A fun, visually pleasing photo with humans having a bit of fun in the heart of a nicely chosen composition. They are hiding the vanishing point but we still know it's there, and that's what makes their placement doubly interesting, in addition to the brightly colored circles they have placed themselves within. The surrounds of the ferry are visible enough to provide context.
May 10, 2023
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Beautifully framed street-ish image with a lovely and pensive young woman in her thoughtful reverie framed thrice: by the weathered window you're shooting through, by the window she's looking from, and by the blackened shaded background of the room behind her. But if that were all, this would be a rather boring image. What makes it so engaging is the various clues that we are in an old city, in a romantic setting. We have weathered wood and peeling paint and plaster, aged electrical wiring, an old light fixture, various old hardware items - all suggestive we might be in Paris, Rome, or some other exotic location. So the setting has definitely enhanced the interest.
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Perfectly focused with pleasing lighting. I can see every tiny detail. I like the centered placement for this image, the textured bokeh background, and the toning. I wonder if a tiny brightening in the darkest central portion of the cluster would keep that darkest part from looking blocked up. It isn't blocked up, there is detail there, but the initial impression is such. Of course all screens are different so this could just a screen-related thing.
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I thank you for your critique .. too kind .. so let me share a bit … this picture is a silk purse!!! ..The original file is an idea snapshot that I took to remind me to go back to this site and think about it. The actual picture was badly executed but for some reason as I looked at the picture on the monitor I thought it had some interest and I had some processing ideas that I wanted to try so why not … I confess that leading lines from piers, roads, railroad tracks and whatever that lead into the picture and into an undefined point beyond the picture have always seemed to me to be cliches and I've tried to broach the subject somewhat inarticulately a number times here (when DPR) and elsewhere and always with bad results … but here it is …. actually it's currently also the background on my Windows monitor as I ponder …. WHY??? … and I haven't yet gone back to that site ….
Thank you again …
WhyNot
Thinking about what I have written I should say that this picture was an attempt to create a silk purse .. I was a bit over generous .....
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Thanks for the thoughtful comments. I hadn't seen Freeman's jeans image before. I believe this is the one:
Rich
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A pleasing piece to view. I am assuming there is heavy use of creative filters involved here, so correct me if I'm wrong. There's often strong resistance in certain circles of photography to use of such filters, but I'm of open mind about them and have made some things I really like with them. It takes some discernment to predict which filters will work on what photos, in what way, and to get the best results you have to sometimes have to tinker a lot and other times you have to take things in hand with layers and masks and brushes and alter the way the filter works. So I think rejecting them out of hand is a mistake, they serve a useful role for those of us who enjoy exploring beyond straight photography.
This one works, for me at least. The color differentiation supports the underlying photograph, the black outlines work very well in this case and the photo itself is amenable to the treatment. The background, presumably sand and a small towel, are rendered in a pleasing way. Details are simplified but not lost. I think it's turned out quite nicely.
If it were mine, which it is not, I would mitigate the purple around her middle, but that's probably because I dislike the color and it may not have anything to do with anything.
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Here is a link to one of his newsletters (his newsletter is a free treasure). The stacked jeans image is in it. (I saw the photo in his basement on an ancient slide projector last summer, one of my most treasured days in photography)
www.freemanpatterson.com/documents/newsletters/FreemanPattersonMarch2019.pdf -
Anthropomorphism is fun. I turn it sideways to see a coasting duck, head tucked down. Lou sees a woman climbing. You see the sleeping ram. It is, of course, in photographic thinking, a specimen photo. But we can find all these things in it. I have been known to turn such photos sideways, upside down, and in photoshop enhance the features of what I find inside, cropping off the environmental context/clues or replacing it with a different background. Much of the fun of photography for me is childish play but then I don't know that I ever thoroughly embraced adulthood enough to give up play in the first place.
Photographically you could go in even closer and make an abstract out of the interesting textures.
The formation itself is similar to what we call burl which is a deformation of the normal growth process. In certain hardwoods it is valued for furniture making.
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Whether adapted or naturally occurring, the black space in these images seems to flow with the photograph and become part of the composition.
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That would make a big BOOM! Five acres...
That is a very cool shot of the little old convertible. I'd be a little reluctant to traipse off into that field to get a closer shot though, considering.
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Minniev,
You've pinpoint a point that needs correction! The point of filters. Namely, whatever photo program you use, every setting is the outcome of a filter and therefore a filter or filter form, the outcome of which can be so personal that you create your own vision, style, expression. Even the most common ones like Blurring, Sharpning or whatever correction you're aiming for, come about through filters, even the simple ones. However everyone will use them to create there own point of artistic appearance.
Also it seems a politicized question, it's rare that everyone thinks or likes the same thing
Thanks for your comment, highly appreciated.
Lou -
Excellent thoughts about filters! Earlier in the thread, I inquired about your use of plug-ins ("Such engaging body language, so intent of what she's writing. Love that we can't see her face; allows us to imagine even more of the story. Lou, do you do this with any plug-in assistance, or all your own digital brushwork?").
If you get a chance, I'd love to hear how you created this work.
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I have a tendency to make a lot of darkish images Paula. This is likely an outcome from the fact that I sit in semi darkness processing images. No window light, same night or day. My monitor is calibrated but perhaps not as often as I should.
Below I have posted for your interest the image with the dark part of the tulip lightened. It also lightens the surrounding area somewhat. A lesser toned version as well as the colour version.
Andrew
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Hi Linda,
Paula named it - burl, or sometimes burr in the UK. Wikipedia and the odd tree site tells me it is abnormal growth in the grain from dormant buds caused by stress in the form of injury or disease.
Thanks for the like. -
Wait till you see what is around the corner
Good way to be...
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I really like the "window in window" aspect. But I think it is a shame that the top of the foreground window is not included. Moreover, the part of the background window that sits on the higher level, does not add much to the image for me.
So my inclination would be to crop this image to square (or almost square), maybe just above those two electricity isolators that look like small security cameras. -
First about the presentation:
I think it is an interesting idea to keep the surrounding area of an irregularly stitched image present.
First of all it gives us a glimpse at the process.
But that is not all. Furthermore, this exudes a vibe not dissimilar from those old prints and contact sheets where we saw the technical data on the filmstrip included (the brand of the film, the sequence of the images, ...). So while these images and their process are highly digital, there is a sense of nostalgia for the analog film age, created just by the presentation.Then about the actual images:
The second does not do all that much for me.
The first and third, however, are really nice, because the backlighting creates enormous shadows that elevate the overall composition with gorgeous leading lines. -
But then we would lose the adorable giant mouse that's hanging from above the upper edge of the left window, staring at the woman with his black beady eye.
I am sorry, but it is Bryan's fault for getting me started on anthropomorphism. Once I get started, I have trouble containing it.
