Sculpture in Black and White (and 2 added colour versions!)

TheBigYin

TheBigYin

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Had a little wander around my local sculpture park on Wednesday, and managed to run a couple of rolls of film through the Bronica, mainly on the
new exhibitions that have been installed.


1. Oval with Points - Henry Moore, Bronze, 1968-70


Henry Moore at Yorkshire Sculpture Park by The Big Yin, on Flickr

2. Yorkshire Soul I,II and III - Jaume Plensa, Stainless Steel & Stone, 2010


Jaume Plensa at Yorkshire Sculpture Park by The Big Yin, on Flickr

3. The Heart of Trees - Jaume Plensa, Bronze with Live Tree, 2007

Jaume Plensa at Yorkshire Sculpture Park by The Big Yin, on Flickr

All shot with my Bronica ETRSi on Ilford Delta 100 film, developed in Stock Perceptol, and scanned on a Canoscan 8800F with Silverfast SE software.

Edit: Post production work restrained to a tidy-up crop of the scanned film rebates and whatever sharpening Silverfast and Lightroom's flickr export added. No curves tweaking or altering contrast in lightroom/cs5, as I'm really trying to get to grips with what I can get out of the camera first, before going for a full "worked up" exhibition type print. Hence leaving the film rebates on, showing that I've missed getting things level (I'm missing a hot-shoe mounted spirit level - must try and come up with something equivalent for the Bronica :thinking:)

I'm really beginning to enjoy using the Bronica now, having started to get a shooting routine in my head. Still can't cope with using the WLF hand-held though - but that just forces me to use the tripod properly, so could be considered a pro rather than a con :shrug:

I've a roll of Ektachrome E100VS which is currently sitting on the scanner bed, though I may not be able to post some of the shots from this roll on here for a while, as I could well be relying on one of them for my entry in this months POTY :eek:
 
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1 I like. I like the sculpture and like the tones in it. Also like the low view point and the fact that it does not look like it is falling over.

2 Not sure about. I can see the sculpture is made up of words but there is not enough tonal separation between them and the background. But then again that could be me.

3 Like it, love the way you have focused on the first one but the bokeh is enough to show it is part of a set.
 
You're dead on with the comment on the second one Nick - the sculpture is made of welded characters which appear to have been laser cut from sheet stainless steel. These are then tack welded around to form the seated form. It's amazing, but obviously, the shot-blasted stainless steel does tend to run to an amorphous mid-grey in B&W shots. I should have shot this one earlier, when I had a pretty clear blue sky to work with, but it does get a little lost against the clouds.
 
#1.
I like the way you have framed the tree line in the bottom aperture of the sculpture and the cloud in the top, it gives the shot continuity and the scale of the sculpture does not overwhelm the photograph. Good tones reflected in the sculpture itself.
#2.
Yes they do look a little flat, the thing that keeps distracting my eye is seeing the hedge line cutting the sculptures in half.
#3.
I like this photograph, the composition is just great, it a bit like the two far figures aspect of what they see, I would also have like to see the bokeh reversed which may give the impression of what the foreground figure is looking at,IE the other two figures or not as the case may be.

Very interesting set and well processed, Congrats Mark.

Richard.
 
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Thanks for the comments Richard - 2 from 3 okay is a pretty good average for me, tbh.

I tried shot 3 with a reversed DOF effect, but to be honest, the far figures were just a little too far away to resolve the lettering on the bodies, and it kind of lost some of the impact of the artwork. I'm always conscious when photographing stuff like this, to try and let the original sense of the sculpture come through in the shot. If I'd have had more time, and another half a dozen exposures left on the roll, I'd have probably had another go, from another angle and found some way of doing the "looking past" shot.

As to the Hedge line in #2, it is a bit distracting - it was considerably worse before a little digital dodging. Strangely, it doesn't feel quite as overwhelming in the colour version, which I'm toying with using as my May POTY entry.
 
I've a few other shots, I just need to decide which one I want to go with, to be honest, but at the moment i'm sort of paralysed by indecision. I know that the topic being round my way, i'm at a disadvantage compared to people in far more photogenic regions of the country, so it's always going to be a damage limitation exercise, but as I've somehow managed to get near the top overall, I don't want to throw it away too easily :(
 
1 and 3 really work, especially 1 and really do benefit from the extra size of the MF negatives. Looks like the film is a beauty too. Number 2, because of the intricacy of the sculpture really needs a blank background. Its just too fussy at present.
 
Nice MF quality! I quite like all these, although No2 might be my pick. They're a tad flat, but a slight boost of the highlights should add a little punch.
 
CT said:
Nice MF quality! I quite like all these, although No2 might be my pick. They're a tad flat, but a slight boost of the highlights should add a little punch.
Click to expand...

I might just give them a tweak Ced... it's just a matter of getting a tweak more in the highlights without blowing it out... time to fiddle with the curves in CS5 I suppose. ;)
 
Right - couple of colour versions - same setups as above, just swapped the film back from Delta 100 to Ektachrome E100VS :)

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_big_yin/5768655266/]
Ektachrome E100VS-2011-05-24_003-Edit-2.jpg by The Big Yin, on Flickr[/URL]


Jaume Plensa at Yorkshire Sculpture Park by The Big Yin, on Flickr

Colour version of the tree hugger is in this months POTY competition and therefore can't be posted anywhere else until the polling is over with sometime probably on the 8th June, so if you can't wait until then, you'll have to look in the May Entries Thread.
 
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#1 is the best for me in terms of tonality. It's a nice photo, but probably helped a lot by the subject matter itself - the composition is about as obvious as you can get for photographing that kind of thing, but if it does the job, who's to complain?
This one doesn't work so well in colour for me.

#2 is lacking in overall contrast in both versions leading me to think maybe there is a flare problem there? Composition doesn't work for me, maybe it's the interaction with the sculptures and the background. Perhaps this would have worked better if you only included one of them in the shot. I also notice the focus is on the far one, which renders the near one not out-of-focus enough to pull off that kind of look, given it is the more dominant one in the shot.

#3 I like the idea and the execution. Tonality not quite as good as the first one though. It also feels like it might want rotating a couple of degrees anti-clockwise, but that might just be me.
 
mustanir said:
#1 is the best for me in terms of tonality. It's a nice photo, but probably helped a lot by the subject matter itself - the composition is about as obvious as you can get for photographing that kind of thing, but if it does the job, who's to complain?
This one doesn't work so well in colour for me.
Doesn't work as well for me either... I sort of included it for for the odd colour fan, and to give a bit of an example of what Ektachrome E100s looks like :shrug:

#2 is lacking in overall contrast in both versions leading me to think maybe there is a flare problem there? Composition doesn't work for me, maybe it's the interaction with the sculptures and the background. Perhaps this would have worked better if you only included one of them in the shot. I also notice the focus is on the far one, which renders the near one not out-of-focus enough to pull off that kind of look, given it is the more dominant one in the shot.
Definitely flare - even with polarising filter and the 75mm's factory les hood it was flaring like a beggar. Had to wait in both cases for sun to go behind cloud then shoot. With a more modern lens, and the digital camera, it came out a bit better - though I couldn't get the same composition with the Bronica, as i'd only got the 75mm lens, and couldn't move back any further without standing in someone's picnic!

#3 I like the idea and the execution. Tonality not quite as good as the first one though. It also feels like it might want rotating a couple of degrees anti-clockwise, but that might just be me.
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Again, I agree 100% about rotating, but for these, whiich are still sort of learning shots for me with the Bronny, I wanted to give full frame shots.

Cheers for the feedback - guess I need to give it another shot or two (y)
 
Chaz Photos said:
the problem with this kind of photos are the fact they are someone else art work, so becomes a record shot.
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Call it derivative works if you must.

There is no lack of validity in recording stuff. I am sure artistic types would tell you that there is more to art than the work itself, but also it's placement in an environment and how it is perceived by the viewer - a perspective photography arguably explores and records.

There is also no lack of validity in applying creativity to representing and recording others' work in different ways... a concept taken to the extreme in so-called fashion photography.
 
TBY - love the first one in B&W - perfect subject film... but then I have a weird thing about smooth surfaces and B&W film - they just glue together in the most beautiful way.
 
ekimeno said:
TBY - love the first one in B&W - perfect subject film... but then I have a weird thing about smooth surfaces and B&W film - they just glue together in the most beautiful way.
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Cheers Mike, I just liked the smooth, almost dolphin-esque look myself, which is pretty much why I decided to post it :)
 
mustanir said:
Call it derivative works if you must.

There is no lack of validity in recording stuff. I am sure artistic types would tell you that there is more to art than the work itself, but also it's placement in an environment and how it is perceived by the viewer - a perspective photography arguably explores and records.

There is also no lack of validity in applying creativity to representing and recording others' work in different ways... a concept taken to the extreme in so-called fashion photography.
Click to expand...

I have to say, that's more my take on this kind of shot. Taken to it's logical extent, Chaz's comment would mean that any still life with a manufactured object in it would be a "record shot", as would any photograph of a person wearing clothes, any building, or landscape with a man-made structure.

Still - everyone's entitled to their own opinion :shrug:
 
Chaz Photos said:
the problem with this kind of photos are the fact they are someone else art work, so becomes a record shot.
The monos look a bit flat and the masking is poor
Click to expand...

This would be a valid comment if you were photographing the Mona Lisa (for example) in full frame. Showing the Mona Lisa in it's surroundings would be a different matter.

There are lots of statues and other art works in public places and photographing them in the context of their surroundings is perfectly valid. Carrying your argument to it's logical conclusion, we'd never photograph any public statues or monuments.
 
I kind of agree with everybody....lol


The thing with this type of shot is that it displays only a record of what was there at that moment in time.
When I say only, I mean nothing else is added, its as if just to document its existence was the prevailing concept in the photographers mind.
We have all got more than that going on upstairs when shooting, but often it may be concerned more with correct exposure and the mechanics of shooting than anything creatively artistic.
Documenting existence sometimes just isn't enough, peeps inclined to critique shots do not always consider intent, but in a scene where we cannot control the environment, which obviously isn't the same as in studio, we are kinda stuck with recording what was there at that moment unless we can add something to make it more appealing to more of our audience.
Personally, these pictures mean something more to me because I'm interested in TBY, in the camera and film he is using and the methods he uses to capture his shoots, but the general populous often don't care it was actually shot on film let alone wonder who shot it and how difficult it was.
Need to get some PS actions in there, selective colouring, HDR and as Chaz says, some....errrr......masking ??? ;)
 
What I need to do John, is to stop fannying around shooting test rolls through the Bronny, and go out and shoot some keepers. While ever I've got it in my mind that I'm still getting to grips with the mechanical side, I'll freely admit that the artistic part takes a back seat. I do consider the look of the shot - indeed, I'd had the idea of taking the shot of "Heart of Trees" with just a single figure in focus, but still figuring strongly in the composition from my previous trip to the park - which just happend to be the day they were installing the sculptures, and planting the trees! The other shots - well - I just rocked up, wandered around and framed something that would test if I could use the camera - or how it would respond to shooting into the light for example...

I like to have tested these kind of things thoroughly before I relax enough about the hardware to forget about it. I think next time out I'm going to "just let it flow and shoot". If I don't think of the picture as a "test shot" then I may have the heart to actually work up the shot properly - ensure that it's properly level (If I hadn't in camera) - and work on getting little more contrast into the B&W's - Dodge/Burn, the whole nine yards, and whatever it takes. A little more like the colour shot that I posted in the May POTY - which I can't post in here until the polling is over in a few days time.

Still not sure about Chaz's "masks" though - unless he means the film rebates from the scan - and the halo's they seem to have aquired through the scanners sharpening, and then Lightrooms export to flickr routine.??
 
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