2 in sepia (gulp)

lizzard_nyclizzard_nyc Registered Users Posts: 4,056 Major grins
edited October 14, 2010 in Street and Documentary
:hide
I know sepia is looked at with disdain here, right up there with selective coloring, but there is something about little league that I think just goes with sepia, so um shoot me :wink.

1.
1040566343_KVoL9-L.jpg


2.
1040567244_A7SrY-L.jpg
Liz A.
_________

Comments

  • NyarthlopicNyarthlopic Registered Users Posts: 274 Major grins
    edited October 9, 2010
    **click** You've been shot...with a Canon :-P

    Those two photos are dripping with emotion. If anyone asked me to define "heartbreak," I'd show them these two shots. These are simply amazing.

    If you backed me into a corner, put a gun to my head and demanded I choose just one, I'd probably say that I like #2 better. Because you can see the boy's face (at least part of it), it feels more personal. As for the Sepia effect, I'm impartial. Without seeing the original, I don't know if it adds to or takes away from the original. To me, the color isn't what this shot is about. With an image this powerful, you'd have to intentionally mess it up in post processing to take away from the pic.
  • M38A1M38A1 Registered Users Posts: 1,317 Major grins
    edited October 9, 2010
    Hey, I like 'em for whatever that counts for. As mentioned, tons of emotion.

    I'm partial to #1. Just a thought, but maybe with a tighter crop to eliminate the arm on the right you'd possibly suck more people in to the emotion going on....
  • lizzard_nyclizzard_nyc Registered Users Posts: 4,056 Major grins
    edited October 9, 2010
    Nyarthlopic wrote: »
    **click** You've been shot...with a Canon :-P

    Those two photos are dripping with emotion. If anyone asked me to define "heartbreak," I'd show them these two shots. These are simply amazing.

    If you backed me into a corner, put a gun to my head and demanded I choose just one, I'd probably say that I like #2 better. Because you can see the boy's face (at least part of it), it feels more personal. As for the Sepia effect, I'm impartial. Without seeing the original, I don't know if it adds to or takes away from the original. To me, the color isn't what this shot is about. With an image this powerful, you'd have to intentionally mess it up in post processing to take away from the pic.


    Wow thanks.
    I am sending a copy to his parents I know they will want it and I think maybe he will like it when he's older.
    I like both also but #2 is it for me, I like both the men trying their best to comfort him.

    Thank you so much for the nice compliment.
    Liz A.
    _________
  • lizzard_nyclizzard_nyc Registered Users Posts: 4,056 Major grins
    edited October 9, 2010
    M38A1 wrote: »
    Hey, I like 'em for whatever that counts for. As mentioned, tons of emotion.

    I'm partial to #1. Just a thought, but maybe with a tighter crop to eliminate the arm on the right you'd possibly suck more people in to the emotion going on....


    Thanks for the suggestion--I usually hate to crop and I fight it, but you are right.


    Man I do like it better now.
    1040566343_KVoL9-L-1.jpg
    Liz A.
    _________
  • ic4uic4u Registered Users Posts: 1,455 Major grins
    edited October 9, 2010
    These are great Liz, I am partial to #2.
    I like #1 before the crop personally, I just think the other people in the shot add to the story. The sepia works for me on these.
    Karin


    "Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth." — Mark Twain
  • misterbmisterb Banned Posts: 601 Major grins
    edited October 10, 2010
    Very nice emotion and feel.. the sepia is nice, too.
  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,961 moderator
    edited October 10, 2010
    Strong emotional moment. #2 for me, but I also like #1 uncropped. To me the person on the right is not a distraction since his position suggests his attention is directed towards the kid. The sepia doesn't bother me, BTW, but I'm not sure that it adds anything either.
    My Pics
  • FlyingginaFlyinggina Registered Users Posts: 2,639 Major grins
    edited October 10, 2010
    Very nice captures of a difficult moment that arrives for every kid at some point.

    #2 is my favorite as well, but it is because I find the dark skirt of the woman on the left right up against the very bright baseball cap in #1 very distracting. It took me a bit to "see" the story.

    I understand that the problem is probably my tiny desktop monitor with its aging contrast capabilities etc. However, I think it might help if you could dodge the skirt a little and maybe even burn the adult's baseball cap so it isn't so bright (and distracting).

    With respect to sepia, I like it for photographs that have a timeless feel, and these qualify. They could have been taken in the 1950's as easily as the 2010's. Of course, I love to play with "artistic" options myself, so I am biased in favor of experimentation.

    These would look great in black and white.

    Virginia
    _______________________________________________
    "A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." Diane Arbus

    Email
  • misterbmisterb Banned Posts: 601 Major grins
    edited October 10, 2010
    Flyinggina wrote: »
    I think it might help if you could dodge the skirt a little and maybe even burn the adult's baseball cap so it isn't so bright (and distracting).

    Virginia

    I agree with Virginia.. that hat burns the retina's of the viewer- easily fixed in LR3.
  • rainbowrainbow Registered Users Posts: 2,765 Major grins
    edited October 10, 2010
    Both are wonderful shots of the scene. The processing in sepia is somewhat irrelevant because the scene is so strong AND the tonework/contrast on the PP is not so over the top.
  • craig_dcraig_d Registered Users Posts: 911 Major grins
    edited October 10, 2010
    Sepia is just a way of making B&W look a little warmer. It's quite traditional (though possibly not for street photography), and I don't think it's comparable in any way to selective coloring. For these shots, I don't think it hurts at all, and it may be helping to establish the feeling of sunlight.

    #2 is a great shot; good emotion, good composition, very nice. #1 is nearly as good; it's a pity about the dark sleeve that occupies the upper left corner, but I realize you often don't have time to work around such things when you're trying to catch shots like this one.
    http://craigd.smugmug.com

    Got bored with digital and went back to film.
  • lizzard_nyclizzard_nyc Registered Users Posts: 4,056 Major grins
    edited October 10, 2010
    Thank you so much guys for the great response to these shots.

    I know they are a little blown out, I will work on them to tweak them a bit.

    iloveyou.gif
    Liz A.
    _________
  • craig_dcraig_d Registered Users Posts: 911 Major grins
    edited October 10, 2010
    I think the exposure's fine. Yes, you are losing detail in few bright areas (mostly white hats and shirts), but you have the important parts well exposed (particularly the face of the boy who is the focus of everyone's attention), and letting the highs blow out a little helps to communicate a feeling of intense sunlight.
    http://craigd.smugmug.com

    Got bored with digital and went back to film.
  • PattiPatti Registered Users Posts: 1,576 Major grins
    edited October 12, 2010
    Another for #2 but just by a hair. The emotion captured is wonderful and indeed they are timeless so I don't mind the sepia. I'd be interested to seem them in B&W.
    The use of a camera is similar to that of a knife. You can use it to peel potatoes, or carve a flute. ~ E. Kahlmeyer
    ... I'm still peeling potatoes.

    patti hinton photography
  • bdcolenbdcolen Registered Users Posts: 3,804 Major grins
    edited October 12, 2010
    lizzard_nyc wrote: »
    :hide
    I know sepia is looked at with disdain here, right up there with selective coloring, but there is something about little league that I think just goes with sepia

    Why?
    bd@bdcolenphoto.com
    "He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan

    "The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
  • lizzard_nyclizzard_nyc Registered Users Posts: 4,056 Major grins
    edited October 12, 2010
    bdcolen wrote: »
    Why?


    Why is it looked down on here in street or why I think little league works with sepia?


    I can't answer the first I just know it to be true.
    As for the second because to me it conjures up a nostalgic feeling (little league does) and so does sepia. I like the timeless quality it gives a shot.

    I'm sure these would work in b&w and then I wouldn't have to worry about how they might be received, but I just had to do it in sepia.
    Liz A.
    _________
  • bdcolenbdcolen Registered Users Posts: 3,804 Major grins
    edited October 12, 2010
    lizzard_nyc wrote: »
    Why is it looked down on here in street or why I think little league works with sepia?


    I can't answer the first I just know it to be true.
    As for the second because to me it conjures up a nostalgic feeling (little league does) and so does sepia. I like the timeless quality it gives a shot.

    I'm sure these would work in b&w and then I wouldn't have to worry about how they might be received, but I just had to do it in sepia.

    Why sepia. It really doesn't give a shot a timeless quality; it gives it a sepia-colored quality. We all know full well that no image produced today is sepia, but rather someone has chosen to color it sepia. I'm a whole lot older than you, and my little league pictures weren't sepia - they were color photos that would be indistinguishable from today's little league photos.

    Just sayin.' :D
    bd@bdcolenphoto.com
    "He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan

    "The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
  • lizzard_nyclizzard_nyc Registered Users Posts: 4,056 Major grins
    edited October 12, 2010
    bdcolen wrote: »
    Why sepia. It really doesn't give a shot a timeless quality; it gives it a sepia-colored quality. We all know full well that no image produced today is sepia, but rather someone has chosen to color it sepia. I'm a whole lot older than you, and my little league pictures weren't sepia - they were color photos that would be indistinguishable from today's little league photos.

    Just sayin.' :D


    I'm not saying I'm right, but in my mind that's what it conveys.
    Makes me think of the era of paper boys selling in street corners.
    Maybe it's what I've seen in old movies and it's what I associate it with.
    I don't think I"m alone in that sepia can convey that emotion of a long ago past, again not saying it's right, but I don't think I'm alone in thinking that.

    i get it, sepia should be saved for daguerrotype portraits. But I just had to give it ago and they do work for me.

    Likely the last time I post in sepia, but for these, well I just had to.
    Liz A.
    _________
  • MarkRMarkR Registered Users Posts: 2,099 Major grins
    edited October 12, 2010
    bdcolen wrote: »
    Why sepia. It really doesn't give a shot a timeless quality; it gives it a sepia-colored quality. We all know full well that no image produced today is sepia, but rather someone has chosen to color it sepia. I'm a whole lot older than you, and my little league pictures weren't sepia - they were color photos that would be indistinguishable from today's little league photos.

    Just sayin.' :D

    All of my growing up pictures are color-- and no digital camera that I know of captures black and white natively. (any in-camera b&w is just post processing a color image.) Should we then eschew black and white? ne_nau.gif.

    Which is to say I think the sepia works fine for this pic.
  • NyarthlopicNyarthlopic Registered Users Posts: 274 Major grins
    edited October 12, 2010
    Honestly, the more I look at these, which I have a LOT, I like the sepia look more and more. It's easy to overdo or use in photos that wouldn't look right with the effect. But I really do think you hit a home run with this one. No pun intended.

    Thank you for sharing these, Liz.
  • FlyingginaFlyinggina Registered Users Posts: 2,639 Major grins
    edited October 14, 2010
    BD - I understand your point. Prints of pictures taken 50 years ago in color look like faded color when you see them today.

    It is an emotional reponse: our response to color - sepia - black and white. Just as much of our response to any "art."

    It is interesting to me that someone as young as Liz and someone as old as I both get a feel of nostalgia from the sepia tint in photos. Perhaps we both have photos of ancestors from the turn of the century that either were produced in sepia or have turned brownish gold with time and that has influenced our feelings about the tint.

    Whatever the reasons, the choice of sepia does evoke something in many viewers. And to me, it is not distracting in much the same way that b&w is not distracting.

    For me it is hard to leave the art out of photography - even that which is posted here. Truth speaks with many voices and shows itself through many tints.

    Virginia
    _______________________________________________
    "A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." Diane Arbus

    Email
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