Ok, maybe it was a bit much. I was hoping it would start a discussion as there is a story behind this and I wanted to see how the LuLa readers would react. And, the ones who wrote to me and posted here were what I expected. So, here is the back story. A short time ago I was invited to speak at a university about photography and it focused on the way a photograph could be changed to be for lack of better words sur-real. I put up a much more subdued image (more of the way the scene looked) and this version. And, not to my surprise the group of students really like the one I published better. It went further about looking at skin tones and what is real and what is liked. On the skin tones the group went for warm and gold. But there were a number who liked pale and washed out. The image I posted was not HDR and actually did not have that much saturation added. It was more in shadow recovery and how the brighter shadows made a difference. I'll publish a more subdued version in the future. I appreciate your comments but as many of you know I do try different things regarding my photos. There is website (no names mentioned) that focuses on entirely HDR photography. This person has a huge following. While I like a number of the images on the site I find many of them over done, and that is saying a lot coming from me. But there are photographers that love that look. Just as there are photographers who love the look of iPhone images run through half a dozen different apps.
I post plenty of images that are not so over cooked but once in a while I shake it up a bit. I am not afraid to challenge myself and others in regards to not only what I photograph but how I present them. A while back I caused quite a stir with my heavy metal image. People either loved it or hated it. But, for being only a few months old it is selling very well. I suppose in closing we need to remember that it is not always photographers who look at our images. A certain landscape photographer we all know is very successful because he is not afraid to push the sliders and boundaries of his landscape images. He certainly has a lot of customers that like his work.
Now, it's time to focus on Photokina for the next four days. Hope you like the new photo I just put up taken on the streets of Cologne earlier today while out shooting with Michael.
Kevin Raber
