At the eleventh hour II

I like it. You offer another perspective to things that are sometimes mundane. well done

I don't care if he soaked it in dye and had HAL 9000 manipulate every pixel The image is stunning, and when I opened it up, I said "Wow!"

 

We have to remember photography is an evolving art form, and using the tools avilable to maximize impact is perfectly acceptable. Just like HDTV is overwhelming because it conveys depth of field and detail across a much broader arc than the human eye can process, this sort of image "expands the visual vocabulary" as some of the more cretinous contemporary art dealer might say!

 

Keep it up.

 

Wow!

Super

 

Really impressing the angular effect of the sky with the ground and the buildings. The whole of the colors is extremely beautiful.

 

Good work.

 

Congratulation

 

The colors are stunning and as an example of HDR this picture has set up an honorable amount on discussion. And it really gives the whoh effect. Personally I like these wide angle, enormous DOF pics a lot.

 

The more I look at the picture, the more annoying I find the composition. It's unstable. The black doorway focuses attention but instantaneously the details in the foreground drag it away. The eye goes around. The center of mass of the picture is quite a lot to the left. Imagine a slightly bigger stone in the right foreground - even that would help a lot. Or an old man sitting there, or a campfire. In fact, the picture is a perfect background for something not in it.

 

So, what is the message of the picture? I surely hope its not "See what you can achieve with HDR".

 

Well, everything that digs up thoughts from one's mind is good photography.

 

Great photo! Some people are saying you should have cropped it on the bottom a little bit, I disagree; if you did that, it wouldn't be as eye catching as it is. Great work.

I really think this is an excellent image which gives the viewer a sense of presence. I can't tell if the focusing is razor edged, but the exposure is nailed. Nice work. These are the kind of results that keep every shutterbug striving to do better.

I like the HDR, although it's a bit overdone for my taste. I like the richness and the color, especially of the rocks. I wouldn't change them at all.

 

It's the clouds that don't work for me. I'd like them to be either much lighter or much darker. The subject cabin and rocks have a barren feel together, and then there's these foreboding clouds intruding on the arid atmosphere.

Beautiful effects and Good composition.

I'm sorry, but to me although the tones are lovely, I find this image too busy. I think this would be better if the sky and foreground was toned down significantly to focus on the barns, making the image more interesting.

A true a artist never settles for the accepted nor the normal but pushes him or herself to try new tricks styles.Having said that not every thing works everytime,moreso if you are using new tools.Roger is not afraid to explore and find new ways unlike some of us who readily run him down because he has dared what we are too afraid to try.Well done roger.

After reading all of the responsed, it would seem that we are somewhat conflicted between "Old School," shoot it as it is and "New School," let me, the photographer, exercise my right as the creator of the image (along with a bit of devine technical intervention) and enhance what I see and what the camera has captured with my own interpertation of what I feel about the photo. Let's face it, if we were God, we could paint the sunset, dim the highlights, add to the intensity, push the contrast etc..etc..to suite ourselves and those that share our visions. I like it a lot and feel that it's ok to the God of your images. I realize it's somewhat contrived but it evokes a somber mood and emotion from me and much like music, that is what I want out of an image, not just the notes played in order but the artist interpertation of the notes. Great job Roger, cool stuff!

Congratulations on the whole.

It's a daring composition, with the horizon at 50% of image height, that leaves you with a huge foreground.

The foreground is what makes the image special: The photo is in-focus between 1 m and infinity, great. The normal drag in composing a view like this is to make the foreground go off-focus, to make the beholder look at the main motif, the barnhouse; here as others have commented we are 'forced' to walk around in the photo because the depth of field is huge...

You did use a pol-filter, didn't you? Could you reveal more info about the image? Location? NewFoundland, Nova Scotia, Sweden... Technique in capture: exposure, aperture, tripod body, lens etc. I'm curious...

It looks so real I can almost smell the marsh

 

Roger, basically I think this is very nice, with the colour-play of the evening sky reflecting onto the old farm buildings and rocks. Presumably this is either from the shore of a lake, near the coast, or rocks rounded and left by eroding ice (morena) the way one often finds it in northern Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway). This kind of sky and light is not unusual in northern Scandinavia, with the midnight sun in the summer. (For those who have not seen this, it is worth the trip.) (And you can literally photograph around the clock...).

 

Yet looking closer, I seem to notice some small distortions along the edges of the rooftops, and also along the lower three sides of the image the picture is darker, which I would not have expected. Both may be the result of HDR maybe, I don't have any experience with HDR (for reasons which will be clear below). However it is clearly stated that the image has been made using the HDR-technique: "A good example of where HDR can go when it is done well. Digital imaging software may have the potential to extend the visual range of a static image far beyond film, but the basic art of photography will always be at its foundation".

 

I disagree for the simple reason that due to the HDR, it is no longer a photograph. It is composed of 3 separate images, taken at different times (even if there is only a split-second between each shot), combined into one image (by special software). This reduces it to a simple conputer-generated image of an "idealised moment that might have been", rather than a photo of "what actually was". This is actually a fact, not just (my) opinion. It is no longer authentic, even if you might argue that your manipulated image is closer to what your eye saw that evening. But it is manipulated, and therefore in my opinion not very interesting at all but instead rather disappointing. In a way, I consider this as a kind of "cheating" the viewer - it is not really honest to the viewer who normally would think it is real. To me, the HDR in this case also seems like a sadly lost opportunity for what would have been a great photo. I am quite sure that you could have achieved same as a true /authentic photograph using (transparency colour film and) a polarizing filter, combined with a long exposure for greatest possible depth-of-field. If it had been created this way, I would have liked to have it framed on my wall because it would have been both a beautiful and a true photo of that moment and of what you saw. HDR might be ok for making movies where computer-animations and special effects is needed to make the fantasy seem real, but personally I don't feel this has a place in real photography.

I am immediately struck by all the texture. There is the combination of smooth, rough, pourous rocks, then your eye is drawn to the the splintery rough wood of the house and barn. Lastly going up to the long soft clouds. Well done. Also good job with the way the light plays on the different gray tones of the rocks and the almost firery appearence of the buildings.

This is a great picture with excellent composition.

 

As far as Knut's comment above, you sound like a photographer stuck in the past crying that the digital age is passing you by with your old transparency film....

a listing in my heart for such beauty, it pumps against gravity and sways in my mind's albums of today-

Amazing textures and the colours are beautiful -- I love the patch of green behind the house. Great shot!!

I quite like this photograph, the effect invoked by the use of HDR suggests the school of impressionism in the photographs presentation.

 

The one thing that jars for me, is how the process has affected the border between the foreground, and the background containing the main subject. Although this is a documentary of an actual place, the emphasis it generates on the interface between foreground and background gives me the feeling of a poorly executed combination of the subject with a different foreground shot. It just keeps catching my eye!

Beautiful. Very nice quality. I could spend time there. This and your other work are reminiscent, to me, of an American painter/print maker Terry Redlin.

the photo is superb!

 

but I do agree with knut, I personally am not partial to HDR landscape shots, my eyes don't see them as natural more ehtereal..

Roger, I like the composition but there's too much PS work here for me, it seems as though the colours are competing for attention, my eye doesn't know where to rest.

 

TommyH

Beautiful color! The colors make you want to take a second look.

Great shot. Good colours, composition and originality

Charming work compliments!!!

michele

Roger

I have read every word in this POW Forum and I have no answer to the myriad of opinions. I only know that when I look at an Image I see it within my own personal emotional and artistic framework. That being said, Roger I'd like you to know that I find this Image to be as artistically and emotionally satisfying as any I have ever seen. I know I can't articulate the techniques or the expertise of the many professional pundits who ply their opinions on PN. I just know that I wish I had produced this image and I know it would be hanging in the #1..A+..Center Location of my house.