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Archive 2012 · Modern Day Cowboy

alaskalive
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p.1 #1 · Modern Day Cowboy

This photo I took a few years ago...
Thought it was worth posting.

Feb 07, 2012 at 02:25 PM

dmacmillan
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p.1 #2 · Modern Day Cowboy

Why is it so contrasty? The highlights are blown and the darks are crushed. The background is very distracting.

Feb 07, 2012 at 02:42 PM

alaskalive
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p.1 #3 · Modern Day Cowboy

dmacmillan wrote:
Why is it so contrasty? The highlights are blown and the darks are crushed. The background is very distracting.
hmm...
I value your perspective.. but I thought it looked like an old photo...
It was color but edited to look like this...
Just thought it looked cool.. but bothered a little by the eyes of the guy not showing clearly..
At any rate I thought it looked cool.

Feb 07, 2012 at 03:04 PM

dmacmillan
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p.1 #4 · Modern Day Cowboy

alaskalive wrote:
I value your perspective.. but I thought it looked like an old photo...

Perhaps you haven't seen many old photos. Yes, fifth generation copies of old photos can look like this, but actually well done old photos look gorgeous. I have some family photos, some of which are over 120 years old, and they have lovely gradation.

I also have hundreds of old negatives going back to 100+ year old glass plates. I can scan them in and make lovely prints.

Slightly OT, but a lot of people judge silent movies from bad scratchy copies they've seen on TV. Actually by the 20's the cinematographers had become quite sophisticated. Many silent movies have been restored either from original camera negatives or first generation fine grain prints. The subtlety and clarity of the image is remarkable. Check out Buster Keaton's "The General" on blu ray.

If you think the effect "looks cool", that's your call. I'm sure I'm in the minority, but since I've seen what's possible, it doesn't say "old" to me.

Feb 07, 2012 at 03:18 PM

RoadconePhoto
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p.1 #5 · Modern Day Cowboy

i was expecting a Tesla portrait

Feb 07, 2012 at 04:02 PM

alaskalive
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p.1 #6 · Modern Day Cowboy

Yeah, I am no pro at making photos look old, as you can tell.. I guess I am just weird.. lol, I just thought it looked cool.
lol

Feb 07, 2012 at 04:28 PM

Jim Rickards
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p.1 #7 · Modern Day Cowboy

My first impression was "busy" and an overall "negative" feeling.

Looking closer, the highlights are badly blown, causing the white spots that became the distractions in the "busy" verdict. Blacks blocked too, as pointed out by dmacmillan.

If you still have this in RAW, there's lots of options.

Feb 07, 2012 at 05:11 PM

alaskalive
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p.1 #8 · Modern Day Cowboy

Yeah, no raw.. is like 3 year or more old.. I shot it with an old Canon 20D
I probably should not have posted it..
lol

Feb 07, 2012 at 05:31 PM

Awasos23
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p.1 #9 · Modern Day Cowboy

Do you have the original Jpeg at least? I think the image has potential, but the processing kills it.

Feb 07, 2012 at 09:40 PM

alaskalive
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p.1 #10 · Modern Day Cowboy

Yes, I have the original jpeg, well, not sure..would have to hunt it down.. but bck then, I did not have LR and I was not all hip on the RAW format.

Feb 07, 2012 at 10:13 PM

innovis
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p.1 #11 · Modern Day Cowboy

You guys are harsh. Can't blame him for trying. It doesn't look BAD... just isn't great thats all. I don't think every picture needs to follow the typical photographers' criterias all the time.

Feb 07, 2012 at 10:39 PM

sbv20
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p.1 #12 · Modern Day Cowboy

lol

Feb 07, 2012 at 10:49 PM

Langran
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p.1 #13 · Modern Day Cowboy

I second most of the criticisms of the image that have been made but as to:

alaskalive wrote:
I probably should not have posted it..

that's really not the case. In fact it is exactly that it's not an amazing image why you SHOULD have posted it since hopefully the critique has helped you in some way.

Feb 08, 2012 at 07:35 AM

Jim Rickards
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p.1 #14 · Modern Day Cowboy

innovis wrote:
You guys are harsh. Can't blame him for trying. It doesn't look BAD... just isn't great thats all. I don't think every picture needs to follow the typical photographers' criterias all the time.

I disagree. There is no harshness in the previous critiques.

We're not blaming him for trying, we're encouraging him to continue to improve. People don't always see a picture the same way, so feedback helps the photographer see his picture through the eyes of others.

This is one photographer who is taking feedback and critiques to heart and is improving a great deal.

So don't hold back your opinion either- it can help a lot.

Feb 08, 2012 at 07:51 AM

dmacmillan
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p.1 #15 · Modern Day Cowboy

alaskalive wrote:
I probably should not have posted it..
lol
Even though you added a laugh, it was certainly not my intent to discourage you from posting images. Let's see if we can make this a positive learning experience.

If at the end of reading this you found nothing helpful, feel free to ignore.

My own personal experience, as well as observing my photo students, has pointed out that it is easy to concentrate so much on the subject that we don't see the background. Even now I'll come home excited about photos I've made, only to pull them up and wonder how in the world I didn't see a distracting element in the background.

When it comes to backgrounds, we have two choices. We can either incorporate them in a way that they complement the subject or we can take steps to keep them from distracting our attention away from the subject.

Here's some photos by Lisa Holloway where I thought she did a good job incorporating the background with the subject, especially in the first one. We get a feel for the place where this family lives. The background complements the subject without competing with it. She carefully placed the family in the landscape.

In your photo, was the building in the background a part of the story? If so, perhaps another angle would have made it a more coherent element in the composition.

Sometimes the background is not necessarily tied to the subject and we need to use techniques to minimize it in the photo. The first, and I think the hardest step is to see beyond the subject and see what the camera will see. In so doing, we can identify elements that will interfere. Perhaps if we moved the subject and/or the camera we can eliminate those elements from the frame.

We can also, of course, control the background with the use of focal length and f stop. In a situation like this, where the subject is large, I'm going to need a pretty long lens with a pretty wide aperture to throw the background sufficiently out of focus to keep it from competing. If at all possible, I'd be in the 200mm range and backed up to get the same framing.

I'd also be shooting pretty wide open. I normally shoot in aperture priority because for me, controlling the depth of field is more important. Speaking of apertures, photographers are used to composing with the lens at its widest aperture. That's the way SLR's are designed. They may not realize that the same scene at their shooting aperture, say f8, will look completely different. It's hard to establish the habit, but if I'm shooting at anything other than wide open, I press the depth of field preview button and examine the image as the camera will capture it.

For mere mortal photographers like us, none of this is intuitive, at least not at first. You have to make the deliberate effort to see the background, plan how to incorporate it, and then choose methods to control it.

Hope this helps.

Feb 08, 2012 at 11:24 AM

alaskalive
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p.1 #16 · Modern Day Cowboy

I read all the posts.. completely.
Yes, I want straight forward, exactly what people think to every post I make..
I will NEVER, NEVER get offended...
Even if someone says... "OMG, AFTER ALL YOU HAVE LEARNED IN HERE, AFTER ALL YOUR SKILL DEVELOPMENT YOU POST THIS! What were you thinking@!?"

Not a problem..
I HATE TUNNEL VISION.. and that is what I have unless I respect and consider all perspectives.

This photo... at the time I was use to only shooting sports photography.. outdoors and also I would do portraits of people, that I had meet me outdoors in the evening, at that SWEET LIGHT time and do shots of them in special places I knew all around town. I was good at it.. had that down..

But then this young guy asked me to do some shots of him out by this old barn..

This shot here was just a toy that I played with, trying to make it look like an OLD WEST photo.. of a young kid, modern.. I think around 2005... or so..

I think I used Fireworks to edit it.. I do not remember..

I am well aware of using my 70-200 to present the subject sharp and the bk blurred.. I do that in portraits..
I am aware of how to use my wide, 24-70 to get the subject sharp and the bk blurred..
but,
And I thank you all for posting perfect instructions for same.. yes, I need that every time to insure I do not forget... like I did recently with a shoot... I used like, f19 in studio to shoot subjects and expected shallow depth of field.. omg, what an idiot.. I had forgotten, low fstop, shallow DOF. I knew it, but forgot it in all the mechanics of trying to get the light right using in studio strobes...

I was reminded and immediately I said OMG.. so now, I set the camera to like f8 or so, the adjust te strobes to that.. ISO 100!

At any rate, back to the photo I posted...
This was my feeble attempt to make the photo look OLD.

I have never been taught the proper way to make a new photo look old.. I was just messing around...

Now that I look at it.. I see the major thing I think is wrong with the photo is we cannot see his eyes....

But then, even after all that everyone said.. and I understand all the thoughts and perspectives.. and the mechanics of the lesson on DOF and camera settings...

I STILL LOVE THIS PHOTO.. lol as to me it is artistic in that this is a young 19 year old kid.. and his horse.. in a field by an old barn... in 2005.. but to me it looks like an old cowboy.

Yeah, laugh at me, with me.. but hell.. some people think some of the weirdest things are art...
I really do not get into a lot of the abstract art of..Picasso... I think most of what he did sucks..


	http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_j9VUmBswTWg/TTZOvtZe2LI/AAAAAAAAAVk/cP_2okoQTSk/s1600/Art-Pablo-Picasso-Weeping-Woman.JPG

But he is world famous....

So, in summary.. I respect and greatly appreciate all comments, insight, instruction.. and believe me.. it all gets entered into my brain! I love all anyone has to say to me.. always.. please, never hold back.. say what is on your mind and DO NOT TRY TO MAKE IT SWEET.. just say what you think!

I guess I have a drab and boring life because coming here every day, many times a day to see new posts and learn things.. is one of the major thing in my life that keeps me sane!

I do not have money to travel.. just raising my kids.. so seeing all the awesome things people get to take photos is basically my way of traveling...

Thanks to all, thanks a LOT for taking time to post your thoughts to my meanderings in the PHOTO WORLD.

Feb 08, 2012 at 12:15 PM

alaskalive
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p.1 #17 · Modern Day Cowboy

dmacmillan wrote:
Why is it so contrasty? The highlights are blown and the darks are crushed. The background is very distracting.
I did this in like 2005... and I think I used Fireworks to edit...
I just blew out everything.. and put a color cast to it...
I was attempting to be artistic!
I guess huge failure.. but , I really love it! lol

I would love to see how someone takes a modern photo and makes it look like an old, western photo... you know, like some thing one might find in an old,weather beaten log cabin way out in
Wyoming or some thing... I have no example to try to do this type of edit from.

Feb 08, 2012 at 02:22 PM

dmacmillan
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p.1 #18 · Modern Day Cowboy

Just for fun. Earlier I discussed "old" photos and their look. Here's a photo of my mother, taken circa 1920. This is from a scan of the original nitrate negative. I did some basic dust spotting. I feel many photos are too contrasty nowadays and left the contrast soft:

Feb 08, 2012 at 05:37 PM

innovis
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p.1 #19 · Modern Day Cowboy

I didn't critique because I felt it was a STYLIZED edit. Which translates to fun without the need to have proper contrast because IT CAN get away with having high contrast. Thats HIS interpretation of the LOOK he was going for and he nailed it. Sorry, I didn't feel the critique helped because he didn't ask for it. He was simply SHARING a style he felt was "cool". Its not my cup of tea, but I'm not going to break that cup.

And thanks for demonstrating what a DISTRACTING bg IS dmacmillan. My eyes went straight to the bricks before seeing the subject. This is photography my friends... its a VERY SUBJECTIVE form of perception. Keyword being perception... just because we interpret something as being correct, doesn't mean it is. I know this is very harsh to say, but as a professional artist(digital painter), I feel a lot of photographers don't comprehend what art truly is yet and instead... follow textbook rules. Don't allow those rules to mitigate you into a one-dimensional eye.

Feb 08, 2012 at 06:24 PM

alaskalive
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p.1 #20 · Modern Day Cowboy

I never meant to create controversy.. and I guess everyone who knows me knows I love to have my photos critiqued.. and on this one , I should have said, NOT REALLY LOOKING FOR CRITIQUE..was just posting something I thought was an artistic edit...
lol
OMG,
I have a new rule..
If I ever think I am doing some thing right.. BACK UP AND DO THE OPPOSITE.. as in actuality, I am screwing up!
lol
At any rate.. I do want all comments, instruction, on all posts I make.. EXCEPT from now on when I say.. I NEED NO HELP ON THIS PHOTOS, WAS JUST POSTING IT TO SHOW OFF SOME THING I LIKE.
lol
again, all above said in fun... happy to be here.. happy to know all of you! OMG, thanks to all of you all the time!

Feb 08, 2012 at 06:43 PM

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