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12/16/2005 10:43:29 AM · #176 |
Wow, cool! Well done guys. That was fun, Thanks Neil!
Jimmy, I absolutely loved your version. I thought about B&W but couldn't get it to work to my liking. Yours looks great. I see you and Justin both went with the horizontal crop and I like that too. It never occured to me to crop it that way.
It's very interesting to see other peoples takes on the same photo, might make for an interesting DPC challenge someday. :-) |
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12/16/2005 11:01:48 AM · #177 |
very well done, every one... my favorite took the yellow, but that's not to say the winners weren't nice enough in their own right.
truthfully, i'd actually assumed that jenesis' photo was bear's... boy was i wrong. i suggest robert pick up some of that ointment art recomended, as the red splotches can't be good for one's health... i know, i have a mild case psoriasis...
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12/16/2005 11:02:19 AM · #178 |
After reading Kadi's detailed processing description, I wanted to bring the original composition up for friendly debate/discussion. To summarize her, this was a throw-away shot as composed (that's just the conclusion--she provides much more detailed justification in her note, reproduced below).
That's interesting to me because within my own compositional eye, I disagree. It was a very planned shot and mostly came out as I wanted it. A discussion of that should prove interesting and offer a compositional learning experience (well, at least for me).
Here's some point by point discussion:
Kadi: I was frustrated by the composition of the orginal image. I could not find a satisfying crop and felt the elements of the birds, the boat and the bouys were not well place. There was not enough margin, in my opinion, to place the boat well in the composition.
I don't understand that. One dramatic method of landscape composition I've read about is exactly such a vertical, keep the land area small and low, towards the bottom, and the sky big. That is great for emphasizing features of the sky--in this case the fog. To me, this was about transition and layers: water, fog/clouds, and then blue sky.
Kadi: The odd concept of the boater struggling through the lily pads did not come through well--it looks like it's being rowed across land. Unfortunately, a tight crop on the boat did not seem to work either, as the detail was lacking in the weeds. If I had taken this, I would have tossed it. The clouds are nice, and the trees have some interest, but it lacks a clear subject other than the boat and I find that unsatisfying. The birds compete for attention without adding anything. I understand it was chosen for its difficulty, including these complaints as well as the hazy conditions, but, to me, the challenge was in the taking not the post-processing.
I could have easily zoomed in (or out). This was shot almost exactly in the middle of my zooms range. I framed it how I wanted it (though I got a bit extra in the front/bottom I wanted to crop out. The red boat has the perfect complement to the colors of the waterchestnuts you see (a pest in the mohawk river). The small details provide addition interest in the shot (at least when printed large enough!)
FWIW, I didn't choose it because I thought it was a bad image--I chose it because in my view the scene resembled an impressionistic painting. It had potential to be a very painterly shot, thanks to the scene, the fog and the early morning light--but the fine and small details made it extremely hard to put into an online 640x480 or even 800x600 format.
It's the kind of image that needs to be printed painting size, maybe 20x30. So I was curious what people would do with that--how many people would choose the close crop.
The second reason I chose it was because of the fog. It's hard to decide how to process such an image--boosting colors and or contrast loses the foggy effect. I was curious how other people would handle that.
You don't have to agree with me--I understand tastes vary. I was also interested in whether people would crop this. There was a definite advantage to croppping it for online use for the above reasons. It would be interesting to see the same "voting" on large format prints, and see if that changed!
As to my version, I did it from the first conversion, as a test shot. When I decided to post it for feedback, I compromised a little and overcropped it (especially by the sky). That was of course part of the problem--640x480, but I often have that problem in putting landscapes up on DPC, so it's something I am trying to learn to deal with.
Friendly discussion is welcome, no matter what side of the fence you are ;)
Message edited by author 2005-12-16 11:05:00.
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12/16/2005 11:10:56 AM · #179 |
Any plans for another one Neil? If so I might like to try my hand. :o)
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12/16/2005 11:24:00 AM · #180 |
When I started looking at the shot and trying to figure out what direction to go, I decided to process it as natural looking as I could (rather than an artistic/painterly/impressionistic direction).
From there, I looked at it in it's entirety on the screen. To me, the interesting bits were the kayaker and geese. When looking at the whole frame at the size needed to fit on the screen, those were so small that I really felt like they needed to be pulled in closer to get a good look at. Then, the nice backdrop of the trees/weeds on the far shore with the fog partially obscuring, was what I felt set the mood. I didn't really feel the clouds and sky (though nice) added much to this mood. So, I felt that they could be sacrificed. That is why I chose to crop it down.
As you say, printed in a large format, I may have a different feeling on this. But, on screen, I felt that I needed to crop to bring focus to the kayak and fog-line.
I tried to process it such that you could get a bit more feel for the colors, but still keep the fog prominent on the far shore, and pull as much detail from the weeds/kayak/geese without over-cooking them.
Though I finished 5th, I really am happy with the resulting image I ended up with.
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12/16/2005 11:42:44 AM · #181 |
This was fun!
Congrats to SJarter!
This was mine
I think it really was a very difficult photo to start with, also because this isn't usually the kind of photo I woud take, but I learned from it, and that's what it's all about right? ;) |
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12/16/2005 03:33:35 PM · #182 |
WOO-HOO! LOL Can't believe it! LOL Thanks guys & gals!
I'm actually out of town right now (in Philly) - borrowed my friend's laptop for a sec to check online stats. I'll be back home and online tomorrow morning. Sorry for the delay. If you want to start without me, feel free Justin. Otherwise, I'll pick it up tomorrow when I get back. :-)
Thanks again y'all and to everyone for participating! This was fun!
Jimmy
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12/17/2005 12:46:31 PM · #183 |
Hey there again guys & gals... Thanks again for the win - very cool contest. In all fairness, I should let the next person in line take the helm though. I just got back into town and have discovered a "honey-do" list that is pretty long... (I'm sure some of you know how that goes!) So, I don't think I'll be able to dedicate the time to running this that it deserves.
Justin - I concede the helm to you. I know that bear_music has volunteered to take the lead as well, so if you don't want to do it I know he will do a good job. He has indicated he already has the photo picked out. :-)
Great job to everyone & good luck to the next round of contestants!!!
Jimmy
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12/17/2005 12:48:31 PM · #184 |
Originally posted by SJCarter:
Justin - I concede the helm to you. I know that bear_music has volunteered to take the lead as well, so if you don't want to do it I know he will do a good job. He has indicated he already has the photo picked out. |
That's very kind of you, but I finished LAST in this contest, so everyone else has to decline before I get a shot at it :-)
R. |
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