peterneibert

This one is cropped from a wide angle shot. The late winter morning sun brightens the face of the TransAmerica building and the left (east) side of the Embarcadero Center. Is this the right crop for this light?
In previous shots with less sun, I have cropped the left side all the way back to the middle of the Alcoa Building.

Thank you for your insightful comments, which I will work on further later.

The ferry boat passes this point on every trip; however, the sun rise is about three minutes earlier from one day to the next. So, after ten days I have to take the half-hour earlier ferry boat just to keep even with the sun. The problem is that I haven't figured out how to keep even with the weather.

With thanks,

I tried this previously -- whittled down to a short wide horizon picture.
Letting it run square like you see it now either
(1) uses more ink when it's printed,
(2)it's digital, so who's going to print it anyway?
(3)creates a more powerful image,
(4) none of the above, or
(5) it's a trick question?

Yes, it would make a great picture even better, but it would also make it fit in one Photo.net frame at large setting. As it is now, you can't see it all at one time.

While this is indeed a live action shot on the Bay (the Wallenius car carrier cut us off and our ferry captain had to hit the brakes and turn into the carrier's stern wake), does it hold together as a photograph?
Do the birds matter?
Clearly we didn't.
Looking forward to your candid critique,

Fred,
Yes, sometimes one or the other is sharper and I have been watching the detail: in PS I often do work at 120% to 150%. The reason I hesitate to draw conclusions on the wide angle converter is that all of my wide angle shots thus far have been hand held (often in strong wind, blah, blah...).
Next week I will try to take some benchmark shots close together using tripod and max file size.
How about that Spear Street Towers' reflection in the ferry boat window?
Meanwhile, I can't upload anything new as I installed the Windows XP Service Pack-1, which knocked out my cable connection, only the connection to MSN is available.
If I didn't know better, I'd think Bill's bright boys in Redmond did this on purpose.
Best,

This is from my first batch of test pictures with my new wide angle thing.
It's optical glass, but it fits on a digital camera so the Nikon box calls it a converter rather than a lens.
Some people call it a lens. I call it a thing.

Masterful color and composition. Haunting.

Alex,

Crop is judicious: it refines and focuses the mood of the original picture.

So, my question is, what is the original picture? BW? The monitor conveys an unmistakable blue but photoshop doesn't know what to make of it (calls it RGB with no identifiable profile) and there's some, but not much, color information in the file.

Cheers,

Both pictures are superb, but this one is better. The natural color values in Snowy Mountain 2 are more convincing and powerful. Also, your "reconstruction" of the lower tree shadow is an important finishing touch.

This is really masterful. If Turner had a camera, this is what he would have done on his Italian trip.

Well, maybe he would have added a cloud or two. No more.

For they are children of the digital age and their minds trick them to presume that you, like them, scan to print on an inkjet printer.

When you do it the old fashioned way and need a rework, you have to go back into that cold, cold dark-room and start all-over again from the beginning. Bracing -- must build character.

But maybe, just maybe, it is time to weaken and think digital in those cold Midwestern winters.

Best,

With a little help from Frank ll. Wright

Be careful: you're going to wind-up in fine arts -- form and color coming together gently now.

You're definitely on a roll, each of your postings is better than the one before it.

Thanks to all, especially where the photograph might have drawn out something extra from you.

p.s.: I'll be travelling away from internet connection for the next 10 days.

I'm not going away mad, I'm just going away for a little while.

In conventional times that would be the Pilot Boat close along side. In these times it's the Coast Guard's armed escort in and out of the Bay.

Looking forward to your usual, insightful and candid critique,

Good eye.

This one sticks, somehow. I've been watching it (or maybe it's been watching me) since first posted.

As for cropping, I would test a lot of different approaches in PS on the monitor. Even as I say that, I sense that cutting anything out will diminish this picture more than it gains.

A great picture: thanks for posting.

Can you see me now?

This is the last operating blacksmithy in San Francisco. Even though

they've cut back to three days a week, they're doing ok, thankyou.

Mainstay of the business has shifted to repair of antique samurai

swords.

Students of mechanical engineering may note that the screw threads on the press are bassackwards. You see, to make a casting, everything must be reversed and.... there it is -- cast in bronze, mounted on stone, for ever, going the wrong way.

The Larkspur Ferry route runs close to San Francisco waterfront at

this tangential point, so I've accumulated many shots of this marine

cityscape -- both morning and evening. Some are in my Boat Rides

folder. This is the first that I've worked up aggressively in

Photoshop.

Ann,

Welcome back -- and with such an interesting submission, new subject, new film, new camera and new scanner.

Although I am also a new owner of one of these Epson 2450 demons, you'll find that the more knowledgable members for your Epson 2450 scanning questions are Stephen Lau and Michael Ward.

Are you using the Silverfast SE software that came bundled with the 2450? It has a number of controls for global light and color adjustments that can nearly supplant many Photoshop operations. Since electrons are in plentiful supply, you can try many variations in your scans to experiment and identify your questions to the forum gurus.

Kind regards,