Re: Looking for feedback on images...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Daniel Casper Lohenstein
Everyone has his own taste.
For my taste the sky in picture 4 is too dark. I don't understand why the clouds on the horizon are white, but at the top of the picture they are dark gray.
There is also too much in the pictures for my taste. I don't recognize anything. I have to look for things first. To find something, you have to know what you are looking for. To me, these are just more pictures that impress because of their resolution, but they don't show things. The fact that you're using a 90mm lens creates clutter.
In picture 1 it has 5 different large plants and two hills, plus soil and air. You could have gone to the 1st cactus on the left, there it has only 2 types of plants and 2 hills. One could have left out the right hill. Then one would have had a tension between the narrower form of the cactuses and the broader form of the mountain. This theme could then be varied.
On the right in picture 1 you see pointed bright cactus needles or flowers. Behind them is the large broad but dark hill. If one were to move closer, one could silhouette the light pointed shapes against the broad dark mountain shape. In image 1, this is disturbed by narrow cactus shapes behind it. Also, the light cactus shape protrudes above the mountain horizon.
There is an interesting crossing in the center of picture 1. One could exaggertate this with N+1.
The landscape there is far from finished ...
This sounds brutal, but I would do the following exercises:
1st day only shapes and their formal contrasts,
2nd day only brightness contrasts,
3rd day only singular compositions with emphasis on the center of the image,
4th day only structures within the form,
5th day only structures between different shapes,
6th day only panoramic compositions with elimination of too close image objects,
7th day only images with different perspectives such as the close view downwards, the distant view towards the center of the image, the side view, and so on.
But all of this involves using a long focal length lens to focus on the objects. At least 210mm for 4x5, better 300mm, or 150mm with a roll film holder with 6x7.
Also, in my humble opinion, it would be good to start with N+1 development to increase contrast. Then you have to commit to black and white and don't get stuck in gray. Let things become black or white, maybe they will create their own rhythm.
I don't want to lecture you, though. I have the same problem myself, and I think it's very brave of you to show your images. Somehow you are helping me to rethink my own images! That's great!
Anyway, you have inspired me a lot, and I think I will try what I wrote above myself.
Have fun!
Daniel et al,
No lecture here! I ASKED for your options. I love this feedback. I can understand where you are all coming from. There are lots of interesting tidbits in here.
Just for clarification on a development note, N+1 means to increase the development time by one stop, correct? For Delta 100, 6 minutes is the baseline for HC-110 so a +1 from my understanding would be 7 minutes. The result would be to “over develop” which would increase the contrast and make blacks blacker and whites whiter. Is that correct?
I could do all that in post right....
Anyway, I like the 7-day project idea to help focus my skill, but the longest lens I have is a 150mm. I just need to give more thought to composing I can see....
Anyway, great stuff in here. Thank you!
Re: Looking for feedback on images...
Do you play with cropping your images? Best tool I have is my cropping L's. For me in #2 a right side vertical crop with those two vertical dark shapes is what I see.
Re: Looking for feedback on images...
Funny you ask that. Short answer is, no. Up to the very last image I took. The last shot I made was taken with a 150mm but the only area I was interested in will be my cropped final.
I'm very curious about this. I have not developed it yet.
So, Ny suggestions on taking images with the intent to crop?
Re: Looking for feedback on images...
For the most part, increasing development time makes the whites whiter. The blacks are determined by exposure. That’s a general rule - there are a lot of subtle variations.
Re: Looking for feedback on images...
Hey folks, I went back to these images and cleaned them up and spent a bit more time editing them. One image kinda sucked and now it looks pretty good. I didn’t keep the old versions so...I guess just look at them FWIW....
The feedback you gave was helpful, so if you like the images, it’s your doing!
https://fountainphoto.smugmug.com/Fi...graphy/Random/
Re: Looking for feedback on images...
I guess I didn't see the first set. The two sets match. In any case,
#1: Nice composition. crop out the bush at the bottom corner and the bright lighted thing in the middle. The pull the eye away from the main picture.
#2: A little too busy. Is it tilted to the left a little?
#3: Too busy.
#4: The right side is superfluous. Not needed as it adds nothing to the picture, just a lot of negative space. Go with a verticle picture, left side only. Or a horizontal picture of just the bottom left quadrant.
Nice shots overall. Tones look good.
Re: Looking for feedback on images...
I think my favorite is the one with the barbed wire, I guess like Robert Adams’s pictures I like evidence that humans have been there.
But my question goes in an entirely different direction: since your workflow is entirely digital once you have developed the film, why not go digital all the way? Using either HDR or tilt lenses you would be flexible with your foreground/background choices, and would eliminate your dust issues. Perhaps I am just being an old curmudgeon, but either LF film with optical printing, or digital capture with Photoshop and digital printing make more sense to me.
Re: Looking for feedback on images...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Peter Lewin
I think my favorite is the one with the barbed wire, I guess like Robert Adams’s pictures I like evidence that humans have been there.
But my question goes in an entirely different direction: since your workflow is entirely digital once you have developed the film, why not go digital all the way? Using either HDR or tilt lenses you would be flexible with your foreground/background choices, and would eliminate your dust issues. Perhaps I am just being an old curmudgeon, but either LF film with optical printing, or digital capture with Photoshop and digital printing make more sense to me.
This is a great question.
I've always wanted to shoot large format, but I also need to make it accessable for what I have available to me. I just can't get into the printing side of the process now. Maybe some day and when that happens, at least I'll have the front end figured out.
But for sure, those tilt shift lenses seem cool. They are really expensive!!! But yeah I think about that all the time.
But then, why are there scanners and drum scanners?
Re: Looking for feedback on images...
This hybrid workflow is what most film users (including LF) opt for. Very few darkroom printers left.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Peter Lewin
I think my favorite is the one with the barbed wire, I guess like Robert Adams’s pictures I like evidence that humans have been there.
But my question goes in an entirely different direction: since your workflow is entirely digital once you have developed the film, why not go digital all the way? Using either HDR or tilt lenses you would be flexible with your foreground/background choices, and would eliminate your dust issues. Perhaps I am just being an old curmudgeon, but either LF film with optical printing, or digital capture with Photoshop and digital printing make more sense to me.
Re: Looking for feedback on images...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Michael R
This hybrid workflow is what most film users (including LF) opt for. Very few darkroom printers left.
Yes, we darkroom printers dance the Masochism Tango.
( with apologies to Tom Lehrer).