Southport 4

There is an unusual artifact in the sky around the sun. This is not visible on the print. It is a result of scanning the negative and trying to match, in Photoshop, the visual quality of the print, coupled with saving the file for the web. I suppose I am slowly getting there with digital, But I have just finished printing this series on Forte Polywarmtone, then split toning them in selenium. They look fantastic, even though I do say so myself. Over the comming days, I will upload the rest of the series and you guys can give me your collective comments and wisdom.

The sun's little centerred for my taste (a nit) but I like the texture of the sand in the foreground and the way it changes throughout the reflection as you get closer to the horizon. Nice work! Wish I could see the print to really appreciate it!

I did a whole series of shots on Southport beach. Many I have treated

in this way, but not all. Over the comming days, I plan to upload

them all, so if you know your way around photo.net, you can view them

as a small body of work. This is a scan from the original negative. I

think I could just about manage to get a print into my scanner, so I

may upload one of the prints, just to see the difference in the way

they come out. They do LOOK far superior to the image here, I guess

we will see if that is still the case after I have done my best with

Photoshop. The strange effect around the sun is a result of me using

Photoshop to try and match the print.

Beautiful!

Not the most original shot in the world as far as composition is concerned, but the treatment of the subject here is very effective. The filters and exposure used have produced an other-worldly view of the Sun as a ball of fire surrounded by the black immensity of Space. The photo could have been taken on the Moon, but for that beautiful pyramid of light descending from the star betraying the presence of an atmosphere. The pattern of light is duplicated on the beach, framing wonderful textures in the sand, and the barren emptiness of the landscape, devoid of any sign of life or civilisation, completes the sense of isolation. On purely aesthetic terms the image is good, but for me its real strength lies in its ability to alter (or extend) my perception of the world we live in as just another rock revolving around just another sun.

Thank you Trevor.

Beautiful light here... As Trevor said, not madly original as a subject, but who cares... :-) My main concern here is that the light sets a vertical movement in the frame, due to the sun's reflection on the sea, then on the sand. And I see 3 things which are not right - to me - in the composition, with respect to this vertical "flow" in the image.

1) The format is horizontal, whereas I would see a vertical format, flowing along with the light, as more appropriate. Here the horizon line introduces a strong horizontal line that is at 90 degrees conflicting with the flow of the light. I see no need, incidentally to have such a long horizon line, since the left and right side contain almost no visual information at all.

2) While I'd like more reflection on the sand at the bottom (was there more...?), I find the amount of space above the sun quite uge and in fact too huge - since it doesn't work as negative space here. We end up with wasted space on 3 sides, and not enough of the real subject at the bottom.

At this point, I'd crop quitea bit on these 3 sides to bring back the eye on the main area of interest (in a perfectly squared composition).

Best regards.

And the third Marc was ?

 

As a photograph of Southport I cant say it tells me very much. Other than its by the sea. But then I consider the picture to be semi-abstract and oddly remote from beach scenes. I like the blacks and I like the silvers and that there is little in between. And I like the walnut surface of the beach. And because I see it semi-abstract and devoid of much in the way of detail I see it designable. Though Bert says the sun is too centred, personally speaking Id like to see it dead centre and designed to make more of the triangle and geometry so that the pyramid of reflection over sea and sand stretched out to each lower right and left hand corner. At the moment it reaches the right hand corner fine but not quite on the left. Id also like to see the sun dead centre between the horizon and the top of the frame. So that would require some cropping from the left and a smidge from the top to create that square Marc was on about. Wed have something more spiritual, more new age. Finally, a nit Im sure you noticed and which was probably Marcs third - the horizon isnt level.

 

I'd go with the square composition too.

 

There is too much blackness above the sun for my taste, although the stark approach at least indicates that the artist is pursuing a unique individual vision.

 

I wonder if it could benefit from a centre of interest in the foreground to balance the sun in the sky? A small dinghy or a beached whale, etc?

 

 

I have to agree with Marc, this cries out for a vertical treatment. The lack of information on the left and right detracts from the main, down the middle, composition. Upon further review, I guess that doesn't agree with Marc totally, as he is promoting a square format, and I would like to see more vertical here I think.

With so few visual features to pick on, I might have guessed any discussion would centre on cropping options. Personally, I think any major crop would be a mistake. The empty black space adds greatly to the beauty and atmosphere of this picture, and to start hacking bits of it away would leave an emasculated, weakened image. The wide, shallow angle of the pyramid of light suggests as much horizontal as vertical flow of light, and a wide horizon is needed to encompass it. Furthermore, those dark, mysterious boundary regions would be lost using a vertical format. This darkness is not 'wasted' space; I believe the darkness is as much the 'real' subject of this image as the textures in the sand. And the balance of light and dark contained within the current crop appears perfectly judged to me.

Maybe if it was moonlight I would agree with you Trevor, but since this is sunlight, it really isn't darkness on the edges, it's really just underexposed film. It would certainly look similar compositionally if it was moonlight, but the quality of the light would be different and the drop off might be less drastic. I do understand what you are saying though.

Thanks you guys for taking the time and trouble to comment. I take on board the idea of a vertical format, but this is the way I "saw" the image in my minds eye. I exposed for the "blackness". I don't agree that areas devoid of detail are, by virtue, wasted. One of the best photographs I have seen was of a black 35mm shape oblong. In one corner was a silvery spiders web. The black was as important as the web. Cropping in tight on the web may be the aproach many photographers would take. Right or wrong, it would result in a less "interesting" image. Anyway, confession time: I must admit the idea of a vertical format never occured to me at the time. As I said, thanks for your comments, I WILL take them on board.