minicucci

Beautifully shot and rendered. The understated detail of the eye really makes this image sing. The uber clarity of the horse is so well matched by the soft, soft sky and snow. A really fine image.

Beautiful take of this icon. I think the trees add versus subtract from the image. They alone provide the scale that sets the immensity of the rock face in proper perspective. I would think about cropping a bit of the upper sky to better balance the overall image but a real print should be the guide.

 

Nice shot.

Perfect!

Frank:

 

Magnificent. I'd clone out the car, though. Maybe tone down the brights a bit too.

Markku:

 

Just an outstanding image. The paleness of the colors combined with the willful lack of symmetry balances perfectly. Scale here is completely human-sized, notwithstanding the immensity of the stadium, lending an intimate touch to an otherwise antiseptic scene. Well put together and beautifully crafted.

I really really like this one. (It's no Sistine Chapel but then the Sistine fresco never had a can of 10-30W to help with creation.)

Carlos: Thank you.

 

This was taken in 2004 and I had tried the series of shots as B&W with no good result and so had put them in the limbo file. I've posted the color version out of a desire to end the limbo status more than anything else.

Bulent: Nice of you to stop by. This was a redo of a single frame. Advances in Adobe's Camera Raw converter (e.g. fill light) and DxO's optics engine allowed for a different type of processing this go-around. I'm putting together a photo book of the Landing, so I am reviewing all of my older shots and undertaking rehab, as needed.

A redo of this :

 

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5786509

Gunnar: The vantage point is perfectly chosen and as Bulent has said, it makes for a rich landscape. However, to my eye, the low contrast water paired with that soft, low contrast sky leaves it a bit flat. Were it me, I'd target the water for more contrast and leave that deliciously soft sky alone.

Great shot. The sunburst(?) sculpture behind him really sets off the shot.

No suggestions. It is lovely. A lesson in light and color.

 

I've a nagging suspicion that I would have cropped out the top third to emphasize the intensity of the bottom 2/3s. And that would have been a mistake. (Too–quick cropitis is a terrible disease.) The bottom needs the top to offer balance and to testify on the variations of light and color.

Hi Kent!

 

I am delighted that you stopped by and I thank you for your kind comment. Misty days are made for photos.

I'd echo the observations of both Doug and Linda. The subject here is touching and interesting but the light is just stunning. She could be peeling potatoes and it still would be good. The highlights in her hair and on her face are simply killer. The fade to black on the left, equally so. Compositionally, the image is perfectly proportioned. The understated toning is wonderful as well.

 

One nit. I'd wish for some detail recovery in the blown areas of the baby's blanket and her hand between the knuckles. I know this is a scan so that detail may not be there on the negative either.

Here's the raw shot of the other one.

Markku (and Jack who is over in the corner...)

 

I like both versions, especially in print. This one, as Markku noted, is more disciplined in composition and balances the eye a bit better. Shot with the camera pointed a little bit higher, it captures that little red button tension lock as well as the bracket above it, which I like very much. It also does a better job of spotlighting that green cord. The other one, however, has a more expansive feel and is anchored by the top of the piling post, making it both less abstract and more chaotic as the welter of rigging lines just goes on and on. You also get that delightful bottom spiral of the rolled up mainsail which is a small touch of exacting detail that balances the color dominance of the scene. So, my firm judgement is six to one, half a dozen to the other. :)

 

There was not much PS work here, as the raw shots show (attached). I darkened the sky's blues in the raw converter using the HSL sliders and tempered some of the highlights to preserve detail. In PS proper, I did a fair amount of very low opacity burn and dodge, boosted midtone contrast and spent a lot of time getting the sharpening right, in the right places. Even after balancing the saturation using saturation masks, I thought the blues were a bit garish so I used a 10% opacity B&W adjustment layer set to high contrast red filter (darker sky) with the blend if sliders set so that all of the green channel went untouched. This did a nice job of muting the edgy blues without harm to my beloved green cord or the detail of near-blown whites of the mainsail.

 

I should say that I was surprised these worked so well. This was shot at midday, hard light, on Block Island, in steady winds of 25 knots. Speed was only 1/250 at f/8. Boats move and so do docks in that kind of weather. The lens, however, was IS equipped and I have to imagine that that made the difference. My other shots were a dead loss.

 

Thanks for asking about this. I learn a lot by having to frame a response. I mean that sincerely.

"Power to the green cord, yeah!"

 

Exactly my thought! Such a wonderful little anomaly.

There is something visually compelling about the geometry of docks and piers. Think of all the dock/pier shots you've looked at over the years. From almost any angle, something can be made. I think the physics behind these structures resonate visually for the same reasons they work in practice and strike a greater chord because they tend to be made of wood (organic) and lay upon the perfectly level surface of water.

Bulent & Jack: I am so delighted with your comments. (And, Jack, I nearly ruined my laptop by spitting coffee after reading yours.)

 

I really like this image. I don't often present darker images. I like them when done by others but my SOP has always been that you cannot have enough light, so fill them shadows, etc. Here though, the cedar looks so winsome,voluptuous and seductive to me but only if coupled with a dark and simple background.

 

I actually took this as part of an experiment with focus blending, so the original frames had part of a pool wall and diving board in the foreground with selective focus points. The experiment worked. Everything was in perfect focus. But only the cedar survives.

I thank you all for your comments. Bulent, actually, this was taken mid-afternoon on a foggy, cold and drizzly day. Here I am facing southeast, with the sun (well shrouded) just off and behind my right shoulder.

 

Linda, no blur used here although I did use a modest combination of blurs on the companion piece, "Frank's Boat".

 

Jack, I like your comment. What I like about this image is its sense of balance and stillness, although I do think a bit more space at the bottom would have been better.

 

Truth is I am having a hard time printing this one well. The darker tones generate more heaviness on paper than does they do on screen and project a kind of gravity that subtracts from the image. I'd like it to be more weightless, so I am still tweaking.

A really lovely portrait, Bulent! I like the flood of back light, the father's wordless gaze of affection and Ceyhun's guileless, open and friendly expression. There is much life in those eyes. Both convey the sense of very good souls.

 

I think a tighter crop, from the top, would balance the tightness of crop at the sides.

C H: Thank you for your kind comment.

 

I do not know if you are interested in this sort of stuff, but I wrote a long blog entry on how this image was made, mainly because I learned a lot by making it. You can find the write-up here:

 

http://www.photocritiq.com/article-1199575135

Bulent: I have a working theory about any kind of color caste which is have them if you will but spare the whites/near whites and blacks/near blacks. Our eyes lust for finding an image's black point and white point. It's the reference point for all other color. A caste allowed to permeate the extremes will tend to throw off all other visual balance. I have no scientific proof that this is so but I believe in my bones.

 

Exceptions do make the rule, though. Take a look at Jack's image here:

 

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8920032

 

There's a strong yellow caste that does invade both whites and blacks but it also elevates the overall image, balance be damned. I'll be honest and tell you I do not know why it works so well here. I just see that it does.

Heh.

This is the baseball equivalent of stealing home. Something utterly ordinary made extraordinary. A bold and wonderful crop really makes the photograph for me.