Dappled Morning Lawn

--Lannie

I like the variations in the light, shadows and colors.  Interesting angle too.

Thanks, Diane.  What I have done is pushed the limits of color accuracy (actually gone beyond the limits by a bit, in fact) in order to create a certain effect--not intending the effect to be cartoonish, although that might be what I have achieved.  What I did was darken with Levels in PS, then try to redeem the shadows with the Shadows/Highlights filter in PS.  I went through these two procedures two or three times, and after that much use of Shadows/Highlights, the colors went toward a kind of selective over-saturation which I do not fully understand--all colors in bright areas tended to show this, although I reduced the effect somewhat by reducing saturation overall.  It is still there in the blues reflected in the windows, I think.  I also noticed it in the reds of the portions of the brick that were in bright sunlight, so that I had to darken those areas--reduced saturation was not enough.  The green areas simply seemed a bit too bright before reducing saturation, but they do not otherwise seem to be distorted.  I am not completely sure what goes on with the overuse of the Shadows/Highlights filter when used in conjunction with reductions in Levels.

The same effect on an even greater scale gives this somewhat "painterly" look in another context:

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=17367513&size=lg

I am not sure what I think of the effect.  If one is seeking accuracy, this does not work.  If one is seeking a particular effect for aesthetic reasons, well, that is a matter of taste, I suppose.

--Lannie

I know the feeling, it is the real thing...

Hi Lannie,

A very nice scene here.

You will have arrived when you do it all in "analog" form by selecting the lens and camera combination that bests represents the real scene.

It takes time, patience and much practice my friend.

Therer are many combinations to be discovered, I know, that is one thing I have done most of my professional life.

Best Regards, Mike

Thanks, Mike.  It also helps if one does not meter on the dark, thereby blowing out the bright spots!  For me this will always have the look of a recovered photo--a "save," at best.  I also did not shoot raw, and so I could not simply go back and adjust the exposure after the fact.  Ah, learning is slow and painful.  This shot was made in June, 2011.  The 5D II is a good camera, but it can be more unforgiving than some, I fear--but the problem is primarily not an equipment problem, in my opinion, but an exposure problem.  (I hate to hear someone blame his equipment when he blows the exposure.)  That said, some of your Leica lenses could have pulled some magic out of the shadows. Given what I had, I at least should have (1) shot with raw and (2) bracketed my exposures--at the very least.

The recovered version does finally get the dappled foreground right, but at the cost of color accuracy in the background.

--Lannie

Hi Lannie,

There is much to learn and that can be the fun of it all, too.

Obtaining images like you show here are about many factors, like the dynamic range and the lens characteristics that record the original scene.

Over the years, I have employed many lens/camera combinations to the same scene , with interesting and different results each time. For myself, there are NO poor images, only opportunities for improvements to the ones that I have taken !

Best Regards my friend, Mike