The White Rose of Scotland

[Rob MacKillop]

"The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet—and breaks the heart." Hugh MacDairmid

White Rose1aBW by RobMacKillop, on Flickr


White Rose1a_CStyl by RobMacKillop, on Flickr
​

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I know, so amazing it has rendered you all speechless

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

LOL Rob I did start to write last night, a long bit, with admiration of the subtle tonal qualities and rendering of this rose. I was half way through and got called to be a taxi driver. That is my excuse I don't know what others excuses are.

The reason it was a long write up, I was also trying to compose a sympathetic critic approach in presentation. One thing that always hits home hard for me is the framing of a subject.This goes back to art school and exhibiting for me and learning what seemed at the time ,the hard way. The observation is quite basic yet can do wonders for an image. When framing a picture in a physical frame, with a card mount, the mount always has a larger space at the bottom than the top. The top is usually equal to the side and the bottom always has more depth. It is just one of those things that is more pleasing to the eye, so it is always done. From this basis mostly as a generality, it works with images as well for subject matter. It is one of those interesting rules of thirds kind of ideas. ( a rule to be broken as well) . The rose in the Rectangle for me does not sit comfortably mostly because of the composition within the frame, this includes the space below the rose. there are many curiosities like this, another is ,the eye tends to stroll initially to the left of an image so we sometimes create interest in the right side to balance this. Rob I am probably writing something you are fully aware of and therefore I am being a right ****. It is nice to ramble at times though. I know very little of photographers , most of my knowledge is about painters and how they would spend days setting the scene and composition. The painting was usually completed quite quickly. Hope this makes sense.

.Like the ditto as well.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Good, constructive comments, Julian. When I came to edit it, I was frustrated that there was so little room, top and bottom, and cursed myself for not allowing for that when shooting. So, I tried a square crop, and it was just too tight, felt uncomfortable. So I did think of abandoning it, but soon found myself playing with tones, and thought these two were presentable.

So, in some ways, the damage had been done at time of shooting, and the rest was a case of, "What can I recover?". It has made me more aware of getting as much as possible right in the frame before pressing the trigger. Time will reveal whether I've learned that particular lesson!

Thanks again, Julian. This discussion has been useful.

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

All true Rob, it is all in the preparation. At times I am very conscious about the framing, other times just plain lazy and that always shows.
Of course strength of tonal values will give the illusion of depth and proximity of subjects or part of subjects. The B+W version works far better than the colour because of the strength of tonal values. It maybe worth pushing it to its limits which is always a good idea. Nothing lost nothing gained as they say.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

I'm pressed with the subtle petal tones on the color version Rob - really very nice

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Cheers, Chris. The raw version looks amazing

 

[Pete Askew]

Great tones again Rob and I especially like the monochrome version. And a great critique from Julian too, thanks. I think we all make the 'mistake' of getting too close to subjects at times and either lose the framing or the context. I find this happens all too easily with macro images in particular. It is one thing to create an accurate representation but so much more challenging to integrate that into a satisfying composition - that's what I liked so much about the images that Rense posts (http://www.realphotographersforum.com/specialist-macro-photography/5477-hiding-katydid.html). Maybe a more radical crop might help the final touch to this fine image.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Thanks Pete. Before a radical crop, I found this one in the same folder. I think the comp is better, but again could have done with more room around it.

BW Rose by RobMacKillop, on Flickr​

 

[Pete Askew]

I agree, that works much better and still keeps the tonality of the previous one.