What’s Your Preference?

Dazyl · #1 (**permalink**) 05-20-2007, 05:11 PM

On my back garden fence hangs a slowly-decaying piece of plaster art. The more it chips and erodes, the more interesting I find it. Unfortunately, I'm having problems photographing it to my satisfaction.

After many many shots from different angles at various times of day, this is the best I've been able to capture. Thoughts?

clockdoc · #2 (**permalink**) 05-20-2007, 05:36 PM

Hi,
The first thing I did was to try and find some of your other shots of this plaster art for comparison. I didn't find any but in reviewing some of your work, I was very impressed with its quality! You have an excellent eye for composition and use of color.
Personally, I cannot add any suggestions that would improve on what you have offered here. You have held good shadow and highlight detail and the subtle colors only strengthen the image. Even in its decayed state, the artwork still offeres beauty to the viewer. Thanks for sharing this image with us.

Dazyl · #3 (**permalink**) 05-20-2007, 07:15 PM

Thanks very much for the nice comment, clockdoc! You're right in that the other photos of the Sun/Moon aren't up there. They're all on my harddrive -- probably 50 or 75 of them. LOL!!!!!

I'm not sure what it is I'm after, actually, with this shot -- which is no doubt compounding my problem.

knickers71uk · #4 (**permalink**) 05-20-2007, 07:39 PM

D you sound like me I have about 80- shots of frogs but only about 6 of them I was happy with, I am very critical of my own work lol

But I like it, what you have done, reminds me of the green man for some reason (being pagan seen a lot of them).

But i like the way its composed, have you tried different effects like sepai aging etc top see if that was the look you had in your head.

edited: I realised what it was!!! the colours remind me of mexican artwork and stuff I felt that the age of it was great but like i wanted to see more colour. I hope you dont mind but I had a play with it, obviously it might not be what you were after but who knows it might be...

I basically lightened it, cos the next bit can overdarken, so you lighten to start with, Duplicated the layer added a gausian blur of 22.5 (lower the number the stronger the colour and effect it gives) then once the blur was added to the duplicated layer, i overlayed it. this is an effect i saw for woodland in a photo magazine , its a photoshop tip which i converted for paintshop pro X. Might not b what you wanted but thought i would give it a try

Dazyl · #5 (**permalink**) 05-20-2007, 08:19 PM

That's exactly what this is: Mexican plaster art. You're right!

And I like what you've done with it very much. I'm going to have to study on it and see if I can duplicate what you accomplished. I think you've found my path.

knickers71uk · #6 (**permalink**) 05-20-2007, 09:14 PM

i'm glad i helped!!!

Dazyl · #7 (**permalink**) 07-17-2007, 01:57 PM

Still trying to do something interesting with this sun. After reading the blogpost on zooming, I decided this might be a good subject.

Kinda different, yes?

Teewinot · #8 (**permalink**) 07-17-2007, 03:05 PM

ooooo...I like it! Great rainbow colors. Very cool! Is this a new shot or a post-processing effect? Either way, care to describe what you did?

My only suggestion is to include all the sun's outer circle in your crop...it is cut off on the top right now...

Thanks for sharing!

Dazyl · #9 (**permalink**) 07-17-2007, 03:23 PM

Teewinot -- thanks for your response! How funny that I was so focused on the results of the technique, I didn't even notice that my focal point was a bit too low and cut off the top! I'll have to go shoot again and get it right...

This is a new shot, taken yesterday evening. I had to wait until evening so I could get the shutter speed slowed down. (I wanted at least a second.)

Set on tripod, steadied as much as I could (tightened everything down, mostly). Lowered the aperture all the way (for the focal length), released shutter. While the shutter was open, I zoomed (both in and out -- I took a number of shots...)

It was fairly difficult for me to keep a steady zoom and camera. I'll try again for a full subject (

) with a different lens this evening, I think.

Teewinot · #10 (**permalink**) 07-17-2007, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dazyl

Set on tripod, steadied as much as I could (tightened everything down, mostly). Lowered the aperture all the way (for the focal length), released shutter. While the shutter was open, I zoomed (both in and out -- I took a number of shots...)

It was fairly difficult for me to keep a steady zoom and camera. I'll try again for a full subject (

) with a different lens this evening, I think.

Wow...sounds hard! You did well, however...

Thanks for sharing your technique...I'm inspired to try!