[mr. burns]

i'm working on a series of 5 images for my final photo portfolio assignment and i'm trying to use the same process as i did with this with different objects. i'm still not totally satisfied with the amount of distortion in the images i've come up with as a result of the vertical panoramic i'm using. i'll be slaving over this for the next week. i'd like to get some initial reactions before i explain how i went about producing this.

[f1000]

I like it, but could you remove the power lines from the picture?

[mr. burns]

hehe. this has been a long debate the last few days. i can remove the wires, and have, but it just doesn't look right without them, to me.

here's the no wire version.

[f1000]

The horizontal wires break up the soaring verticality of the tree.

No Wires = Ansel Adams

[EnVoy]

The image has a nice feel and mood, I like it. Much better without the wires.

So, explain how you shot it......

[tpicco]

Me... I like the wires... but then I dislike retouching photos to make them "better..."

[mr. burns]

Originally posted by EnVoy:
The image has a nice feel and mood, I like it. Much better without the wires.

So, explain how you shot it......

it's pretty much a photo illustration, but the others in the series weren't as involved. i had to take a series of 2 exposures to get the tree, then i had to retake the same series of images to capture the sky in all of it's glory. i then over lapped them in photoshop, stitched them together myself and chose which parts from the tree exposure i wanted to show through. it kind of looks like i used a remote flash from the base of the tree.

here are some of the others: if you see some blue ?'s check back later. my host isn't working right now :S

[dav]

i like the horizontal lines in the tree pic, not to mention your other photos shown here have horizontal lines, which, imo, helps to tie them all together.

[DeathMan]

These are great photos. Very distinct looking.

I also like the wires. It looks more like you're capturing the new with the old, and less like you're trying to look like ansel adams.

Either way I think it's the best photo.

The one with the ducks seems to stand out as somewhat unrealated, possible because there is no strong vertical patterns other than the format.

[EnVoy]

Nice technique. I like the train one too. Did you shoot all the images the same way as the tree? Toss the one with the ducks, definatly not as strong as the others.

[f1000]

You know what, you should do one of the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool.



There's currently a lot of ugly construction around the base of the monument, though.

[mr. burns]

Originally posted by EnVoy:
Nice technique. I like the train one too. Did you shoot all the images the same way as the tree? Toss the one with the ducks, definatly not as strong as the others.

thanks, i like the train too. and i don't like the ducks, but i had to submit 5 images and i was kinda pressed for time so meh. i shot the other photos like the tree in that they were multiple photos pieced together but the tree is the only one where i had to overlap the images, in a superimposition kinda way, if you get what i mean.

[EnVoy]

mr. burns. what equipment did you use to shoot it? Film (what type), digital? 35, medium, large format?

P.S. I'm a photographer, so don't worry about getting too technical

[f1000]

Originally posted by EnVoy:
Nice technique. I like the train one too. Did you shoot all the images the same way as the tree? Toss the one with the ducks, definatly not as strong as the others.

I think the duck one might look better if he edited out some of the ground. The ground just looks, well, dirty.

[spauldingg]

Gorgeous, I'd pay for prints of these...

But you said five, Where's the fifth one?

[mr. burns]

Originally posted by EnVoy:
mr. burns. what equipment did you use to shoot it? Film (what type), digital? 35, medium, large format?

P.S. I'm a photographer, so don't worry about getting too technical

canon A80 + tripod. not the best but hey, i'm a starving student and make the most of what i have. i think my eyes are my best piece of equipment at the moment ;]

[mr. burns]

Originally posted by f1000:
I think the duck one might look better if he edited out some of the ground. The ground just looks, well, dirty.

when you look at the ground section, notice how it seems like you're looking straight down and the rocks all seem large and close compared to the ducks? yeah, that's what i was going for :/

here's the 5th mystery image. i'm not too fond of this one either.


i'm seriously thinking of trying to sell some of my work on ebay. it's so easy and cheap. why not?

[f1000]

Originally posted by mr. burns:
when you look at the ground section, notice how it seems like you're looking straight down and the rocks all seem large and close compared to the ducks? yeah, that's what i was going for :/

It worked for the train-crossing light one. Anyway, what do I know... taste is subjective.

IMHO, your technique works best when it emphasizes composition over subject matter. The tree and train pictures make fantastic use of contrast and vantage points; the other pictures do not.

Here's what catches my eye:

Tree: The texture and smooth verticality of the trunk as it thrusts its canopy into the sky. The blackness of the vegetation against the bright gradient of clouds.

Train: Solid verticality of the train signal versus the frail tilting sign behind it. The liquid silver of the signal pole, topped by a black �crown� of lights, all of which is superimposed on an appealing gradient. Motion of the train contrasted against the immobility of the train signal.

What has your art class said about your portfolio?

here's the 5th mystery image. i'm not too fond of this one either.

I�m not too fond of #5, either. To paraphrase Dale Chihuly: Just do it, and move on. If a work turns out well, great; if not, then don�t waste time trying to fix it.

i'm seriously thinking of trying to sell some of my work on ebay. it's so easy and cheap. why not?

You might want to learn about copyright protection before going commercial. Nolo publishes several books by an author named Pressman that I like: http://www.nolo.com

Maybe you could interest one of the many online poster stores with your work?

http://www.allposters.com/
http://www.art.com/
http://www.artfinale.com/
http://www.barewalls.com/
http://www.zazzle.com/

[mr. burns]

Originally posted by f1000:
It worked for the train-crossing light one. Anyway, what do I know... taste is subjective.

IMHO, your technique works best when it emphasizes composition over subject matter. The tree and train pictures make fantastic use of contrast and vantage points; the other pictures do not.

Here's what catches my eye:

Tree: The texture and smooth verticality of the trunk as it thrusts its canopy into the sky. The blackness of the vegetation against the bright gradient of clouds.

Train: Solid verticality of the train signal versus the frail tilting sign behind it. The liquid silver of the signal pole, topped by a black �crown� of lights, all of which is superimposed on an appealing gradient. Motion of the train contrasted against the immobility of the train signal.

What has your art class said about your portfolio?



I�m not too fond of #5, either. To paraphrase Dale Chihuly: Just do it, and move on. If a work turns out well, great; if not, then don�t waste time trying to fix it.



You might want to learn about copyright protection before going commercial. Nolo publishes several books by an author named Pressman that I like: http://www.nolo.com

Maybe you could interest one of the many online poster stores with your work?

http://www.allposters.com/
http://www.art.com/
http://www.artfinale.com/
http://www.barewalls.com/
http://www.zazzle.com/

i think the best distortion comes from the water picture. it really captured what i was trying to do with the images. so those three i like, but i need to get some more on that level. as far as what my classmates thought: not to sound conceited or anything but i pretty much owned that class and everyone knew it. i got A's on all of my assignments; even a couple 98/100 scores. i don't think the prof wanted to give me a perfect score i'd get people asking me for help when the professor was busy, and i just got a job as the student assistant for the lab, so i'll be running the lab during open hours. free access to all the equipment :]

if i do decide to sell my work, i'll have to wait until the fall when the lab is open again. this will give me plenty of time to read up on copyright issues and such. a recent eDigital Photography magazine issue had a whole article devoted to guiding people through selling their photos on ebay and there wasn't much talk about copyright. i think i'll just put a watermark on the preview images and write a nice disclaimer in the auction description.

thanks for the critique. i've got a ton of regular proportioned photos and horizontal panoramas from a roadtrip across the west this past week to go through. i'll post'em in here when they're ready.

[grayware]

They're terrific photographs! My first thought was that they reminded me of Jerry Uelsmann with their metallic, almost negative effect. Very very nice.

[mr. burns]

Originally posted by grayware:
They're terrific photographs! My first thought was that they reminded me of Jerry Uelsmann with their metallic, almost negative effect. Very very nice.

haha nice. jerry uelsmann is another one of my influences. i have a poster of his in my room. crazy.

[mr. burns]

click this for a bigger version. it's from 5 images.








this is 4 pictures taken in a square




more to come tomorrow...

[mr. burns]

Mods: feel free to label the subject '56 death' or something like that because i can't now.

here's more, and i'm still not done. i have some color pics of Bryce canyon but i took them in 9-picture squares so it'll take a little while to put them together.

click the panoramas for larger versions




thinkin of cropping out the white roof :/


my only pic from chicago

[storer]

they're all amazing. you're very talented. I don't know about the wires: i think if you added one or two more it would look a bit more natural: thats just weird for me - i don't know about anywhere else but in australia we have 3 or 4 wires. The dirt on the ducks bothered me too. I actually quite like image #3. it reminds me of australian landscapes and its kind of rustic. they're all awesome!

[mr. burns]

Originally posted by storer:
they're all amazing. you're very talented. I don't know about the wires: i think if you added one or two more it would look a bit more natural: thats just weird for me - i don't know about anywhere else but in australia we have 3 or 4 wires. The dirt on the ducks bothered me too. I actually quite like image #3. it reminds me of australian landscapes and its kind of rustic. they're all awesome!

thanks a lot.

here's an image i made from 9 pictures taken in a square but without any stitching software other than photohop. it'll print at about 11x17. after i made this i found out some crazy bastard had made a 196 picture image at the same park.

bryce canyon. click for bigger version.

[chris v]

Wow, black and white's tough. Those are really nice. The one of the tree looks kind of like someone standing on their head. I should spend less time on message boards, and more time shooting. Your stuff is inspiring.

One queation-- do you use a polarizing filter to get the sky so dark? I use one for color on bright days, but hadn't messed with one on B/W. (I keep B/W film in my 50's Zeiss Ikon, which has a tiny lens)

CV

[mr. burns]

thanks a lot. it's an honor being told my work is inspiring.
no polarizer used, just fast shutter speeds, small apertures and slow film speeds. keep in mind these were all taken digitally.

[Randman]

Have you thought about trying a sepia tone with some of the photos? The trees one at the beginning (without the wires) would look nice in a sepia.
You could also try and mix color and black & white. Keep the item in focus in one and everything else in the other (best if not too busy and the colors are a bit muted).
I like many of the photos but just looking at them, I don't really get a sense of scale. Other than that, good on ya.

[mr. burns]

has anyone tried genuine fractals for enlarging images? i've heard some crazy things

[mr. burns]

Originally posted by Randman:
Have you thought about trying a sepia tone with some of the photos? The trees one at the beginning (without the wires) would look nice in a sepia.
You could also try and mix color and black & white. Keep the item in focus in one and everything else in the other (best if not too busy and the colors are a bit muted).
I like many of the photos but just looking at them, I don't really get a sense of scale. Other than that, good on ya.

i've been playing with sepia tones for my tree pictures, but haven't been able to print them. this week my prof is letting me print all of my landscape pics. i'll try to get some warm prints of the trees as well.

here's one. this was the one that got me interested in all of this vertical stuff to begin with.