Chili Cook Off, a photo from Texas, South

Photographer's Note

This is my first entry using my new Nikon D80. I am still learning all of the features but I absolutely love this camera.

Once a year the University of North Texas holds the "Eagle Fire Chili Cook Off" during one of the football tailgating parties. This year there were 13 teams that entered to compete for the coveted 1st place prize. At 1pm every team can begin cooking. At around 3pm the tailgaters have a chance to taste the chili and vote in the Peoples Choice Award category. At 4pm a crew of about 10 or 11 judges, ranging from Police Officers to the Chancellor of the University, sit down to taste every entry. The judges are given spoons, crackers, and beer. They take one taste from each entry and write down their score. In the end the best chili wins.

Post process:
Levels, Border

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Critiques | Translate

verde (957) 2006-10-27 12:57

I think you got a good up close shot here. I like the background being out of focus (bokeh/ bokah).

I think it would be stronger if he was facing us or somehow we were engaged in the action a little bit more.

the background is also a bit blown out.

I did a w/s to see what could be done about that. Just playing around instead of working.

Closer crop to help reduce the blow-out.
Copied the layer into a 'darken' blend.
masked all but the background out of the darken layer
did a layers on the foreground layer
sharpend the fore ground

see what you think, I think maybe too much sharpening. maybe a b/w or other toned image would help?

I can't wait to see more shots with your new camera

b