Hello and welcome to another month’s critique.  This month’s photo comes from Lynne Daley who mentions, “I came to serious photography a bit later in life than most photographers as I was busy with my family, but my camera is my constant companion now. I live in Georgia and shoot mostly food and food related photographs which I publish to my blog, Cafe Lynnylu”

Wormsloe4

While food is her main area of interest, I was struck by the photo above.  It’s a combination of two photographs, a process Jim mentions below as the Orton Effect.  Here is her description of how the shot was created, “The oak lined avenue leading to the tabby ruins of  the home of Noble Jones, a physician who came to settle Georgia along with James Oglethorpe in 1733. The photo is actually two digital photos sandwiched together, one shot at f/22, +2 stops over, the second one is shot at the widest aperture on the lens at +1 stop over and defocused.  Then sandwiched together for the final photo. It takes some practice to get the effect desired.”

Helen Brady

This photo is a spectacular example of a technique that is made so much easier to achieve nowadays with the advent of digital photography and Photoshop. However, as good as our tools are, you still need to be a crack photographer to nail the images to use to create the effect. Lynne has done just that. Her choice of subject for this image is a great one and it really lends itself to an ethereal presentation like this. From the darker skies at the top of the image to the light road surface we’re invited to look into this scene to explore it further.

The image would be more compelling still if captured with a person on the path in front of us. However, that said, it really is a great composition – well done Lynne!

Barrie Smith

Fascinating, painterly. This sort of image blurs the line between oils and digital. Beautiful. No, go back and shoot it again with an 18th century figure strolling through it.

Peter Carey

I’ve already stated in the introduction how I was struck by this photo.  Normally I’m not a fan of much photo manipulation as I like to see the world as it is.  But I really like what Lynne has done to take this scene to enhance it in a manner that has been used in the darkroom before the advent of computers.  The outcome of the process reduces the image into three main colors that I believe does it wonders.

For me the image is a mix between the dark greens and sense of foreboding amongst the trees and the light and hope that comes through in the path.  Good use of the Rule of Thirds keeps me from being distracted while letting the imagery take me on a short journey.

Jim Goldstein

Lynne this is a great example of how the Orton effect can be applied to a scene to create an ethereal atmosphere. This particular scene works very well with this effect. The degree to which this photo is burned to darken highlights disrupts the flow of the image for my eye. While I understand why this was done to create additional contrast and to focus my eye on the path to follow into the scene it doesn’t sit right with me. The path by comparison seems too bright and the areas darkened lose their natural tonal range. Of course these observations are made looking at a larger version of your photo. At a smaller resolution these things are far less noticeable. The degree of color saturation and composition are very appealing. You definitely have a great eye and chose your subject wisely for this effect. A little more experimenting on the post-processing and I think you’ll have a winning image to present for larger presentation.

What do you think of this image?

Let us know what you think about the image above. What do you like about it and how would you improve upon it? Looking forward to some constructive critique!

NOTE: If you are looking for a single image process for creating such an image, Helen has an article on DPS – The Orton Effect: Mimicking darkroom processes in Photoshop.  I will also be publishing an article in the following days for producing this type of image using two photographs as Lynne did here.

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