Pic #4

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Nature Photography Image Critique : One Thread



-- Frank Kolwicz (bb389@lafn.org), August 06, 1998

Answers

Exposure looks a little long. White areas look a little burned out on my monitor. I would have preferred to see the tree trunk in the foregroung all the way to the ground. Are the dark lines on either side trees? They look a little too straight. Just a few thoughts.

-- Jim Korczak (korczaks@ptdprolog.net), August 06, 1998.

I kind of like it. It's one of those pictures that add's ambiance to a room. :-) I have to agree with the previous post about the matting, particularly on the right side, as the mat cuts into a tree and confuses the eye. Also I would have cropped more or less on the top, as the limb in the upper left corner is cut by the edge of the picture also confusing the eye. Those are just minor nit's, over all I love the image.

-Adam

-- Adam Harrison (eros@ncd.com), August 06, 1998.

The bars on the sides of the image are the area of the print where the 35mm frame ended. The printer leaves them black and doesn't trim the paper. I erred in sending them to the comartists website for posting without trimming the photocopies.

BTW, I've mentioned before that these images are scans of photocopies from prints from slides (fourth generation), so, naturally, there is a bit of lost resolution and contrast irregularities. Nevertheless, this is a pretty good representation of the image in this medium.

Since no one can really tell where the inevitable contrast losses occur and posters usually so state in their comments, I wonder why many photo.netters continue to point that fact out in their image critiques. Oh, I get it, it is because most of you have image manipulation software that you use to generate images for the net so you assume that the image on the screen has been manipulated to minimize losses or to simulate the original with enhancements! I, however, have nothing to do with how the images is posted, it is done by others and is completely outside my control. OK, that quandary is solved.

Frank

-- Frank Kolwicz (bb389@lafn.org), August 06, 1998.


It's another nice example of your work and it's clear that you have a very distinct style. It's nice to see someone having a vision and trying to develop that vision through various images rather than taking just random pictures of "beautiful nature scenes" as they happen to appear before the camera lens. Like the previous posters I am bothered by the cropping too. The top horizontal branch is awkwardly close to the edge and the front tree seems to grow out of nowhere. Without having seen the originals for comparisons, your scans look more than adequate on my monitor (NEC) in terms of contrast and resolution.

-- (andreas@physio.unr.edu), August 07, 1998.

frank, this was *so close* to a really powerful image. the placement/cropping of the lower tree trunks, though, are somewhat awkward. i'm sure that minor bother could be reduced or eliminated. but, boy, did you capture the feeling of a cold winter's day in an unfriendly wood.

-- wayne harrison (wayno@netmcr.com), August 07, 1998.


I only remember a few things about getting this image and it may have to do with how I failed to crop it just right in-camera, which is what I usually try to do. Besides remembering the location, I remember hurrying quite a bit as I was not (and never am) prepared to work in -25 F weather, even though I lived in northwestern Minnesota for three winters.

Normally, I would have done a shot like this on 5x7 or at least 120 film, if temps were above zero. But I just couldn't stand being out for the time it would take to setup my larger cameras, so I ended up with this, an almost great shot, on 35mm instead. It is practically a grab shot.

BTW, I print and/or post these near-misses as I find that it often takes time for me to decide whether or not I like something and, if not why not. Your comments, as always, are very valuable in my own analysis of the images.

Frank

-- Frank Kolwicz (bb389@lafn.org), August 07, 1998.


Thie picture gives me the feeling of being there right now... It's chilly, cool and peaceful. So I think it *is* a powerful picture. Perhaps the trees in the background are a bit distracting, and might have been blurred with a more shallow DOF.

-- Jana Mullerova (jam@terma.com), August 10, 1998.

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