minicucci

Lovely color. The reflections in the water are well scene and well captured. I particularly like the fine detail and soft color of the boat.

 

You might consider an alternate crop that omits the building and creates a squarish image that focuses on the three boats and the reflections.

Kenneth: That is a drop-dead sky, well-rendered in B&W. The foreground is a bit contrasty though, and pulls my eye away from the beauty of the sky. Perhaps a different crop or different treatment of the fence?

Does anyone know the make/model of this car?

I'm a sucker for these sky shots. Simplicity, yes… but to me it is all about another day spent above ground. Nice shot.

Jack, I appreciate your unflagging attention and generous comments!

 

I am very fond of this one. I am trying to concentrate on photographing small things and this one qualifies.

Thanks, Jack.

 

I agree that the color version is more subtle. Still, I actually have a mild preference for the B&W version but that's my operative bias. I posted both because of real indecision between the two. I'll print both versions

I marked this one as a favorite a while ago and meant to get back with some comments.

 

I find this enigmatic image remarkable. Sort of in the tradition of American Gothic fused with Arbus if such a thing exists. The nondescript background that is quintessentially American coupled with this genderless person. Wardrobe and body shape say male. Face and hair say female. I've no idea which is correct but the forthright stare renders the question moot. It just does not matter.

 

I like this very much. It is a significant photo.

Very nice sense of place here. You can almost feel the warmth of the afternoon sun and the simple expansiveness of the day. There is something so optimistic about these cyan skies. Nice capture of the repeating clouds, counterpointed by the curvature of the stone fence.

 

Using the barn's nearmost corner edge, I'd say this is about 1 degree off level and would benefit from a slight tweak clockwise.

An oddly wonderful photograph! Perfect use of hard light and bold color.

Beautiful use of light, color and shadow. An almost surreal effect that suits the content perfectly.

A very interesting composition. The movement from cold (foreground) to warm (midground) and back to cold (distant & sky) sets up a dynamic rhythm as well as fully exploring the obvious depth of the scene. The color palette is both a bit forbidding and very real. The detail and clarity throughout and especially on the hard frost is well executed. All told, a terrific shot with a cogent story of this harsh ground.

Well crafted and nice use of soft, complementary color.

A beautifully composed shot. Top notch for the genre. The storm clouds move this from the banal to the beautiful. Great sense of depth and clarity.

 

My "nit" is the slightly intrusive yellow-green color cast, which may indeed be natural given the approaching storm and/or may have been enhanced by the filter arrangement. I know some may prefer it as is but to my eye the yellow blunts the strength and purity of the foreground rocks and the lighthouse and takes away from the visual gem of the two primroses(?) in the foreground.

 

Nit aside, great shot. It shows wonderful craft and great respect for the scene.

For review and comment.

Thanks, Jack.

 

I'm editing a photo book on Burritt's Landing, so i have to beef up the portfolio a bit for same. (That's why all the boathouse shots, pool shots, et al). Not a great image but it will do the job in terms of portraying the dock.

Wow. Really.

 

It is a shot like this that underscores all that is magical about photography. Common light. Common colors. Uncommon result.

Thank you all. Using HDR software is both interesting and frustrating. It does do a lot to smooth out tonal values if the shot intervals are correctly spaced. I lucked out here.

 

Carsten, here's the "centered" raw shot of the sequence. As you can see, the light was forward of my left shoulder, which is why the left eve is better lit.

I agree.

Thanks, Jack.

 

I must confess that I was just shooting anything at hand to test a new lens. I've never used a lens longer than 135 mm before and that was in my film days. This was shot at 200 mm so these two were not paying any attention to me, which is a definite benefit of the telephoto. They were having an extended conversation and neither one seemed very happy with the other. I was laughing out loud by the time the series was done. I think these two have together a long time. I wish them well.

You nailed it. Here we have a surround of beauty (in a suburban kind of way) but the way ahead is dark, murky and maybe a little dangerous. But there is such promise...

 

Thanks, Jack.

This is an amazing image. (What's happened here that such work garners no comments?)

 

The colors are sublime, using yellows and blues to complement the intricacy of lines. An image absent any people but packed with life and energy nonetheless. A photo that highlights text as an art form. Beautiful work.

Just one shot...and one raw conversion. I compressed the dynamic range in Camera Raw, using both the basic and curve controls. The HSL sliders brought back the sky's blue by decreasing luminance. There's more detail on the "details" here.

Fabulous shot, Ned. Really. I just love it. It is classic!

 

I think this one would be great as a B&W. The content stands strong without color and the tonal qualities render well in grays. My version of a B&W attached.

Magnificent dog! You've captured an excellent portrait, portraying the energy and alertness of the breed. Excellent focus and DOF.

 

I think you can strengthen the shot in post by taming the exposure, especially in the upper quarter tones and darkening the background to provide some depth and visual separation for the dog. I'd also dial back global contrast a bit and steepen the midtones.

 

If you look at the color channels, you'll see that the green and blue channels have much more detail than the red, which is slightly clipped. If you use PS, you can use Channel Mixer to reset the tonal mix only by checking monochrome in the Mixer and setting the adjustment layer to luminosity mode.

 

Quick example attached.

Ned; For this one, I started with a "lights" luminosity mask used on the darkest bracket frame and blended with the lightest bracket frame. Brackets were set 2 stops apart. I did not use the "correct" exposure bracket, at all. I then hand-tailored the luminosity mask and used a little "blend-if" adjustment on both layers.

 

I've not been happy with any of the merge-to-HDR results that I get, but that is probably more a matter of my skill than the software.

 

Take a look here (http://www.goodlight.us/writing/luminositymasks/luminositymasks-1.html) for some fascinating info on using luminosity masks. I love having contrast and exposure control (albeit in small increments) by quarter tones with self feathering masks. I've found that almost all shots benefit from tightening up the mids.