Images FOR CRITIQUE

[Alan Gales]

Thanks, Doug and Drew.
I'm putting both your suggestions together.


upass077a by Ari4000, on Flickr

I really like this version. By going horizontal you accentuate the oval opening in the concrete at the top of the photo. I also felt the original was a bit too heavy at the top and bottom of the photo with all that shadow.

Nice shot, Ari!

[Leigh]

I usually print it as it was shot...

Same here. I have a long history of shooting chromes, so I'm accustomed to cropping in-camera and putting just what I want on the film.

Neat shot. Thanks for sharing.

- Leigh

[Chuck P.]

I prefer the original framing, but would slightly burn down the leaves along the upper right to emphasize the main leaves. Also, in this scan there are no grays approaching pure white. A little more contrast might look better to someone who hasn't seen the original subject. It's a fine capture.

Interesting that you prefer the original framing, it feels that I did not isolate the primary leaves well enough. I normally like to have some paper-base white or very close to it for balance. I included some notes on my Flickr page describing the highest print values as they appear on the print. Thanks for your input.

[Ari]

Thank you, Alan and Leigh.

[Chuck P.]

Chuck, I find your crop successful. Uncropped, the weight of the image is a bit low and the areas of relatively little information (dark areas near the top of the image) competed with the lit leaves. In the cropped image, these black areas seem to support the leaves instead.

PS...my monitor is not calibrated, so who knows how well we are seeing each other's image! LOL! Let alone the fact we are seeing images in a quite different manner on a computer screen (light transmitted rather than light reflected). But the image is printed with the quality of the desert light in mind...very different from the light you found in your image.

Thanks for your input.
I tend to agree with crop as well, will have to consider a re-printing. It certainly seems to isolate the primary center of attention as I originally intended.

Man, I was at my mother's one day and got on her computer and visited my Flickr site and was appalled how my photographs looked on her monitor, absolutely horrible gray scale viewing. In order to try and help anyone that was visiting my Flickr stream, I included a gray scale with some rudimentary instruction as to help bring their monitor toward seeing the gray scale correctly. I'm just another "not so impressive" hobbyist out there, but I still want others to be able see my intentions correctly, don't know if it works for anyone but it's there.

[Chuck P.]

Attachment 87506

This is the way I would go. Crop and some dodge and burn.

Gary,
Thanks for the input, but I don't think I can go that route on the right side cropping as it eliminates those small areas on that far right leaf that are higher on the gray scale, that adds a little balance to the overall contrast. This is indeed a straight, unmanipulated print, I'm thinking of intensifying the negative with selenium, but I could easily go without it.

[gary mulder]

Chuck,

What I was trying to emphasize is a diagonal by burning in the top right and dodge in the bottom left.

[Chuck P.]

I'll certainly have to consider some dodge/burn, but you've cropped a little too much on the right side.
Thanks

[Erik Larsen]

Ok, I'll give this a shot.
Below is a photo I've posted here once before, about a year ago.
This is un-cropped, save for the film rebate.
Have at it!


upass077 by Ari4000, on Flickr

That's a photo you can print many ways I think. I like it a lot. Between the horizontal and the vertical versions I tend to like the vertical with perhaps a bit tighter crop on the right, maybe just to point where you could eliminate the railing. I like the dark steps all the way down, it works for me. Maybe shave a bit off the top if you don't mind changing aspect ratios. That being said, I kind of like the horizontal version too
Regards
Erik

[Eric James]

That's a compelling image Ari, and I like it just about anyway you slice it. Even an extreme crop - leaving only the upper half of your original image, slicing away the obelisk and everything below it; or the opposite: cropping out everything above the tip of the obelisk. Like I said, anyway you slice it, it a wonderful image! An interesting presentation might be to display five or so images from the negative, including the border to border capture. Beautiful.