Prince of Wales Range, Tasmania

As many of Your photos, John.

Seems a bit harsh to me, but maybe we just have different monitors. It's a nice study of textures and tones, and the sky is to die for. However, I'm missing a focused subject. I feel like there's too much to process visually.

John, I checked out your photo.net member page. You know, where you say you "would like to learn how to make photographs." Uh, think you're there. Your whole portfolio is pretty inspiring.

I think this is one of those that must be much better on the print, I mean, this monitor doesn´t make it justice, I think!

I like the textures. The focus is good, the exposure is great. Lots of eye candy. But, there is lots of eye candy too. There so much going on that I am confused by the shot. Color might have helped clarify it, but I think that a simpler composition would have been the best choice.

I like the textures. But, the lack of a focal point gives me trouble, especially since everything seems to "slope downward" from that big dark rock in the middle. I find my eyes wandering out of the photo completely looking for the subject. Maybe this is where burning the edges would be beneficial to help keep you eye in the frame?

A great photo John. Lots of segments (rocks, valleys, distant peaks, etc) here which all seem to be leading to the distant summit. Even then each segment has much to explore and the clouds converge in a way that work with the rest of the photo. Plenty of secondary elements to explore also. Well done.

Realy, realy good. Gives a sense of space!

Beautiful job John. I bet this print will knock your socks off! There is one light spot that I might try to burn down just a bit (1/4 down from the top and 1/3 over from the left) but if it doesn't work, then I'd leave well enough alone and be very happy with it. The tones and the texture are just great. I think my knee just started to bleed from an imaginary slip on one of these peaks.

I love it. This is one of the best pictures seen in the Curtis circle.

I like the composition and the great range of grey tones. It seems a "system zone" print. Like a lot.

Nice artistic presentation. I'd love to see it in color....and Thanks so much for critiquing my LostLagoon 2. Would it be possible to use some of YOUR good ideas for painting inspiration. A lot of your pics have elements in them that are worth painting or incorporating into paintings..particularly certain aspects of light. Thankyou Marlena

Firstly, Slide, I admit I've moved on from novice work, but I hope you know what I mean, I still have a lot to learn to make really, really good pictures. I feel like I'm learning well, I enjoy making progress, and I hope I'll continue to improve while I'm making pictures.

 

To this one, I'm interested that many people felt it lacked a focal point, and I respect those opinions. In a small file it looks a fraction cluttered, but in the print, to my eye, all lines converge on the distant end of the range, which is a jagged, craggy series of peaks, hopefully rewarding closer inspection. As Nana wrote, perhaps it was never goint to translate fantastically to the small screen, but I think it's passable in print. I've attached a compositional framework, to show what I had in mind. Cheers,

Looks great John. All the converging lines provide lots of layers and although they perhaps make the image a little busy on this scale, for me they become the coi and make this work on a more abstract level. I too would be tempted to try some burning in towards the horizon, particularly in the top left to contain the image a little better there.

I wonder what the colour version of this looks like, perhaps it would add direction to where my eyes should lead me?

With so many arrows pointing at it, how could we have missed it? :-) That leads to whether the image in JPG is representative of the print. That's a whole other argument: some people believe that the true light emanating from the CRT gives real luminance and clarity while that of the print is ONLY a reflected off the surface. We'll not get into this, or Philip Greenspun may join in the discussion. :-)

Just based on the posted JPG itself & since it's b+w, I guess the main subject's characteristics, in terms of textures and contrast, are not so much different from its surroundings; and, sad to say, it got blended in. I believe you saying the print is better and I think if the negative is scanned using a drum scanner with more dMax, it may have picked up more differentiating textures and subtleties. Furthermore, would size make a difference if weight is not much different?

I don't understand why people need a focal point in an image like this. From the first time I looked at this I was pulled into the foreground and wandered up the slopes, through the shadows, into the trees, working my way up and across until I reached the top to enjoy the glorious sunset, even without colour. Despite scanning aberrations, if I produced something half this good, I'd be cracking open the bubbly!

Beautiful photograph.

I can't answer Hanna's question except to say that, for myself, prolonged viewing is more enjoyable when there's somewhere to hang my eye, a place for it to rest without much distraction. Some photos are not suited for that, but others are. Anyway, I feel that the 10 second eye point for this shot is the brightest area, not the convergence of lines. It seems to be that the largest mass of brighter tones is the formation rising up from the bottom right, and it's therfore the strongest attention getter for me. Burning it darker, along with the other formations in that area, shift the eye point further back, to the peak (at least for me) but this change in tonal values is not true to the scene. "Truth," in this case, may not be an issue, or may be superceded by aesthetic considerations.

Interesting discussion. . . I understand John's point of arrival at the mountain peak given it's contrast, but the lower right is also equally contrasty. I see a bright spot upper right and also in the top center, but what overwhelms me is the similarity between the two large middle gray shapes that dominate the right half of the image. They are the most dominant shapes and my eye goes back and forth between them. Their left side edges imply a line that cuts right down the center which throws off the balance of the composition.

 

I love the textures, but compositionally, it doesn't work for me.

I really think this image needs to be big to be fully appreciated. Some images work just fine on monitors, whereas others such as this one with a lot of complex textures and detail simply have to be big to be judged thoroughly. I think it looks excellent small, and can just imagine it on a wall, it would be AWESOME!

 

Excellent job!

You can all sorts of arrows pointing to your main subject, but if the arrows themselves are brighter than the subject, then it is the arrows that will receive the eye's attention. That said, I still think the overall effect in a large print would be stunning - I don't mind a photo that lets my eye drift around a bit. For the computer screen, I find I need to crop off almost half the foreground to direct focus to the area the photographer wants me to look at. Beautifully done, and I love your portfolio.

All the opinions posted are very welcome, special thanks to Doug for showing a valid (and just as real) alternative. I really have nothing further to add about it artistically, except that it looks reasonably similar to the 12x16 print, but I was able to control the tones better in the print, which doesn't have the hot spots kindly pointed out here. Tomorrow night I am planning to attempt a 20x24" print, but I only have one 20x24" tray, so I will have to use my large sink as a stop bath, drain and rinse the developer tray and quickly fill it with fixer....I think that'll work OK.

 

Rather than add anything about the photograph, I'll add a quick anecdote about the shaded mountain to the left of the range in the distance. The traverse from this vantage point to that far mountain took 5 hard days, the middle 5 days of a 9 day trip in the most remote untracked wilderness of Tasmania. To be able to carry the 6x7 camera kit, I had to sacrifice some other weight from my regular kit, and chose to skimp on clothing. Unfortunately the weather turned very bad half way through the trip, and the last 4 days were quite a struggle. On the morning that we climbed that far grey peak, we had nothing but saturated clothes to don before emerging to the storm. Dax cooked his trousers and top in his stove before putting them on, but I just wrung mine out. It took about 2 hours of hard travelling that day before I had any feeling in my numb feet. When Matt and I reached the bare summit of that far mountain, the slower members of our party were about 15 minutes behind. As we waited in the pitiful half-shelter of a small boulder we both began to moan with the agony of hypothermia. I was completely saturated, the wind was howling across the peak, slapping big wet snowflakes onto our wet bodies, and I had not another stitch of clothing I could afford to put on, just one spare set of dry thermals for the tent. It seemed to take an eternity for the other guys to arrive, by which time Matt and I recognised that we were both close to serious trouble. We were close to deciding to pitch an emergency tent on the summit, just to get in and survive, when finally the other boys arrived. My arms, legs and face were like jelly from the cold, but we moved forward, into the wind, down the western ridge of the mountain, and finally into the shelter of an ancient forest of 2000 year old King Billy Pines. It was one of the grimmest experiences of my 25 years of wilderness adventuring. I don't have any pictures from that far end of the range.

Dynamic composition.

John, thanks for the adventure story. Sounds like a harrowing experience, but it helps me to enjoy the shot all the more.