Visiting winter

What if the balloon were red? Hmmmmmmm?

 

Love your creativity!

 

Richard

Ceslovas - I love your photograph/image. The photo is possible - elaborate staging, but possible. Photography is "Light Writing". So you write with software rather than a brush/paint or pen/ink. . I used to be a film photo snob but a year ago I bit the bullet big time and have opened my eyes to an entire new world of art. I love taking a "perfect image" and playing with photoshop and many plug-ins. Sometimes the photo is great by itself and sometimes it gets a "Wow factor" when altered in some way.
I have to disagree with anyone commenting on hints of color "not matching" - not one person has the exact same calibration or room light conditions. I tend to stay away from comments in this area. But one person above had the same idea I did - what if the balloon was red? That was my only and initial reaction to what I thought was an otherwise perfect choice for POW.
Ceslovas - keep up the good work. I for one, really like your style. You have an eye for what will catch people's attention.

First off - awesome photography Ceslovas. It takes much more creativity to assemble photographs to convey an artistic vision than to just hike into the woods and take one shot. As a new style photographer, using a DSLR and Photoshop to output to a inkjet print. It is rare that people can compose photos to make them seamlessly blend to the trained eye, but when they do they should be applauded for being at the top of their game in their chosen field of art. (That said, this is clearly made of composites) For years painters and other artists have used reference photographs to pick elements to assemble into images on canvas, when are we going to afford this luxury to actual photographers?

Terrific Zen-like image, I could almost eat it, but not without post production surely.

This piece sent shivers through. And it doesn't matter not one logical bit to me if it's a composite. This is Art, man! And I want it on my wall!
Homo Ludens "Playing Man"

I do not especially fancy this POW of Ceslovas. I find it déjà-vue and lacking fantasy. The title is fun! In my eyes it does not deserve much attention and neither discussion.
The portfolio of Ceslovas include however a series of much more interesting surrealistic work. See his "Next Station" for example which is fun and well made.
What Ceslovas does so skillfully is imagery based of photos.

I have no issue with the fact that this is a contruct built from four images. I do feel that, in this particular instance , building a single image from four uninteresting images has resulted in a single uninteresting image. It leaves me as cold and empty as the imaginary landscape. A few of Ceslovas other images are amusing.

Gorgeous Image!!!

I love the graphical style of a children's book...

 

Cheers,

 

Oliver

The image is nice but the only thing that makes it one is that it is such a great scene and the leading line in the snow. But really anyone could have taken this image.

 

Im not saying this is a Bad one cause it is not, but people u need to realise that there is so much more to photography.

The postprocessing is so well done, that one could trust this to be a real landscape. And this is a good thing.
Happy New Year my friend.
Mishu

Striking image Ceslovas. On one level I would judge this by how it has emotionally impacted me, not how it was created. My first feeling reflected an awe of the subject. An awe of nature's continuing surprises and beauty. Secondly, I felt an awe towards the photographer for BEING THERE, and for having the technical abilities to present this to me so well.
Once I knew it was constructed, my feeling towards the photographer switched to an admiration for his technical abilities to use the tools of digital image manipulation and the projection of his IMAGINATION. I was disappointed in the reality of the subject, as it is not real but imagined. I think that there are different feelings that an "imagist" can convey to an audience and one of them is the beauty and reality of a specific subject, like an awesome landscape or a beautiful person or animal. With minimum digital alteration and maximum photographic talent, his duty is to record for us the beauty and reality of the moment.
However, that same "imagist" can convey an imaginary animal or person or landscape to us and let our own imagination fly with his. The end result of viewing an image is to provoke a specific part of our brain and emotion state to some place it wasn't just before, to end the boredom of the moment, or maybe even to inspire us to something we wouldn't normally try or perform ourselves. Either form of the image can do that.
Each to his own. Keep up the good work, however you do it.

For me it does matter if the image is a composite of four separate photos. What counts is the story, the beauty that is portrayed. I like this image. Well done. Tom

Brilliant imagination and creativity Ceslovas.I suppose part of it is a real photo and the rest digital add-ons and processing.The result is fantastic really eye-catching.My only objection is that the crests of the hills are almost symmetric.Happy the new year.

A brilliant image. Partly photography, partly not, and who cares? A camera is a tool, not a religion. I love the playfulness of the imagination, and am awe-struck at the skill. Congratulations.

In my opinion, this is one of the best creative photographs of PN. Congratulations Ceslovas. You have created a real visual pleasure. The snow, the shadows, the man with the line behind him, the blue balloon and the calm blue sky could truly create a “cold, calm, melancholic, joyful” atmosphere of your imagination. This is a wonderful reflection of your idea of “real winter” mixed with four “in camera results”. Thanks for sharing this photograph.

Wishing a truly creative new year for Ceslovas and all, my photographer friends.

MODERATOR NOTE: Some may have forgotten and some might not realize that the only reference to manipulation on the POW forum is to critique the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of the manipulation... Manipulation can be discussed in terms of whether it should have been used or not based on the quality or the result and/or impact etc. etc. etc... NOT weather it is a photo or graphic. NOT if it is worthy or should be a POW or not etc... From here on down, the discussion went way off topic. Much editing and deletions have had to occur. Please read the link above in the Intro by Patrick for the guidelines for this strict critique forum. Thanks.

With the mentalities expressed here and elsewhere I really think this is something to strive for: To keep the manipulation subtle/inevident enough to not let the viewer settle on wether it is "real" or "not". When you manage to make and keep people frustrated like this, I think you are on to greatness. But as a good illusionist you should keep your head cool and not give yourself away like this afterwards.. I really did, but I actually didn't want to know how you made it.

regards,
Erlend

This is an excellent example of talent in composing the idea, photographing the idea and processing all into a wonderful image.

Great image. It works for me. I think it would also work in B&W and this would solve the colour inconsistencies between the photographs.

hola, i think is a wonderful work , the compotition is perfect, the colors too very god work congratulations

Wonderful work, Ceslovas. I love the picture. The combination of people,snow,mountains. trees and the balloon creates a world of fairy tale. The place I live rarely has snow. I was wondering if the trees should have snow on them in such weather in your picture?

Now that we are back to a discussion of the POW thanks to the timely intervention of Marry, I agree with those that have expressed their admiration of the technical photographical work of Ceslovas. What mainly counts must however in my eyes be the final product: the image that we are invited to appreciate. As I have mentioned earlier I don't find the scene very interesting although the individual parts are indeed beautiful.
What hurts my eye is the composition. In some way the position of the back figure is either too advance in the scene or too little advanced. My own preference would have been a position after the row of trees (and the cutting away one third of the foreground).
What I especially dislike is the overdone introduction of a blue balloon. The funny title and the man entering a dream landscape would have been sufficient.
This of course fully subjective and therefor does not indicate that Ceslovas made objectively bad choices.

I like the surrealist take. It reminds me of Andre Kertesz's "Washington Square" with a Jerry Uelsmann flavor and, in a broader sense, of Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants."

This is a very striking surrealist photomanip. I'm awed by the seamless incorporation of it's elements and the very definite statement they make.

The composition is centered but not too much so. The third tree on the right works to keep the image from being symmetrical and static. I like the contrast of the central character although he is a bit cliché with the balloon. It's a common motif in a lot of surrealist art but at the same time I like it when someone can take cliché and use it to poke fun, which is what this seems to do whether intended or not.

Very strong image.

The outcome of activity matters and not in depth analysis of creation process such as: - good job - perfect shot - fine bokeh - well done - this is the best of yours and many others. This image is a joke. It seems likely that this is a patchwork one can spot pinned on a kitchen wall.