Pages: [1] 2   Go Down

Author Topic: Water Wall  (Read 6778 times)

DwayneOakes

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 655
Water Wall
« on: May 30, 2014, 12:40:06 am »

Thanks for taking a look !

Dwayne Oakes
Logged

Paulo Bizarro

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7393
    • http://www.paulobizarro.com
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2014, 04:14:45 am »

This is a nice image, the veil of the water is well depicted. I do find the tones a tad towards a greenish-yellowish cast?

HeneryNadela25

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2014, 09:37:17 am »

Beautiful Image of water wall.
Logged

DwayneOakes

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 655
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2014, 09:40:50 am »

Thank you very much for the comments everyone ! I really appreciate it !
Logged

luxborealis

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2798
    • luxBorealis.com - photography by Terry McDonald
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2014, 08:21:02 am »

This is a nice image, the veil of the water is well depicted. I do find the tones a tad towards a greenish-yellowish cast?

I think all of your images posted to date have been great explorations of nature's details, but they have also suffered from having a subtle, and seemingly unnatural, warm yellow-red tone. I think it was Slobodan that pointed out the connection to the Foveon sensor, but whether it is that or a slightly blue monitor, your photos would benefit from some consideration given to colour correction.

This photo may be "naturally" yellow-green due to the limestone, the light and the moss, but to the objective observer, the colour cast detracts from the image.

I often find the colour of the limestone (and often the streams flowing over it) in southern Ontario to be slightly on the insipid side. A case in point is your previous image "Crayfish", where the rock is almost orange. It's not your fault, but it doesn't help the photograph either. For this reason, when shooting along the Escarpment I will often slightly "correct" the colour cast of the rock with a subtle application of cool tones with an adjustment brush (real experimentation needed here due to the range of tones) or I work on seeing and producing the photographs in black & white. I'll get off the iPad and attach a couple of examples.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2014, 08:29:28 am by luxborealis »
Logged
Terry McDonald - luxBorealis.com

DwayneOakes

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 655
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #5 on: May 31, 2014, 12:36:19 pm »

I think all of your images posted to date have been great explorations of nature's details, but they have also suffered from having a subtle, and seemingly unnatural, warm yellow-red tone. I think it was Slobodan that pointed out the connection to the Foveon sensor, but whether it is that or a slightly blue monitor, your photos would benefit from some consideration given to colour correction.

This photo may be "naturally" yellow-green due to the limestone, the light and the moss, but to the objective observer, the colour cast detracts from the image.

I often find the colour of the limestone (and often the streams flowing over it) in southern Ontario to be slightly on the insipid side. A case in point is your previous image "Crayfish", where the rock is almost orange. It's not your fault, but it doesn't help the photograph either. For this reason, when shooting along the Escarpment I will often slightly "correct" the colour cast of the rock with a subtle application of cool tones with an adjustment brush (real experimentation needed here due to the range of tones) or I work on seeing and producing the photographs in black & white. I'll get off the iPad and attach a couple of examples.

Great cc, thank you ! I will give it try on the next set.
Logged

DwayneOakes

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 655
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #6 on: May 31, 2014, 07:39:34 pm »

Some WB adjustments any better on the Y/G color cast ?
Logged

DwayneOakes

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 655
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #7 on: May 31, 2014, 07:47:00 pm »

and another one
Logged

dumainew

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 194
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #8 on: May 31, 2014, 08:11:01 pm »

Your last foto is very enjoyable. Maybe the issue is there's a primordial taboo about greenish/cast water ?
Logged

DwayneOakes

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 655
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #9 on: May 31, 2014, 09:15:34 pm »

Your last foto is very enjoyable. Maybe the issue is there's a primordial taboo about greenish/cast water ?

Thank you very much for the comments ! I think the Y/G is natural from trees from above and moss from below
and not the sensor, It does not show up in my winter images with the same WB setting ? that said Terry brings up a
good point it could detract from the image. It is an easy fix.
Logged

sdwilsonsct

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3296
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #10 on: May 31, 2014, 11:13:05 pm »

Thank you very much for the comments ! I think the Y/G is natural from trees from above and moss from below
and not the sensor, It does not show up in my winter images with the same WB setting ? that said Terry brings up a
good point it could detract from the image. It is an easy fix.

Sure, but IMO I'd rather see what you saw, not what I expect. Of course "corrections" are fine if you prefer them.

DwayneOakes

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 655
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #11 on: June 01, 2014, 06:08:29 am »

Good point Scott !
Logged

Jeremy Roussak

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 8961
    • site
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #12 on: June 01, 2014, 06:46:34 am »

Sure, but IMO I'd rather see what you saw, not what I expect. Of course "corrections" are fine if you prefer them.

That's an interesting point, Scott. To an extent, I'd agree; but if the "real" colours / colour casts are unsettling to the extent that they spoil the impact of the image, and they aren't intended to be a feature, perhaps they're best removed. I know there are purists who will object, just as they'd object to cloning out a rock which gets in the way, but I take the view that we're producing things that bring pleasure to the viewer, not documentary shots.

Jeremy
Logged

luxborealis

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2798
    • luxBorealis.com - photography by Terry McDonald
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #13 on: June 01, 2014, 09:44:21 am »

That's an interesting point, Scott. To an extent, I'd agree; but if the "real" colours / colour casts are unsettling to the extent that they spoil the impact of the image, and they aren't intended to be a feature, perhaps they're best removed. I know there are purists who will object, just as they'd object to cloning out a rock which gets in the way, but I take the view that we're producing things that bring pleasure to the viewer, not documentary shots.

Jeremy

Agreed, Jeremy - the purists aren't artists but ideologues who believe nature is static. The rock that's here today will be gone "tomorrow" - swept away in a flood or eroded over time or moved by some kid looking for treasures. Photographers who tie themselves to puritan ideas about not cropping nor cloning nor altering colour cast, etc. are slaves to this concept that nothing changes in nature and slaves to the engineers who designed their equipment and the algorithms that run it.

Once you choose to make even one slight change to the way the camera spat out the photo (one slight exposure or contrast adjustment), then you must accept that any change is an acceptable decision to make provided it flows from the will of the artist. Otherwise, with the myriad options available, where could one possibly draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable (pure and unpure) except on the basis of what "works" for the photograph and the photographer's artistic vision? If the photographer chooses to define their vision as "purist" then they must accept that no changes are permitted to the raw file or JPEG from the camera. Wow what a cop out; what a waste of the creative energy that helps define us as individuals and as humans!

The ”can't change anything after exposure" camp is an artificial throw back to amateur film days when the average photographer couldn't change very much because it was too laborious, so they created this "rule": "If I can't change anything, no one should". Transparency photographers were the most dogmatic for obvious reasons. I remember when one photographer showed slides he had very pleasingly cropped using foil tape. The photographers in the audience were outraged - but he held fast to his belief that we are artists and reserve the right to make those decisions. Surprisingly, the non-photographers, mostly spouses, had no trouble with the cropping.

The myth of it is that amateur photographers and a few purist pros were the only ones following this ideal as the likes of National Geographic (and all the other popular photo magazines) were routinely making significant darkroom alterations to photos (hmmmm, let's move that pyramid over there where it works better, or, more simply, "let's raise the contrast here and hold back the exposure there"). Alterations have been made to photographs since the first photographs were made in a darkroom! Meanwhile the public naively believed this purist ideal applied to all photographs they saw, so are always taken aback when they learn quite the opposite is true.

Sorry folks, photography is art. You can start with a blank canvas and build the photograph you see in your mind's eye, or you can go through life documenting and recording and hide behind this mythical purist ideal.
Logged
Terry McDonald - luxBorealis.com

Eric Myrvaagnes

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 22814
  • http://myrvaagnes.com
    • http://myrvaagnes.com
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #14 on: June 01, 2014, 09:53:56 am »

Bravo, Terry!!!
Logged
-Eric Myrvaagnes (visit my website: http://myrvaagnes.com)

Colorado David

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1178
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #15 on: June 01, 2014, 10:01:49 am »

Four or five years ago I was sitting in the Dr's office lobby waiting for a routine appointment.  I was reading Arizona Highways magazine.  Just inside the front cover was a long, drawn out apology to the readers for accidentally allowing the publication of a cover photo that had been manipulated.  As I recall, the readers were assured that they would never buy another photo from the offending photographer.  They showed the original capture and the modified image side-by-side.  The photographer had used Photoshop to remove a small twig that intersected with a more interesting feature.  Someone else might have pulled their garden shears out of their pack and removed the twig, but this photographer left the twig and removed it in post.  Otherwise, the image had not been cropped and the colors appeared to be untouched.

luxborealis

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2798
    • luxBorealis.com - photography by Terry McDonald
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #16 on: June 01, 2014, 10:28:58 am »

Four or five years ago I was sitting in the Dr's office lobby waiting for a routine appointment.  I was reading Arizona Highways magazine.  Just inside the front cover was a long, drawn out apology to the readers for accidentally allowing the publication of a cover photo that had been manipulated.  As I recall, the readers were assured that they would never buy another photo from the offending photographer.  They showed the original capture and the modified image side-by-side.  The photographer had used Photoshop to remove a small twig that intersected with a more interesting feature.  Someone else might have pulled their garden shears out of their pack and removed the twig, but this photographer left the twig and removed it in post.  Otherwise, the image had not been cropped and the colors appeared to be untouched.

This sounds rather extremist! I am curious how they ever determined that one small change had been made? I also wonder if they realized the photographer may have adjusted the exposure, contrast, white balance or even cropped the image. Shame! Oh right, the magazine probably cropped the image to make it fit the the aspect ratio of the cover. What bunch of hypocrites! Imagine if this same magazine were ever to publish a painting then discover later the artist left out a small twig!  OMG! Arizona ought to pass a law...
Logged
Terry McDonald - luxBorealis.com

sdwilsonsct

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3296
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #17 on: June 01, 2014, 12:20:47 pm »

"You can start with a blank canvas and build the photograph you see in your mind's eye, or you can go through life documenting and recording and hide behind this mythical purist ideal. "

Excellent discussion. The only word I would quibble with is "or". Everyone decides how far down the processing road they want to go with each image. The artifice starts with the composition.

Colorado David

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1178
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #18 on: June 01, 2014, 04:30:15 pm »

There was a very prolific writer many years ago named Corey Ford.  He wrote a lot of different things, history, journalism, humor.  He was a screenwriter during the 1930s.  He was commissioned in the Army during World War II and wrote a book called War Below Zero about the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands.  Anyway, he is probably best remembered for writing a monthly humorous column in Field and Stream Magazine called The Lower Forty.  In one of the columns he described a purist;  A purist is someone who goes to great lengths to deny themselves a little pleasure.

DwayneOakes

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 655
Re: Water Wall
« Reply #19 on: June 01, 2014, 07:50:35 pm »

There was a very prolific writer many years ago named Corey Ford.  He wrote a lot of different things, history, journalism, humor.  He was a screenwriter during the 1930s.  He was commissioned in the Army during World War II and wrote a book called War Below Zero about the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands.  Anyway, he is probably best remembered for writing a monthly humorous column in Field and Stream Magazine called The Lower Forty.  In one of the columns he described a purist;  A purist is someone who goes to great lengths to deny themselves a little pleasure.

Good one David. I am on a lesser photo editing kick right now in the craft letting nature stand on its own merit with very
little software intervention, so I guess my vision right now is more of a natural look to my work kinda of like a film look with no
darkroom dodge or burn if that makes sense, not sure if that is purist or not, I don't even crop in editing only in the field.
Logged
Pages: [1] 2   Go Up