Saturday, December 01, 2007
Malus 'Evereste'
Comments:
Crab apples have never looked so pretty.
The way color is handled, I would have guessed that this image was Christina's; do they have crab apples in Florida? The restrained colors work well with the gauzy focus.
Our crab apples are bright yellow - so where's the action?! Technically, this is all done well, composition, 'soft focus', colours etc., but the apple near the centre hovers so near being sharp that it annoys slightly that it is possibly being deliberately placed out of focus (the halo is different to the others). Is this taken in Scotland? It looks like the Home Counties on a balmy early Autumn day!
John - Highlands on the last day of November.
The apple in the centre is actually sharp in the sense of being in focus. The softness is noise reduction (applied multiple times) and the halo is, in fact, another apple (which you can't tell here, I know, but I've seen the original and the alternate frames). Taken with the 1dmk3 at iso 3200, and f-stop not much, in the near dark of a gloomy mid-afternoon.
We have yellow and red crabs as well. Yellow = Golden Hornet and red = Red Sentinel. The Evereste and the Red Sentinel have both been extraordinarily prolific this year.
I think that I see the other apple and knowing that reduces my annoyance! The ISO 3200 performance is very good (even if noise-reduced) but one knows that that is a Canon strength. You're fortunate having so many varieties: they do add amazing colour in the autumn. The birds like them as well.
John,
I'll probably be posting a version of this without the multiple NR passes on 57 North in the next day or so.
With just ordinary noise (chroma) reduction the files are quite normally usable.
"The softness is noise reduction"
Wow. That's not an approach I would have considered. It works though.
Have you thought about what kind of paper you would print these on? Would it all be a bit too much on a textured surface, or would it be just right?
My very first thought was that this was Christina's image with the color pallet. Almost like looking at music paper and the musical notes floating across the paper. The unsharpness puts me on edge, creates tension.
Matt,
Not strictly noise reduction...I'm using Noise Ninja but not loading a noise profile. The contrast slider does a type of reverse USM that I use a lot with scanned film for grain control. With these high iso images it cleans up the chroma noise nicely and 'over-used' like this creates the glow/blur/unsharpness.
I've not tried to print these yet. My first thought would be Harman fibre gloss to stop the texture of the paper interacting with the texture of the picture (and without adding a super sheen to the surface). Pictorico would be good too, but I haven't got any.
I too thought 'Christina' just after the 'wow'.
The softness enchances the 'feel' of the image. To me it is not an image of crab apples it is more about shape and colour, almost an abstract. Three of the other rotations 'work' which I've been told is a measure of abstractness. (I repeat the comment without being confident that it has a basis in fact or experiment)
Quite a compliment that this was mistaken for mine -- that is some lovely color. No crab apples here in Florida though - at least so far as I know. I first thought these might be Ranier cherries, which are quite delicious, -- that and the color gave it immediate appeal.
Though I might prefer a touch more sharpness at some small point somewhere, the overall softness is rather dreamy. An interesting use of noise reduction -- I hope I find an opportunity to try that soon.
The other images of crab apples on your web site are lovely and engaging as well.
The is a good flow in this shot from top right to bottom left - so the green apple middlish-right is a slight oddity not only in colour but also positioning. The fuzz around the apples adds movement which compliments well with the flowing lines.
Colin, your style changes never fail to amaze me! This is surprising and gives a lighter mood to your work.
Needless to say, this is lovely and I too thought about Christina.
Thanks for all the comments.
Christina - these are very much like Ranier cherries in both size and colour.
Here is an image from the same session that has had normal default Noise Ninja processing:
http://www.auspiciousdragon.net/57north/?p=314
I know you can't tell much from a web jpeg, but that is an ISO 3200 shot only lightly cleaned up. For most subjects the 1D3 is fully usable at that speed.
Stephane - there is an interesting difference between taking a style to a subject and taking a style from a subject. A lot of people advise the former.
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The way color is handled, I would have guessed that this image was Christina's; do they have crab apples in Florida? The restrained colors work well with the gauzy focus.
The apple in the centre is actually sharp in the sense of being in focus. The softness is noise reduction (applied multiple times) and the halo is, in fact, another apple (which you can't tell here, I know, but I've seen the original and the alternate frames). Taken with the 1dmk3 at iso 3200, and f-stop not much, in the near dark of a gloomy mid-afternoon.
We have yellow and red crabs as well. Yellow = Golden Hornet and red = Red Sentinel. The Evereste and the Red Sentinel have both been extraordinarily prolific this year.
I'll probably be posting a version of this without the multiple NR passes on 57 North in the next day or so.
With just ordinary noise (chroma) reduction the files are quite normally usable.
Wow. That's not an approach I would have considered. It works though.
Have you thought about what kind of paper you would print these on? Would it all be a bit too much on a textured surface, or would it be just right?
Not strictly noise reduction...I'm using Noise Ninja but not loading a noise profile. The contrast slider does a type of reverse USM that I use a lot with scanned film for grain control. With these high iso images it cleans up the chroma noise nicely and 'over-used' like this creates the glow/blur/unsharpness.
I've not tried to print these yet. My first thought would be Harman fibre gloss to stop the texture of the paper interacting with the texture of the picture (and without adding a super sheen to the surface). Pictorico would be good too, but I haven't got any.
The softness enchances the 'feel' of the image. To me it is not an image of crab apples it is more about shape and colour, almost an abstract. Three of the other rotations 'work' which I've been told is a measure of abstractness. (I repeat the comment without being confident that it has a basis in fact or experiment)
Though I might prefer a touch more sharpness at some small point somewhere, the overall softness is rather dreamy. An interesting use of noise reduction -- I hope I find an opportunity to try that soon.
The other images of crab apples on your web site are lovely and engaging as well.
Needless to say, this is lovely and I too thought about Christina.
Christina - these are very much like Ranier cherries in both size and colour.
Here is an image from the same session that has had normal default Noise Ninja processing:
http://www.auspiciousdragon.net/57north/?p=314
I know you can't tell much from a web jpeg, but that is an ISO 3200 shot only lightly cleaned up. For most subjects the 1D3 is fully usable at that speed.
Stephane - there is an interesting difference between taking a style to a subject and taking a style from a subject. A lot of people advise the former.