The black frame definitely works better for me with this image, but it really depends on the subject, mood and predominant color. An image full of lush greens for example would be better presented with a white frame in my opinion, while this darker image with decay as the main theme is well served by a black frame.
Yeah, I think you are right, it depends very much on subject and intended mood.
As a rule, I don't think that mixing black and white frames in a set would add anything, so I suppose the thing to do is to think about the set, choose colour, and stick with it.
Carsten - Thanks for the detailed description. I like the image regardless, but what was surprising to me was that it was shot with 21. ( ha ha, don't I have great eyes ! ) The shot is executed very carefully that I did not notice the usual 21 distortion corners. I agree with Philippe and Wfrank. New exposure pp makes the door much more pleasing. I love looking at the surface and reading the lighting in the room. It seems black border works well with this shot too. Black border reminds me of slide films, whenever I have images that reminds me of Kodachrome saturated days, I just have to put black border on it. In this case, it is different, scene does seem to benefit from darker border.
There is something enticing about the open door that makes me want to see what's in side.
Here's one from me taken a few months ago. It was part of a series and while I feel the other pictures were more compositionally successful in a traditional sense, for some reason this picture has gotten the most traction in views and favorites on my Flickr account.
Perhaps there's something about this picture that is more interesting because it doesn't look like something you see everyday in terms of composition.
This is what I thought was a better photo from the series:
Fly, I like the shot, but IMO the central tree doesn't work here, since the stuff on the left and right is very similar, and so the scene feels split. If the left and right stuff was somehow different, then it would feel more like two worlds, which could work well. Nice catch on the shadow on the right though.
Mark, very nice composition, although the thin bit of castle on the extreme top right feels a little fragile to me. A little bit more there would make it a very interesting diagonal top-left vs. bottom-right split. About the processing, there are JPG artifacts all over the sky, so at least the export needs to be improved I think this shot would lend itself very well to a super-dramatic, gritty feel. Try boosting contrast, lowering exposure somewhat, and see if you can crack the sky open into more tones. Desaturating might help, something to try too. I think the end result could very well be worth all the effort.
Mark, the shadow detail in your shot is incredible as is the sharpness. Curious which lens and aperture you used here.
Love the shot overall but my eye is overly drawn to the hot spot in the clouds a little left of center near where the edge of the distant tower/corner of the fortress lies. Darken that a bit and perhaps the other hot spot near the top right of the image, and this will be perfect.
Actually, good point about the left hotspot. I think it might make the shot more interesting if you burned in all the lower bright areas of the sky, leaving the upper ones. Another experiment to make.
Mark, there's some serious jpg-artifacting going on in your image. Not only the sky but also the wall to the left. The composition is excellent for me, and the kept sky (except for defects visible here now) works very well with the rest. Great job but poor export/transport/size-reduction or what?
Flypen, your images carry a lot of life - and I really like BW's, even as contrasty as yours - but these dont speak to me that much. I dont know where to fix my eyes, but perhaps that's the point
An interesting and fine shot, Mark, but one which does not realise its full potential IMHO. To my eye, the foreground is too eye-catching, which reduces the relative importance of the main topic. Then the hot spot in the sky does the same on the other end of the picture. Notwithstanding what Carsten has suggested, I would try a significantly tighter crop (a square?) in the hope of getting a more dramatic effect.
The crop is improved, the JPG artifacts are better (but still there), but I think it could be taken further. If you don't mind, I could post a quick mock-up of what I mean.
Carsten are you talking about the edginess or brilltle appearance of this shot? Yes when I posted it I was not happy with what I saw. It's converted from a PSD file to JPEG in photoshop with a little compression as I could get away with. I'm not realy sure how to get around that. The only sharpening applied is in the resize rourtine.
It would be great to see what you can do with it, thank you very much for trying.
Someone here probably knows this castle: it is Spissky Hrad in Slovakia. Supposed to be the largest castle in Middle Europe and it is very big. Its built on top of a hill dominating view the surrounding landscape. One can only imaging the number of poor souls that were dragged up that path never to come down again.
MarkJones wrote:
Carsten are you talking about the edginess or brilltle appearance of this shot? Yes when I posted it I was not happy with what I saw. It's converted from a PSD file to JPEG in photoshop with a little compression as I could get away with. I'm not realy sure how to get around that. The only sharpening applied is in the resize rourtine.
It would be great to see what you can do with it, thank you very much for trying.
The brittleness might come from the sharpening routine used, or perhaps from pushing the processing further than the file can take, but that isn't what I am referring to. There are many small blocks in the dark grey areas of the clouds.
Here is a quick edit to show the direction I mean. I applied more processing to the clouds, and also tried out Philippe's square crop suggestion, since I was at it anyway. The processing is crude, so please only take it as an indication of the direction I mean, not a final product:
Carsten, I would like to than you for taking the time to do that. I have not experimented much with square format since I have stuck with 3:2 that 35mm offers but i see what both you and Phillipe mean. It has changed quite a bit for the better I think and the darkened clouds add to the sense of foreboding. I will rework it from the original. What is the best way to get around the JPEG artifact problems?
I think I understand from your description that you exported with Photoshop, so perhaps you used the export to web menu item?
I am using Aperture, but I think that Lightroom works the same, in that you can set up the edit in Photoshop via TIFF, and then export from LR/Aperture to JPG in the end, with quality 10 or so.
Anyway, we certainly are not in possession of any unique truths, but there is lots of experimentation to be done to discover different ways to treat the image.
I could really use some help on this picture. I took it with a Vivitar Series 1 200mm at unrecorded aperture, 1/400, ISO400. Regretfully, the focus was off a little and there was motion blur in two directions. Not wanting to discard the image, I made corrections with Focus Magic, getting an acceptable (to me) image. However, I have been struggling with how best to crop. First is the original framing followed by two crop attempts. Feedback and advice appreciated.
You are not going to like my answer but I say none. Here is why:
Subject of big serene bird in flight is compelling, but background hill is too close and does not give us a sense of the breadth of the domain of this bird. The lighting and color of the background is muted and unremarkable.
In the wider crops especially but also in the tight ones, the OOF leaves in foreground are very distracting. They sort of are a small enough portion of the image to look unintentional rather than to be used to benefit the composition.
I would either shoot these birds in another venue next time or use a much longer lens to emphasize the bird and downplay the rest.
Carsten,
Thank you for the shot info. I am surprised that it was at 17 given the more intimate feel, but perhaps you corrected distortion in post. If not, I need to add that lens to my list.
I prefer the whiter clouds to your darker cloud crop. The crop itself is fine. I can't say that I prefer it to the original. I see them as conveying much the same vibe. However, the darker skies and darker stones impart a much more melancholy, dreary feel. By contrast, the whiter skies exuded a triumphant feel. I envisioned a long trek up a mountain to arrive at this treasured fortress and a celebration of the buildings themselves. The darker rendition seems to speak to an out moded feeling, either on the part of the viewer or the subject.
Frankly, it is quite cool that a single image - spun two ways - can evoke such different emotions.
The original and crop 1 don't work for me at all, but crop 2 is nice. It is a good shot, but with a little more sharpness it would be technically better, or alternatively with a longer shutter speed and careful panning, the motion could be shown better. Right now it is somehow in between.
Thanks Carstenw. I took Jim's advice and blured the background, which could give the perception of the subject being sharper. This is actually back focused because the bird was standing along the water's edge before taking flight. Once it took off I had little chance to refocus with what is a difficult lens to focus even in ideal circumstances. I wouldn't normally use that lens for this type of picture, but it is what was with me at the moment. If this were another picture, I would have discarded it, but I love the "prom gown" created by the wings and the reflection of same. I don't know that I can capture it again as much of this is by chance, so went about trying that software. I was please with the improvement, although of course I'd prefer a properly focused image. For my purposes I'll accept this image, and although Jim's feedback was good - and put to effect, it was the crop I was hoping to get some feedback on, so thank you. If only I had captured the bird to the left some it would have provided for more room at right and also been more in focus. Oh well, maybe again this weekend.
I think this shot would lend itself very well to a super-dramatic, gritty feel. Try boosting contrast, lowering exposure somewhat, and see if you can crack the sky open into more tones. Desaturating might help, something to try too. I think the end result could very well be worth all the effort.
