous* (no distinguishing      watermarks, and no photos that have been posted previously on the forum)
 Submit *no more than one photo*
 If you wish you may include a title when submitting your photo         (please ensure that the attached photo is renamed as the chosen  title)
 The *form must also be included* when submitting the photo
Despite what the FAQs indicate, confirmation      emails will not be issued.
 The forum Admins and Moderators reserve the right to exclude or      remove any photo solely at their discretion
 The forum Admins and Moderators reserve the right to decide the      winner of the photo challenge
 All submitted photos will be posted, along with a poll, in a new      thread within the first week of the following month
 Once created, *the voting poll will last for 14 days* before      it closes automatically
 
>>>>>>>>>> Copy and Paste *this form*    into your submission email <<<<<<<<<<

*ThePhotoForum.com Username:*

** Photo Title (optional):*

*Is the attached photo 150KB or less? Y/N*

*Is the attached photo a jpeg? Y/N*

*Has this photo been posted before on The Photo Forum? Y/N*

>>>>>>>>>> End of form    <<<<<<<<<<

*Please submit only one photo per challenge.*

*Please enter your email subject as "February '11 Photo Challenge      Submission"*

* Please ensure that the attached photo is named the title you wish it      to have otherwise the title will not be used.
..................................................      .................................................. ...

Please email your photo to photochallenge@thephotoforum.com      and remember to enter the subject as indicated.

All photos must include the form when submitted. Just copy and paste it         into your email. This will ensure that no mistakes are made when       photos   are submitted and therefore, hopefully, no photos are    excluded.    If the   form is not included in the submission email the    photo will    not be   included in the challenge gallery and voting    process. 

There is more important information regarding rules and procedures         located in the FAQ section. We highly recommend that you take the time         to read these FAQs.

Good luck to everyone and have fun with this challenge!

**150KB* will be taken as         the size on disk and not the actual file size. Also some email         programs consider 1KB=1000Bytes as opposed to 1KB=1024Bytes. When    these      programs calculate attachment size they will often read    larger than     they  actually are. To be safe we recommend a target    size of about   140KB   so  that once sent it does not go over *150KB*.


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## norabora

Can you edit your pictures?


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## Opher

the competition is usually pretty open.  So i would say go ahead


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## norabora

Cool!


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## CNCO

understand that this photo is an image of me taking a photo of my self in the mirror late at night.


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## Bend The Light

CNCO said:


> understand that this photo is an image of me taking a photo of my self in the mirror late at night.



Hi,

You have to submit by email...using the form entries as in the first message of this thread.

Also, the self-portrait cannot include a camera reflected in the mirror! See the rules above. 

Cheers


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## CNCO

i am sorry for that image, i did not read as usual.


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## jonathanmphotography

Quick question.. these self portraits.. they don't necessarily have to be mirror shots do they? because I used my tripod yesterday to take one of me outside and will upload it if i can.


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## Chris of Arabia

They definitely don't have to be mirror shots. You can use a mirror if you wish, but that's kind of limiting don't you think? Use a tripod, use a bag of rice, prop it up on a wall or fence, Gorilla Pod if you have one, even put it on the floor -there are so many options. Just make sure you are the subject and that I can't see the camera anywhere.


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## jonathanmphotography

Sure thing. Thanks much. and you said editing is fine correct?


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## cnutco

Chris of Arabia said:


> *I don't want to see any cameras reflected in the mirror! I will exclude them from the poll.*



That made me laugh!
Thanks.


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## Loose Canon

OOoo Im looking forward to experimenting with this! Cant wait to see everyones results.


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## D-B-J

Why can't they be a previously posted one?  I have a great one but it's already been posted, but i'd love to use it..


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## Sirashley

D-B-J said:


> Why can't they be a previously posted one?  I have a great one but it's already been posted, but i'd love to use it..




If its previously posted, then everyone knows who the photograph belongs to. In order for the challenge to be fair the photographers have to be anonymous during voting...


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## SGpascoe

I'm going to have a go with this. Good luck to everyone 

I have no idea how a high quality picture is meant to fit into 150kb though!!


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## jay125

I find the self portrait the hardest photo to take.  The subject is always so uncooperative!


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## _james

jay125 said:


> I find the self portrait the hardest photo to take.  The subject is always so uncooperative!



 Always got to be a diva some of them


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## Alphenaar

and then there's the damn blinking ... :-D


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## rickabobaloey

Quick question, are any camera reflections banned or just ones from a mirror? Example would be the reflection cast over a pool of water.


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## fokker

Or a small reflection in sunglasses, or eyes even?


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## gulfman1

With those last questions you´re taking the fun of beeing creative! Keep your ideas for yourselves )


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## MartaS

I did it


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## VannaTheStrange

Wow...I can't wait! It's definitely going to be a challenge for me, because I hate being in pictures. I look forward to it!


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## gulfman1

MartaS said:


> I did it


so do I


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## lee3

Does the photo have to clearly reflect yourself or can it be a silhouette type shot?This will be my first upload as I am new to the forum.


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## RockstarPhotography

This is great.  I only have 1 picture of myself I actually like (and I used to model).  After doing this I now have 2!!!....Can't wait till february is up so I can use it as my profile pic!


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## Alphenaar

VannaTheStrange said:


> Wow...I can't wait! It's definitely going to be a challenge for me, because I hate being in pictures. I look forward to it!



Same problem here, but it went ok -- I hope it went ok for you too, good luck!


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## Bynx

For crying out loud I see a lot of talking and no pictures. Whats with that?


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## Josh66

Bynx said:


> For crying out loud I see a lot of talking and no pictures. Whats with that?


 Umm...  Because you won't see any of the pictures until next month when the poll goes up?

If anybody were to post their picture here, it would automatically be disqualified.  (Due to having been posted to the forum.)


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## Bynx

Oops, my bad. When all else fails read the instructions. Felt like I had to send a pic so I did.


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## matekat

cannot include a camera reflected in the mirror! See the rules above.


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## Canon John

I hope I make it to the voting. 

Good luck everyone!


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## tomdinning

The mirror thing was a bit strict. We can be creative with mirrors as well. Sometimes its necessary to shoot from within the mirror to get the shot you need. I have some pretty weird mirrors in my house.
See below.



_DSC8063 by tom.dinning, on Flickr


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## NielsSw

Tom, I hope you know that with posting that picture in the thread you do *not* participate in the contest?


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## tomdinning

NielsSw said:


> Tom, I hope you know that with posting that picture in the thread you do *not* participate in the contest?


 
I read all the rules. I can't submit it anyway according to the 'mirror' rule, although, strickly speaking, a mirror didn't play any part in recording this image (except for the use of the frame).
I hate rules!!! They are so restrictive. But you didn't want to know that, right!


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## NielsSw

Sometimes rules can be used to make the creative in you come up. If there are no rules and limits things can get boring.

I assume the rule was made to prevent these kind of crap pictures


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## tomdinning

NielsSw said:


> Sometimes rules can be used to make the creative in you come up. If there are no rules and limits things can get boring.
> 
> I assume the rule was made to prevent these kind of crap pictures


Thanks for the critique, Neils. Very informative. I'll keep in mind all you have said  to assist with my creativity. One wouldn't want to get bored.


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## Bitter Jeweler

Sirashley said:


> D-B-J said:
> 
> 
> 
> Why can't they be a previously posted one? I have a great one but it's already been posted, but i'd love to use it..
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If its previously posted, then everyone knows who the photograph belongs to. In order for the challenge to be fair the photographers have to be anonymous during voting...
Click to expand...

 
Let me know how that works out, exactly. You know, because many people have a self portrait for their avatar, and have posted shots of themselves in other threads. Anonymous:lmao:


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## Robin Usagani

Pretty sure if you shave it all, nobody will recognize you Bitter   :lmao:



Bitter Jeweler said:


> Sirashley said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> D-B-J said:
> 
> 
> 
> Why can't they be a previously posted one? I have a great one but it's already been posted, but i'd love to use it..
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If its previously posted, then everyone knows who the photograph belongs to. In order for the challenge to be fair the photographers have to be anonymous during voting...
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Let me know how that works out, exactly. You know, because many people have a self portrait for their avatar, and have posted shots of themselves in other threads. Anonymous:lmao:
Click to expand...


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## SrBiscuit

Schwettylens said:


> Pretty sure if you shave it all, nobody will recognize you Bitter :lmao:
> 
> 
> 
> Bitter Jeweler said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sirashley said:
> 
> 
> 
> If its previously posted, then everyone knows who the photograph belongs to. In order for the challenge to be fair the photographers have to be anonymous during voting...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Let me know how that works out, exactly. You know, because many people have a self portrait for their avatar, and have posted shots of themselves in other threads. Anonymous:lmao:
> 
> Click to expand...
Click to expand...


RAWR!


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## Chris of Arabia

Just to be clear, I understand that there are circumstances where the reflection of a camera will appear in an image no matter how hard you try to exclude it. What I definitely don't want is anything that looks remotely like that one of CCNO's above - that is the real no-no. Use a mirror if you need to by all means, but work out how to keep the camera out of sight - it can be done. By way of an example, these are two of mine, both involve mirrors; one would be allowed, the other not.

OK




Not OK




See the difference?


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## Chris of Arabia

NielsSw said:


> Sometimes rules can be used to make the creative in you come up. If there are no rules and limits things can get boring.
> 
> I assume the rule was made to prevent these kind of crap pictures


 
Exactly


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## Chris of Arabia

Well we're doing pretty good on entries this month, but competition is going to be tough. There are 38 fully compliant submissions, only one that hasn't got the file size right and not a single camera to be seen. Keep it going...


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## kalmkidd

a mirror didnt record his image. your new here worry about your image


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## Josh66

I still haven't come up with anything worthy of submitting ... but I still have a few days...


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## Bend The Light

Chris of Arabia said:


> Well we're doing pretty good on entries this month, but competition is going to be tough. There are 38 fully compliant submissions, only one that hasn't got the file size right and not a single camera to be seen. Keep it going...


 
Are you saying who has the filesize incorrect,or just disqualifying them? Just curious...think mine was ok.


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## JoshC.

Bend The Light said:


> Chris of Arabia said:
> 
> 
> 
> Well we're doing pretty good on entries this month, but competition is going to be tough. There are 38 fully compliant submissions, only one that hasn't got the file size right and not a single camera to be seen. Keep it going...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Are you saying who has the filesize incorrect,or just disqualifying them? Just curious...think mine was ok.
Click to expand...

 
I think he would have told you.  He helped me out last month.  You're probably good, don't worry


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## Bend The Light

JoshC. said:


> Bend The Light said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Chris of Arabia said:
> 
> 
> 
> Well we're doing pretty good on entries this month, but competition is going to be tough. There are 38 fully compliant submissions, only one that hasn't got the file size right and not a single camera to be seen. Keep it going...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Are you saying who has the filesize incorrect,or just disqualifying them? Just curious...think mine was ok.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> I think he would have told you.  He helped me out last month.  You're probably good, don't worry
Click to expand...

 
Cheers.


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## 786soul

Just did mine  excited.


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## Chris of Arabia

OK, no more entries, the closing day has passed - what a bumper crop we have this month. The poll will get sorted out over the next few days as it's just about weekend here. Good luck to all.


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