Friday, November 17, 2006
Unfinished work
No, not a cryptic title. I mean this is unfinished in a literal sense. It has been sitting around on my desktop for ages. I bashed it through PS this evening to make a working print, but even as I was doing so I was hovering between some major alternatives - high contrast, low contrast, what to do with the sky, what to do with the pole.....indeed, whether to go back and reshoot with a different camera and start again.
There has been a conversation not quite starting on A&P about the difference between painters who often show unfinished work for comment, and photographers who don't.
So, this is an open work, for commenting. The neg is in pretty good shape. Nothing is either fully black or fully white (the posted version has had a medium amount of contrast added already, but this can be reversed).
There is no 'meaning' of course.
What should I do?
An interresting observation. The sky looks brighter here than it does on Today. It is the same file, but the page background is different.
Today link ......... here
And I must do something about this template to make links show up!
There has been a conversation not quite starting on A&P about the difference between painters who often show unfinished work for comment, and photographers who don't.
So, this is an open work, for commenting. The neg is in pretty good shape. Nothing is either fully black or fully white (the posted version has had a medium amount of contrast added already, but this can be reversed).
There is no 'meaning' of course.
What should I do?
An interresting observation. The sky looks brighter here than it does on Today. It is the same file, but the page background is different.
Today link ......... here
And I must do something about this template to make links show up!
Permalink / posted by and copyright of Colin [auspiciousdragon.net] : 10:26 PM
Comments:
You could always drop it...!
How about this: put it into something really vicious like Techni-x (extreme contrast and loss of detail) to make it almost purely graphic and then crop to the centre third, making a portrait mode shot? The advantage of that is elimination of the high proprtion of sky and an accentuation of the most interesting part of the photo which is the connecting loop in the wire.
The pole is too central. Shift it left and clone or reshoot so you have a bird(some birds) flying from right to left.
I’ve been thinking about this over the past couple of days and I’m stumped as to what I would do. That makes me think that, if it were mine, it would be finished. The thing is that the strongest characteristic of the image is that it splits the canvas. This is an image of segments but it is the segmentation itself that appeals rather than what is within them. If they are filled, it becomes less about that segmentation I think. There’s also the problem of what put in there. Currently there is sky and its pretty uniform but I can’t help feeling that if it were not it would detract.
Johnjo's comment is quite sensible. However, the segmentation idea, whilst a good analysis, doesn't cope with the sky, which is indeterminate; neither strong nor zero. I tended to keep going down Johnjo's track but always came up against the fact that the picture, whilst a good composition, is essentially not very exciting in b/w and some way needs to be found to 'jazz it up'. One weakness in the composition though, is the angle between the cross piece and the pole: not an aesthetically pleasing angle.
I think akikana is on the right track, but I'd go a step further and shoot this quite a bit wider so that you see more of the pole as well. I think you would have something with the pole and wires following the top and one side of the frame.
Thanks everybody for participating. It is extraordinarily hard isn't it? I mean getting that involved in somebody else's photo. I've been fascinated how at Art&Perception the painters routinely get input which dramatically changes the outcome.
This is a place that I go past quite regularly, and now I'm determined to find a photo in it somewhere!
I want to keep JohnJo's segments, but play with the composition.
(I also recall this as being 50mm so I have scope for wider without getting silly angles and distortions).
I'll make a cliche of this yet :-)
Post a Comment
How about this: put it into something really vicious like Techni-x (extreme contrast and loss of detail) to make it almost purely graphic and then crop to the centre third, making a portrait mode shot? The advantage of that is elimination of the high proprtion of sky and an accentuation of the most interesting part of the photo which is the connecting loop in the wire.
This is a place that I go past quite regularly, and now I'm determined to find a photo in it somewhere!
I want to keep JohnJo's segments, but play with the composition.
(I also recall this as being 50mm so I have scope for wider without getting silly angles and distortions).
I'll make a cliche of this yet :-)