Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Arlen on July 24, 2013, 07:56:23 pm

Title: Together
Post by: Arlen on July 24, 2013, 07:56:23 pm

I thought this candid, spontaneous scene had some stories to tell.

Title: Re: Together
Post by: wolfnowl on July 25, 2013, 12:16:06 am

I like it, but I think it does fine in B&W w/o the leaf accent.

Mike.

Title: Re: Together
Post by: francois on July 25, 2013, 05:00:47 am

I agree with Mike… Lovely image but it has no need of the green leaf.

Title: Re: Together
Post by: Chris Calohan on July 25, 2013, 07:49:50 am

Toss in my two-cents in agreement about the leaf.

Title: Re: Together
Post by: RSL on July 25, 2013, 10:59:44 am

Hi Arlen, It's a nice snapshot, but I agree about the leaf. In my own estimation selective coloring in a B&W is on the same order as doing HDR and cranking the tone mapping to an unrealistic extreme. It gets tiresome early on.

Title: Re: Together
Post by: fike on July 25, 2013, 12:14:06 pm

I don't generally object to the use of selective color.  It can be a nice device when it is used in a way that reinforces the subject's story. In this case, the story is about children, not a leaf.  I don't see any other unitary element in this photo that could be colorized to reinforce the image's theme, so in this case it doesn't work.  Put another way, the image is a quality capture without the selective color, so leave it B&W.

I think we tend to most vigorously object to these highly self-evident processing devices when they are in-congruent with the image subject.  Used strategically it can work very well, so don't take it out of your toolbox.

This one is pretty interesting:
http://morfis.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/selective-color-photography22.jpg
From this guys website
http://emorfes.com/2011/12/15/selective-color-photography/

I monkeyed with this a few weeks ago.
http://www.trailpixie.net/otter_creek/yellow_creek.htm

Title: Re: Together
Post by: Arlen on July 25, 2013, 06:34:17 pm

Thanks to all for the comments. I suspected that the selective colorization might end up being the focus of concern, as I myself often dismiss such things as gimmicks with no real purpose other than to be "different", and usually just detract from the monochrome form. In this case it has a real purpose, one possibly too obscure to be apparent to anyone but me. I considered partially desaturating the leaf to decrease its prominence, but maybe it's just a bridge too far. So I'm adding a less provoking version, with distraction removed, for examination.

Title: Re: Together
Post by: seamus finn on July 25, 2013, 08:07:22 pm

Much better. It's not about the the leaf.

Title: Re: Together
Post by: Arlen on July 25, 2013, 08:22:36 pm

Agreed, it's not about the leaf.

Title: Re: Together
Post by: BernardLanguillier on July 26, 2013, 03:17:08 am

Like the second one better as well.

Cheers,
Bernard