Some curvy possibilities (3)

richtersl · June 1, 2007

Finally got a chance to get out and take some photos of curvy possibilities. Do any of these work?

Winding Road #1

Winding Road #2

Water Wheel

Nikolai · June 1, 2007

Linda,

richtersl wrote:

Finally got a chance to get out and take some photos of curvy possibilities. Do any of these work?

Winding Road #1
Winding Road #2
Water Wheel

All are very nice shots!

Unfortunately, the first two are not curvy enough, and the third one says "round", not "curvy"

HTH

LiquidAir · June 1, 2007

I like the first the best of the set, and pesonally I think it does get the message across. While it doesn't show a lot of curves, I don't have any trouble extrapolating to see what the rest of the road probably looks like. That said, I don't think it really grabs me and draws me in. Maybe a person walking on the road would help.

Tessa HD · June 1, 2007

I think #1 is an absolutely lovely shot. I love so many elements in it. The lighting, and shadows, the fence and stone wall, winding road, I could go on. As far as the challenge goes, I really don't know what to say. If it were ME, I'd hold on to it as a strong possibility and keep shooting to see if anything else happens to be stronger. If not, I'd enter it. I have one TINY suggestion. There's a little purple fringe in the tree tops on the right. I read once how to fix that. Let me know if you don't already know how.

Though #2 isn't as interesting as #1, I like how the curvy road was shadowed in the foreground and lighter in the b/g, which drew me right in to follow it.

You're way ahead of me, I better get rollin'.

Tessa

richtersl · June 2, 2007

Thanks, everyone! I guess it's back to the drawing board for me!

Thanks for pointing out the purple fringing, Tessa!

If I remember correctly, removing that just involves desaturating the magentas using a Hue/Saturation Layer, right?

BistiArt · June 2, 2007

Stumped

Nikolai wrote:

All are very nice shots!

Nik,

A seeming digression - how do I successfully upload 3 mods of Linda's LPS6 in the same reply? Can it be done without cluttering up my own galleries?

A simple attachment from my HD limits me to 1...

TIA

Tessa HD · June 2, 2007

yup! I just bought a Sony H9 and I noticed on some shot I had quite a bit of pf, way more than i've gotten on my r1.

Tessa

Nikolai · June 2, 2007

Joe,

BistiArt wrote:

Nik,
A seeming digression - how do I successfully upload 3 mods of Linda's LPS6 in the same reply? Can it be done without cluttering up my own galleries?
A simple attachment from my HD limits me to 1...
TIA

Few options:

Use 3 consecutive replies with 1 attachment in each
Upload them to an otherwise hidden gallery (that's what I do most of the time) and link as many as you want in one post.

HTH

BistiArt · June 2, 2007

'You da man?'

Nikolai wrote:

Few options:

OK, looks like the 2nd is simpler...

Thanks Nik, is there a Russian saying similar to 'You da man?'

BistiArt · June 2, 2007

Ah, Colonial Life

richtersl wrote:

Do any of these work?

Forgive me for the repetition, but I wanted the images to show...

Linda,

With ancestors from North Georgia, I have ancient memories of tree covered forest roads, point bridges, and in gorgeous green landscapes I don't generally have access to now. You're images evoke a response and I thought perhaps if I played with them, other fond memories might flood back as well.

Your first image has a couple of elements which lose control of my eye. So, I decided on a little bit with cropping, then just the merest amount of blending and saturation… I wanted to bring out the red underneath the trees and slightly desaturate the green.
The result is shown below; it suggests a vertical pose for that S-curve would certainly accentuate the subtle nature of that curve.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the unsharp foreground is a distraction...

2717955#158688814-M.jpg

I had little trouble with the second image other than the ground to the left of the big tree was pulling my eye away. After I cut it out and slightly screened (lightened) the tree, so it wasn't such a massive black splurch, here's the result.

2717955#158688816-M.jpg

Water wheels, the pulse of Colonial life...
From the very beginning, the soft, shadowed wall leading into the axis of the waterwheel was distracting. If I remove that wall, then I can pop the waterwheel and it's subtle, yet intriguing reflection in the window pane. Then, if I blend down the spokes, and slightly darken (multiply) behind the waterwheel, when I saturate red slightly, the waterwheel comes out in an elegant fashion.
All told, photo shopping took about 15 minutes- words took longer.

2717955#158688822-M.jpg

Linda, I hope you don't feel I'm presumptive. I just found intrigue and some satisfaction from playing with old memories and new ideas!

richtersl · June 2, 2007

Oh my goodness!
Joe,

Thank you! :sweet You didn't need to go through all that trouble. It's amazing what a difference a crop makes. :wow

I originally went to the mill to take a shot of the water wheel for this LPS. Then, as long as I was there, I thought I'd take some shots of the roads nearby. I have shots of that water wheel from several angles. Your suggestions did give more life to that wheel and I thank you for that. I hemmed and hawed about cropping the stone fence on the right of it. In the end I decided to leave it in rather than obsess over it.

I added a Gaussian blur to #1 in post processing, which is probably why the foreground looked unsharp to you. I should have made the blur heavier, perhaps, or just not used it.

#2 was a wildcard. I wasn't sure about it but I thought I'd keep it on hand as a possibility. Looking at it again today, I should probably eliminate it.

That location is only about 3 miles from my house and I think I should be able to convince my husband to come with me for a walk there this week and to bring the dog. This way, as per LiquidAir's suggestion, I'd have a point of interest along the road.

Good thing I have another week to go!

BistiArt · June 3, 2007

well, perhaps we have #1 settled

richtersl wrote:

Joe,

Thank you! :sweet You didn't need to go through all that trouble. It's amazing what a difference a crop makes. :wow

Linda,

When Marc Muench started his artist-in-residence position, somebody put a photo up and he did roughly the same thing, a hasty implementation of some short Photoshop steps and that photo really snapped. He gave me some insight and it improved my perceptions and PS workflow.
And like I said, it was no trouble because there were so many memories that juiced up because you put those shots up.

Yep, I think the blur may have overdone it on the first shot because when I was done, using the vertical format, that was the only rub. So why not leave the blur out?

And yes, it's always a good thing to have another week to go...

Keep up the good work!
BTW, where were the shots taken?

... hey Nik, how do I get those shots to appear on screen?

richtersl · June 3, 2007

BistiArt wrote:

BTW, where were the shots taken?

They were taken at a place called Cuttalossa Farm here in eastern Pennsylvania. It's located on Cuttalossa Road, stangely enough.

The place has an absolutely magical quality to it and is frequently visited by photographers and artists. Sadly, parts of it were recently damaged by a flood. :cry The farm is located in a valley and the creek that runs through it overflowed its banks thanks to poor storm water drainage from homes that were recently built in the hills above it.

photogmomma · June 3, 2007

BistiArt wrote:

... hey Nik, how do I get those shots to appear on screen?

The easiest way that I use is to right click on the photo and select "properties" in SM. Double click and copy the URL you see there - it'll have a .JPG extension (most likely).

Then come back over here and create a new post - click on the yellow botton in the tool bar with the mountain and sun - and paste the URL there. You can then add as many photos as you'd like (within reason, of course!).

For more info, click here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=117

HTH!

Nice redos!

BistiArt · June 3, 2007

MORE Help, Please

photogmomma wrote:

Nice redos!

Thanks for the comment on the redos - unfortunately Sunday seems to be dense day...

I would appreciate some more help... I would like the images to appear in the revised version by simply editing the reply, then submitting, but do not appear to know how to get that simple task done.

richtersl · June 3, 2007

My own re-dos.
Hey Joe,

All you have to do edit the reply, place the cursor where you want to insert the picture, click the Insert Image icon, paste or type the image URL in the prompt, and then click OK. I'm kind of glad you didn't have this figured out yet because I wanted to redo those photos on my own without having the wonderful "re-dos" you did as a reference. I removed the blur and tried a difference crop on the one. And, I used a different photo for the water wheel.

As soon as the weather clears up -- it's been raining all weekend -- I'll be able to head out again for a re-shoot.

#1 - Different crop, removed Gaussian blur, saturated reds and yellows

#2 - Different photo, different angle. Dodged window area behind wheel to bring out shadows, saturated reds and yellows.

photogmomma · June 4, 2007

Linda, #1 in the last series is gorgeous! I love the water wheel, but it's round to me - not curvy. But the road is gorgeous!!

Nikolai · June 4, 2007

OK, I give up!
I *love* #1

richtersl · June 4, 2007

Thanks Andi and Nikolai.

And I have to thank Joe again for helping me see the details better.

Strange, I keep seeing the partial water wheel as an arc or curve --a complete or even 3/4 of a wheel would be round to me. But, if others interpreting it as round, the judges may also interpret it that way.

This is why soliciting comments is a good thing!

Once this rainy weather breaks I think I'm still going to try a reshoot, though. It's Monday and it's still raining. I'm off all week from work, too. Figures!

pemmett · June 4, 2007

I stared at #1 for ages trying to see what was wrong with and found... nothing. I love it. If only there was a mystical beam of light coming through the trees - it has that kind of "mystical peace" about it. Great Job.

I think that th problem with #3 is that people know what it is and think "Oh that's a nice water wheel" (then subconsciously they go "wheels are round not curvey":D)

From what I can see, it looks like you have some amazing places to photograph. Have a great week shooting.

Some curvy possibilities (3)

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