post your trees!

[Michael Wellman]

Thanks Gabe

[campy]

The first time I tried large format I tried to squeeze it in within my life, but now I am semi retired I am going to try to spend more time at it. This tree was more interesting when I was looking at it but not sure if I captured the textures as well as I should have. This was scanned so not sure if that or the processing was off.

[Ulophot]

Hi, Campy. Great start for a first time! If I may offer, the potential vagaries of scans, etc. notwithstanding, you seem to have done fine with the textures. The challenge of the image is the surrounding environment, which competes visually with the foreground subject. Anyone who says this kind of photography is easy, probably hasn't tried it.

[campy]

Hi, Campy. Great start for a first time! If I may offer, the potential vagaries of scans, etc. notwithstanding, you seem to have done fine with the textures. The challenge of the image is the surrounding environment, which competes visually with the foreground subject. Anyone who says this kind of photography is easy, probably hasn't tried it.

Thanks for the kind words but this isn't my first time but this go around I am trying to slow way down, but my biggest problem is lack of artistic talent. I did see after scanning it that the background really took away from the rotted trunk.

[h2oman]

Anyone who says this kind of photography is easy, probably hasn't tried it.

+1

[Corran]

Next time, try a middling aperture of f/8 or f/11 and see what you think.

[CreationBear]

but my biggest problem is lack of artistic talent.

Ha, here Back East most folks will trade talent for a Husqvarna with a 24-inch bar.

Some times subject isolation is literally impossible. Bryan's (LFPF member Corran) suggestion for reducing DOF is a good one; another thing that I've found is that "toned" photos with busy backgrounds look a bit better to my eye that straight-up black-and-white. The other option is compositional--if you just can't make sense of the subject in its natural habitat, "zoom" in close enough to fill the frame to create an abstract that is more about the aesthetic relationships of curves and tones than it is taxonomy.

FWIW, here's a picture I was playing around with today (apologies to Faraz Ravi for the sincere, if transatlantic, flattery):

57margaretrdsquare by J Barnes, on Flickr

[BetXen]

Hi

As my first post here, here is a pic of an "enchanted forest" I took during my first day into LF photography. Need some more practice, but I'm happy with it.

Wista45, Fujinon125NW, Foma400
f16, 1/15th of a second

[kevinjp]

Nice image BetXen. I just started large format myself a few months ago and I was happy my first shot turned out when so many things can go wrong.

[Vaughn]

Thanks for the kind words but this isn't my first time but this go around I am trying to slow way down, but my biggest problem is lack of artistic talent. I did see after scanning it that the background really took away from the rotted trunk.

Two things...a slight move to the the right would have put the trunk into that bit of open sky and isolated its tip. And second...when in situations like this, one can close one eye. Often our stereo-vision (having two eyes) is what separates something like this rotted trunk from the background. Take away the stereo (close one eye) and it is easier to see if the differences in texture, lighting, and/or form might allow the stump to still stand out reduced to a 2D image. It can be part of the magic of photography to then make the viewer feel the image/print is 3D....that it has depth.

I spent a long time under the darkcloth for this image below (shown before in this thread), an inch one way or the other made big changes...and the sunlight through the redwoods changes fast. My triplets, about 18 months old, mobile, but kept in one place by lunch on a beach towel on the other side of me from the camera. I exposed 4 sheets of film (11x14) to try some different developers...I print one developed in a pyro developer.