My Peace

4labs4labs Registered Users Posts: 2,089 Major grins
edited December 14, 2005 in The Dgrin Challenges
.48153317-M.jpg

Comments

  • wholenewlightwholenewlight Registered Users Posts: 1,529 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    what a cutie . . . and you captured the elusive nocturnal grin.

    B&W a real winner on this shot too.
    john w
    http://cspics.smugmug.com/

    I knew, of course, that trees and plants had roots, stems, bark, branches and foliage that reached up toward the light. But I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself.
    Edward Steichen

  • Fred MaurerFred Maurer Registered Users Posts: 131 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    What a smile, wonderful shot! Don't you wish you knew what they were thinking!
  • MitchellMitchell Registered Users Posts: 3,503 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    Eric,

    One of your best shots of our favorite subject (Samanthas)!

    Perhaps a tighter crop on the left and a little more headroom. Do you have it in the original?
    Mitch
    http://clearwaterphotography.smugmug.com/
  • ginger_55ginger_55 Registered Users Posts: 8,416 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    Who am I to say, but, uh, I think you can do better.

    I have thought some about this challenge. Kids are a definite plus here, the younger the better. So you have that.

    I think light is a good one, too. Streaming light, well, I would kill for it, but I can't wait around, and I don't have a place for it to stream through anyway.

    I just think I would try some more if I were you, because to me that is one of the few smiles that looks like gas. I would have a more tranquil baby, mother and child, etc. and/or............if you could add a ray of light, well, go for it.

    but, who am I to say, as I said.

    Hey, I found the greatest blog place, I am playing with it.

    ginger
    After all is said and done, it is the sweet tea.
  • wholenewlightwholenewlight Registered Users Posts: 1,529 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    Fred Maurer wrote:
    Don't you wish you knew what they were thinking!

    thinking . . ."daddy's going to love what I just did in my pants"!

    thumb.gif
    john w
    http://cspics.smugmug.com/

    I knew, of course, that trees and plants had roots, stems, bark, branches and foliage that reached up toward the light. But I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself.
    Edward Steichen

  • 4labs4labs Registered Users Posts: 2,089 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    Mitchell wrote:
    Eric,

    One of your best shots of our favorite subject (Samanthas)!

    Perhaps a tighter crop on the left and a little more headroom. Do you have it in the original?
    Thnxs Mitchell.. It was hard to leave more head room because the light was too brite. Here is one other version, neither are cropped.
    48155910-M.jpg
  • 4labs4labs Registered Users Posts: 2,089 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    ginger_55 wrote:
    Who am I to say, but, uh, I think you can do better.

    I have thought some about this challenge. Kids are a definite plus here, the younger the better. So you have that.

    I think light is a good one, too. Streaming light, well, I would kill for it, but I can't wait around, and I don't have a place for it to stream through anyway.

    I just think I would try some more if I were you, because to me that is one of the few smiles that looks like gas. I would have a more tranquil baby, mother and child, etc. and/or............if you could add a ray of light, well, go for it.

    but, who am I to say, as I said.


    Ginger thnxs for your honesty. Trust me when I say when Sam has gas she isn't smiling...I wish I had time between renovating my house and the baby to think about the challenge. I just read the first definition of peace "a state of tranqility and quiet " after I had taken this photo and thought why not. I look foward to seeing what you come up with.1drink.gif
  • 4labs4labs Registered Users Posts: 2,089 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    rolleyes1.gifYou are probably right
    wholenewlight wrote:
    thinking . . ."daddy's going to love what I just did in my pants"!

    thumb.gif
  • ruttrutt Registered Users Posts: 6,511 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    The B&W conversion would be better with a true deep shadow. Do you think you have that?

    Well, maybe it seems like peace now, but just you wait until she is a teenager, then you can weigh in.

    Personally, I have found that parenthood is worry, for the most part. Don't get me wrong, I love my children to distraction. If I didn't I don't suppose I would worry about them so much. What I know is that from the time my wife and I raced into NYC to deliver our oldest until now, my general level of worry has been about 100x what it was when I was childless. Also my love and satisfaction level. But peace? Maybe for them. Oh yeah, and I guess when they were asleep and young it seemed peaceful by comparison to when they were awake.

    Peace is something that happens when nations decide not to have war, something that Buddhists struggle to attain, and what you rest in when you are dead. Not something I assiciate with babies or children of any age.

    [I must have caught that from Scrooge McDuck.]
    If not now, when?
  • 4labs4labs Registered Users Posts: 2,089 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    rutt wrote:
    The B&W conversion would be better with a true deep shadow. Do you think you have that?

    Well, maybe it seems like peace now, but just you wait until she is a teenager, then you can weigh in.

    Personally, I have found that parenthood is worry, for the most part. Don't get me wrong, I love my children to distraction. If I didn't I don't suppose I would worry about them so much. What I know is that from the time my wife and I raced into NYC to deliver our oldest until now, my general level of worry has been about 100x what it was when I was childless. Also my love and satisfaction level. But peace? Maybe for them. Oh yeah, and I guess when they were asleep and young it seemed peaceful by comparison to when they were awake.

    Peace is something that happens when nations decide not to have war, something that Buddhists struggle to attain, and what you rest in when you are dead. Not something I assiciate with babies or children of any age.

    [I must have caught that from Scrooge McDuck.]
    When I look at my child I have true inner peace Rutt I am sure I will worry more when she gets older but right now she has been all that is missing in what otherwise is a great life I have...I would have loved to have something really dark to offset the baby and the bouncy seat she is on.. Feel free to play with it..I'd like to see what you mean..

    Is this better?

    48162371-M.jpg
  • ruttrutt Registered Users Posts: 6,511 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    I will be happy to play, but it will be much better play if I can start with a full sized original color image.

    As to parenthood, well you must be a very differnt person than I am.
    If not now, when?
  • 4labs4labs Registered Users Posts: 2,089 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    rutt wrote:
    I will be happy to play, but it will be much better play if I can start with a full sized original color image.

    As to parenthood, well you must be a very differnt person than I am.
    I am a work in progress.. I am sure I will be constantly reevaluating my feelings as she gets older...
  • ginger_55ginger_55 Registered Users Posts: 8,416 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    Labs, I think your second one is better, and the color is fine to great, IMO.

    Rutt, it is not that children are peaceful, nor that they add to our peace, it is the perception that they are innocent, thereby somehow a personification of peace, when they appear at Peace.

    Labs................I can tell you my easy way out so everyone else can do it. I don't have the time nor the the babies, etc, wars, ceasefires, cute signs, to really work this. So I have been told where some graffitti is. If I get to it, it is clear across town, my timing will not be optimal...........I am just kind of saying that I don't plan on coming up with the optimal photo.

    I would love to see an abstract one, like that light thru the hole in New Mexico type "rocks".

    Rutt, you thought immediately what I thought. That I think of peace in context of what is not happening...........and that can be difficult to portray.

    That was last night. Then I thought well, I am going to that ballet thing, perhaps I can blur a quiet moment, between leaps and/or children.

    I mean to say Labs, you have a better chance, this is not going to be my shining glory, not unless there is a miracle. And if there were it would probably not be politically correct, huge smile, so............

    g
    After all is said and done, it is the sweet tea.
  • ruttrutt Registered Users Posts: 6,511 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    4labs wrote:
    Is this better?

    48162371-M.jpg

    What are you after? Do you really want B&W or some duotone? Do you want more detail in her face (I would.) What about that blown area? Want to try to recover some detail there, or is it part of what you are trying to convey?
    If not now, when?
  • ginger_55ginger_55 Registered Users Posts: 8,416 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    A lion and a lamb would be good. I think I could scare up the lamb, but the lion would be a challenge.

    Also I fully expect someone to come up with a cute puppy and kitty sleeping together, huge smile!

    I would not expect that from me. My dogs are not at peace with my cat who is terrified of them and refusing to leave her upstairs existence.

    I am running into so many older people who are divorcing, thinking of divorcing, etc, I also think a photo of two older people sitting quietly together on a quaint wrap around porch. Or variations there of, I think those would be good.

    ginger
    After all is said and done, it is the sweet tea.
  • 4labs4labs Registered Users Posts: 2,089 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    rutt wrote:
    What are you after? Do you really want B&W or some duotone? Do you want more detail in her face (I would.) What about that blown area? Want to try to recover some detail there, or is it part of what you are trying to convey?
    Unfortunately because I have 8000 shots of the same smile in the same chair I deleted the original file. I didn't like the original color because the clash of colors between the baby's clothes and seat wasn't pleasing and I found the black and white more apealing. I am not recording any blown areas. To convert I use imagine factory Bw conversion and than ran a PS sepia filter over it. I guess this photo doesn't convey what I feel when I see my child but it will do for my family album..
  • FlyingginaFlyinggina Registered Users Posts: 2,639 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    You have a beautiful picture of an adorable child. Sam is a very lucky baby.

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

    Email
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    I love the original just the way it is.

    OK, yeah, I wish there was a TOUCH more headroom, the tangent of the head with the edge of the frame...

    But it's minor. Beautiful. Nice conversion, lovely depth of field. I get what Rutt's saying about the blacks, but what you did at first works for me very nicely. Lovely shot.

    Enjoy every moment.
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
  • ruttrutt Registered Users Posts: 6,511 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    This will give you an idea of what's bugging me about the post processing of this image. I did this starting with your initial version:

    48167866-O.jpg

    Look, this has problems mostly because starting with a low res version already B&W converted is suboptimal. But here are the things to notice.
    1. That sepia isn't doing you any favors. It's too subtle. If you are going to use it, you have to use enough of it to make it obvious, else it just looks like a bad B&W conversion, where the black isn't really black. And even so, good duotones still have white highlights and black shadows, IMHO. I don't know how to do this, but there is a description in Dan Margulis' LAB book that might get you started.
    2. The right cheek isn't exatly blown, but you seem to have lost quite a bit if detail when you did the B&W conversion. I recovered with shadow/highlight and then blending back. But a good B&W conversion wouldn't have presented the problem in the first place. Look at the channels in the original. Chances are the green channel is a better B&W than you ended up with. Look at the blue as well. Then look at the red. Odds are you don't want ANY "help" from that red channel.
    If not now, when?
  • gusgus Registered Users Posts: 16,209 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    4labs wrote:
    .48153317-M.jpg
    Thats a great photo. thumb.gif What a cutie !
  • MotoKatMotoKat Registered Users Posts: 106 Major grins
    edited December 13, 2005
    Humungus wrote:
    Thats a great photo. thumb.gif What a cutie !
    I agree. Who cares about gas/no gas war/no war. It's a moment where one is silent - no violence no agition - just peace.
  • 4labs4labs Registered Users Posts: 2,089 Major grins
    edited December 14, 2005
    Thnxs Gus, Moto, Virginia.. I apreciate your comments.
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