Hi Moose
Thanks for taking the time for all this feedback!!
I really like the example changes you demonstrated. The "Lily &
Allison at Nan & Pa's house" photo in particular definitely works
better in a vertical crop, and I'm very surprised at the extra detail
you managed to find by toning down the highlights in the black and
white photos in particular. Seems I need to get a little more handy
with the software side of things (I guess in the old days this would
have been 'in the darkroom').
The nasty bokeh in the "Buddies" photo may be contributed to by the
fact I was testing out a Tokina Zoom lens - an eBay acquisition which
came along with a couple of nice Zuikos - I like how you have managed
to smooth things out... again managing to pull more detail out of the
photo than I had imagined by toning down the bright areas.
Again - thanks Moose! I will have some new things to keep in mind for
the next films. I'll have a play with these photos in the mean time
and try to replicate your results.
Brent
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:56:41 -0800
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [OM] Re: First message
> Brent wrote:
>> Anyway, I've put up my favourite shots from the 2nd and 3rd films.
>> The first film was mostly taken of the Great Wall in China, but I
>> haven't had it scanned yet.
>>
>> http://homepage.mac.com/brent_rutherford/Learning_with_OM/
>>
>> Comments welcome - I am still getting used to the cameras, and think
>> my composition needs a lot of help.
> I've now had a chance to look through these images. I don't see
> composition problems in general. A few things I noticed:
>
> Hotel Bar is a strong composition. I'd never take it, but I think
> it's good.
>
> I'd prefer Tea Party with more DOF and/or the DOF shifted forward.
>
> Water Baby is a lovely catch, very natural and contemplative. I\'Twere
> mine, I'd crop of the left close to her back and burn in the remaining
> bright, busy stuff behind her head.
>
> Wine Glass is right down my alley.
> <http://moosemystic.net/Gallery/MPhotos/A710IS/slides/IMG_0042.html>
> Can you guess what this is?
> <http://galleries.moosemystic.net/Monterey%20-%20June%202006/Carmel/slides/DSCF0991.html
>
> >
> Or this?
> <http://moosemystic.net/Gallery/MPhotos/A710IS/slides/IMG_0064cr.html>
>
> Our Beautiful Girl is just exquisite. As with some other images I note
> below, I think it would be even better with the shirt toned down.
>
> Where's your feet? Who has a problem with composition? This one is
> perfect.
>
> Fatboy is another strong composition.
>
> Lily & Allison at Nan & Pa's house is one where it seems to me the
> composition can be greatly strengthened with a strong crop to vertical
> format.
> <http://moosemystic.net/Gallery/Others/Rutherford/Films2-3/slides/picture-15a.html
>
> >
>
> Buddies is a terrific capture, love it! That said, there are a
> couple of
> technical things that may be done to make it stronger, in my opinion.
> First, it suffers from compressed highlights, as I discuss below.
> Second, see all those out of focus areas in the background that have
> become partially or wholly bright circles with dark centers, making a
> lot of unnatural looking, edgy, bright points? I don't know of you
> know
> the name for that, and don't want to throw around undefinded jargon.
> The
> term is bokeh, from the Japanese for blur or focus, or some such. Good
> bokeh has the OOF parts of the subject smoothly blurring out from
> brighter central points.
>
> And this shot has bad bokeh, adding distracting highlights and a busy
> look at odds with the primary tone. Easily enough dealt with. I may
> have
> gone farther in blurring than others would, but this is just an
> illustration, to show what's possible.
> <http://moosemystic.net/Gallery/Others/Rutherford/Films2-3/slides/picture-20a.html
>
> >
>
> Finally, I found the highlights all compressed together as largely
> undifferentiated bright blobs in several shots. The brightness could
> be
> a difference between my monitor and yours, but even if I lower overall
> brightness, the lack of tonal distinction is still there. Generally,
> they look better to me with those tones spread out more. I've taken
> the
> liberty of posting before and after examples of a few images here.
> <http://moosemystic.net/Gallery/Others/Rutherford/Films2-3/index.html>
>
> In Forbidden City, for example, you can see how the foreground fence
> regains its surface detail. In Artisan's Workshop, I did the same
> thing
> to the shadows, bringing up the shop interior just a bit.
>
> Moose messing with images you post on the list may be either a
> blessing
> or curse, depending on your viewpoint. If you don't like it, just
> let me
> know. It just seems to me a picture IS worth the proverbial mess of
> words here.
>
> Moose
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