# 99: C&C Please

Memol

I have a couple of pictures that I like for this challenge, but I was not sure how much post processing is appropriate and if the kind of photos I took are good for the challenge. To my understanding, Rockwell's work is about real life and daily activities. He has some portraits, but most of his work tells us a story about a regular daily activity like people interactions or playing kids. Even I see some white backgrounds in his work, but that seems not to be his only style. There are lots of painting by him with the real backgrounds related to the subject. Those backgrounds gives us the feeling of the location of the action in the subjects and they are part of the story. I noticed that all of his work have some warm tone and antique look. To me to feel his method the picture should look a little like a painting with less details than a photo. There are many painters whose style looks like a perfect photo, but this is not Rockwell's style. I would appreciate it if you could please let me know if I am wrong in any of my assumptions. Here is one of my photos with some post processing and filters, so I appreciate any feedback.

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angevin1

Memol wrote: »

I have a couple of pictures that I like for this challenge, but I was not sure how much post processing is appropriate and if the kind of photos I took are good for the challenge. To my understanding, Rockwell's work is about real life and daily activities. He has some portraits, but most of his work tells us a story about a regular daily activity like people interactions or playing kids. Even I see some white backgrounds in his work, but that seems not to be his only style. There are lots of painting by him with the real backgrounds related to the subject. Those backgrounds gives us the feeling of the location of the action in the subjects and they are part of the story. I noticed that all of his work have some warm tone and antique look. To me to feel his method the picture should look a little like a painting with less details than a photo. There are many painters whose style looks like a perfect photo, but this is not Rockwell's style. I would appreciate it if you could please let me know if I am wrong in any of my assumptions. Here is one of my photos with some post processing and filters, so I appreciate any feedback.

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I think you are right in all of those assumptions! Now, if this is an at home photo, why not set it up to give a bit more storyline to it, as you suggested. This seems like a snapshot. And while RW wanted us to think of his work as a snapshot out of time, they all had some story to them also.

BTW, your processing seems fine!

PedalGirl

Rockwell did all of his work in oil paint and therefore, for my entry possibility I processed to replicate that. I found this article on Rockwell's style very useful in understanding his style: http://www.ehow.com/way_5130151_norman-rockwell-painting-technique.html

I would say the subject you have there is on the right track... but even if you don't want to go for the white background stye, you'll want to simplify the background... his were always pretty simple and flat.

Memol

Thanks for your comments. I liked to have a better set up, but I was not forcing my setup. I tried to setup different scenarios, like a play or specific location, and then I was capturing different angles and gestures. My main subject was my active 2 year son, who is not following any rule, moves a lot, and creates his own pretend play. Even in most of our family pictures he is holding something strange like broom or spray bottle . So even with a setup, all my pictures look like snap shots. I will try to simplify the backgrounds. But meanwhile I wanted to share some more pictures to see if any of those look more suitable. I am not done with their processing though.

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PedalGirl

Maybe #2 ... IMO, the golf shots are too far away to make them the main subject for a Rockwell photo.

Memol

Here is another picture
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Mike Bishop

6 actually looks to be going somewhere. The only thing I don't like about it though is that the mailbox isn't very significant. For some reason it did make me vision the boy playing some serious tug of war with a dog over a damage and torn newspaper.

travelways

I agree with PedalGirl.

#6 is indeed the closest to the style - it needs some cropping though, IMO

Memol

Thanks for your comments. Mike, I cannot get your comment. By mailbox, do you mean that the mailbox itself does not look good or I need to do some processing to make it more substantial. Also I don't get the dog part.
Should I cut more from the background or should I crop from mailbox too.
What do you feel about background? I make it blur and increased the highlights. I had a nice blue sky and the gray road in the beginning.

Memol

Here I edited number 6 trying to make the mailbox more significant. Am I in the right direction?
I also have 2 more choices.
Unfortunately I cannot upload. The Smugmug has problem

angevin1

Memol wrote: »

Here I edited number 6 trying to make the mailbox more significant. Am I in the right direction?
I also have 2 more choices.
Unfortunately I cannot upload. The Smugmug has problem

You're more than in the right direction! 6 is easily the best because you did isolate the subject from the background for one thing...and the processing is divine. Why not create a scene whereby you give him something to mail and you or someone is next to the mailbox er something along that line. Story often comes to you with brainstorming. Since he is a willing pretender you could also play a game of pretend to create your scene!

Memol

Thanks, here is a new edit
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Memol

I think the story of mailing in nice, but here the story was that he was trying hard to open the mailbox to check if we have any mails. He likes this game as he thinks he helps us to take the mails out of the mailbox. He tried so hard to reach it and open it, but he was not successful. After that he gave up...

red_zone

I really like your edited #6... that one jumped out at me when scrolling through your other options - it conveys a story, of someone who's really excited about something coming in the mail that they want to go check!

Personally I think the original crop combined with some of the editing you did to get to the second shot would work best - everything seems very close to the borders in your revised version, but the editing (esp. changing the mailbox color!) worked well in emphasizing the subject.