people and portraits Escape from the Desert

Nice idea. But you should hard work to make this shot technically perfect.

Good composition, and I think the isolated cloud in the sky is important to create a link with the boy. The three tones of the mountain is very aesthetic.

Comments appreciated on this desert shot. For some reason, it

scanned really bad. On the working print, the sky isn't like it is

here--it darkens some, but not in a semi-circle pattern. I don't

know why some black and white prints really get messed up when they

are scanned. I'd especially welcome any ideas on how to print this.

It's a working print. I'll probably try burning in the boy some, as

well as the mountains. Thanks for any comments, ratings, suggestions.

What have you done to this image? The rather artificial looking sky at least looks OK but the rest of the image apart from the runner appears overexposed. You have manged to place the horizon ½ way up the frame whixh tends to be poor composition & then run it through his head. Perhaps if you cropped some off the bottom the image would work better.

Ian, as noted above, the scan is not good. However, the sand is, really, fairly white. This is a working print--hopefully this critique will help me produce a better final print. And yes, I'm not happy with the horizon in the middle either, but I didn't want to lose the sky above the cloud or the expanse in front of the runner. Perhaps one or the other has to go. Thanks for the comments!

DUDE! I love what Ican see here. But ya need to fix it. I'm assuming you're scanning using a flatbed? Not a neg scanner? Clean your flatbed. Make an excellent print. Make sure you get a good scan - then upload it.

 

I see (what appreat to be) dust spots and junk all over the image on my monitor - and it's old and feeble. Can't imagine how bad this looks on a nice new monitor.

 

Also, just going by what I CAN SEE here, this print is to flat -meaning too low contrast - the highlights are blown out which means it needs to printed down some, at least in the foreground. The sky would probably look okay - or at least you could hold it back if necessary while printing if it starts to get too dark.

 

If it were me, I'd go up a grade in contrast on the paper and try printing until you get a winner. But then my taste runs towards snappier contrast in general.

 

Soon as you fix it, I'll rate it.

love it.

it seems just like a dream or something out of a movie dream-sequence. I agree with the others that a better scan (especially the edges) would be nice, but I like the blown out sand and the high contrast, it adds to the dreamlike quality of the image.

Nice shot. I'm interested in this photo because the burnouts on the edges, the low contrast, the "cheapness" of it all contribute to the question 'what is going on here?' It contributes to the photo having the sense of a real moment, a moment in which perhaps something slightly troubling is afoot.

 

Now, for those folks who want the photo "fixed"...not sure what fixes they are talking about. Those changes might make a nice shot as well (perhaps better, who knows?), but it would not convey the same thing as this shot does. This one certainly stands on its own.

I like the image a lot too. What I would do is experiment with some cropping maybe on the bottom, which will bring the horizon down lower. I would use the "fill" tool in PS and burn in the 50% grays more, and tone down the glaring white corners -- you could do this with levels adjustment as well. I like the concept and ambiguity of the image.

As for cropping, I would leave it like this, myself. I dont see any advantage in cropping the sky down, or in cropping the foreground out. Both seem to have equal importance. I think part of that is due to the black v. white nature of the split. Does that make sense?

 

I would print it for as much detail in the sand as possible, then try to make the sky as dark as possible without ruining the clouds. It might require split filtering: A high contrast filter when burning in the sky, and a low contrast filter when burning in the sand. I like the idea about the sloppy print adding to the sense of time, immediacy, or whatever, but I still would try to make the print with a full range of tones and so on.

Thanks for all of your comments. I plan to head back into the darkroom over the next few days, and will try some of these ideas out in an attempt to get a better realized print. I also have a few more shots from this series that I've yet to print. I'll definitely consider the crop, and split printing is certainly worth a try. Thanks again.

The black in the sky looks like something the kids is trying to escape from. I personally dont like the square framing of the pic. This one could clearly look better, IMO, if cropped to a more 16:9 or 2:1 format. Grees,