The 4th episode of Photo Face-Off Season 2 has been my favourite so far. It took place in beautiful Hanoi, a charming city that has endured wars, invasions and colonial rule.

The three Vietnamese contestants this week were Giang Vu Hoang (23), Aron Schuftan (40), and Nhong “Rose” Hong Nyugen (18), and of course, the fourth contestant is pro-photographer Justin Mott, whose home is Vietnam and who wanted to showcase his expertise on home turf during this episode.

Serenity In The City

The first challenge had to do with speed and took place around Hoan Kiem Lake, a majestic lake in the middle of the city. The contestants’ mission was to capture a reflection that shows both Hanoi and depicts a story. They were given a CANON IXUS 275 HS, that has a 12X optical zoom and a color filter.

Justin’s shot was nice, but not very creative – something uncharacteristic of the photographer as in the past his shots were exemplary for creative thinking. The second amateur to beat Justin Mott, Rose, had the highest score in this challenge, as her shot was really the one with the most “out of the box” approach. The shot was of the reflection of a tuk-tuk and some buildings in the old part of Hanoi. The composition and story were well thought out, taking a picture of a part of Hanoi that seemed to be frozen in time. The second highest score was given to Giang, a choice that I honestly did not understand. The concept was interesting and showed the reflection of the famous red bridge on a window, but it was poorly executed, and I found it to be too unpleasantly busy.

One Sole Focus
The second challenge was about capturing Hanoi in motion, instead of focusing on the city the objective was to focus on one subject. An added (unplanned) difficulty for the contestants is that it was raining. The challenge was won by Justin Mott, with a black and white photo that didn’t impress me but that received good comments from judge Aaron Joel Santos, a documentary film maker that was featured in this episode.

I found Aron’s photo to be under appreciated, and to me it was clearly the best of the four. His shot is more similar to an ethereal image of a different dimension than of a model, as the reflections on the pavement took the image to another level, creating a glittering aura around the model.  Rose’s shot was OK and Giang’s, very poor.

Photography Tips From A Professional

With these results, Rose and Aron qualified to compete in the extreme challenge, the final and typically exciting challenge of every episode. The judge this time was Action Photographer Tim Gerard Barker, who gave a quick master class about the things to consider for this challenge. His top tips were:

1. Fill the Frame with the main subject and the background, both are just as important.

2. Use Continuous Shooting Mode and shoot through the moment.

3. Use the light, walk around your subject and location and analyze your subject from different angles, before you take an image.

4. Connect with the moment. Connect with the motion, try to capture gestures, muscle flexing and so on, it’s about encapsulating the moment.

5. Use slow shutter speed to freeze decisive moments (panning) and create excitement.

The challenge was to shoot Parkour (urban gymnastics) athletes and each contestant was given an EOS 760D autofocus, making it a little bit easier for them to shoot the subjects. Justin’s photo was undoubtedly the best, it beautifully captured the motion, filled the frame with an appropriate background that almost framed the athlete (rail, poles & vegetation), used the backlight in his favor, creating a strong contrast that generated a very intense connection with the action, and yet injected the moment with a touch of raw artistic composition.

The second place went to Rose, her image was also quite powerful, I liked the symmetry and the use of natural lines to lead the eyes to the athlete. The only problem was that the athlete was a bit lost against the background, there was not enough contrast, and so the challenge of capturing a subject in motion, was not completely accomplished.

Next Up, the Philippines!

With this result, Rose qualified to the Grand Finale, and as she said at the beginning of the program, she showed the strength of the Vietnamese women, something she’ll hopefully carry through to the end! Since there are no more female competitors, Rose is going to be the only female competitor in Cebu, so it may not just be the women of Vietnam she’s representing.

Visit Grafika Photography and Design page to find out more about Helga’s work.