"Stoic"

Over the last few years, I have received and read many comments regarding the saturation and contrast of various color photographs, landscapes in particular. Often mentioned is the use of Photoshop or perhaps, overuse of Photoshop to render over-reaching colors. Because of the digital age and the need for photographers to process their own images, it is often a hot debate. When we shot slide film, we just sent the film off and what came back was what we excepted as the truth. Now we influence our own RAW images with a wide variety of creative adjustments. What is real? My preference is to be accurate to the scene, yet I am not one to eschew the benefits of creative dodging, burning and, as well, influencing of luminosity. Saturation and contrast, however, still seem open to debate. Beginning sometime this year, I began taking pause while shooting vivid landscapes and made mental notes regarding the strength of various colors in a scene. For this scene, I especially took time observing the intensity of the setting sun colors and the richness of the flowers. The reason for this is to reach a degree of integrity about myself and my photography. I want to be true to the scene on these two points: saturation and contrast. On my next post, I will elaborate on my conclusions. Obviously this is a very subjective exercise and my findings are in no way something scientific, instead it is my attempt at resolving for myself what I produce as realistic and natural rather than otherworldly. Thanks for taking a moment to observe and comment! I hope you will draw your own conclusions from the Larger preview.

A solitary buckeye tree witnesses the final flicker of the day. With no eyes to see and

no brain to comprehend, can there be emotion. What is the purpose of a living thing if

this is true. Are they there only to provide for the needs of others, or is a tree living

some sort of experience, even if almost non-existent. Was the pleasure only for me on

this day or was I able to share the experience. With beauty so evident, it should be

easy to see, even without eyes. My contemplation is fleeting, but I will probably share

another sunset with this tree, even if the pleasure is all mine!

as a landscape photographer, i find this scene real, as i use to see it with my eyes. or with other words, perfect processing. i dont claim this to be real, but feel real for me as well.

foreground and background positioning and composition is perfect. i can imagine from your shot to be there in such places. i have a few concern, as all my tree shots as well, the intersecting of the subject tree and horizon line to be a bit distracting. i still dont have a sure conviction about what to say about this. maybe this is the reason why i would rate it 6 rather than 7.

all the best

zsolt

It's up there with your normal work, Mark, and I look forward to your next post. What I do find appealing in addition to the obvious is that the rocks all appear to be pointing off towards the west, a very interesting effect.

Thanks  Zsolt and Jeff!! Zsolt, your reference to the tree/horizon intersection is vague. Even if you provide a more concise response, I wouldn't have a counter point because the occurrence of the intersection is unavoidable. Jeff, the granite boulders facing west is really just a serendipitous result, not some clever compositional choice that I would like to take credit for. Thanks to both of you for offering your observations!!

What I would like to know Mark is (and this should be evident from recent postings) how you are holding the fine details of the tree from turning pure black against the lighter sky. The processing is excellent, as is the scenery.

Regards, Dave.

Sometimes, I like Stoicism a lot - your image and title both fits very well... May be the ancient Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius or other famous ancient Greek philosophers could have commented on this view a lot... Like your clue here a lot as well. Anyway, the image itself makes the difference - overwhelming. BR / Volker

A plus work here Mark.  I love the way you 've render the middle ground to not being able to tell what's down there.  It's resembles an ocean with a fog bank coming in at dusk.

Hi Mark ... as a follower of your work, your comment about this shot is really very interesting and helpful for me. It seems to be real and dreamed to me at the same time ... the colors and the composition are wonderful and you caught a wonderful atmosphere. The "taste" of the photographer makes the photo ... doesn´t it ??

I wait your next post anxiously. Regards.

Thank you David, Volker, Steve and Ricardo! Well, David, without going into another long winded explanation, one thing that was necessary was a calm evening. On this night, there was minimal breeze. I exposed one frame for the sky and another for the foreground. When I processed the RAW files, I used the shadow detail slider aggressively in ACR for the darker file so I could eeek out as much as possible in the shadows. Then I blended the two files. I used a finely detailed selection of the sky, converted it to a mask which allowed the lighter exposure to come through the darker sky. Even with a 1 pixel feather, there were some minor haloes. I modified the mask with a soft brush at a low opacity to mitigate the haloes and then treated the mask with very subtle push/pull brushing to blend (I'm talking 5% opacity). Because I used the shadow detail slider aggressively in ACR for the darker exposure, any pixels that blended in from that exposure were not totally black. As well, I dropped the blacks slider to 0 in ACR for the sky exposure. After I was happy with the blend, I flattened the file. Then I used the clone stamp set to darken blend to paint away any remaining haloes. Then I used the shadow/highlight slider in PS to pull more detail and finally, I made a selection of the darkest parts of the tree and executed an upward curve to get more detail. Sounds like alot of work, but it has become part of my regular workflow for such scenes. Meanwhile, it is alot of postpro for many who don't go this far to render such shadow detail, they just live with the tree turning to silhouette. Myself, I want a print that looks natural in every way, so this is one of the fine details that I think is neglected regularly by most. I always say, the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is merely in the details. Even if I have an average subject or an average setting, I will treat it with the same care so when I go to print, I know it's as good as it can be!

So much for not going into a long winded description!!!

Mark, sorry for pushing you into the explanation, but at the same time a massive thanks. I'm afraid all that takes some digesting and my head is spinning slightly, so I'm going to copy it down and see if I can practice on some older images. I really wouldn't have thought it was possible to pull out such fine detail as you did here without halos appearing, so this has really opened my eyes to what is possible and I can see where it would be really useful. You've certainly used the technique to great effect here.

Cheers again Mark, I'm off to give it a go, will let you know how I get on.

Best wishes, Dave.

outstanding shot - very interesting and informative explanation also

I like the shot very much.  The colors are wonderfully satisfying. Your thought process and the questions you pose about processing and use of various technologies are thought-provoking.  I suppose we all have so many choices now - that we are spoiled for choice regarding the creation or re-creation of an image. Of course, most of it still depends on the subject and how you capture it- so I will not be one who is going to say there is anything wrong with all these wonderful processing options.  I am far too early in my journey re: Photography to know all that you reference or to be philosophical or wistful about a prior golden age when such options were not available. All I can say is your artistry and technical skill come through and that this place in the world also deserves its due respect in that moment of light and wonder for this beauty. Well done!

Thanks Gordon and Anne. Your comments are very kind!

Excellent landscape! The colors and exceptional sharpness of foreground goes very well with background. Aesthetics of image is excellent. Congrats! 6/7.

Sandeep

Thanks Sandeep, I appreciate the kind words!