Dan Cattermole
Dan Down - The Steampunk Womble
image by dajoolzcat, on Flickr
very burnt out with the highlights I think.... however part of the title.....
What do you think?
Cheers
Critique Welcomed Super Bright White Light....
- Thread starter Dan Cattermole
- Start date
image by dajoolzcat, on Flickr
very burnt out with the highlights I think.... however part of the title.....
What do you think?
Cheers
Julian de'Courcy
Well-Known Member
I think it's ok a guided light, the way out maybe. Be interesting to see a version not burnt out, but that form of lighting from that angle has a million possibilities. The light onto the hoody works and I think is needed.
Brian Moore
Moderator
I love this one, Dan. It has a religious "feel" to it. (I'm no holy roller, so I'm not projecting my own feelings into it. It's just what comes across to me.) However, its ambiguous enough to convey other connotations to other people. If you're looking for ways to change it I'd say don't. It's wonderful as is.
Paul Lange
Moderator
I think it works OK Dan, the face has an almost graphic look about it.
Bobby Deal
Well-Known Member
The mask of the face is definitely well over exposed. The beauty of high contrast black and white is the ability to salvage images that if left color would be hopelessly unsalvageable. Nice job
Aldous Lau
Well-Known Member
It works pretty good to me, nice one Dan
Glenn Clabo
Well-Known Member
I like it Dan...the shot of course. The face? Well...
Lesley Jones
Otherwise know as Zooey
It works for me too. I normally tolerate some blocked shadows, but I hate blown highlights. You've kept the important features though. With the light just below the eyes (and therefore the gaze), it seems to give it a greater importance. Yes... I think it should be left well alone
Keith Hollister
Well-Known Member
I love the shot except for the blown face highlights myself.
Julian de'Courcy
Well-Known Member
Improves each time I see it.
Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
I think it raises some interesting questions about technical vs artistic photography...
As has been identified, technically the image is fairly flawed ... There are lost highlights and obviously lost shadows ... Although interestingly, lost highlights seem to be what people latch on to as flaws most. I guess it's because they draw the attention ...
Personally, lost areas of an image are not an issue to me as long as they are a part of the image/story ...
As Brian identifies, there is an almost religious feel to the image here ... I would personally suggest that if there is a god, and he was opening the doors to above for Dan, maybe the light would be overpowering ... That is of course just one story ... Were the story be that of a man having just fitted a new, highly directional 30w bulb in his kitchen, the highlight may remain un-clipped!
That's not supposed to sound as facetious as it does reading it back ... I'm just highlighting (pun intended) the point that lost highlights, are only a subjective issue and one that is bound to the more technical among us.
(For balance, I also see no issue in being a technical photographer ...)
Discuss...?
As has been identified, technically the image is fairly flawed ... There are lost highlights and obviously lost shadows ... Although interestingly, lost highlights seem to be what people latch on to as flaws most. I guess it's because they draw the attention ...
Personally, lost areas of an image are not an issue to me as long as they are a part of the image/story ...
As Brian identifies, there is an almost religious feel to the image here ... I would personally suggest that if there is a god, and he was opening the doors to above for Dan, maybe the light would be overpowering ... That is of course just one story ... Were the story be that of a man having just fitted a new, highly directional 30w bulb in his kitchen, the highlight may remain un-clipped!
That's not supposed to sound as facetious as it does reading it back ... I'm just highlighting (pun intended) the point that lost highlights, are only a subjective issue and one that is bound to the more technical among us.
(For balance, I also see no issue in being a technical photographer ...)
Discuss...?
Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
... Oh, and I like the photo btw
Keith Hollister
Well-Known Member
I think it raises some interesting questions about technical vs artistic photography...
As has been identified, technically the image is fairly flawed ... There are lost highlights and obviously lost shadows ... Although interestingly, lost highlights seem to be what people latch on to as flaws most. I guess it's because they draw the attention ...
Personally, lost areas of an image are not an issue to me as long as they are a part of the image/story ...
As Brian identifies, there is an almost religious feel to the image here ... I would personally suggest that if there is a god, and he was opening the doors to above for Dan, maybe the light would be overpowering ... That is of course just one story ... Were the story be that of a man having just fitted a new, highly directional 30w bulb in his kitchen, the highlight may remain un-clipped!
That's not supposed to sound as facetious as it does reading it back ... I'm just highlighting (pun intended) the point that lost highlights, are only a subjective issue and one that is bound to the more technical among us.
(For balance, I also see no issue in being a technical photographer ...)
Discuss...?
Well now you've gone and done it ...
I don't think technical excellence and artistic excellence are orthogonal at all. You need the technical chops to render/convey the artistic vision. My objection to the blown face was not a technical objection primarily (i.e. "blown highlights are bad, so the image is bad"), but a comment that the large area of featureless white on the only focal point in the photo left me uninterested in the image. It is because I find the "blob" distracting and jarring, which prevents me from engaging with the photograph, not because Dan broke some technical photography rule.
I think the natural division in photography is not technical vs artistic, but what I refer to as Documentarians vs Craftsmen. The former is focused primarily on the subject of the image and the memory or emotion it evokes through the visual identification of the subject. The craftsman photographer on the other hand is focused on producing an image that communicates to the viewer primarily through aesthetic ideas. I will offer a couple examples.
Edward Weston's famous photographs of peppers are beautiful photographs that communicate through the tonality, lighting and shapes, in spite of having common vegetables as subjects. Weston was a craftsman.
Robert Capa's famous photograph of the Spanish Civil War soldier as he is shot on the other hand is a documentary image that, while no less valuable artistically, communicates to the viewer through the subject of the image and the moment in time that it captures.
Weston's pepper photo is technically superior to Capa's photo (as it should be - it was a studio shot not taken on the battlefield), but it is no more or less a powerful piece of art in my mind. However, Capa's photo needed a minimum level of technical achievement to be effect even as a documentary image. What I am sad to see these days is the mindset that a complete disregard for the technology of photography is OK, or even necessary, for "artistic" images.
I could probably do a whole paper on this, but I'll stop for now.
Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
Now we're rocking!
So you see an image here that lacks intent in it's breaking of the rules? That the highlights are a mistake?
So you see an image here that lacks intent in it's breaking of the rules? That the highlights are a mistake?
Keith Hollister
Well-Known Member
I see an image that doesn't connect like it could due to a visual distraction that breaks the mood of the photograph - my subjective opinion.
I would steer clear of using the term "intent" because I hope we are discussing Dan's photograph and not Dan's prowess as a photographer. Whether Dan intentionally "broke the rules" by pre-visualizing this image or by salvaging a missed exposure doesn't matter one bit to me. I understand the interpretations put forth by some that it's "a feature, not a bug", but even accepting that story, the image as presented doesn't speak to me due to a single artifact.
I also don't see clipped shadows or highlights as a "rule", but both as a inevitable result of imaging technology and a potential artistic choice. That choice just doesn't do it for me here in the way it was used.
But what the hell do I know?
I would steer clear of using the term "intent" because I hope we are discussing Dan's photograph and not Dan's prowess as a photographer. Whether Dan intentionally "broke the rules" by pre-visualizing this image or by salvaging a missed exposure doesn't matter one bit to me. I understand the interpretations put forth by some that it's "a feature, not a bug", but even accepting that story, the image as presented doesn't speak to me due to a single artifact.
I also don't see clipped shadows or highlights as a "rule", but both as a inevitable result of imaging technology and a potential artistic choice. That choice just doesn't do it for me here in the way it was used.
But what the hell do I know?
Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
to be honest ... Id probably agree with you ... but i was interested in your point of view on the subject!
Dan, did you loose the highlight in capture or post ... is there a smidge more info to be pulled back in your cheek?
Dan, did you loose the highlight in capture or post ... is there a smidge more info to be pulled back in your cheek?
Keith Hollister
Well-Known Member
to be honest ... Id probably agree with you ... but i was interested in your point of view on the subject!
Troublemaker!
Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
yeah... what of it!?!!?
I do think these subjects are interesting though, and worth bringing up once in a while ...
I do think these subjects are interesting though, and worth bringing up once in a while ...
Keith Hollister
Well-Known Member
Agreed, but most people don't have the stomach for it. The internet seems to largely be a black and white world these days - everything turns into an argument that has to have winners and losers. I notice no one else has jumped in the pool here ...
Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
I suppose these convos dont come up much here ... because of the black and white of the outside-internet, I suppose a culture has formed here for observing such convos more than taking part in them.... ? There is certainly no hostility when they do come up though ...
