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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:127263} 3/16/2007
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Hi Andre!
I understand. So you used a dark border too for enhancing the result of your work without too much alteration of the image itself. Well, indeed, not only the image itself, but also its presentation does support the mood it might create.
Cheers,
Nick
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 3/15/2007
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Hi Nick,
I think you are right about the mood change brought about by my alteration. Yours has a lighter feel to it throughout. Also the fact that I put a heavy dark border on it helps to set up that feeling. I was hoping to get a bit more "glow" or "halo" effect around the leaves, but I didn't want to mess with it too much and take away the original look. It is a very nice shot that stands well on it's own and doesn't really need any alteration.
Andre
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:127263} 3/15/2007
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Hi Andre, and many many thanks for your work with it in PS. It doesn't look digitally altered at all but rather just if it was captured with a but of underexposure and lazy focus. This is another very good example of digital alteration without digital exaggeration, and as we see it does provide a very different mood. It keeps the silence but removes much of the light, as you already said, and so the image has now a bit of a more melancholic tone. The solitude goes more in the somewhat more thoughtful direction, while it had a more joyful character on the original image. And while on the original image, one may get the impression that there is much life and activity somewhere between the branches and the leaves, on your altered version there is rather the impression of that kind of peace that one can find in a cemetery. A very strong work that you did by keeping it in the range of a real capture and still changing its mood!
So we see that the strength of applied effects/filters/whatsoever is not necessarily proportional to the achieved strength of some mood. Actually, most of the time quite the opposite happens. Using such alterations to the endth degree is like destroying any possible subtle mood and replacing it with some undefinable sea of colors and shapes.
Thank you very much for making it feel so different!
Nick
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 3/15/2007
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Hi Nick,
Well, I tried doing some versions of this image with the same method that I used for some of my marsh shots. The bottom line is, I don't think I've made any improvements :) As a matter of fact, I may have even contradicted myself by going too bold on the colour. My intention was to blend in a blurred layer of the same image to see if I could create a kind of halo effect to make the leaves even more lumenescent. Unfortunately, this didn't work out quite as well as I thought it might. Actually what I ended up with is not very far away from what you already posted:)
I may have made the blacks a bit richer at the expense of some of the subtle detail.
Anyway take a look and see what you think.
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:127263} 3/14/2007
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Hi Andre.
Of course you can try some digital alteration on this (or any other you might like to). I look forward to seeing the results!
I could only say "Amen" to your short but clear explanation about the macro as you touched one of its most special points, the search for the extraordinary perspective, which is the reason for photographers to take some rather unorthodox positions around their object. Ouch, my back! ;-)
I would only add the fight for the last mm of DoF when the main object extends to the depth considerably. Which brings new difficulties when the aperture has to be closed and thus the exposure has to be made longer under such an unorthodox position where most of the time one can't use the tripod. This way the next thing to macro photography seems to be... yoga! ;-)
But all this is really worth the efforts for a nice macro. One that really *defines* something that otherwise remains rather invisible.
Best wishes,
Nick
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 3/13/2007
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Hi Nick,
This one probably would be a good candidate for some digital alteration. You might not like the results any better. But who knows?
I can try one on this if you like?
About the "simple grass" providing mystery... that is so true. It is the reason why Macro shots are so effective. When a shot is taken in Macro, it is all perfectly natural, but shot from close-up and at perspectives not normally seen by the human eye. Colours and details that normally don't get attention become like alien landscapes. And, this can all be done without any "special effect" digital alteration.
Andre
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:127263} 3/12/2007
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Yes, now that you say, I see much better, Andre! The highlights do demand such a closer crop, as they get more "feelable" then. I wonder now what such a photo might look like, if altered in the subtle way you used for enhancing the shine of the contours.
As about "supernatural", well, the word alone sounds like a contradiction in itself. Nature *is* what it *is*, and anything tha happens is quite as natural as the fly on my wall. So what is the use of "enhancing" nature to the levels of the nonexisting supernatural? Perhaps the mania of our days to communicate something "deeply mysterious", to which nature had always the greatest opposition since it never worked using "mysteries". I think a simple view of some grass is way more meaningful than some impossible colors and the similar. Of course in case we do still know what grass is! ;-)
Keep well,
Nick
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Andre Denis
{K:66407} 3/11/2007
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Hi Nick, I think the closer crop of this one works a little better than the other one in the series.
The softness of the birch tree (dof) with the highlights on one side, along with the bright highlights throughout all combine to give the image that subtle magical feel that you were talking about when you were describing one of my experiments in the marsh. As you commented to me, it is best to not be overbearing with the effects, but just a slight alteration can be very nice.
Natural without being "supernatural"
Andre
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Nick Karagiaouroglou
{K:127263} 3/11/2007
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Mucho agradece por el comentario agradable, Gustavo!
Nick
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Gustavo Scheverin
{K:164501} 3/11/2007
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Bonitos colores otoņales.
Felicitaciones!
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