one from today
lizzard_nyc
Registered Users Posts: 4,056 Major grins
Liz A.
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Virginia
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." Diane Arbus
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The following is purely constructive and technical: Do you really want this very high contrast? If so, that's a fine decision. But it's good to have some different tools in the box.
I recovered just a bit of both highlights and shadows. I don't think it changes the drama and it looks technically "more correct." That doesn't mean better, it just means that it shows it's possible to get more detail in both shadow and highlights without losing the point of the shot. If you do that, then the shot can be more about what it is really about and less about a particular sort of extreme post processing style.
Was this shot with your 5D? If so, there is probably plenty of tonality available in the original. You'll be able to do much better than I did with that as a starting point.
I think that this is like a point about the great abstract artists or free jazz players. These guys could all play it by the book, note-perfect. Jackson Pollock was a classically trained artist; he could have painted perfect realistic paintings. He could make whatever he wanted. But then he was free to choose what to make, because he could make anything.
Maybe I'm full of it...
Thanks Virginia and Jenn--Virginia her cutsey basket reeled me in (I wish you could see more of it, it had beautiful fake cupcakes (i think they were fake) and a big fat fake rat on top. I was just drawn to the weird scene.
Rutt,
Wow-loving the detailed input.
As for the conversion. Extremely bright day and they were sitting under a theatre awning in the shade. I was desperrate to get a detailed look at the girl on the floor, her expression was priceless, but I went too far. I tried to play with it further but kept making it worse. Still don't have a serious workflow. I follow 3 or 4 steps that I always do and then I lose it from there, plus I still use a combo of LR3 and Picnik.
Shot with my oly E620. I have basically gone back to doing street with my olympus. I am extremely comfortable with it for street and since I have been carrying my camera everyday for my 365 project (project 365, life in NYC) I felt better with the Olympus due to it's light weight and my mental inability (so far) to get over the 5d's mammoth size.
However I have been shooting my 5d on the weekends for the slices of life series and anything else. Got a post coming with that too.
I love what both are able to offer, but the low light capability on the 5d makes me act like a kid in a candy store.
Had a dream the other night that I had to get off a shot and I got both my cameras tangled around my neck and couldn't take the shot and was strangling myself to try and get it . Fodder for a therapist I think.
I hope B.D. pops up to speak about the exercise.
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