A Monk's peace with the day's end.

Again, this is the orginal on the light table. Looks a bit red, but that is a slightly off white

balance on the raw conversion.

Everything works together in this photograph. This is some of the most beautiful light I've seen in a photograph. The glancing rays pick out just the present day monk and the ancient Buddhist stone carved relief. It is not just good light but light used to further the story. It has the chiaroscuro effect of Rembrandt. Only the monk and the stone emerge out of the darkness and makes a very dramatic presentation. In my mind I connect the monk of today with the eternal past and forget for a moment about any distance between then and now. Time is merely a man-made concept to ensure that everything doesn't happen at once. It is a most convincing illusion but you remind me eternity transcends time itself.

This photo blows me away..,-)

such wonderful golden light

in great contrast to the darkness..

really religious photo in more ways than one..

Can't help to notice how many people think that all photos with great light "must be fake", like someone thinks that your photo here is not natural.

I do use PS as I am an artist and love to play..;-)

BUT I also take natural photos ..like you Daniel say.

So..get out there and wait for this golden hour in the morning and in the evening..if the light is right..

and you might be lucky to get a photo with this magic glow as well..

congrats Daniel Bayer on getting everything so right in this wonderful work..that I will not forget easily..

regards Marita

It is simply superb i just look and adore.

great!!!

The lighting is incredible and drew me in immediately. The monk's face has a peaceful expression, that provides further interest. Very well deserved POW, imo.

Wow....fabulous image Daniel. This lighting is the best I have seen in a natural setting.You captured it well. The contrast of the darkness and various soft and rough textures, against the waves of light, make it very dramatic. Congratulations on POW...well deserved!

Daniel, I've been a fan of your work since I first joined Photo.net. This is an excellent example of your work. Congrats.

Very good exposure,excellent light and shade,composition and bright colors make this a very interesting image. The serene mood of the monk is accentuated by magical light. The details on the pillars gives information on his religion.

The incredible lighting and the shadows adds to the ethereal nature of the ascetic spirit and the loft of pose of the monk's demeanor as peter mention. Truely is a rare piece. Thanks for sharing. :)

I have to admit that, from the thumbnail, I was afraid this was going to be a theatrical

photo, not a true situation. Seeing the larger version, I think it looks pretty real. For me,

it is a very nice moment. Light, mood, subject, all work together to make a nice photo.

 

Basically, I think this photo works very well, but I do have a couple of comments for

consideration.

 

First, I found myself being pulled, uncomfortably, to the bottom of the photo. I couldn't

put my finger on it. I think Willie made comment about the brighter light down there and

that may be part of it, but I also think it might be a little crowded there. Just a bit tight, a

little more breathing room would have been good I think.

 

Second, on the other side, in every meaning, I think the photo might suffer from too much

room at the top. The top of the photo seems to become a bit unbalanced and starts to fall

apart. Willie didn't mention this, and I rarely feel a shave is in order, but here, I think the

photographer got enamored with the beautiful detail in the stone. We all do it, we want to

leave all those cool details, but here, for me, I think cutting down a bit would really bring

the focus of the photo and mood back into harmony. The monk and the column would be

in balance and working well together. I wont post a crop, but now the larger version is

1252 pixels tall, my thought would be to bring it down to about 1046, or about 16%. With

the whole column in the shot, I think it takes a lot away from the meaning of the photo

and the detail could well be its "own" photo.

 

Overall, this is a pleasing photo and a nice moment caught.

Daniel: in your "closer" version, even though its severely pixelized, the monk's robe section and other details are present. So is the cropped bottom portion of the image which shows the angle of the light on the floor, as I correctly surmised. The rest of the side of his face, including the ear is also quite "there". I think that some manipulations did take place, which BTW is your prerogative for a posted image.

A serene, beautiful picture. The quality of the light is magnificent. I particularly like the balance between light and shadow areas right and left, top and bottom. The composition reminds me of a stained-glass window.

 

My first impression was that the monk is too close to the left border. Then I concluded that what made me feel that way was the empty space at the top (remarked by Mona). This space imbalances things slightly and renders the meaning of the image a bit unclear: Is it about the monk and the evening mood, or about how he is dwarfed by the ancient temple?

 

I think there is a potentially striking symmetry between the monk's face and the larger of the carved Buddha images at top right. I suggest that a judicious 4x6 crop would enhance this and other aspects of the composition without sacrificing any key elements.

John....I am confused.

The scanner truncated the mid tone to shadow detail a bit, I really did not do much to the

scan as the photo of the original would suggest. You are pretty much seeing the image as

it is on the original as you can plainly see on the two new posts. When you completely

nuke the image as you have done here, you can then see the robe detail, other side of his

face and floor detail better. But that is not what I wanted to show in the image. I saw great

light and exposed for the highlights. I had all but 40 seconds to get this shot before the

monk closed the door and the light departed. Nothing was done to the image, plain and

simple.

 

I really don't understand where you are coming from.

In the crop perhaps even more than in the original image, the bright area at the bottom of the monk's robe tends to pull attention away from his face. So it might be worth darkening the bottom slightly.

Chris, Mona, there are a couple of other frames that are tad tighter but leave no room for a

magazine cover title or text. I often shoot for publications so I will subconsciously leave a bit

more "Breathing" room for text, something overlooked by some photojournalists.

 

Aside from that, I just liked having more room better and cropping out the other door frame

on the far left. It's all subjective..:-).

The composition is good, but this photo is a bit too dark/moody to me for it to suggest or imply peace at day's end. To me, it makes it look as if the monk is partially hiding behind the pillar.

 

The monk's face is well-illuminated on the front, so it throws me off a bit that one eye is brighter than the other.

 

The lack of detail on the robe on his own right side makes it look as if the visible part is sort of blowing in the wind, which just really doesn't work for me in conjunction with the rest of the image.

Regardless of the time of day or what the monk was doing it's a spectacular image. Superb!!

Daniel,

This is very nice. You have done a fine job of controlling the shadows by treating them as objects that surround the subject within the image. Not too much not too little. The monk's expression and warmth of the light are very classical. I wish I could have been there though I can personally feel the time and place of this image. Thanks for realizing it.

Respectfully, Andy

Very skillful use of light. Very well done.

As a follow-up to Jim Adams's comment: The light on the monk's robe is indeed hard to parse. Just out of curiousity, Daniel, could you explain for us -- do you remember from the scene -- why the right side of the monk's body is so dark?

It is Light that molds the compostion into perfection....the monk's face is lit with spiritual aura as he looks beyond a World that is not his at the present , but could be in the future, the orange robe radiates this heavenly light and adds vigor and continuity to his expression,on the inside a bas- relief sculpture is exposed by the light and opens to a spirtual World of the present,the pillar connects and anchors these two worlds into one ,but it is the lack of Light or how light suggests without describing,that make the difference for in the darkness the lightened parts come into a context ,and adds a mystic flow to the compostion for darkness can enlighten on things we see,and gives us an insight of other things we could see.One detail I wished to see more of the monk's expressive eyes...but getting all the detail in F 2.8 (that is what was stated as being the aperture for this shot) is really asking for heavenly perfection. A Masterpiece shot .Congrats.

Using Velvia in the dark? That's daring photography!

"Daniel, could you explain for us -- do you remember from the scene -- why the right

side of the monk's body is so dark?"

 

Yeah, that's easy. The light would be gone in less than a minute, was strongly from the left

and was dappled through trees. To further limit fill was the fact that the forest that

surrounded the temple was sucking any light bouncing right out of the scene. Even if I

wanted to make adjustments such as perhaps a warm gelled fill or anything of that nature,

there was simply no time. Spot meter, bracket exposure and composition for about 6

frames and then it was totally gone.

 

That's what I live for.

I agree with some others about toning down the brightness on the lower part of his body. The eye keeps wanting to go there. Maybe remove some vacant space at top. All in all, as a dark, moody photo I like it. Congrats on another POW

Where normally I'd have a problem with a bright area being at the bottom of the frame - I find the area of the wall above the Monk's head on the wall is bathed in a light which creates a wonderful balance the equally bright area at his feet.

 

As Daniel says - that magic sunset light only lasts a few minutes. You have to be pretty quick on your feet to catch it before it disappears. As to the space in the upper right of the original and the cropped version..

 

Having worked in a graphic design company for 3 years with ad agencies and companies and colleges producing brochures - I also have developed the habit of making sure there is room at the upper right or the top or the right or left side for text. Having been involved in the choosing process for brochures, catalogs, ads etc along with the client....the image chosen for publication had to have that text area or it just couldn't be used. This is a good thing for photographers to realize if they want images chosen for print.