The Winner Of Our How I Took It Contest Is….

So, new year is just around the corner and I am in a debt for announcing our How I Took It contest winners. A debt that I am about to clear today.

Whichever way I look at it, it was an awesome ride, starting with a killer team of sponsors which contributed over $6300 in prizes through the on going buzz, and most importantly the submissions made to the contest by you.

I got a few questions about how the judging process went, so I thought I will clarify about that before listing the winners. basically it all came down to a huge excel sheet containing over 100 submissions. Each submission was rated by the amount of likes, retweets and G+ mentions that it got and fed into a formula Score=(3xTweets)+(2xLikes)+(6xG+). The highest scores won the contest.

Just kidding.

It was not easy selecting a winner and after cutting the list to about 7 favorites (some of which you’ve seen on the blog), I took some time evaluating the quality and originality of the final pictures, as well as how thorough was the “how I took It” explanation. I then consulted with a few photographers which their names shell remain a mystery and picked the first and second place.

Reader’s fav: as always with the readers favorite taken by votes, it was a close call. Here is a breakdown.

Simplicity was the readers fav, with a technique to get soft light using one speedlight, a reflector and a white wall. As easy as it gets. You can read the full tutorial here.

Readers Fav- Gorgeous Soft Light With One Speedlite by Andrea Cosentino

First Place – Rain Scene by Raj Khepar

What a great pictures (and part of a bigger series). Raj Khepar stages this unnamed scene and left it for us to decide what it is. For some reason, I could not shake the thought of a casino heist went wrong. While I love the technical execution and the rain machine that Raj built, it is the weird story of a guy holding an umbrella to a lady who crushes a third person that really got me.If you wanna know how the rain machine was build, here is Raj’s BTS.

Kudos Raj, you win the awesome list of prizes listed below.

Honorable Mentions

We only had first and seond prize for this contest, still there are some few awesome projects that are worth a mention (click the photo fpr the tutorial)

How to give old Nifty- Fifty new life by Maciej Pietuszynski

How to get the “Alien Eyes” Effect by Brian

How To Build A Soft Focus Filter From A Sink Drainer by Nick Cool

Thank You!

I want to extend a huge thanks to the sponsors of this contest, they make and sell top notch gear and you should definitely consider sending them their business.

Here is the awesome list of prizes Raj and Andy get to put their hands on:

• A Nikon D7000 + 18-105mm Lens ( $1,496.95) or a Canon 60D + 18-200mm Lens ($1,399.00) – winners choice
• A Lensbaby Pro Effects Kit for Nikon or Canon ($749.95)
• A LitePad Loop Kit from Rosco ($699)
• A Tamron SP 10-24MM F/3.5-4.5 Di II LD Aspherical (IF) Lens ($499.00)
• A 3 Legged Thing X4 Eric Carbon Fiber Tripod w/ AirHed 1 Ball Head ($489)
• A Think Tank Airport International V 2.0 Rolling Camera Bag ($369.75)
• A complete Tabelz Laptop Support Kit with a Primary Table, Side Table, Accessory Arm and Cup Holder (winner picks size) ($224.80)
• A Datacolor Spyder4Pro Display Calibration System ($169)
• A Big Ol’ Nasty Pack ($152)
• A Custom SLR package: C-loop, Glide Strap and M-Plate Pro ($150.85)
• A Joby Gorillapod Focus/Ballhead X Bundle ($146.02)
• A Lightroom package from SLR Lounge Including their A-Z DVD tutorial, Preset system and Workflow DVD tutorial ($297)
• A complete DIYP Product package ($97.95)

Second Place (list below):

• A Think Tank Retrospective 10 Shoulder Bag ($157.75)
• A Joby Gorillapod SLR-Zoom Tripod w/ BH1-01EN Ballhead ($79.95)
• A Nasty Flag And a Nasty Clamp ($97)
• A Lightroom package from SLR Lounge Including their A-Z DVD tutorial, Preset system and Workflow DVD tutorial ($297)
• A complete DIYP Product package ($97.95)