Sky Arts ~ Masters of Photography

Only the winner said anything about Sicily for me. All the others could have been shot just about anywhere.
 
jimgallaher said:
To reinforce that it's about the photographers skill, not the equipment, there is a misconception that expensive gear makes great photos. Give the contestants entry level kit, this may inspire people and maybe some youngsters to give photography a go.
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I've only seen a couple of episodes of the first series but, as far as I could tell, it was all about ideas, content and form. None of these has anything to do with equipment so I don't see why anyone watching would think that equipment was particularly relevant .
 
I watch last year and also it was sponsored they never put the camera brand forward neither talked about the kit at all... If i remember well. But thanks for the head up i'll look at this one soon!
 
Yep, Leica have clearly pointed out that they want better placement in the editorial - hence far more shots of the back and front of cameras with prominent branding. It's still reasonably subtle though.
 
Byker28i said:
The last series was an interesting program to see the process and thoughts behind the tasks set to the photographers. It certainly deserved to be on an arts programme. I hope this year they improve the website and put more of the final image submissions on it
http://masterofphotography.tv/
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Website is still crap.

Who wouldn't want to see the shortlists, or indeed more of their images than that. :(
 
Watched the first epidode, overalls an improvement on the first series - which at times was overly pretentious.

Watched with interest as I am off to Siscily myself in 4 weeks, although was surprised to see they had gone in winter. This was a theme from last year, send contestants to a great location, but get them to shoot out of season or in the dead of night - I guess it adds to the challenge.

A number of the images were quite poor in my opinion, and weren't much more than a snapshot. A few were quite good though. Overall the critiques aligned roughly with my own - the weakest 2 should have both gone home though!
 
Poss spoiler alert.



I thought there were some much weaker images than the barbershop one.

The right one went home but I'd have put the barbershop way above 3 or 4 of the others. He'd missed a great shot by inches, some of the others weren't even 'good'.

The 'nativity scene' was close to being the worst of them.
 
Only just got round to watching this, agree 100% the nativity scene was the worst, and i think should have gone home.
 
Just watched episode 2 and i'm still not impressed with most of the efforts.
 
1st episode watched. Not bothered by the use of Leicas at all as point proven by the nativity, its not what you use... Saying that I'm struggling to get to grips with my Nikon having gone from Canon to Fuji and now to Nikon over the last 10 years ( I miss 2 dials for aperture and shutter speed!! I enjoyed the program to watch and seeing the thought processes. Will watch the next one that I have digitally recorded!
 
Peter123 said:
Just watched episode 2.
Some are seriously pig headed in not following the brief.
I can't believe the sex shop image was complimented.
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To be fair it was only Toscani that applauded the sex shop picture and I attribute his thinking to the seriously weird sh*t that's going on inside his head.
 
Yes I remember one of his comments from the last series (on the fellow Italian who eventually won)
........... this image is bad, very bad, but it is so bad it is good..... (or words to that effect)
 
It's all pretentious b****x, there are many many members of this forum who would wipe the floor with the contestants in the show :)
 
Swissy said:
It's all pretentious b****x, there are many many members of this forum who would wipe the floor with the contestants in the show :)
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Under the same conditions, there might not be that many? It's like any 'talent' competition though; there are plenty of singers, cooks, dancers etc around the country that are better, but not seeking the glory.
 
nickEnackEnoo said:
Under the same conditions, there might not be that many? It's like any 'talent' competition though; there are plenty of singers, cooks, dancers etc around the country that are better, but not seeking the glory.
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So no one on here could do better than the sex shop photo which was supposed to portray the city's rush hour lol
 
Swissy said:
It's all pretentious b****x, there are many many members of this forum who would wipe the floor with the contestants in the show :)
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There's some awesome wedding photographers here who manage great shots in a short time, but it's a niche brief they've had lots of practice at. And compared to 'live' competition it's also like shooting fish in a barrel. Dozens of people happy and relaxed and looking their best.

Shooting a different brief every week is a much more complex thing.

I'm not overly impressed with lots of the images in this show, but I don't think it's something many people could do well.
 
Swissy said:
So no one on here could do better than the sex shop photo which was supposed to portray the city's rush hour lol
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That's not what I said :) The sex shop photo was completely out of place, but it's good to have a quirk or two in the show ;)
 
nickEnackEnoo said:
That's not what I said :) The sex shop photo was completely out of place, but it's good to have a quirk or two in the show ;)
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My 9 year old granddaughter with her EosM would do better :)
 
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Swissy said:
So no one on here could do better than the sex shop photo which was supposed to portray the city's rush hour lol
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judging by season 1, I think to an extent the contestants are "damned if they do and damned if they don't" on a lot of the tasks.

Anything too obvious, and they're in for a beating. Boring, postcard etc...
Anything too 'beautiful' - you get the 'any idiot can see beauty in beauty' comments.
If you take on board comments one week and apply them the next, nope. That's wrong too! (the lady who was criticized for not stripping off in her photo's, did so the next week and was criticized for being a narcissist! (the self portrait task). Mind you, she was :)

Ultimately it was those with an attitude that progressed, so I can see why people push against the advice.
 
Just watched episode 2 and IMHO the right one went home. The brit guy was clearly embarrassed to have got by using the 'in a cage' line when it was the mentor that thought of it. Still, even without that, it ws better than the strange woman standing in a street with bollards!
 
Well, this group don't seem as with it or capable as the first lot but it is early days. As for that judge who thought it was a appropriate to make sexual references in critiquing a woman's work, well, yuck springs to mind.
 
Phil V said:
Same as last year, people ignoring the editing advice of the 'mentor' WTF?
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I cringed at episode 1 of the new series when the mentor not only advised on what PP was required (minimal at that) and which image would impress the judges. Needless to say his advice was completely ignored, the contestant used her choice of image and was subsequently lambasted for a crap choice! What made it more cringeworthy was that the mentor sat with the 3 judges so was totally aware of her behaviour! [emoji15][emoji15][emoji15]

Andy
 
Interesting to watch the different approaches in episode 3.
 
^Joe said:
I've only watched the first episode so far...

Glad the strange presenter isn't in it any more.

Can anybody tell me what the smallest Leica is that they use on the show ? It looks rather pretty.
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I presume that's the Leica Q - the one with the fixed lens Fuji X100 style :)
 
SPOILER ALERT!




Watched the 3rd one, didn't agree with lots of the judging, (especially the suggestion the young girl could have exposed differently to significantly alter the contrast between the lit and shadow areas of background) though we did agree the winner.

The winner looked like a classic Bailey - really cracking shot.
 
I was disappointed with episode 3. I thought at least one of them would have tried to talk him into getting his kit off and put him in a classical pose. Michelangelo’s David comes to mind.
 
I liked episode 3 but the guy that went deserved too. He really just didn't get it did he?
 
Stuart M said:
I thought at least one of them would have tried to talk him into getting his kit off
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I thought one of them did suggest it, but Clive wasn't having any of it. Seemed like a lovely bloke, but didn't want to do anything interesting.
 
Phil V said:
SPOILER ALERT!




Watched the 3rd one, didn't agree with lots of the judging, (especially the suggestion the young girl could have exposed differently to significantly alter the contrast between the lit and shadow areas of background) though we did agree the winner.

The winner looked like a classic Bailey - really cracking shot.
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That was my winning image.
 
I've only watched the first one so far - we only have Sky on one box and thats where the Xbox lives :D but I did find the fist guest very good - offered good advice and didn't seem up his own backside which was nice, and even rarer I pretty much agreed with him!

Was nice watching with my son though as he was like a mini judge.
 
I don't understand why they try to portray the images as if they are taken on film.
They make a big thing about "Time's Up" on the assignment and the contestants putting their memory cards in the containers.

When they next show the edited "Contact sheets" on the monitor screens they are displayed as if they are film strips, with borders and film type..
Who are they trying to fool, and why?
I can't make out what the editing software is either.
It looks like Lightroom but not quite.
Do Leica have a special edition of Lightroom for their dedicated use?
 
It's blatantly not just aimed at hobbyist/serious photographers - hence the artistic license. Can't knock that, really.
 
I'm finding Souvid's involvement v distracting - ie wondering when he'll go/what the producers will say.
 
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