experimental Sombre Daughter

Well, I put my sore feet up, poured a pint and decided I'm not really tired after all. I looked through the four of these and this one is by far my favourite. This is really, really fine work Pete. It looks circa 1900 Stieglitz or Steichen or one of that lot.You have said that you are going to make me guess, I must admit to being a bit stumped. It looks like a pinhole camera shot but has a bit too much definition. It has too little definition to be just a soft focus although that's probably my best guess. It does not look like a PP treatment and I am pretty sure it is not something like gauze or petroleum jelly in front of the lens. There is quite a bit of noise and I cannot figure where that plays into matters.

 

The expression on your daughters face ( I'm making an assumption here ) is timeless. You have combine excellent lighting , with a great toning job wonderful soft focus and grain and whatever this effect was generated by, along with a super portrait to make a truly special photo. I love the crop, it is a bit claustrophobic which plays perfectly into the intimate nature of the photo. It looks like a private moment in the life of a deep and perhaps in this moment distraught soul.

Pete this very sincerely blows me away, this is fine art in the truest sense.

 

I was going to make a run at the rest but have changed my mind, I want to savour this one for the moment and will return in the morrow to share my 2 cents on the rest.

 

Until then...

Gord, I hope you had a good hike and haven't got delayed onset foot soreness this morning!

 

I really appreciate you taking a look at these pictures. Although I knew what sort of result I was after, I was also blown away myself about how well it worked. It was a really spur of the moment thing - the photo session took all of 30 seconds, and then I spent perhaps 20 seconds on each image in Canon DPP just doing the 5:4 crop (full height but just nipped the sides off), selecting monochrome, amending brightness/exp and contrast levels, then selecting sepia effect.

 

A big clue to how I took the photographs is to be had in the picture of the "home" icon on my laptop screen and in the picture of my laptop keyboard! And needless to say, quite a long exposure time of 1/8sec was used as well. I'll tell you exactly how it was done in an email as, for fun, I want to ask others how they think it was done. Like I say - there are BIG clues in the "Home" icon and the keyboard picture!

 

You mentioned that this one stood out as being the best of the 4. I agree - this one works best for me too and is the one I decided to set as my desktop wallpaper last night. I'm revisiting the levels a bit on the others this morning and this seems to improve them - I think I had the brightness/exp level up too high which started to bring out detail that wasn't necessary. Once I'm happy with them then I'll probably replace the other three images with them.

 

Check you inbox for an email in a moment to see how it was done.

 

Thanks again Gord. And thanks for mentioning names of a couple of photogs from the past - I don't yet have much idea about what work others have done, and being given things to look at really helps with inspiration.

 

Pete

 

 

BTW, there were no soft focus filters used - absolutely nothing in front of the lens. And no softening in PP either.

SO, here I am silly me playing with your daughter before I am even checking my e-mail. My mom might have sent some GREAT forward and I am missing it. LOL

 

I absolutely LOVE this picture. I did something very much like it that I think only I like http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5544229 (well actually it's a cross between the one in your car and this one) more because of the FEELING and then the way you did it.

 

So, I sat here thinking that THIS gives m great emotion. In fact all of the pictures. do. Are we not so LUCKY to have are kids to play with in picture taking. :)

 

YEP!

 

So I loved eerything. I absolutely LOVE the grain as it gives it a painted affect and almost looks like youfiltered it that way. No need for contrast or anything else.

 

BUT, darnit! It had to play WHY? I had to see what would happen if I took out the left shoulder. Now ind you if I did a REAL job on it I would clone them in 2400 sicde by side leaving the hair etc.. this job I did in 20 min (because I am hungry) and can only increase to 1200 on the program I have on this computer without making issues with the pixels. I just wanted to see if it would open her up any. When you have the grain look (which I think is more not called grain but the PICTURE itsel or the art of the picture) which btw is become YOUR style or rather I think you and I are becoming somewhat twin in just our photographic style. I'm just to afraid to post mine for fear of rejection. LOL HA HA HA

 

no seriously, you hould see the things I don't post.

 

I envy you that you play like this and post them without fear of anyone being harsh. I guess I am just well afraid someone like me will tell you I like one picture better than the other. Nahhhh, I don't mind it. It is just that I like stuff like this and there is not many of us around as this is a PERFECT "PICTURE taking" world out there in photography world but funny all those people that are in exhibits and stuff they aren't perfect are they.

 

THIS (I'm yelling" is the stuff that actually catches peoples attention. Ok, now I'm standing on a soap box. THE STUFF that is different and not sharp and perfect and 7's is the stuff that is going to go down in a book and make people wonder about. You know that awful picture we talked about oh what's her name. She did weird pictures but she was good at it. Not what I would call GREAT pictures but she was different. Perverted on some of them but being DIFFERENT and having your own style is where it is at.

 

I think, YOU, ME, Gordon (got I love Gordon's stuff) have something very unique and different. A style all on it's own and I'm tired of trying to just keep doing SAME. Of course I'm still learning so I will keep posting my LEARNING stuff but YOU impress me eerytime you throw a MONO LISA like picture up!

 

Not afraid to tell you when something is out of place but this one is an A+ for me. The next comment will show you what I did with it just so you can see it without the darkness on the left. :)

 

ALL SMILES ~ micki

hey, if I have a chance to see something different and then go nah you never know.

 

I would of course want the hair back in the eyes. It would take hours to get it all right doing this perfectly.

I don't like it at all ~ LOL

 

I just looked at what I did. It just doesn't look right.... Maybe darker on the left... hmmm

 

OR, maybe just the way you have it!

 

ICK ~ yuck! What I did was icky. See, that's why I do things like that is to see what happens. Isn't that funny ;)

My feet are fine, thankfully Vida is a Podiatrist so I have great custom orthotics in my hiking boots. My spine is a bit worse for wear this morning, but I poured over shots from the hike last night until 3:00 AM and it was worth the climb. I think I got a few good blurry ones. Most of the straight up landscape shots suck, because of the bright sunny day yesterday and all the hard shadows. I won't give away the info you passed on in your mail, I'll let you do that when it suites you. You are now going to have to contend with me starting to borrow pages from your book as I am completely enamoured of this discovery of yours. I will send off a mail to you later with more detailed thoughts of how I would like to work this into other techniques, as well as some of my own somewhat similar tries at this in the past. It is so great that you and I and Micki of course, share our discoveries and push each other to new heights.For the moment I've got a ton of outdoor chores and today is the only day in the forecast that it's not supposed to rain, so I'm going to fire up the chainsaw and get back to work cutting.

 

I keep looking at this shot while I'm typing and Man!! I do love this photo.

 

Oh... and Micki... I do not have any kids, that's why I have an entire folder full of shots of Darwin & Maggie :)

 

Gotta run will write later.

pouting ;) he he

Micki, thanks for looking and commenting on this. It's good experimenting init? I had a look at your reworked version, and what can I say? Well...I'm with you...I like the original better :)) I honestly don't mind that area to the left of the image - it's what was there when I took the pic, the lighter bit at the top enables the left hand side of G's to be apparent, and the darker area at the bottom seems to join both sides of the image together in perfect harmony (well almost) ;)

 

Here's a clue or two or four about how I made this image: think simple lighting like in your "Dancing" picture, think tilt lens (except I don't have a tilt lens so I had to detach my lens), think slow shutter speed, think movement (not of the subject, not of the camera, but of something else). And that's it.

 

Have a guess. And I'll drop you an email after to explain it.

 

I've just been looking at the picture of yours that you put up back in Feb and linked to above, and will leave my mark - I mean comments - on it in a mo!

 

Pete

Gord, glad the hike was worth the effort, and it's good to know that Vida can sort yer plates out (plate = plates of meat = feet....cockney rhyming slang). Look forward to seeing some pictures appearing. Hope you have a good day chainsawing. What have you got? I usually end up using a little Stihl MS361 something or other - does a fine job of cutting oak sleepers, fence posts and even trees!

 

I echo what you said - it's great that the 3 of us have found each other here - excellent for inspiration and all sorts. Cool :)

 

Better get off - kids to chase off to bed, and dogs to feed! Speak in a while.

 

Pete

The only post processing on this image has been to crop the sides to

5:4 aspect ratio, convert to monochrome, correct brightness/exp and

contrast levels and select sepia tint in Canon DPP. The image itself

is created in camera, with lens detached and held in front of camera

and using a 1/8sec shutter speed. Comments on the image would be

much appreciated. Thanks. Pete

the emotion within and tenderness of this image is very moving. if i was rich and this was in print infront of me, i would definately buy it. very nice.

This is an amazing shot! What ever gave you the idea that you explianed? As a student photographer, I'm always looking for ideas. I hope to come up with somthing this original sometime. To me it conveys an aura I can't quite convey with words. Mystery, maybe.

Pete, This is my favorite too. The face like " emerging" from the darkness, is simply well cropped and placed on the frame. It looks like coming from a dream,

I don't know how technically you have done it (one more email with the secret? ;-)) but it works beautifuly , very delicate, and the dim light is still lighting nicely the face details.

 

Experiment? Very successful. , worth farther developing.

I have 65 acres of mature forest to manage so I have 4 chainsaws on the go. My favourite by far is my Stihl MS260, I have a small Echo chainsaw it is somewhere around 30 cc and it's good for limbing and ladder work as it is nice and light. I have a good size Homelite which is a piece of junk beside the Stihl but I keep it for those occasions when I need to cut the Stihl back out of a tree when I mess up and get it jammed in a cut :( The other one which is a Poulan I do not use much but I never throw anything away so it is still out in the barn gathering dust. Off topic I know but you did ask. Still loving this shot of yours.

you lost me and THINK!!

 

he he

 

I played today and got some great (well I think great others will think they are crap I am sure) self portraits. :)

 

Really grainy ones "I" like but I won't post them HA HA HA HA

 

(sigh)

 

Someday I wil be rich off the throw away pictures. RIGHT? he he

 

My list for "WANT" is getting way to big. ARGHHH ;)