MrAndMrsIzzy

Thank you! Permission granted! Might the noise be the result of my scanning, the film I used (Kodak 400 color print grey market), my editing, etc., or some combination thereof?

WHOA! That is indeed a high compliment!! Thankyou!

Amen! Aside from that, I've decided to go ahead and rescan it. Seems I originally scanned it at a much lower resolution than I thought. Have the original neg in a binder someplace, I just have to find where someplace is and hope the neg is still scannable. Don't know if it'll help, but don't think it'll hurt.

My thanks to the two Mike's for their additional input. I'm taking all the info to heart, starting over from scratch, going slow, and using tools that I haven't (at this point anyway) used much. It's going to take a while, but as I indicated a couple of post's ago. Whatever the outcome, it'll be good practice.

Actually, the instant isn't really lost. It's there, captured and preserved in the photograph. A camera is (in a sense) a time trap. It has the unique ability to temporarily capture and preserve a specific moment in time and space until that moment can be transferred to more permanent storage (print, digital file, negative, etc.). A photograph of Lincoln meeting with his generals, comes to mind. The meeting took place in 1860 something. The actual physical moment is long gone. But the photograph of that moment is still around.

Hmmm! OK, I see your point. So! Back to the drawing board (so to speak). Start from scratch and see what I can do. Either way, it'll be good practice.

????? What do you mean by lighter and more nuanced ???

Only sharpening I've done so far is a little on the head of the bird. Put it on a separate layer sharpened it a little and merged it down.

Moment and perspective does ring true, but I still take the shot. The way I see it is I'm here now. This shot for example was on that same trip as my previous post about creeping civilization. In fact it wasn't too far from that same spot. It's nice to be in a situation where you can choose time, place, angle, etc. But! As I'm sure you're aware if that's not the case, you either take what you can get, or go without. In that situation I tend to take what I can get, and hope I got what I wanted (or at least something I can work with).

Thanks Sam Not much I can do about the moment or vantage point. Saw the critter coming down, knew he was heading for something in the water. Followed him down as best I could (focus was set to one shot auto). He hit the water and by the time I snapped the shutter he was on his way back up. It was basically a grabshot. All that aside. Here I lowered the saturation a bit. Not sure what I can do about the noise. I did a despeckle and that seems to have smoothed it out a bit, but short of possibly rescanning at a higher resolution (which I'm not particularly interested in), I don't know what else I can do.

Trying something a little different here. Most of the time when I ask for a critique it's an image that I've already finished editing and have saved to the permanent file. I'm asking for the critique basically for future reference should I decide to edit a similar image or re-edit that one. This time I'm asking for a critique of one that's still in process. The first image is the unedited (except for resizing to post) scan. The second is after basic adjustments (brightness, contrast, tone, etc.). Critiques, suggestions for improvement, etc. welcome. Unedited Partially edited

Captured this one a few hours ago. DUMBO (for those who may not know) is the acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. It's a waterfront neighborhood in or near (depending on your point of view) downtown Brooklyn. Used to be warehouses, factories, etc. The warehouses and factories etc. have been repurposed to upscale shopping places, eateries, living spaces, galleries, etc. This guy was near one of the eateries.

Thank you !

Amen !

Thank you ! I have to admit, I was a little concerned about the color. Thought it might be a little too soft and muted but decided to leave it alone. Glad I did !

Thank you !

It occurred to me (after reading through the "What is street photography" string over at "Street Photography", mistakenly posting "creeping civilization" here instead of there and reading through the posts here) that having some idea of why the photographer chose to capture a particular image (capture a mood or feeling of some kind, simply for the sake of it, tell a story, etc.) might help in forming a more relevant critique. This image was captured in Varanasi (Banares) India in 1990. The river is The Ganges and the time of day was early morning, several minutes before the sun came up above the horizon. Air temperature was comfortably cool, there was a slight mist, it was very still, and the only sound that could be heard was the lapping of water against the side of the rowboat we were in. The only other people in sight were this guy sitting in what I'm guessing was a ferry (of sorts), and the ferryman who was polling it across. It was a very calm, very peaceful, sort of mystical (I don't know what else to call it) mood or atmosphere, and that's what I was trying to capture.

Grin! Thanks Mike. I did try to tone it down a bit, but my skill with the editing program just wasn't up to it. The difference between the green of the surrounding rainforest and the blazing white of the throne (so to speak) was just too much. No matter what I tried I just couldn't get it right.

I agree. Probably should've posted it over at "Street Photography" in the "What Is Street Photography " string, but I didn't think of that until it was too late.

It was January of 1999, and we (my wife and I) had booked passage on a riverboat (not unlike an old Mississippi stern wheeler) eco-tour along the Peruvian Amazon. We were on a remote section of the Ucaialli (a tributary of The Amazon). The nearest settlement (not sure if it was even large enough to qualify for that title) was several miles downstream from where we were when we spotted what appeared to be a small trail (not unlike a deer trail) leading from waters edge back into the surrounding rainforest. We tied up to the river's bank, went ashore, and proceeded to explore. At several yards in, the trail (if I remember correctly) curved to the right. We couldn't see around the curve but speculation of what we might find was rife. Fresh Jaguar tracks, a vine entangled man-made structure built ages ago by some ancient, now lost, mysterious civilization. Some creature, not yet known to science. Etc. With baited breath we rounded the curve. And there it was. Standing there in all its glory and magnificent isolation.

Atmosphere!

No slight taken and the point is a good one!

Well! What I meant was you're someplace and see something you think would make a good image so you take a pic and hope that you got what you saw (so to speak). That said, obviously the expressions "found image", "found photography", found photograph", etc. could be used in the sense you described also

There's an iconic or semi-iconic photograph of a church (possibly in New Mexico). Taken by (I think) Ansel Adams. That's what this one reminds me of.

Thanks all for the compliments. As indicated earlier "Bridge On The Li" (that's my title for the original experiment). I of course had no idea how it would come out at the time. The horse was probably a day or two later. I guess in a way (though I didn't think of it that way at the time) it was the second part of the experiment. I did do a B\W version but didn't see any point in posting it. If anybody's interested in what it might look like, I would think it's easy enough to copy it from the post and run it through whatever editing program they use. In my case it was the B\W conversion in Ps. I don't remember what filtration (deep red, IR, Yellow, etc.) I used though. On another note, don't know if this has any bearing but you know those Chinese watercolor paintings of steep sided, mist shrouded, mountains. Those mountains are what line The Li