gnashings

Thank you all for taking the time to look - your kind words are truly flattering and much appreciated!

Its a very interesting shot, and a very effective image - both graphically and as a means to attract attention to an ad - I am just not sure that it really showcases the wheels themselves? That, of course, has nothing to do with the photographic merit of the shot, and if the client liked it - that's all that matters.

I see photos I like, photos I love, photos that do nothing for me, photos I just hate - all quite often. But its not often that I see one that makes me say "Damn! I wish I took this photo!" - this is one of them. Kudos on a job well done all around!

Its been so many years since I've seen this ship! Aside from any emotional bias I may have, I think this is a very interesting composition and a strong graphic statement.

yey... pictorialism is back... Great.

Typical of these "edits", I like the origianl much more. The suggested changes make it oversaturated, overblown, tasteless kitsch in the best tradition of all things lacking subtlety.

I think this image (the origianl) is wonderful, and would only suggest that being "worthy" of being a postcard, it should not be a criteria for how you judge your picture. Does it convey what you wanted to convey when you took it? Is it creating the emotions you want to create? Well, then its a successful image. Who cares if a bunch of people with questionable taste would "vote" for it by buying a postcard? Remember, those are the same people that buy souvenir t-shirts with cheesy attempts at humour:)

I don`t mind when a photo "gives the impression" of something else, heck - I like it. But when someone goes to such lengths as to photo shop the props out of the shot... it just looks like a gimmick. Too bad, because if some of the things that were meant to "fool" the viewer into seeing this airplane if flight were not undertaken (the obvious framing meant to show no ground at the expense of composition, the crude removal of propellers), this would be a lovely, very well executed study of a classic aircraft.

Admittedly, the scans do lack contrast... and lose sharpness. But, I assure you that there is no "converting" involved - this is an actual photograph, scanned from print. I am not sure how this relates to light painting... I am assuming your intent was at humour, but in either case - the comments on the flat look on the monitor are points well taken. However, leaving a print in developer does nothing to increase contrast - and the neg is plenty contrasty... Perhaps you should stick to file editing, as long as you think its photography, its all that matters.

Scott - this scan is rather soft-ish (ok, its garrishly soft, lacking contrast and well... it sucks) compared to the print/negative. I am dealing with rock bottom scanning facilities :) Also, I notice that monitor to monitor, the "quality" varies further still... Sometimes I question the rationale of doing this at all, but I do like to share the photos and get input, even if its based on a very general idea of what the photo actually looks like.

The title was just supposed to be cheeky in a B&W photo - I think a little too much has been made of it. It IS a red plane - but it should be immaterial to this image - if it is not, then I have failed:)

Many thanks to August for chiming in - your insight is as always very much appreciated, and I am flattered that you had kind words to direct towards my photo and thankful for all the suggestions and critiques.

You're getting a nice little series of shots here - good work!

Great shot, the foreboding sky makes it very dramatic. If there is a small "bu" it would be the props, I wish you could have used a slower shutter to get them a little more blurred - however, I know that from the side its very difficult to get the effect. All in all, a lovely shot.

This is a great shot of one of my all time favorite rally cars! A bit of a time warp, this - really anjoyed it!

I really like this shot. I know, that's not exactly an "educated" art critique:), but frankly I don't care - I found myself looking at it for a long time and really enjoyed it. Good to see a rarely photographed "unsung hero" of an airplane, too! Pleasure as always,

 

Peter.

Yeah... these are the kind of comments that come from too much reading of photo forums... What is the point of painting with light if you light the whole object evenly - the whole point is to SELECT what you want to show...

 

Did it ever occur to you guys that he may have been attempting to accentuate this part of the car? I know that what I LOVE about this photo as a GRAPHIC statement IS the isolation of the tear-drop shape... I would not change a thing - except maybe repeating this exercise with a real 917 someday:)

Dan,

 

I love just about everything about this shot! It really cought my eye and once I looked closer, it kept me glued to the screen!

Nice composition, good job of selecting which part of the car to highlight - I like it a lot!

I really like the composition - its outstanding! The formation of airplanes lines up with a formation of cloud just perfectly. great eye!

I am not even going to comment on the bull-in-a-china-shop use of photoshop beyond saying that it would look slightly less ridiculous without that obvious halo - not to mention the fact that the original background is clearly visible through the windows, but I will say this: what difference does it make that it was taken with "natural light" when there is nothing left of the actual capture? A car this nice really deserves better...

Great capture! It never ceases to amaze me when they lift the front wheel while the bike is still leaning - a perilous ballet very nicely conveyed in this image.

I don't know if anyone would comment on this if they new they will be subjected to pouting, self-pitying emails if the comments are not favorable. Please keep your whining to the forum and out of my in-box.

This would have been a nice capture if it wasn't for the hamfisted "post-processing" and artificial looking gimmicks.

Pat, I have to go against the trend here. While the colour version may have had some colour temp issues (or not, I really didn't see them, although I trust those who devote themselves to file processing to know their craft), but it looked vibrant, lively, I almost felt the crisp, cold, mountain air. Sure, it may not have looked like a photo from the period, but although I have no proof to this end, I assume that reality back then was not of a lower resolution or colour saturation than what we see today. While a photograph from that day may not have looked like what you showed, you never made the pretense of it being an old photo - which, by the way, I really appreciate about your work - but rather allowed your viewers, myself included, a glimpse of what being there may have been like.

Quite frankly, I find the above picture to be desaturated rather than B&W, and almost antiseptically lifeless, looking like CG animation (when CG animation is extremely well done, mind you) - just too perfect, something is not right, not real. I also find that along with the colours, the impression of depth and space has been bled out of this image.

I hope you take this comment for what it is - just my impressions vis a vis the other image and your previous work. It is certainly wrought with bias - we all have them, and I think everyone here knows I wear mine on my sleeve:) I hope that someone stumbling over this will get to the end of my long-winded critique so they can read that I have the utmost respect for your skills and your command of the medium of the composite image. Actually - I can honestly say I have never really given them much time until I came across yours. They tend to be ham-fisted afterthoughts, usually trying desperately to correct some (usually many) shortcomings of their maker as a photographer. What you do is its own medium and an art form in its own right.

 

Thanks for putting up with my cranky rants:)

 

Peter.

 

 

and that is why a DoF scale is usually "firmly bolted" to most lenses

its only foreground "interest" if its interesting - grey, out of focus tarmac is not. Crop to square from the bottom and see this really come to life.

Aren't they just too gorgeous for words? I really like the composition, even though I am not a fan of extensive cropping, it really works here. I think with a fairly monochrome image like this one, it would have been perfect for a B&W treatment. Nice Mustang shot as well.