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Author Topic: We Make the Path by Walking  (Read 40999 times)

Isaac

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We Make the Path by Walking
« on: November 13, 2013, 09:58:42 am »

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RSL

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2013, 08:53:21 am »

Overdone HDR, Isaac. You disappointed me though. I thought maybe I'd finally see an Isaac picture.
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Isaac

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2013, 11:47:27 am »

Overdone HDR

What are you looking at?
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elliot_n

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2013, 03:13:02 pm »

Landscape photography for people who don't like 'landscape photography'. Lovely.
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RSL

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #4 on: November 20, 2013, 03:18:26 pm »

Yeah. I goofed. There was no indication that a click on the picture would bring up another. The first one is overdone HDR, but there are some pretty good shots in there. Unfortunate about the web design.
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elliot_n

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #5 on: November 20, 2013, 03:52:43 pm »

I don't understand your reference to 'overdone HDR'. You mean the first picture of the forked path?
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Isaac

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #6 on: November 20, 2013, 04:22:04 pm »

The first one is overdone HDR...

What makes you think that? Seems ordinary for an overcast spring day before there's full leaves on the trees.
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RSL

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #7 on: November 20, 2013, 05:43:58 pm »

Really? You think it's possible to bring up that much detail in the lows in that kind of picture under those circumstances? This is one of the reasons I'd like to see some of your work, Isaac. It would give me at least a clue about your understanding of this stuff.
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Russ Lewis  www.russ-lewis.com.

elliot_n

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2013, 06:25:53 pm »

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Isaac

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #9 on: November 20, 2013, 06:44:11 pm »

Really? You think it's possible to bring up that much detail in the lows in that kind of picture under those circumstances?

I think you need to go for a walk in the woods on a bright overcast winter's day :-)
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RSL

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #10 on: November 20, 2013, 07:12:26 pm »

This has nothing to do with the woods on a bright winter day. I grew up in the woods and I'm very familiar with bright winter days. This has to do with the capabilities of the camera. If you actually were familiar with the practice of photography you'd know that, Isaac.
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Russ Lewis  www.russ-lewis.com.

amolitor

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #11 on: November 20, 2013, 08:32:30 pm »

I think Russ's point is that the first picture, with the path and the road forking off from one another, looks extremely flat. "overdone HDR" often means popped colors, halos all over the place, and ugly tonemapping. What Russ means, I suspect, is HDR that is taken to the extreme of crushing all the shadows and modeling out of existence.

This is also a way you can use HDR and you can certainly argue that it's "overdoing it". I think there's the potential for a genuinely new aesthetic here, one that uses things which are not shadows to solve the problems that shadow and modeling usually solves for us. I don't think this picture is a good example, though. It just looks crummy and flat. The problems normally solved by shadows and modeling are not solved, nor are they defied, they're simply left there unsolved.

I am not myself certain that it's HDR, it could just be really unfortunate and unpleasant lighting, to my eye. Regardless, the problems solved by shadows and modeling are not solved in this picture.

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RSL

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #12 on: November 21, 2013, 10:14:23 am »

Right on, Andrew, and thanks. I probably shot too fast from the hip and didn't explain enough. Your explanation is right on the money. Yes, there are at least two ways to overdo HDR, and irrational exuberance when tone mapping the lows is one of them. Irrational exuberance when tone mapping everything is the other. A well-done HDR looks exactly like a properly exposed non-HDR, but it was shot in a situation where the dynamic range would have made the picture impossible as a single exposure.
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Russ Lewis  www.russ-lewis.com.

Isaac

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #13 on: November 21, 2013, 11:47:29 am »

It just looks crummy and flat. The problems normally solved by shadows and modeling are not solved, nor are they defied, they're simply left there unsolved. ... I am not myself certain that it's HDR, it could just be really unfortunate and unpleasant lighting, to my eye.

Let's be charitable and allow that the photographer also understands what could have been done, and instead chose to photograph in flat light.

What does the photographer intend to achieve by that choice?
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RSL

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #14 on: November 21, 2013, 12:07:45 pm »

What does the photographer intend to achieve by that choice?

Maybe demonstrate that he doesn't know what he's doing?
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Russ Lewis  www.russ-lewis.com.

Isaac

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #15 on: November 21, 2013, 12:53:42 pm »

Shooting too fast from the hip again.

Let's be charitable...
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RSL

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #16 on: November 21, 2013, 01:32:34 pm »

Bullseye!
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Russ Lewis  www.russ-lewis.com.

Isaac

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #17 on: November 21, 2013, 01:37:54 pm »

Presumably you mean that you're shooting too fast from the hip again. Well if you think that's something to brag about...
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elliot_n

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #18 on: November 21, 2013, 02:44:08 pm »

Europe looks like this on a cloudy day. It has nothing to do with HDR.

You think the photographer is clueless. You find his work ugly.

Fortunately others disagree:

http://www.paulgaffneyphotography.com/News

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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: We Make the Path by Walking
« Reply #19 on: November 21, 2013, 02:56:42 pm »

For what it is worth, HDR, let alone "overdone" one, would not be the first thing coming to my mind seeing the first photograph.
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