New Version:
Original:
Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This was another of the images I made at Christmas Island this late summer. It’s taken me a big of time to warm up to it but now I feel pretty good about it. The wind was blowing and I tried to take advantage by trying to capture the highlights of the ripples on the water.
Specific Feedback
My biggest concern is the exposure. Is it acceptable? I tried to raise it to what it normally would be but that seems to weaken the image. It looks more painterly this way to me.
Technical Details
GFX50R, 32-64mm, 1/500 sec, f/16
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Igor, your composition, exposure and processing is spot on to my eye. I think the subject allows to take the liberty of a more personal approach. The choosen reduced brightness makes for an appealing sense of serenity to me. Thanks for sharing.
1 Like
I appreciate this image for the same reason I am drawn to almost all your work - your attention to composition and the way in which your images always demonstrate both vision and voice. When I first looked at this image I thought, “Ho hum, a pretty seaside scene” but it is so much more than that. Your attention to colour, light and shadow, especially the light patterns in the sand, take this to a fine art level.
As to the exposure. That’s a tricky one. My old iMac finally died and I decided to replace it with a MacBook Pro so that when my wife and I begin our extended overland travels I will be able to bring it with me to download and organize my photographs as I go rather than in a great, overwhelming load at the end. But I quickly found that I did not like post-processing on a 14" monitor and so I shelled out for a good quality 27" photography monitor with sophisticated calibration software (… and loving it!). So, I’m looking at your image on my MacBook and it’s fine, nicely exposed. But my MacBook isn’t calibrated and I like it brightish for Zoom calls, which is really all I use the 14" screen for. However, on my main 27" monitor, this image seems under exposed by somewhere between a half but probably closer to a full stop. I know what you mean by painterly but my immediate impression looking at it on my 27" was - underexposed. Since I don’t have access to the histogram I really don’t know for sure one way or the other. But I have to say, this whole experience of having two screens - one calibrated and the other not - has really opened my eyes to the fact that I have no idea how folks are seeing my images or the extent to which they are seeing them as I have intended. It seems to me that the only way I can assure how they are seen would be to print or publish. However, neither of those options offers much in the way of the kind of broad based and accessible feedback that I would like. Which leaves me where?
Thank you for your suggestion, Kerry. It reaffirms my concerns. I have made a slight adjust which brightens and makes the image less flat.
I share your ideas about the difficulty of getting exposure right when using a monitor. The Macbook pro adjust it’s brightness according to ambient light and that makes it challenging to work on it. I tried to set it up for printing but then they were all wrong for monitor viewing. I’ve found that the biggest issue comes when working at night in the comfort of my bedroom. Those images look all wrong come daylight. Also, the brightness of the border seems to affect the appearance of the image. A pure white border will make the image look darker even without change.
I posted the revised version above for comparison.
I think it is a marked improvement although I’m not sure the exposure needs to be changed globally - the sky and everything up to and including the exposed sand for sure but maybe less so or not at all on underwater sand and light patterns.
My new 27" monitor has a feature that I love, namely I can save three different calibration set-ups. So, I have one for printing, one for online monitor, and third for black and white. I stopped printing a couple of years ago but I still have a really good printer and plan to get back to it at some point. But the problem I always found was that the standard calibration settings - Luminance-120 cm, white point-D65, gamma-2.2, absolute zero for blacks Those are the standard recommended settings that most calibration hardware devices suggest. But even for monitors display, I think 120 and 65 are too high but still they alway looked pretty good on my monitor but printed too dark. So, to be able to have separate print settings is a very nice feature. I set those way lower - around 80 cm, D55/60, gamma-L*, and black point at .5. Those settings don’t look good at all on my monitor - kind of washed out - but I suspect they will print much better.
Igor, this is a delightful view. I really like how the long section of rippled water leads into the distance. The color changes from the pale ripples to the golden sand, the green ocean and finally the blue sky are nicely inviting. The second version gets the brightness of a tropical beach and the pleasure of being there just right.
My, from Zion to the South Pacific - you get around. The ridges in the sand are terrific - great job of seeing, great composition. I like the simplicity of the image. I think the less saturated deep blue-green in the second image works better. You see well. Terrific!
I’m in love with this place. It’s new and vibrant. I’m going back if it’s the last thing I do !!!
I’ve decided that the quality of my work is due to how passionate I feel about the subject. When I feel blah the work is blah.
