iancoxleigh

I like this and it is very soothing. However, I like the 'straight' shot a lot more. In fact, I rather love it! Maybe it is less 'original', but, it is very well achieved and beautiful to boot.

Hi Carlos, thanks for your opinion, I do value it.

 

I can certainly see why both you and Tero prefer the cropped version. It has MUCH more immediate impact and more dynamism within its compositional structure. However, that wasn't what I was after here.

 

As you can see, this photo is part of a folder here called "Waiting". I was drawn to this and these other subjects due to their state of being in seeming disuse or abandonment. This is all despite the fact that they most definitely are not abandoned and this area is always changing – these very metal bins where hacked up and bundled for scrap with a day or two of this shot.

 

Anyways, because of the greater context and the intentions I had, I have fully settled on the more static crop I posted first. I understand that it is NOT as immediately compelling. But, that's alright, I think it has more to say in the longer term as a more slowly experienced image with the fuller context of the snow, the rusting siding, and the overall position.

 

 

I love Lightroom and wouldn't live without it. If I had to give up either PS or Lightroom, I would give up PS.

1. I am not an organized person and Lightroom makes keeping and accessing my libraries easy. All the power of bridge and camera-raw rolled into one programme plus a lot of additional functionality.

2. The print engine in Lightroom is fantastic. Even if I work up a final few changes in PS, I always end up going back into Lightroom to print.

3. The 2.0 release's sharpening is good enough to avoid going to PS for that — except if you want to selectively sharpen only one area.

4. The web galleries are nice! I did my whole website from within Lightroom. I manage it with Dreamweaver. But, I created the basic pages entirely in Lightroom.

http://www.iancoxleigh.com

I used some templates from TTG (http://lightroom.theturninggate.net/).

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I still use PS a fair bit. The dudge and burn tools are better because you can work the highlights, mid-tones, and shadows seperately – even compared to the most recent Lightroom local adjustments tool. The ability to create selections and masks is great. Noise Ninja does a much better job of noise reduction that what is in Lightroom. I do some channel swapping on my IR stuff. But, PS keeps getting less and less use as Lightroom improves.

Plus, it is very easy to export a TIFF to PS and then after working in PS, it automatically appears back in Lightroom where I can do a few more final tweaks before exporting a web-size version back into PS and put a frame on it.

Anyways, if you go the lightroom route, save an extra $40 for the Luminous Landscape video tutorials (7.5 hours). They are easy to watch and by the time you see it all, you'll have the whole programme down.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/videos/LR2.shtml

Jeff, I can not think of anything I did to this that would have aided the smooth look particularly.

 

This is ISO 640 on my D300. I do not think I ran any noise reduction as I have gone back to the RAW file and it looks just about the same. I did a fair bit of colour and contrast work in Lightroom and some slight dodging and burning in PS.

 

I do not think I used it here, but, I also use a plug-in called Viveza from Nik software. It is very, very good at reducing the need to make complicated and time-consuming selections and masks when you want to locally adjust colour and tone.

 

With regard to noise and smoothness, if you're looking, I can recommend the newest version of Noise Ninja, it is very good when you take the time to hand-profile each image and adjust carefully the parameters of the noise reduction. I had any earlier version and the newest is quite an improvement.

 

Lastly, I can say that this was one of the worst images for which to prepare a CMYK conversion. Apparently, soft, glowing, colour-washed light is just about impossible in a four-colour press.

 

 

 

 

Thanks Gordon.

 

Sorry for my extended absence. I shall endeavour to stop by your pages sometime soon. I imagine there will be some lovely shots from your kayaking adventures.

Hi Jeff,

 

Thanks for the kind comments. This and the other photo were actually both taken in the last twilight of dusk but I share your impressions of calmness and also the idea that things are about to happen. What actually drove the creation of this image, though, were the strong geometrical lines.

 

Sorry for the late reply, I have been absent from PN for a long while now. I hope to find some more time here soon. I am currently finishing up turning these Portlands images into a self-published book. I post an update here and on my profile when it is ready.

 

 

Beautiful shot. I also like that this composition is so clearly all about the lakes and the shoreline and not about framing Mt Rundle as most Vermillion Lakes shots are.

 

Really great colours and reflection too.

Exceptionally well conceived and executed. I like your strong triangular composition and the beautiful array of tonalities really brings this to life.

Raymond, Drago, Charles, thank you all.

 

Charles, I don't have any without the clouds. In fact, of the four days I was in Grand Teton, this was the most sun I saw (and it was gone in about 15 minutes).

 

 

I am going to replace the posted file with the changed one. Here is the original post for the record. It may take up to 24 fours for the new version to show above due to PN's cache system.

Hi Chris, I like what you've done in general. I worry that your version flatters out the contrasts too much and makes the mountains loose their ability to draw the eye back into the scene. However, I do like the added attention the sky and barn get by lowering and raising their respective tonalities.

 

So, here is my own re-work taking your example as a cue and working to keep those things with which I was concerned.

 

Thanks!

A thick fog/smog rolled into this area just as the sun was setting and

gave a warm glow to the whole countryside.

 

All comments appreciated.

 

Thanks.

Does this work for you? This has been languishing in my "uncertain"

folder for nearly a year now and I have never posted it.

 

On the one hand, I like the composition with the small pools anchoring

the left side and the wooden building placed slightly askew on the

right. I also like that there is some particular "specialness" to this

moment with the incoming storm just breaking over the mountain top and

rushing towards us across the valley.

 

However, I am concerned that the sky includes a lot of featureless

white areas. They aren't "blown-out" in the exposure, but, they look a

little bit like they are since they are so uniformly white.

 

Anyways, does this work for you? Have a look at my main portfolio page

here or my website, if you would be so kind, and tell me if it is as

good as the bulk of that work or not.

 

Thanks,

 

Ian

Lovely. There's not a thing to complain about here! The greens are amazing and the composition is strong with an attractive and engaging foreground.

Thanks Fred.

 

You know, you seem to respond to my images exactly as I would more often than not. I think I agree wholeheartedly with everything you wrote. Especially about the clouds – I love those simple clouds and they probably drove the composition.

 

I know this isn't eye-catching, it isn't dramatic, it isn't even all that "interesting" a light or moment. But, I do think it has great balance and harmony and rewards sustained and long-term viewing. It is pleasing and soothing. I feel that it is the sort of image I, personally, would want as a print to live with over time (which is my usual goal). There are lots of high-impact images that I just don't think I could live with over the long-term and it is that final result as a print that I tend to hold in my mind.

 

"Upon seeing it, I immediately got the feeling of living nature, systematic and self sustaining."

 

I can't deny that that sort of thought was present in my mind when visiting Mono Lake. It is the sort of place one might set a North American version of Aeneas' decent into the underworld. It is a place seemingly on the edge of life – with these strange and eerie towers and all the salt-caked and oddly preserved vegetation. Plus its location in the empty back end of California seems too perfect.

 

However, I can't say I was particularly playing with the idea in this image itself (more so in the image titled "branches"). But, it was on my mind the whole time (and, it seems, in lots of other places as well – probably the result of studying the Egyptian afterlife and its texts so much).

Very nice. I like the soft colours especially. They work very well with the open and simple composition.

Wow! What a great sense of atmosphere you captured here. The fog and the way it sweeps across the slopes is stunning. This is a shot of this icon that is truly unique and amazing.

 

I like the blue wash here as well. It brings the early morning quality to life. I also find the foreground reeds and the texture they bring to the water to be a major benefit in the composition. My eye follows their lines right back into the heart of the scene.

Thanks Jeff for the feedback. There are clearly a number of people who think like you – the previous version (noisy with some cloning issues) was rated somewhere in the 5.6/5.4 range which is well lower than my other most recent images. However, this remains a personal favourite of mine.

 

I like how the clouds seem to counter-balance the tufa in the composition and I like the main subject being these anthropomorphically drowning branches which seem to me to be reaching, desperately grasping, for help.

 

The colour is a little odd, I'll certainly agree with that. This was taken post-sunset and then I colour balanced a neutral card to remove all excess blue and this was the result. I, personally, quite like it.

 

You have to love those branches and the slightly surreal feeling I get from them to really like the rest of this.

Wonderful. The blue-gray rocks and the orange sand are amazing together. What an incredible place.

Incredible! The green of the juniper and the texture of it add so very much to this image. The pinks of the clouds is perfect and a wonderful foil to the juniper. One of the nicest shots from this lake I've ever seen.

 

 

Thanks.

Thanks Fred for the feedback. I've received a few comments about this shot that are quite similar to yours – i.e. that the foreground dominates too much when the tufa towers are the "real" subject.

 

I, of course, disagree. I just love the perfectly spherical balls of dead brush and always intended them to be the stars of the composition. If anything, maybe I should have found a way to make the foregrounds more clearly the focus.

 

Perhaps the wider crop you suggested would have achieved this? Oh well, until I return to this wondrous place . . .

 

Lovely exposure and colours. I find the tall aspect to fight against the rather balanced composition a little. There doesn't seem to be a good cause for such a tall composition and I'd, therefore, be inclined to crop this to 4x5 or so. I think that would make a more engaging composition.

 

Still, an excellent image as it is. Nice work.

This has such a fresh and compelling appearance. The colours are just perfect and the slightly underexposed presentation makes this something spectacular.

 

Beautiful!

Amazing! There is not a thing I'd change here. Every element is perfect.