World Press Photo of the Year 2015 winner only uses 5DMk.II & 3 primes!

Etienne said:
M_S said:
I just looked at the pic. The story told overal, is good, very emotional. That said, I find it quite bad to be honest in quality. Focus is somewhere on the barb wire, all blurred. Grainy as hell. Could have been an iphone shot. And this is the world press photo? In the past I could agree a lot more with that descision...

Seriously? You can't see why this would win? Hint: It's a photojournalism, not a brick-wall-test award. An iPhone would have generated a near-black splotch on a black background.

You're right on both counts. But of course, the second puts paid - at least to some extent - the mantra 'it's the gear you have to hand'. Because obviously, a camera (an iPhone, say, or a much older DSLR) that didn't have ISO 6400 wouldn't have been able to take this shot. So yeah, of course this competition - and really, most photography competitions - hinges on the content and emotion of a shot, but also some shots are only possible with certain gear (wildlife is a case in point, where most winning shots in competitions I follow use fairly high end cameras, lenses, sometimes underwater housing, and often travel to far flung places - they also need knowledge, both photographic technique and fieldcraft, etc). I suspect this shot won because it perfectly captures the human aspect of one of the most important current events in an instantly understandable and relatable way. Technical aspects wouldn't be considered, but they still contributed to the ability of the photographer to take the shot.
 
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May 26, 2012
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dcsimages said:
I wish brides would see and understand this. They're being told by wedding sites and wedding forum members to to ask what cameras will be used and reject photographers that don't have the latest and greatest. I've lost work because I hadn't upgraded quickly enough.

Next time just tell them what they want to hear. I doubt any bride on her wedding day will say, "Hold everything! The photographer claimed he used a 5D3 but that's just a mk2, the wedding's off!!!".

If anyone calls your bluff just say your Hasselblad is in for repair and carry on with the job.
 
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Mark D5 TEAM II

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This DPR post about this same story reminded me once again why I've avoided that site for years:

By RedFox88 (11 hours ago)

Taken on an iPhone and greatly push the shadows ? Pattern noise big time. No wonder it was clicked over to b&w. Very front focused. Can't see this as the winner being so technically flawed no matter the story. This is the demise of photographers in press positions. Now it's anyone with an iPhone.

The sad part is the poster is serious. ::)
 
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Mark D5 TEAM II

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He did win the brand new EOS-1D X Mark II, will he sell it to get another 5D Mark II and a nice week away?

Craig, he doesn't need to sell it since he also won US$10,000 to go with the 1DX2 body. He can take a vacation somewhere balmy, far, far away from areas of conflict & suffering.

BTW, I have noticed majority of the other winning shots, not just for this year, were taken with UWA & WA focal lengths (<35mm).
 
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Mark D5 TEAM II

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Another brilliant thread from Sony Photography Review:

By Neez (19 hours ago)

He should have brought an A7S

By EthanP99 (19 hours ago)

Iso 6400 f 1.4 would have looked baller on the a7s. I remember shooting 5d2 in that condition, that would have been hard for that camera, but with my a7s, much easier.
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StevenE
By StevenE (18 hours ago)

1. Battery would have been dead 3 hours before this shot
2. the light from the LCD would present risk of getting caught
3. The A7s weather proofing probably not up to the task

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EthanP99
By EthanP99 (18 hours ago)

I've killed 2 5d 2 bodies in rain.
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zlatko
By zlatko (17 hours ago)

The photographer said, "you can’t use a flash while the police are trying to find these people, because I would just give them away". The A7S is a light emitter (LCD or EVF). And looking through the EVF the photographer would have been temporarily blinded in such darkness. Wrong tool for the job.
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tonywong
By tonywong (16 hours ago)

The new Pentax K-1 would have been a great tool for this. Weather sealed full frame, -3EV AF points, as well as IBIS.
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bernardly
By bernardly (15 hours ago)

Keep the commentary going guys. So hilarious. :)
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merkaba
By merkaba (12 hours ago)

you can turn the LCD off on the Sony alpha cameras. Just set it to Viewfinder only and the EVF will only light up when something is close to it
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fmian
By fmian (10 hours ago)

Bit of fill light from a reflector would have been nice. Maybe some rim lighting too...
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zlatko
By zlatko (9 hours ago)

You can turn the LCD off, but the EVF lights up when you use it. There are 2 problems with that in this situation.

Hilarious. ;D :D
 
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unfocused

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ScottyP said:
...no one would value this particular photo that highly were it not for the context.

Is there anything but context?

[quote author=Edward Weston]
Now to consult rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. Such rules and laws are deduced from the accomplished fact; they are the products of reflection and after-examination, and are in no way a part of the creative impetus. When subject matter is forced to fit into preconceived patterns, there can be no freshness of vision. Following rules of composition can only lead to a tedious repetition of pictorial cliches. [/quote]
 
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LDS

Sep 14, 2012
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Besisika said:
I am not so sure about him being someone who knows nothing about the art of photography.
Photojournalism is not the only genre of photography that matters - you better remember that when you are asked to take a portrait of the miss universe.

This was a contest about press photography, thereby that was the context of submissions. An highly constructed image would have been rejected. Sure, there are other genres. But even photographing miss america you can go the fashion cliché way (and then heavily photoshop it to get that very "natural look"), something you maybe would be forced to do if commissioned the usual marketing material, or, as other photographers who took images of the beautiful and the famous, go your own way and produce images that say what you want to say, if you have the needed freedom.
 
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Can't help it...must...chime...in... :p

To those who casually say, "Could have been taken on an iPhone," just pause for a moment to think about that statement. You're saying that in identical conditions, an iPhone would have produced an image of the same quality.

Really?

Let's just pretend that there's no difference in field of view, shooting ergonomics, et cetera. Do you really think that in lighting so dark that a full frame sensor produces this (technically) poor of an image a tiny smartphone sensor would keep up?

I think you mean, "An iPhone is capable of taking an image that looks crappy like that, too." Just understand that that is VERY different. I would expect that a smartphone image in identical lighting would be next to useless.

Feel free to conduct a controlled experiment to prove me wrong, though..

All that said, this thread just goes to show how some see a story, some see art and some can't get past pixel peeping...

PS: We should probably tell Adobe that they can drop the "grain" slider. After all, why on earth would anyone ever ADD grain to an image??? Oh yeah...art.
 
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"do you need the latest and greatest gear to get great images. We know the answer, yet a lot of us continue to ask it and ignore the universally known answer."

Exactly. Of all the folks in this thread proclaiming that gear does not matter and it's all about emotional impact, etc, how many actually shoot with a previous-generation Rebel and a cheap prime and how many have invested multiple thousands in expensive gear, honestly :)?
 
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MintChocs said:
It's probably black and white due to noise and banding but still a very emotive shot which the grittiness suits. I'm sure he'll upgrade to a better camera but maybe not so soon. My guess is he'll get the 5dmkiv when it releases. Once you get familiar with the controls and the way the metering is you instinctively know what settings to use and a new camera takes time to learn.

I agree, he might ask Canon to keep the 1DX2 and give him the 5D4 when it's available.
 
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Jan 13, 2013
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adventureous said:
MintChocs said:
It's probably black and white due to noise and banding but still a very emotive shot which the grittiness suits. I'm sure he'll upgrade to a better camera but maybe not so soon. My guess is he'll get the 5dmkiv when it releases. Once you get familiar with the controls and the way the metering is you instinctively know what settings to use and a new camera takes time to learn.

I agree, he might ask Canon to keep the 1DX2 and give him the 5D4 when it's available.

-1

He can easily sell the 1DX2 and buy the 5D4 with some change left to grab another lens.
 
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M_S

Jul 31, 2013
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Alastair Norcross said:
M_S said:
I just looked at the pic. The story told overal, is good, very emotional. That said, I find it quite bad to be honest in quality. Focus is somewhere on the barb wire, all blurred. Grainy as hell. Could have been an iphone shot. And this is the world press photo? In the past I could agree a lot more with that descision...
Hilarious. A classic case of someone who knows nothing about the art of photography. As for the focus being on the barbed wire, did it ever occur to you that perhaps that was intentional?
Quite frankly? No. Because from the looks of it, it looks like he didn't get the shot done. Since the baby is the important part or the helping hands, this would have been more obvious.
 
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I had no idea the 5D Mk II had a black and white image sensor!


Or maybe he just made it B&W to hide the noise?


What is in focus here? The arm?


Too bad there wasn't IBIS, could've had a photo without obvious camera shake.


It's a great photo of a decisive moment, but let's not act like this couldn't have been done with dozens of other cameras. (and done better with some)
 
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M_S

Jul 31, 2013
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LOALTD said:
I had no idea the 5D Mk II had a black and white image sensor!


Or maybe he just made it B&W to hide the noise?


What is in focus here? The arm?


Too bad there wasn't IBIS, could've had a photo without obvious camera shake.


It's a great photo of a decisive moment, but let's not act like this couldn't have been done with dozens of other cameras. (and done better with some)
+1
 
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LDS

Sep 14, 2012
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roguewave said:
Exactly. Of all the folks in this thread proclaiming that gear does not matter and it's all about emotional impact, etc, how many actually shoot with a previous-generation Rebel and a cheap prime and how many have invested multiple thousands in expensive gear, honestly :)?

As usual, "do what I say, not what I do"... ;D
 
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LDS

Sep 14, 2012
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M_S said:
Quite frankly? No. Because from the looks of it, it looks like he didn't get the shot done. Since the baby is the important part or the helping hands, this would have been more obvious.

No, the wire fence is the important part. What gives strength to the image is the act of passing the baby *across the fence*. Put the fence out of focus, and it's just two people exchanging a baby.
 
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M_S

Jul 31, 2013
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LDS said:
M_S said:
Quite frankly? No. Because from the looks of it, it looks like he didn't get the shot done. Since the baby is the important part or the helping hands, this would have been more obvious.

No, the wire fence is the important part. What gives strength to the image is the act of passing the baby *across the fence*. Put the fence out of focus, and it's just two people exchanging a baby.
And that makes sense in what way? An inanimate fence is more important than the young human being "rescued" here? Since part of the barb wire is already out of focus and is easily recognized as such, the 5 cm sharp focus on a part of it won't make up for a great interpretation improvement. But anybody to his opinion.
 
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Maximilian

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M_S said:
LDS said:
M_S said:
Quite frankly? No. Because from the looks of it, it looks like he didn't get the shot done. Since the baby is the important part or the helping hands, this would have been more obvious.

No, the wire fence is the important part. What gives strength to the image is the act of passing the baby *across the fence*. Put the fence out of focus, and it's just two people exchanging a baby.
And that makes sense in what way? An inanimate fence is more important than the young human being "rescued" here? Since part of the barb wire is already out of focus and is easily recognized as such, the 5 cm sharp focus on a part of it won't make up for a great interpretation improvement. But anybody to his opinion.
I don't know if the focus was set as it is on purpose or if he really missed it.
But let's admid he was able to "plan" the settings:
Ever thought that keeping the people out of focus was part of the plan to keep them anonymous?

I tend to the theory that he just did the shot at this moment - several shots (I would have done that in these light conditions to get at least ONE decent one) - and afterwards decided that this was the one telling his stroy the best.
 
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M_S

Jul 31, 2013
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Maximilian said:
M_S said:
LDS said:
M_S said:
Quite frankly? No. Because from the looks of it, it looks like he didn't get the shot done. Since the baby is the important part or the helping hands, this would have been more obvious.

No, the wire fence is the important part. What gives strength to the image is the act of passing the baby *across the fence*. Put the fence out of focus, and it's just two people exchanging a baby.
And that makes sense in what way? An inanimate fence is more important than the young human being "rescued" here? Since part of the barb wire is already out of focus and is easily recognized as such, the 5 cm sharp focus on a part of it won't make up for a great interpretation improvement. But anybody to his opinion.
I don't know if the focus was set as it is on purpose or if he really missed it.
But let's admid he was able to "plan" the settings:
Ever thought that keeping the people out of focus was part of the plan to keep them anonymous?

I tend to the theory that he just did the shot at this moment - several shots (I would have done that in these light conditions to get at least ONE decent one) - and afterwards decided that this was the one telling his stroy the best.

Can be. Could be. I don't know. And I really don't want to know. I just looked at the pic and it didn't resonate with me because of the technical issues. Thats what I wrote in the first place. Done. And some pal here thought to lecture me for that. Ever thought that there could be better photos than this one out there? I mean, how many great photos of great moments, with emotions clear visible and there to grab are out there and have been taken in the last year? Millions? More? And this...really this....is the BEST journalistic one the come up with? I can't see that, not in this day and age.
 
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