Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Mjollnir on January 12, 2014, 01:28:24 pm
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Too light, perhaps? Not enough darkness in the shadows?
I have no idea who the two figures are, about a mile distant, frame center left, but I'm glad they stopped walking for a brief moment.
(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5500/11912923293_1c8a2926ac_c.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87368247@N00/11912923293/)
Lost in the White Sands, New Mexico, B&W (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87368247@N00/11912923293/) by tanngrisnir3 (http://www.flickr.com/people/87368247@N00/), on Flickr
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Too light, perhaps? Not enough darkness in the shadows?
You're lucky and clever with those figures. Perfect placement.
Your instinct is correct, IMO. Darker overall and more contrast would be my wish.
Also, I'd lose the narrow light band across the very bottom RHS.
And I'd crop or significantly darken the upper 20% of the sky just above the dark band on the right.
And probably I'd clone out the jet contrail.
THEN it'd go on my wall : )
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This is a fine image.
I agree on the jet contrail, but be extremely sensible when working on the toning.
The empty appearance of the image with not too many distinguishable tones nicely conveys the atmosphere of a barren place.
Please try NOT to overload it, though a slight contrast increase might be okay, IMO.
Cheers
~Chris
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A bit more contrast/blacks, and no mo' contrail. Keep in mind where it is, though. With the AFB there and missile testing ground, it's always messy up in the sky around there.
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3680/11907282004_ffd51783ee_c.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87368247@N00/11907282004/)
Lost in the White Sands, New Mexico, B&W (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87368247@N00/11907282004/) by tanngrisnir3 (http://www.flickr.com/people/87368247@N00/), on Flickr
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That's a nice framing and so forth, but one thing bothers me: what can you (anyone!) do to prove that it's sand and not snow?
Rob C
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That's a nice framing and so forth, but one thing bothers me: what can you (anyone!) do to prove that it's sand and not snow?
Rob C
The figure on the left is in shorts and carrying a beach chair.
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A bit more contrast/blacks, and no mo' contrail. Keep in mind where it is, though. With the AFB there and missile testing ground, it's always messy up in the sky around there.
...image ...
Well done.
Great shot.
And thanks you didn't overdo it!
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The figure on the left is in shorts and carrying a beach chair.
Heysoos! This glaucoma is worse than I thought!
;-)
Rob C
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The figure on the left is in shorts and carrying a beach chair.
:-0 :-)
Just so there is no question ...place a sign on that path.
( see below) To the Beach
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Great shot by the way - ~!! -
In the olden days :: you would use a filter for that sky & develop the neg > for the highlights. No real burning of the sky and the whites would fall where you placed them with your pre-visualization and the spot meter. ( somewhere near ZONE 7-9 )
Have no idea how this is done simply with a digital camera these days ?? Probably a lot more post processing...
1) Shadow/Highlight ==== Then set Black @ 03 with Curves ==== Highlights @ 241 === Dodged sky with 1% white wand - to bring some of the 250 pure white > into the image ===
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Personally I rather like your first (lighter) rendition of the image. It evokes searing heat and blinding light.
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I also like the first version a lot. Not only, as Ed wrote just above, it evokes heat but it also conveys the mood of White Sands… a white, bright, sometimes blinding desert.
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I also prefer the lighter version. The darker, more contrasty one could be dunes just about anywhere and not White Sands.
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And a third for the lighter version.
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In retrospect, I agree. Increased contrast and darker isn't working. The original feels HOT.
Lucky are we who can make those decisions later, at leisure.
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The lighter one.
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That's a nice framing and so forth, but one thing bothers me: what can you (anyone!) do to prove that it's sand and not snow?
Rob C
Clone in a camel.
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I am usually a fan of dark shadows but in the second version you have - imo - overdone it. Overall a nice image that you could leave for a while and look at again in a couple of weeks with "fresh" eyes.
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Clone in a camel.
Wot? You don't have camels in Alaska?
Rob C
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Personally I rather like your first (lighter) rendition of the image. It evokes searing heat and blinding light.
Same here.
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I vote for the first one as well, contrail and all. Plenty of blacks in it. It's a white place, make it mostly white!
The picture struck me instantly as an original and distinctive take, and very lovely. It's a weird place, because it *does* look like snow. I spent some time there and took a pretty good picture once, and one of the things that makes the place photographically interesting is that it is visual ambiguous. It's hitting our 'Coooold!' buttons and our 'Hot! Hot!' buttons at the same time.
Embrace the ambiguity!
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When I zoomed in, I noticed the footprints in the sand. Could you crop your picture also to zoom in on these and the two people. It might make a more interesting picture.
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I vote for the first one as well, contrail and all. Plenty of blacks in it. It's a white place, make it mostly white!
The picture struck me instantly as an original and distinctive take, and very lovely. It's a weird place, because it *does* look like snow. I spent some time there and took a pretty good picture once, and one of the things that makes the place photographically interesting is that it is visual ambiguous. It's hitting our 'Coooold!' buttons and our 'Hot! Hot!' buttons at the same time.
Embrace the ambiguity!
You should see it on one of those rare occasions when it's cloudy. Very, very strange. I walked deep into the dunes one time right after a rain storm: An experience I won't forget. I was carrying a couple of medium format film cameras, and quickly exhausted my film supply.
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Thanks, one and all.
I'm going to rework the lighter version for no contrails and clean up the sand just a bit for noise.
The oddest thing from WSNM was that almost all my shots, at mid day, wide open aperture, had noise in the sand.
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Sorry to be the odd one out - not really - but I think the darker reworking was better. As amolitor says, it hits both hot and cold motivators at the same time, obviously the spur to my question about how one could tell which was which, if not already familiar with the area from countless stock catalogues. Okay, that the mountains have no snow cover one could employ as guide, but bear in mind that my question was obviously raised in fun. It looks no less white sands for being darker - just strikes me as better detailed.
Rob C