Untitled

Great shot! Although the horizon looks a little slanted to me. How much of the photograph was darkroom or Photoshop?

I like it. I disagree on the horizon being off, I think it's more the visual illusion caused by the pylons. At first I felt it was off too, but upon closer inspection see the left portion of the horizon to be quite level. I think the right side of the pylon wall rising up to end at a level higher than the horizon behind it, yet having starting almost even with the horizon from the left, makes the horizon appear to be slanted. But I think not. That, and the fact the after looking over Nigel's wonderful gallery on photo.net, I can see he is not just a basic amateur LF shooter. Most likely he would have used a bubble level or such to confirm the camera was level. Especially if he was in the sand!

 

The sky and the texture in the sand is quite nice. It is sometimes said, as a rule of thumb, to never have your horizon smack in the middle. But here it seems to work. I too am interested in hearing more if this was darkroom or was there any photoshop technique involved. Not to belittle one over the other, I just want to learn! I've been really expanding my own photoshop repetoire lately. And I also just bought a really old Seneca 4x5 to try my hand at this new format on the cheap. Please, Nigel, share more of the birth and development (literally and figuratively) of this shot.

Usually people help a photo but in this case I think it hurts it. Also the person is running out of the frame which looks a little odd. If anything they should be running to the right. It takes the attention away from the dock which should be the focal point of the photo.

Dime a dozen. So what? why even bother dragging out the 4x5 to do this, resolution is not important. You can shoot this any day of the week.

 

I enjoyed this artist's images on Photonet. Great product/commercial photography!

Oh goody, this is a MASSIVE improvement on the last three weeks! (My faithful e-friends on this site know I wouldnt say this unless I actually think so. Other peoples comments have earned me a unhealthy reputation.) I salute you, Photonet elves!

 

Most photographers, though not those in Nigel Harnimans league, immediately dive for their Velvia or Ektachrome E100VS when they see a scene like this. Consequently ruining what could otherwise have turned into a good image...

 

I love the tonality of the sand, dark in the foreground, lighter in the distance (this is opposite to what normally occurs, in my experience). Can only imagine what the original looked like! I suppose, from the title, that the subjects are the grains of sand... personally, I would have left the counting up to the viewer.

 

When I first looked at this image, I failed to notice the three footprints behind the runner, so thought the photograph was very "posed" looking. Now it looks to me as if the runner was running along the beach, came to the groyne, jumped it and continued running, without even noticing the photographer. (I think it was probably still planned though! But it looks much more natural in this light.)

 

And the sky... darker behind the runner, lighter above him and presumably in front! Is he running away from a storm (of troubles?)? Or towards the light? A better future? Please tell me Photoshop wasnt used to create this!

 

Yes, the horizon is slanted down toward the left (scroll the page until the horizon is approx. level with the horizontal frame of your browser). This is deliberate, of course. The groyne is perfectly centred and horizontal in the frame, and the overall composition of this area of the picture could not be improved upon, as far as I am concerned.

 

Any criticism with only praise is not worth its bandwidth, so:

 

Computer wise, the 21KB image is too small and highly compressed to do justice to the marvellous tonality of this image. The tell-tale marks of JPEG overwhelmingly distract from the parts of the image above the posts and around the runner. The large setting should be a quarter of a megabyte in size, in my opinion, especially in a case like this where tonality is important. Though, with an image as good as this, copyright control could be a problem with a better reproduction of the image...

 

Personally, I would have left more space to the left of the runner (his front), perhaps double the distance from the runner to the leftmost edge of the frame (with hindsight, that is!). This would give the runner more space to run (and look) into.

 

The dark blob on the right of the image, starting below the groyne and rising above it, is necessary for the compositional balance, but what is it? I cant make it out.

 

Other than that (and for many, these are not flaws at all, except the computer ones), I have to say this is a compelling image with an aura of eternity and the concept of time (the sea often does that for me).

 

Agree with Rich, let us all know the secret of this success! But only when everyone has said their say. Dont influence our opinions by mentioning procedures and technicalities. That wrecked the last POW. BTW, I think the car photos are just like any other "Vauxhall (or GM, Ford, etc., Americans) Calendar" type photos; grossly false colour and overuse of blurred effects. This photo is the best by far of those in his gallery, IMO.

I find that when I upload images here, they are recompressed with more JPEG compression, degrading the image quality. The effect is especially notable in images with a lot of sky. (I uploaded a version without obvious JPEG artifacts, which was a much larger file than the one you get.)

I am a great fan of sepia-toned seascapes and was delighted to see this image selected as photo of the week. Nice composition, the action figure supplying the necessary foreground imagery. I agree with those above who find the "large" version rather on the "small" side. Philip's own photographs are not subjected to this form of ?double jpeg compression.

 

But, back to the subject, congratulations to the photographer and to the selection committee!

I love it. Makes me think, what is he running away from? Is it someone/something hiding behind the breakwater? Sort of 'Blair Witch Project On The Beach'. Well done.

A well crafted photograph. The runner moving off to the left is beautifully disconcerting. The disturbance to the calm scene will very soon be gone but at the moment of capture the runner provides a dynamic balance.

 

Will this picture be used for selling running gear?

 

;-)

I'm no snap artist !

But when I see this snap , I definitely feel

fantastic . Freedom Atlast !

I started liking this guy, Samuel Dilworth, in this case he had given good points worth noting. Hope the photographer uses it to improve his skills.

I love the silhouette images. The person seems to run without a passion... he looks very casual. I expected him to run with more life... As Samuel points out, it looks like a posed image. The clouds are wonderful. The fact that there is less space in front of the runner adds a sense of mystery to the image. The horizon is definitely tilted, but again it doesn't matter.

 

A good photograph as a whole.

 

Samuel why don't u upload some of your photographs.

Yeah, good point - Samuel, when are we going to see some of your work...??

 

I like this shot - its simple but has great "mood" to it.

I see very little going for this image. It's got finger prints all over it!!! Who chose this image!?

Just a little humour ;) Just remember to keep those monitors clean. :)

 

 

I'm not really sure how I feel about this print. I don't really like the runner on the left hand side, I feel as if he is running right out of the photo. Also, he's not really the focus, is he? I feel that he is distracting.

What a shame, 4x5 photo on 72dpi and small size.

I cry

With the runner I would prefer the rule of thirds, cutting of about 25% of the bottom, BUT without the runner I would leave it as composed. In any event a good effort

 

vrw

All in all this is a nice simple clean image.

I generally agree with some of the other comments regarding some fundamental compositional improvements that could have been made. The image is graphically strong but falls short in picture element placement. I also agree with others that the horizon is not level. The photographer should have stuck with the rule of thirds with this image. I believe the greatest improvement could have been made by not framing the runner exiting the frame. Space is needed in front of a moving object, composition 101. That and the combination of all the concentrated highlights in the upper left of the image draws a viewers eye right out of the image.

 

It is easy to understand that the photographer was concerned with the old breakwater leading the viewer to the subject being the runner. The problem is that the runner is too close to the frame edge. The rendering of the sky is everything in this image, it is the only source of interesting detail.

 

In comparison:

I would have framed from a much lower angle of view closer to the runner with the runner leaping over the breakwater silouetted against the sky/ clouds with less uninteresting beach in the foreground. I would have made sure the small pool of water (distracting highlight) next to breakwater would not have been included in the image.

Interesting. I thought the camera height was absolutely spot-on. The groyne is exactly centered, pointing exactly to the middle of the band of water, which in turn crosses the person exactly in the middle. I don't think all this happened by chance! Also, the groyne forms an arrow in the photograph, urging the runner onwards. To me, the viewpoint is perfection itself. And the beach is very, very interesting. And there is no pool of water on my photo. That is an object embedded in the sand, as far as I can make out. And I think the image is anything but simple. And...

 

Anyway, I'm glad to see that more people liked the choice of this POW than previous ones. POW is the highlight of Photonet, IMO. This would be a very learning experience, if more people would take it upon themselves to give their comments about the chosen POW.

Thanks for a good b&w - it's refreshing. I love the clouds - I have no problem with the placement of the runner. I would crop some off the bottom since it's dead space. Overall a nice job.

Now I see it, Merlyn!

 

By cropping off the bottom, the whole effect would be wrecked as symmetry would be lost.

 

BTW - how many people viewed this without enlarging to Large setting? Is there any point in having the smaller settings in POW?

Beautiful !

 

Coming back to 96739 to "rate" it with the new 1-5 system, I was once again struck by the sheer beauty of this photograph. For me, this has to be the best photograph I have ever seen on Photonet.

the most soul picture in along time, much better than lots of the other pics of the week. his web site is not bad either