Sahara adventure #3

excellent!

Good abstraction with well defined textures and pattern. Regards pK.

i was attracted to this but after study i was uncomfortable. i thought it was sand but the artist said it was snow. i'm all for manipulation with photoshop as it allows us absolute control of our images. but, this image seems to go the wrong way. the bottom third might need to be cropped or at least burned in for better balance.

otherwise, nice image and keep shooting.

No PS tricks here, I swear. Only careful exposure, filter choice and composition. Negative scans were resized to 750 pixel wide in PS, then I applied auto-contrast, sepia and unsharp mask. That's it. I was struck by the way light snow pushed by the snow could look like sand, of course; and I emphasized this similitude when I composed. That's the role of the artist, isn't it?

Close up view of a snow drift, shot in sunset light with a red #25

filter to enhance contrast a bit further. I used grainy Delta 3200 and

toned the image sepia to make the similarity with sand dunes even more

striking. Your opinion ofthe result?

Philippe,

 

There is a directionality to the ridges that makes this more appealing to me than #2. There is strong texture, and it's amazing that you got this out of snow. Excellent light and generally a great idea well executed.

 

Now for the nitpicking :-)

 

(1) I can't really believe that these are sand dunes, they do look more like snow drifts. Not that I have much personal experience seeing them, but most pictures of dunes have them arranged a certain way, a way which helps me visualize the wind direction. There's regularity, and seldom lines like in the top left. In this picture the drifts are haphazard. This is disconcerting.

 

(2) The sense of scale is odd. The texture makes me want to believe that this is a close up view of a "dune" (which may also help explain the haphazardness of the pattern). However, there is a nagging feeling that you really intend us to visualize this as an overhead shot of a desert from a distance.

 

(3) As an abstract, I would prefer a more balanced composition -- there is very little "weight" in the bottom right quarter.

The fractal nature of this image gives us no clues as to the dimensions or origin; is it a radar image from the space shuttle, and aerial photograph or a macro close up? Filtering, processing and everything else done to a boring image still makes it boring. Throw away the hardware and chemicals and get a shoebox with a pinhole in it and produce similar results.

what scanner did you use? tiff or ipg...etc. ruth

(iruttie@yahoo.com)