Look at the two images below and compare. They’re from the same image, but rendered in a slightly different manner.
Schoolyard Abstract, Color
Schoolyard Abstract, Black & White
The first is full color (despite appearances). The second has been converted to B&W with Silver Efex Pro. Any preference?
I personally lean toward the full B&W version – I find that the appearance of selective color distracts a bit due to the proximity to cliche.
Chalk this up to a lack of an artistic background, but I never knew that Ansel did some work in color. Logically, it’s obvious. The man had bills and interests. Color was important work, and he obviously did color work.
I’m tempted to say “fine work,” but I’m not sure that it is fine. Passable, certainly – but not great.
I get this from a limited view: from “Ansel Adams in Color
And yet, he was not completely dismissive of color. I find it curious (and a bit obvious, in hindsight) that he considered all color tones to be a subtle lie. I find this to be self-evident: colors in photographs are representative, yes. But not spot-on, somewhat limited in their range, and sometimes misleading.
Having read this book now: I’m glad I did. It’s heartening to see images from the greats that failed to match their mastery, and it’s equally heartening to see his mastery of exposure translated into color.
Evening HDR
Just a test shot that I thought I’d post. I may be putting up a couple more over this evening. Testing CS5′s “Merge to HDR Pro” function, comparing it to Photomatix Pro. This one is an excercise in rescuing a screwed up frame: I had the color balance set to tungsten when I took this, so everything was hyper-blue. Arguably still is, but that’s the HDR saturation effect. Click to continue »
…So that they don’t come out like this:
NAPP Email
The best part of this? It’s an add from NAPP, inviting me to sign up for their mobile alerts. Kinda fun, seeing an ad targeting mobile devices getting it so wrong…
Favebrowsr, today
This is really more of an observation about Flickr than anything else, but I’ve noticed: if you lock down your files in Flickr (no download, no seeing other sizes), but upload a larger-sized photo (compared to the on-screen display of a Flickr image), the full size is actually available to anyone who tries to access via the Flickr API.
Take this pic, for example. I favorited it just a short while ago. On screen, it’s fairly small – maybe 400 pixels wide.
… For a few minutes, at least. I have to say – I’m both impressed and underwhelmed.
It’s a pretty nice thing. Compact, solid, and surprisingly heavy. The clarity of pictures are surprisingly good, although I could detect some pixellation. The interface is nice & smooth – even nicer than the iPhone. And reading: much, much easier.
I could see myself loving it.
That being said, I’m completely underwhelmed. This is what the whole hubbub was all about? A glorified iTouch, for $800?
Ouch. No thanks.
But feel free to buy me one. I promise I won’t whine about it…
Reflecting over this over the last few weeks, I think I know why I’m not happy with my work this year. I’m bored with it, and it shows. Specifically, the vast majority of what I like in photography can be lumped under the “landscape” category of photography. By now, I’ve taken most of the shots I really, really like, so nothing feels new.
Compounding the problem: the LX3 can’t really pull off some of the shots that I’d like it to, and that’s my quick-carry camera. This time of year we have spectacular sunrises over mountains and nighttime clouds – something that would be great to capture. But you need zoom. I’m not sure that a 200mm on a DX sensor would do it, even. But carry around the 400mm lens? That would be the day I’d need the wide-angle.
Hrm…
Perhaps not financially, or politically, but photographically. Looking back, I’m definitely happier with my work back then.
I’m not sure what has happened – I mean, my pace of learning has continued, but the spark just isn’t there.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve really been feeling the pain of the short zoom. Living in Alaska, I’m constantly surrounded by huge mountains. On the east end of town, they loom over you, feeling huge.
But when your maximum zoom is 50mm? The background shrinks, the foreground grows, and the effect is diminished.
Thus the other day’s image wasn’t quite what I wanted. Sure, it imparts information about the contrasts and how bright it was, but you lose the effect of the mountains looming.