[SI] -Object of my affection Comments
Alan Browne
Here are my comments on the SI, "Object of my affection"
Joseph Kewfi
Colors are absolutely strange on this shot, underexposed I guess or shot
under wierd lighting. I hope that Joseph was being cynically humorous,
as money is not an object for affection, it is a token to be used in
exchange of food, shelter, material and services or investment for one's
long term. The presentation of the cash, fanned out so, with the last
face value item prominently displayed in the lower right is very
effective (but is that the "back" of the bill?). A key compositional
point is that the "50" symbol is repeated through the fan, although
partly obscured, the repetition is locked in. If my eyes aren't screwed
up, there are 32 bills or $1600 Euros, but I have no idea of the
significance of that, if any ... maybe Joseph was about to buy his first
digital camera?
Anders Svensson
This portrait can be read two ways. I'll do the funny bit first: As the
mandate is "Object of My Affection" and the feet are clearly in focus,
we would surmise that Anders has a foot fetish. The subject appears to
be an Asiatic lady, and in some Asiatic cultures, ladies feet were
specifically objects of reverence (although with the Chinese and
Japanese this often led to mutilation of the feet.) The other way to
read it is that the lady is Anders lovely object of affection, and the
focus on her feet merely enhances her resting pose. The detail in the
foreground is clean and sharp and in counterpoise to the oof lights,
very effective. The diagonal from feet head is present without being
cliché perfect, with the fence in "bas relief" to the same diagonal,
these elements in turn intercept the diagonal formed by the lights.
These strong compositional elements support the main subject. A very
worthy contribution.
Cody Houston
We all love our children and that is clear in this shot. The child is
engaged with the photographer. The photo is unfortunately of the
snapshot category.
Jerry Howe
Very clean "product" shot. As to "object of my affection" one would
hope that it should be taken cynically. Composition is a bit weak from
the aesthetic POV, strong from the 'statement' POV.
Matt Clara
Nearly all of us have photos of our children in the first minutes after
their birth. A tad harsh for my taste, however this would have been a
Cinema Verité shot of top standing. Exposed a tad less, there would
have been cleaner details in the face / skin. Kudos for the close
cropping with the right lens. (My own attempt at the same style shot
some 13+ years ago was with a 50mm was a bit distorted looking).
Simone Ghirlanda
What is it? The girl, the butt, the panties? A bit ambiguous wrt to
the mandate. Despite the use of flash at close quarters the
illumination on the main subject is fairly even. Composition is
suggestive a loud party, people dancing, etc. As a snapshot goes it is
far above average, but a snapshot nonetheless.
Andrew McCall
A bit of a cheesy nude here with the subject looking coyly over her
shoulder. The cropping of the shot is a bit weak. To emphasize the
upper torso, framing should have been closer, or at least cropped for
presentation. Flash light is a bit harsh, on the the other hand the
shaddows serve as a bas-relief and help define the wall as a surface.
Image seems a bit 'unsharp' (as opposed to soft focus), I believe this
is neglectful use of USM. The gaze of the lady cutting accross her nose
towards the camera gives a strong between the two actors. Overall a
good shot, but the potential for much more was not taken (or if it was,
modesty compelled the poster to withhold under threat of death from he
model. Been there.)
Bowser
A pleasing landscape except for the thick line of trees through the
middle. Like slide film you only get so much exposure range (in fact
you get a little bit more here with the Drebel) so some detail in the
darkest parts of the tree line comes through (I don't mean the birch
trees). Exposure is perfect (detail in snow on far right), but the sky
color seems a bit cartoonish. Placement of subjects is excellent and
avoids adherence to the 'rules', but the large birch to the left of
middle takes away the impact slightly. Nice shot.
Jim Kramer
A very detailed shot of what I guess is a recently completed stained
glass project. Composition is good as is the detail. I would suggest
however that given the nature of the object, it would have been better
presented backlit. The lighting used, while good to bring out detail,
also gives the whole a harsh apperance. Other than shooting this
backlit, shooting it under a white tent would have given it a more
'glowing' look.
Ken Nadvornick
I hope your affection is for the game, or that your son/nephew,
whatever, is one of the players.... Pretty good action shot at a high
school basketball game, two players off the floor batteling for control
of the ball. The flash light could have been turned down a hair,
although this treatment does provide for seperation from background.
Nice pickup of reflections off of the floor. The photographer should
have shot from a sitting position in order to emphaisze the vertical,
and to reduce the likelyhood of damage to self and equipment. Good shot.
Doug Macdonald
Evening light provides a very contrasty scene. I feel the exposure is a
bit under here, although warm color does come through this way.
Compostition is a bit noisy. If the boat was the 'object', then a
closer perspective would have been a better treatment.
Bret Douglas
I won't make the obligatory statement about how tired we are of seeing
that mutt. This is one of Bret's best dawg shots. The unusual framing,
the slash of red painted boards in contrast with the white, abundance of
leading lines and OOF BG are really well done. Possibly a hair over in
the whites. Good shot.
Leroy Jolicoeur
Hubba Hubba, but I'll comment impartially (yeah, right). Nice close
crop narrow DOF portrait. The cliché shot would have the focus on the
closer eye, but it doesn't really matter. Placement of the hand is a
bit off putting (to me), but a common prop in this kind of shot.
Lighting construction is great and gives the image a 3D look. Choice of
lens and closeup distorts the features slightly, eg: the ear looks tiny
and the nose is a bit exagerated. A slightly longer lens from a bit
further back would have been better in this respect. (not a major
problem with the shot). Good shot, hell, FINE shot! Tres jolie
demoiselle, et si vous arretez ici un jour, n'hesitez pas a m'appeler!
Alan Browne
Why this shot? I was too lazy to go shoot anything else. I dislike the
notion of calling people "objects" (affectionately or otherwise). I
love airplanes, and this and many other shots were spinning on the disk.
The bold red colors of the shot were my main purpose in choosing it,
as many of the shots here are not very colorful and bold. This was shot
on Velvia on a bright sunny day at about -18C. The helicopter had just
taken off with our radar on board and I was leaning on the cowling of a
plane nearby. I had incident metered, but this was tricky with the
ground reflection of the snow (note the detail on the bottom of the
helo, that is due to the huge reflection from the ground. Some may
criticise the cropping, I in fact almost put in a shot that was lot more
cropped than this.
Victor Mason
Like Kewfi, a rude declaration that one could have affection for money.
(Don't get me wrong I like the stuff too, but for what it can do, not
for what it is). The use of the vellentine box for this mandate at the
time of year of the shot (and in recognition of the mandate's
instruction) is a nice additional humor touch. Shot is a bit over
centered, and ligting a bit ordinary.
Thaddeus Lipshitz
Exposure and detail is very good, shot is too centered and 'snapshotty
looking. Not much to say except move the cup out of the way next time,
or move it coloser to the subject if it is a required element to set the
stage.
Laura Kernbaum
Dull, centered snapshot.
Al Denelsbeck
A nice 'just after sunset' (or just before sunrise) shot. Colors are a
bit pale looking to me. Composition is strong and de-clichéd as we've
come to epect from Al's shooting. Exposure range is huge, so it is noce
to see some detail on the right in the trees (did you add some flash
here?). The trees are a little too dominant, IMO, and should have been
pushed to the right a little more. The dock is a nice bit of detail.
Nice shot, but leaves me wondering what else could have been done to
enrichen the color... another way of putting this would be the 'pastel'
look on the left doesn't work at all with the dark dead green/black on
the right.
Simon Lee
Which one? Or are you a polyteddybearist? Composition is cluttereed
rather than patterned which was probably your goal. If you had arranged
(assuming you did the arranging) for the dominant colored teddy bears to
appear in some kind of pattern (repeats, diagonals, frames, whatever)
the composition would have been much stronger. The glint of light off
of the teddy bear eyes gives 'life' to the TB's. Good shot, but the
arrangement could have been stronger.
Rich Pos
Assuming the affection is for the peace and enjoyement of this path
through the light woods. Very pleasing compostion in the use of a well
anchored foreground (Matt Clara's shot of the B&W boat by the pond comes
to mind) and the perspective lines ... with a nice little off symetry
hook to give a point if interest and make us ask ...what's there...
Detail and tones are really well brought out. Very Nice.
Mr. Blobby
A cheesy snapshot by the flowers. The great detractor here is the
background, esp. the building on the left, and the tree trunk on the
right, to a lesser dgree. The floweres colors come through nicely as do
the hair details and the catchlight. A good shot, but more attention to
the BG is required.
--
e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch.
Joseph Kewfi
under wierd lighting.
'dirty money' look, fluorescent spot lighting and 'incorrect' white balance
worked it's magic as well.
>>I hope that Joseph was being cynically humorous, as money is not an object
for affection...
It is if you have enough to fill a room with and roll around in it ;-)
>>The presentation of the cash, fanned out so, with the last face value item
prominently displayed in the lower right is very
effective (but is that the "back" of the bill?).
No, the front side of the notes is displayed toward the viewer. There are no
faces on EU bank notes, unfortunately on certain EU currency coins some
states have decided to emblazon their ugly wretched monarch's faces on to
them, I find that behaviour abhorrent.
>>If my eyes aren't screwed up, there are 32 bills or $1600 Euros, but I
have no idea of the
significance of that, if any ... maybe Joseph was about to buy his first
digital camera?
Actually there were 80 bills totalling 4000 Euro, but you can't see them
all because I couldn't fan them all out in one hand and there ended up a big
bunch at the back of the "money fan". No I'm not buying any cameras ,
electronic or chemical process based.
"Alan Browne" <alan....@FreeLunchvideotron.ca> wrote in message
news:AB32c.80376$aN.12...@weber.videotron.net...
Rich Pos
<alan....@FreeLunchvideotron.ca> wrote:
>Rich Pos
>Assuming the affection is for the peace and enjoyement of this path
>through the light woods. Very pleasing compostion in the use of a well
>anchored foreground (Matt Clara's shot of the B&W boat by the pond comes
>to mind) and the perspective lines ... with a nice little off symetry
>hook to give a point if interest and make us ask ...what's there...
>Detail and tones are really well brought out. Very Nice.
Thanks again for commenting.
You are right about my intents, this trail meets the mandate very well
indeed :).
The .75 mile boardwalk bisects a 1600 acre bog. During the week it
may as well be my bog, very few people there. Enough trails to keep
one busy all day, that's if he stays on the trail.
To satisfy another post about supplying info on [SI] entries, here
goes....
Canon A1
20mm 2.8
Slik 700 dx tripod
cable release
Deep yellow filter
Ilford XP2
slight levels / contrast / USM in PS
Shot 2/3 stop under meter reading.
IIRC ; 1/10 @ f16
The only way I could have made this shot more gray is to shoot it in
color ;)
No sky, flat light, no color and little contrast....so I experimented
a bit.
Here are a few others.....
http://www.pbase.com/image/26621454
http://www.pbase.com/image/26621453
Have great weekend,
RP©
Martin Francis
news:AB32c.80376$aN.12...@weber.videotron.net...
> Why this shot? I was too lazy to go shoot anything else. I dislike the
> notion of calling people "objects" (affectionately or otherwise).
aw jeez Al (sorry, just been watching Fargo, ya!)
dictionary.com, word: object, second definition;
"A focus of attention, feeling, thought, or action"
--
Here lies the late Martin Francis
He couldn't tell you the technical merits of Leitz and Zeiss
But he did take some photographs once.
Douglas MacDonald
would dearly love to have the cash to buy one of the units overlooking it.
Noise is as noise is. In the absence of detail - I.E. sky, still water - I
find noise to add an extra visual element to a photo.
This was taken at f32, 48 second exposure on Fuji NPS film with a Fuji GWS,
medium format camera. The negative was scanned at 4800lpi on an Epson 4870,
flatbed film scanner. I used 'noise ninja' to remove some of the grain/noise
from the scan and reduced the image size with Photoshop.
I have a print from this photograph which is five foot wide. It was done on
a Durst 'Lambda' digital photo printer. The original scan was in 48 bit mode
and the file size well over 100 Megabytes.
I am more than mildly curious that despite the size of the file, the picture
does not resolve all that much better than a raw camera file from my 10D. In
fact when you compare identical shots from the GWS and the 10D, I gotta say
that the 36 Meg camera file produces larger, clearer 'big prints' than the
film camera's 145 Mb file does. Maybe I'll start a thread on this subject
latter on?
Douglas
----------------------
"Alan Browne" <alan....@FreeLunchvideotron.ca> wrote in message
news:AB32c.80376$aN.12...@weber.videotron.net...
Here are my comments on the SI, "Object of my affection"
Doug Macdonald
Bowzah
that may be due to slight underexposure in order to capture detail in the
snow. The shot is a JPG straight from the camera with no modifications
whatsoever. And yes, the sky was an incredible shade of blue that day.
"Alan Browne" <alan....@FreeLunchvideotron.ca> wrote in message
news:AB32c.80376$aN.12...@weber.videotron.net...
Alan Browne
> "Alan Browne" <alan....@FreeLunchvideotron.ca> wrote in message
> news:AB32c.80376$aN.12...@weber.videotron.net...
>
>>Alan Browne
>>Why this shot? I was too lazy to go shoot anything else. I dislike the
>>notion of calling people "objects" (affectionately or otherwise).
>
>
> aw jeez Al (sorry, just been watching Fargo, ya!)
> dictionary.com, word: object, second definition;
> "A focus of attention, feeling, thought, or action"
sounds very "object" oriented ...eg, something I prefer not to
associate with people.
Maybe I'm over sensitive to such things...
Cheers,
Alan
Alan Browne
> Nice bit of over-the-top drama Alan. I like that, though hardly a rude
> declaration. :-) But if you believe it to be so, perception is reality. I
> accept your difference of opinion. I have way more than I need. Therefore,
> for me, money in the figurative sense is an object. I have no affection for
> those particular bills. As you implied, money can be used as a tool for
> one's own benefit and the benefit of others. For some, money is an object
> of idolisation. For me, in addition to charitable largess, I playfully
> manipulate it. YMMV. Thank you for your comments. Cheers. vm
Consider me a charity, I'll send the details!!
Cheers,
Alan
Alan Browne
> The object of my affection is not actually the boat but the whole lagoon. I
> would dearly love to have the cash to buy one of the units overlooking it.
> Noise is as noise is. In the absence of detail - I.E. sky, still water - I
> find noise to add an extra visual element to a photo.
>
> This was taken at f32, 48 second exposure on Fuji NPS film with a Fuji GWS,
> medium format camera. The negative was scanned at 4800lpi on an Epson 4870,
> flatbed film scanner. I used 'noise ninja' to remove some of the grain/noise
> from the scan and reduced the image size with Photoshop.
>
> I have a print from this photograph which is five foot wide. It was done on
> a Durst 'Lambda' digital photo printer. The original scan was in 48 bit mode
> and the file size well over 100 Megabytes.
...yeah I get 200 MB scanning slides at 48 bit on the Minolta. But
consider the noise portion of the A/D and the dynamic range of slide
film, about 25-50 MB of that file is noise. Once processed at
16bit/channel and printed as such or converted to 8 bit/chan JPG, the
difference on a printer (or screen) is hardly discernable.
>
> I am more than mildly curious that despite the size of the file, the picture
> does not resolve all that much better than a raw camera file from my 10D. In
> fact when you compare identical shots from the GWS and the 10D, I gotta say
> that the 36 Meg camera file produces larger, clearer 'big prints' than the
> film camera's 145 Mb file does. Maybe I'll start a thread on this subject
> latter on?
A dedicated film scanner will resolve better at 4000 dpi than a flatbed
at 4800 dpi. Sorry, dem's de breaks. You also have to accept that
even though a film scan will look noisier, it in fact resolves more
detail than a 10D camera. The 10D gives very clean, noise free shots
and can be printed fairly large. Detailed examination of a digital shot
will show artifacts such as halo's around sharp contrast areas. But,
like zooming in on a slide scan to look for noise, you really have to
zoom in on a 10D shot to look for halos.
You could indeed, and x-post to comp.periphs.scanners too. I'm no
slouch on scanners, but the guys there are at the next level (or so).
Cheers,
Alan
Alan Browne
> No sky, flat light, no color and little contrast....so I experimented
> a bit.
> Here are a few others.....
>
> http://www.pbase.com/image/26621454
> http://www.pbase.com/image/26621453
Technically, the first one is better, although the horizon zould have
been moved (up or down).
The second is a more interesting photo. Much less cliché than the other.
>
> Have great weekend,
Likewise,
Cheers,
Alan.
Rich Pos
<alan....@FreeLunchvideotron.ca> wrote:
>> http://www.pbase.com/image/26621454
>> http://www.pbase.com/image/26621453
>
>Technically, the first one is better, although the horizon zould have
>been moved (up or down).
That's what is so cool about photography...... no rulz.
Sometimes it's rewarding doing things basic photography books tell you
not to do.
Using WA lens it often pays to keep the film plane perfectly straight
resulting in a lot of shots having the horizon dead center. Another
broken *rule*.
:)
Here is another dead center horizon shot taken while finishing [SI]
roll.
http://www.pbase.com/image/26650873
"I love the smell of sulfur in the morning"
RP©
AnOver...@webtv.net
(Alan Browne) wrote:
Cody Houston
We all love our children and that is clear in this shot. The child is
engaged with the photographer. The photo is unfortunately of the
snapshot category.
Yes Sir, this is a snapshot with on camera flash, indoors under poor
lighting conditions. Sometimes you have to do a snapshot to capture the
decisive moment.
With better lighting / outdoors I think that the photo would be a good
snapshot. However the photo does show an object of my affection, which I
am glad is not money, a gun, or a dog.
Cody,
Beware of Terrorism!
<o> <o>
Remember 9-11-01
Alan Browne
> (Alan Browne) wrote:
> Cody Houston
> We all love our children and that is clear in this shot. The child is
> engaged with the photographer. The photo is unfortunately of the
> snapshot category.
> =================================
>
> Yes Sir, this is a snapshot with on camera flash, indoors under poor
> lighting conditions. Sometimes you have to do a snapshot to capture the
> decisive moment.
> With better lighting / outdoors I think that the photo would be a good
> snapshot. However the photo does show an object of my affection, which I
> am glad is not money, a gun, or a dog.
I personaly don't like associating the word 'object' with a person,
especially when qualified as "my affection". A personal quirk.
There is nothing that prevents capturing a decisive moment with bounced
flash to soften the image somewhat and perhaps fill the BG a bit.
Cheers,
Alan.