Lay it on me nice and thick

[dooda]

I took a few pics recently and some were sort of experimental. I'd like your thoughts as I find I don't get a very objective view of my own pics. They all seem good to me, albeit a little strange.

I thought to try an overexposure. I know I know, artsy, it's really artsy of me. What do you think? Be honest.



I've taken a real liking to Michael Kenna lately and find myself taking a lot of these pics. I know I'm not quite there, but be brutal with me, is it any good?



I've always loved taking these photos of roots, but never really understood how to treat them in PP. Here I waited for the subtle light of post sunset and shot a couple different ones. This scene seemed to work out well. Any improvements of composition or anything? Lay it on me.



This one's best viewed large. Hope these aren't too big for anyone.

Finally, I've been working on a series about poles and wires. Here is a pretty good one. Is it too Grey? Is this post way too long? Maybe I should have cut it down a tad.

[rokkstar]

Dooda,

Firstly, I've jsut spent the last 30 mins going through your site looking at your shots which are marvellous. You have some absolute gems on there.

Secondly, I like the second shot, I love michael kenna too. I'm not too keen on the OE first one though I'm afraid.

I would perhaps crop the final one a bit - making it a little wider (if you know what i mean) .

Good stuff

[gleff]

I'm not sure why, but looking at the first shot makes me thirsty

Personally, the top right hand side is too overexposed for my liking, but perhaps doing some 'shadow and highlights' adjustment in PS may improve it.

I really like the last shot with the railroad tracks though.. really well composed.

Geoff

[dooda]

Thanks Rokkstar. I'm glad you took the time to check out some of my stuff. I also appreciate the crit. The last crop, you mean crop the bottom out some? I sort of kept it in because I liked the sand that turned into the railway track, do you think I should get this shot in horizontal?

[rokkstar]

I think it works well in portrait but i was just thinking that it might look nice with the horizontal aspects of the shot horizontal.
i.e. the wires and tracks wider.
But, looking back at it I'm not sure it would work.
The lines all converge nicely in it as it is.

[robboh]

I like these Dooda.

Maybe you could try an 'Ansel Adams effect' treatment to the last one that I have in a book here.

Do an adjustment layer - channel mixer. set the output to Gray. Start with Red @160, Green @140, Blue @-200 (they should add up to around 100%) and then play from there. See what ya think?

[Greg B]

Nice work dooda.

#1 - I like the OE look, I think it gives an interesting quality. The top right corner is completely blown, but I don't think it matters too much here.

#2 - not so keen on this one. Don't know Michael Kenna, but I'll check him out.

#3 - Love this one, it has that intense BW detail, particularly around the roots of the tree, that bring back memories of the Zone system, Adams et al

#4 - Love this one too, could be from the southern states of the USA c.1930. The greyness complements the mood I think

Good stuff

[leek]

Nice shots Dave,

Not so keen on the blown sky in #1, but the rest of the shot is nice...
#2 is appealing, but there's something distracting in the middle distance there...

I love #3 & #4 and would have them hanging on my wall...

Can you let me know how you did the B&W processing for #3??? It looks great.

[dooda]

I do most of the work in the rw plugin. I desaturate and move the contrast slider fairly high, 70-100 or so. Then I go to the color saturation sliders, and I find that in nature, there seems to be a lot of blue, and working the blue slider seems to bring out a lot of contrast. The red does too to an extent, and I work them all in turn until I have it right.

After the plugin I go to adj layers hue and saturation. Tic the colorize box and give it a little bit of color. Generally the saturation between 4-10, 5 or 6 usually, and the color depends, usually a little red or yellow.

Thanks for the comments everyone. I was particularly curious about the blown pic. I might play with the technique a little and see what I can get with this. Might be on to something.

[wendellt]

Hi Dooda

Excellent work
number 1. Looks intentionally overposed which gives it a surreal look, although i agree with 'leek' the blown sky makes you think the scene is much bigger but it also detracts from what is happening at the bottom of the picture

3. Ansel Adams would grin, You should publish or frame this. Would have looked cool if you could have caught a reflectin of yourself in the water.

4. The distant mountains look sunlit but the foreground is flat, this is a nice balance but maybe it would look better cropped so the mountain in the background does not look so far away this is the most interesting part of the picture. The train lines and power cables marry the foreground with the distant mountain, well spotted and executed very well.

[dooda]

Roboh, funny, I did what you said and it came out exactly like the old one, but looked very different from the one posted on this thread. It must have gotten washed on on the upload. I thought I had that all worked out, but I've forgotten what color codes I had it set to. Crap.

Thanks for the comment wendelt. I 'm thinking of going back there when the sun is setting on the entire frame, then backing up quite a bit and then zooming it in to compress the image somewhat, as the wide angle sends the mountain peak back a ways. I appreciate the comment.