weekly Ian's 52 for 2015: Week 16 - Experiment

ammgramm said:
It becomes a picture in two parts, with the viewer's eye bouncing backwards and forwards between the branches at top right and the group of trees mid left. My feeling is that the effect is slightly uncomfortable, and makes looking at the picture subtly less pleasant than one expects it to be at first glance.
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Thanks for this Ian. Really helpful feedback.
 
Great stuff Ian.

I'm with Mac: ".... a picture in two parts .... "
 
You certainly have given us a lot of choice there,
TBH I prefer the far left one with the plough(?)
in the corner. :)
 
Hi, have to say I quite like the middle one of the 3 with the plough, maybe without the processing although i can't really tell due to it being a small image.

The one you have put in works to point if the lone tree was actually alone I think it would work but as it is it tends to blend into the woodland beside it
 
Super walk through of your thoughts again Ian, I really like the shot you chose in the end, yes if you concentrate on the foreground branches they do over power a bit, but when I look at the photo I see the background trees and the foreground framing that, it also breaks up a mass of mist, liking the colours on the final image as well as the centre image with that very moody sky (y)
 
I really like your final choice for scenic (y). Colours are beautiful. Thanks for sharing your story. I've thought about doing a local project within xx mile of home, but that's as far as it has got.
 
Hi Ian, I really enjoyed your right up!
Regarding interference from the foreground objects, for me it depends on the rest of the frame and what's going on in it (talking specifically landscapes). If the foreground objects are OOF it's a no go for me, i.e. typically movement blur or DOF issues. Unless there was an accompanying explanation explaining it was intentional that's fine.
If they are clear and reasonably sharp and fulfilling a purpose that's fine. I normally steer clear of any such distractions if I couldn't be sure they would be sharp, in my mind it's all too easy to ruin an image with OOF greenery etc in the foreground.
In this particular instance for me it's fine. If you hadn't given the explanation I might have said they take the eye off the solo tree. Which it in fact does, I might have considered a square crop on this which would sit the tree centrally. For me that would draw the eye right onto the solo tree, with less tendency for my eye to bounce around the frame. This would also lessen the impact of the branches in the frame.
The branches do fulfil a purpose in your shot, if you could imagine the shot minus the branches you would have a considerable amount of dead space to the right.

I like the shot, I like the misty tree shots, seems well exposed and balanced.
Cheers
Steve
 
Thanks for all the kind comments and replies folks, especially the detailed feedback Steve. It's all really helpful in trying to improve. Sometimes trying something and finding that it doesn't work can be more useful than going the same route over and over again.
 
Week 4: Companions

I found this to be a horrible topic. [/Self-Pity]

With that out of the way, I think this is one of the problems I have with photography. I'm narrow minded. "Companions" immediately made me think of our cats. But only because we haven't got a dog. I was also seriously considering slipping a picture of Morena Baccarin in the contact sheet to represent the Browncoat in me. [/Firefly-plug]. The dictionary wasn't much help either, and I have a shortage of Hobbits and Dwarves in the house to take pictures of proper Companions. Finally, after a lot of thinking, I came up with the idea of items that go well together. Knife & Fork, cup and saucer, etc etc. In the end, I decided on my three lenses.

In terms of companionship, I think my 14, 23 & 35mm Fuji primes are amazing. They're the perfect focal lengths for me, and I'm finally starting to see the world in terms of those three focal lengths which is improving my photography. How hard can it be to take an interesting photo of three lenses?
:shifty:

Week 4 Contact Sheet by Harlequin565, on Flickr

The answer, is, for me, "really hard".

I have total brain block when it comes to arranging things. I'm never going to take up flower arranging that's for sure! My camera was the X-E1 with the 18-55 lens on it which I hardly ever use. For the last 3 shots I used my iPhone camera which is on the fritz. All the shots were blurry which was a shame, because I quite liked the three lenses, the X-E1 and my Oly Trip all together. Once I got all the shots into LR it was easy to delete the rubbish and I was left with just a couple of shots I liked. But even they were boring (to me) and I didn't bother dusting the lenses before shooting them so I had a billion dust bunnies to clone out in PP afterwards. Lesson learned: 5 minutes with a cloth saves you 15 tedious minutes in Photoshop and you end up with a clean lens at the end of it!

The 35mm doesn't have "35" on the side as the 14 & 23 do, so it didn't look right in my OCD head. All the "side on" shots therefore got binned. I over-PP'd just 2 photos on the end, and couldn't decide which one I hated the least. All in all, a good idea poorly executed.


Week 4: Companions by Harlequin565, on Flickr

This is the least-worst shot of the week. The posterisation filter has been applied to cover up a lot of distraction on the background and tighten up the lettering. A better idea would probably been to have blur the background and mask out the effects on the lens glass. I actually quite like the colours in the image and the muted gloomy lighting. I'm going to have it as a desktop wallpaper for a week so that I actually get some use out of it.

Roll on week 5
 
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Brilliant take on the theme, agains thanks for showing the process you used.
 
Hi Ian :)

I too actually like the reflections in the lenses especially the 35mm, I also like the crop to the RH of the one you chose, my only crit would be the lighting of the background, would prefer the bottom LH a bit liter, other than that and a tiny blemish in the same area (Picky I know :D) it's an altogether good and different take on the theme yet again, nice and bright and real good detail (y)
 
Scenic - I quite like this. The inclusion of the tree branches in the foreground help cover a very bland sky

Companions - Good choice for the final image. Having an odd number of lenses helps and the composition with some negative space on the right is good. I even like the fact each of the lens have different shades of colour in the glass.
 
Thanks for taking the time to comment everyone. It's appreciated!
 
Some great shots there Ian and agree with Peter perfect choice for your submitted picture.
 
Hi Ian, I think you have done really well with the companions theme. I can guarantee there are a few of us on here who will have refered to a particular camera or lens as a "trusty companion" it will be that one lens you know and trust so well to deliver the type of image you have set up in your mind :)

I must admit my creative block is really starting to come into play with this week's elegant theme!
 
Scenic - love the misty background against the foreground branches.

Companions - interesting take on the theme. I like the different coloured reflections on the lenses, especially on the 35mm.
 
Hey Ian.... I really like your companions shot! Great colour reflections going on.
 
Week 5: Elegant

No contact sheet this week because I didn't get to do the shot I wanted. With only two evenings free since the weekend it's just been a lack of time. And rather than mulligan or mess about, I went down and took a photo of the lamp.

I picked up a new lens this week off eBay. It's a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f1.8 in M42 fit. I do so little portrait work these days, I wasn't prepared to pay big bucks for the Fuji 56mm, so I opted for a fun lens. So whilst it hasn't been a great inspirational week, it has been about me farting about with this manual focus thing... Now I need corrective glasses, and I have shaky hands. You don't want me anywhere near the controls of your crashing plane believe me! So I've had a bit of trouble getting the focus right. So I can't shoot anything wider than f4 at the moment because I can't get the focus right (focus peaking needs some of my attention I think). I also can't hand hold at anything under about 1/125 with this lens without getting blur, so I'm really getting a chance to test the XE-1's ISO capability. And it's working nicely. I've gone b&w for this shot (slightly toned to cool the image down a bit) and chosen a top-crop to focus on the elegant curves of the stand. I've pushed the contrast quite hard to get a strong image and I do quite like the overall result despite it being one of two shots.

Main lesson learned: I really need to try and shoot these themes over the weekend because I have virtually no time during the working week.


Week 05: Elegant by Harlequin565, on Flickr

Edit: And yep - even this is blurred :sigh:
 
An unusual minimal take on the theme which I like. :)
 
I agree with Mandy....love the minimalism.
I have a hankering to see the bottom of the stand though.
 
HeartandSoul said:
An unusual minimal take on the theme which I like. :)
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Thanks for taking the time to comment Mandy!

viv1969 said:
I agree with Mandy....love the minimalism.
I have a hankering to see the bottom of the stand though.
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Sorry Ruth, you'll have to remain unfulfilled :) but thanks for your comment!
 
I like it it's quite grainy which I like, but some lovely tones in there and a strong shape, like the composition too
 
Thank everyone for your comments. I did try a square crop but it wasn't working for me...
 
Week 6 - Watery

So I dedicated some time yesterday to go to Marbury park and take my camera, push bike and a packed lunch. With my new panier racks, my back was saved the pain of carrying everything and I was left to enjoy the ride and stop and shoot as I saw fit. It was lovely! the contact sheet below is just the "Watery" shots.


Week 6: Contact 1 by Harlequin565, on Flickr

The first shot was disappointing. Just a stream that the Big Stopper didn't make look any better. After that was a handheld shot of tree reflections in the frozen canal. I really like these two shots as the muddy canal has taken everything back to a dirty silhouette. The next 4 shots were my favourite. I came across the scene after finding a little promontory and threading my way out there. When I saw the glassy stillness of the mere and the tree half in-half out of the lake, I wanted to see how it would look rotated. Several shots later at different exposures (#1 normal to check composition, #2 with Grad filter, #3 & 4 with Grad + full ND). Later I discovered a large pond with the interesting bulrushes. Oddly, I decided to have a brain meltdown and set the tripod up with not a bulrush in sight! Only the last 3 exposures (hand held) actually featured them!

Back home, I went through the sheet and deleted down to 4 different images. I pp'd them all, and had a final review.


Week 6: Contact 2 by Harlequin565, on Flickr

I actually quite liked all of these. Counting clockwise from top left... #1 I like because of the simplicity. I actually quite like the purple tones the ND grad filter adds to the sky so I emphasised it a bit for the final pp. The second pond shot is my least favourite (#2) No real foreground interest, and just a whole lot of nothing going on. #3 rotated I really like. It's just a bit different and I like the fact that I managed to get the final image looking like I envisaged it. #4 is good too. I like silhouettes and I like trees, so this fits the bill aesthetically for me. The fat that it's a reflection is just a +.

I'm sticking with my first impulse though and whilst I think #1 is my absolute favourite, I'm going with #4 as the shot for the week. I actually ended up not using the long exposures and sticking with the basic ND Grad. It was just an all round better shot - the reflections sharper and not so blurred. Lesson 2: The Big Stopper doesn't make everything better.


Week 6: Watery by Harlequin565, on Flickr
 
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Clever I like that :clap:
 
As Simon says, very clever.
Makes me tilt my head though.....didn't even realise I was doing it!
 
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