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This picture might be very good if it had some details in the ground. Again an infrared conversion?
Lukas
In the first picture the sky for me was highly disturbing and had an artificial look, in the second it is much better, to an extend that you might try the frame of the first picture (low horizon) with the sky of the second – if you are able to tweak the contrast in the sky somewhat.
Lukas
I like the second version better. Perhaps push up the contrast in the foreground.
Lukas
Tripling the exposure would induce star trails – many like them, but it is not what you see.
I don’t know the ISO capability of your camera, but I suggest 3200 ASA – that might also produce more stars in a clear night without much optical pollution (starlight images in these days sometimes produce more super-bright stars than the eye perceives).
I like the de-saturated colours you used, but why not make the picture a bit more bluish – that would be my move, at least.Lukas
I am sorry, but I do not like this picture. Blurred vegetation in the foreground induces disorder and a feeling of incapacity (“this was the only position I could manage…”), no sense of depth, no majesty, as it is certainly present there. The first rock emerging out of nowhere, the second one hardly to be discerned in front of the third, clor and this morning- or evening light, whatever it is, do nothing to introduce atmosphere into the picture. Also, the coastline is pretty insignificantly cut on both sides.
Lukas
Nice romantic picture of a nice romantic valley – makes me want to visit this Cistercian monastery if this is what it is – and this is not my normal reaction to a picture.
There is something to the colors, however, which I also notice – selective saturation of the lavender while other parts are less saturated – like the wooded hills which also have a purplish hue to me. I personally don’t mind the vignetting in the upper part of the image, but I would not have vignetted the lower corners, and given more contrast and brightness to the foreground.Lukas
Are those black figures real people or is this some form of monument? Is this a vertical panorama shot, or why this narrow rectangle? Did you have to exclude unwanted features at the side?
Anyway, I’d say way too much foreground and too dark ad undifferentiated. My advice: cut the foreground perhaps to the upper part of the paved path where it enters the frame on the left, try to somewhat lighten and to induce more contrast into the grass and the plates, up to the base of the black figures. If you want the foreground, give it more contrast and more light, perhaps a gradient (most light at the bottom).
Lukas
“Of course, these situations could be avoided by travelling with a complete studio lighting set up in your caseā¦ :-)”
Gordon,
no they couldn’t šStudio lighting for me would be likely to be like using a water gun to fill up your aquarium: it would destroy what is there already.
But thanks for your comments: it goes to show how many different interpretations there are for an exposure,.
Lukas
I like the picture’s composition: the ration of floor and wall, the one woman standing further behind than the others.
What this picture wants is enhanced local contrast. As it is, it looks somewhat flat to me, and think this can be remedied: for one thing, I would want to enhance the reflections of the people (their legs, mostly) on the floor, their shadows on the wall, and there is a change of tonality on the rounded wall itself: brighter in the center. You might do something to the people themselves: for instance, I cant make out any detail in the – admittedly black – trousers of the woman standing more in the foreground.
If you work in PS, a controlled layer in soft light blending mode might work wonders.Lukas
@admin, thanks for your comment.
To my eye the face has retained all detail. But his may be also a problem of the small reproduction size.On a more general note, I am wary of abundant flash use: I often like drama in faces, and portraits done with a copious amount of lighting done by the book often look exquisitely boring to me.
Lukas
My pleasure, and I think the picture shows much better now.
Lukas
Perhaps it is how the image is rendered on my screen, but for me the highlights are blown. The picture deserves much more differentiation here: the pebbles/sand in the background appear all white to me, with the shank of the person on the right not getting differentiated from the background, same for the cap of the woman in the middle, the foreground in the middle looks blown-out, the sunlit rocks on the right and the sky would also benefit from more differentiation. You might also try some vignetting in the picture.
Lukas
Same here. Somewhat less sky, and I would also reduce the orange tinge of the sunset, that would induce more blues the upper areas of the sky, and also reduce the orange hue of the dry grass in the front.
What I don’t really see in the small version of the image file available here is how far the area of reasonably sharp focus extends from the horizon to the foreground: a foreground which is out of focus would probably also not suit this sort of picture.
Lukas
I guess I am reading this post somewhat late, but I am also ready to help.
One proposal which popped up: why not give a possibility to click on uploaded pictures to see enlarged versions?
Lukas
I am sorry, but I can’t see any picture here.
Lukas
Claudia,
thank you for your comments. They are really helpful and make me think. You are right, of course, more explanations would be helpful.The reason I have not given any is first of all that I was hoping to get thoughts about the picture itself, how it gets communicated just by itself.
And I want my images to be received by people familiar with the cultural context as well as by those who aren’t.
What I really liked here (even though I am not supposed to like comments here!) were comments which said the context seems to tell something about her life.
Lukas
Somewhat belatedly, a picture I took recently:
preparing the feast.jpg by Lukas Werth on Light StalkingLukas
Claudia,
with regard to the bulb light: I actually accented that (in Photoshop). The reason is that for me, the interplay between bulb- and daylight forms so much of the daily reality as I perceive it here in Pakistan, not only but particularly in the homes of poor people. Typically, in a house such as the one in which the picture was taken there is no window, just a door which is kept open to let the light float in (and to prevent suffocating in the summer heat if one happens to be inside.) Electricity already is a sign of a modest prosperity: the poorest don’t have it.
Lukas
Gordon,
I think you made an important point I made with regard to another picture. That would be something to ask for in this forum: there should be a possibility to click on the pictures and view them in larger sizes.
For better or worse, there is a focus plane in the picture above which lies on the grave’s front and the reading woman, but it i not detectable here.
Lukas
