Crosses

Man, these categories kill me - more choice needed! Anyway, this is

a rendition of a vision I had on the village green this evening.

It's the war memorial where wreaths are laid on Remembrance Day. It

was very dark.

 

I parked and my headlamps were directed perfectly to illuminate the

crosses, so I took out my 10D fitted with tilt adapter and the Mir

26B lens, and went to work for a few minutes.

 

The only post processing has been conversion to BW, sepia tint,

slight levels adjjustment and sharpen.

 

This is one of my favourites of the bunch, but I would like to hear

your thoughts again on composition, and whether the tilt has worked

well for this subject. I took one straight, and to be honest it

didn't do very much for me.

 

Thanks and best wishes to you all.

 

Pete

I think if the light was over a bit we could see the wreaths but they are just not light enough on them. I do LOVE it when large as you feel like you are almost on your knees looking at the monument. You just can't see the wreaths well enough.

Micki, thanks for looking. I'm glad what I did worked - as the idea was to NOT be able to see the wreaths, and you couldn't - so that's good ;) Lots of people take pictures of this monument after Remembrance Day as the poppy wreaths are so red and colourful, and go well with the stone of the monument. But I love all the little crosses that are placed in the ground, and they seem to get missed!

Micki, I have this in colour too - here one can enjoy the redness of the poppy wreaths without them distracting from the sharpness of the crosses. I wonder what you think of this?

L, I'm pleased you find it gloomy - just the way it's meant to be :))

L, ROFLMAO, I'm really pumped that this picture has produced such a strong response in someone :)) Out of interest, what exactly don't you like about it? And I wonder what could be done to improve it? I'm all ears....PP

L..., it's interesting that you mention blacks not being black enough, and the lack of contrast. I've only just recently realised (like a few days ago) how I can work on the shadows and highlights in Canon DPP for post processing. Up until now, all I'd been doing was a brightness/exposure and contrast adjustment using two sliders in the software, and that was the extent of processing. At the moment I'm working through a load of pictures and seeing what I can do to better them.

 

As for this particular picture - well, the composition....agreed, the crop does show a lot of background just hanging there, but that's the way it is, and the positioning of the crosses in the frame - well that's just what I saw and this image reflects that. Personally, I don't feel that the main subject (in this case the crosses) always needs to occupy the greatest part of the frame. I could have cropped close in on the crosses, but then they're taken out of context (and some people might then see them as some KKK symbolism ;) )

 

And the visual discomfort and the unnatural feel - again, that's something that I am happy with. I could have taken this photograph straight with a sharp band of focus going straight across the image, but then it wouldn't be the same photograph, and we wouldn't be talking about it now I guess. Would you have even noticed it if it wasn't as sh*tty as it is? Sometimes....I think sh*tty works (well, it does for me, although I can fully understand how this won't appeal to most people).

 

Lens, by the way, is a Mir 26B 3.5/45 medium format lens attached to the Canon 10D with an Arax tilt adapter - that's how the plane of focus is altered. It's really hard to set the focus where I want it, and I'm pleased in this case that it came out exactly as I planned. What made it harder was hand holding the camera with a shutter speed of 1/10sec.

 

Lastly, I've just twiddled the shadow and highlights a bit in this one, and wonder if the darks look darker now? I don't think it's possible to get black black with a sepia tint though.

I'm very interested in this shot, and the comments from L.... funny how someones view can make someone else 'see' different positives and negatives!

 

I really like the selective focus, and the title allowed me to ignore the wreaths, and the monument itself.

 

It was only when I looked again after L's comments that I saw the problems. This is the kind of influence which I enjoy about PN......and it's not common to get negative criticism which can provoke such interesting thoughts!

 

I've taken the liberty (hope you don't mind!) of playing with this image. I feel that I have improved on your image, bvy taking into account the things L mentioned.

 

At the end of the day, we all have to teach ourselves to glean as much as possible about what makes an image enjoyable to others - especially if we're displaying them! You're good at this, and your experimenting is interesting - keep posting these!

 

All the best,

 

Shaun

Shaun, thanks a lot for dropping by and having a tweak. I like the square crop you have done and think it works well. My only concern is that it seems a little tight and I think it has chopped the top off the monument - that ridge where the monument goes from wide to narrow need to be lower down in the frame to avoid chopping the top, which although you can't see very well as it's so dark..I know is there (it shows up when I brighten the image up). So I've just played with a slightly bigger square crop, placing the crosses third way in from the left, and the monument itself third way in from the right - this puts the crossed off centre and I think it makes the selective focus (lens tilt) work better....what do you think?

 

Cheers again - a second pair of eyes really helps sometimes.

But then when I look at the image again....I still find I come back to the wide crop. The light in the background and the faint outline of the roof helps locate the image for me at Rottingdean Pond....With the roof being so dark, and the lighted window being out of focus, I'm not really seeing them as distracting. for me, they seem to make the image more interesting. so many ways of looking at something is what makes it all worthwhile :))

Perhaps my eye is working at a more simple level than yours, because I do find the background distracting!

 

For me, the title is part of the image, and I really like the selective focus and the title.

The tilt allows such perfect isolation of the crosses, and the memorial and wreaths are, for me, just staging, which locate the crosses.

If it was intended to be a 'set', the crosses would be lined up perfectly, akin to the crosses in the cemetries at Ypres etc. These are haphazard, capturing an essence of individuality which is REALLY moving.

 

So, the isolating focus on the crosses, with the setting of the memorial are all that is needed, and anything else is distracting! but, I'm only a viewer, and not the producer, so my interpretation will differ!

 

Its all the more wonderful that your image can produce the widest possible feelings, and its STILL an evocative image.

 

So there! (looking forward to your reply.....

 

 

Chat in real life soon eh?

 

 

Shaun

 

Definitely chat in real life soon - I wonder where that disposable camera has got too?

It was delayed, but Sean said it's on its way now...can't wait!