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The influence of others – Swan Lake (original now added)
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Never let it be said that you don’t learn things on PI. I’ve been here since March and seen many a style coming through. One of the most dramatic and well executed is that of Mick451 (the last months winner of POTY). His mucky tints and his ability to bring out the best in a photograph can be seen here regularly. So I tried a bit of what he does…
This image is from the back end of Our Ladys Island in WQexford…not that you’d recognise it. I caught Photoshop by the throat, threatened it, threw it over a cliff, kicked it around a little and when it submitted this is what it spat out. I want you to be frank – is it a tad overdone? Is there an attractive quality or should I just bow to Micks abilities and leave him at it??
Here goes…
Alan.
Alan,i’m no expert,but to me the bottom half of the pic looks good,but the top half looks off somehow,the birds in flight dont fit with the background,the look as if they have been pasted on there.Mind you i hope im wrong. :wink: .
just what i see here.
Sean.
Gordon Bennett!
It’s dramatic, to say the least. The flying swans look almost 3D but there is
a fair bit of fringing which might ruin your high-res version.It’s too much for me, but it’s still a helluva pic. Surreal, almost abstract.
I’d agree with the remarks made by both Sean and Pete-
however-
maybe the surreality is coming from the water being a lot brighter than the sky?
perhaps toning that down a bit might return some balance?It looks like the original has a lot going for it though-
j
It’s a first attempt at colour layers…probably too many of them. When you say fringing I take it it’s the bits around the swans – well, yeah it’s bad but I thought I’d just about get away with it.
It’s no masterpiece, just a trial and possible error in a direction I want to take. I appreciate the comments and the frankness.
Alan.
PS – the swans were there Sean – the attempt to clean the colour layer effect makes them look pasted. It’s a heavy crop too so that don’t help.
Yeah Al, I remember you taking that one and yes it would have been a big crop. I have to say it doesn’t work for me. It looks like an oil painting with the effects.
Pat
Hmmmmmmmmm~~~~~~~
I like this kind of stuff..and it’s true ..it does look really oily.
I have to say..I want to see the original…(cropped version) cos I like the composition and subject better than the treatment…though that water is pretty glossy..the sky looks sort of flat.
That said…Mick is known for his mastery of the technique..and I dont think I’d do nearly as well as you have with a first attempt. Pretty cool idea :D
Hi Irishwonkafan, I like the picture but not mad about the effects, would like to see it without them.
Surreal imagery Alan. Never tried anything like that myself,
but I intend to do so as soon as I can steal one of your pics ;)As mentioned, the fringing is a little obvious around the birds in
flight, though not so much at the junction between land and sky,
and this isn’t helping a whole lot. But for me the contrast between
sky and the rest of the image is the probably the weakest part; there
is a sharpness in the water and foreground rocks that clashes with
the blurred and indefinite sky. The sky looks almost duotone in
fact, while the rest of the image is most definitely colour. Great to
see some experimentation going on though. I must pluck up the
courage to post one of my own ps experiments…Rob.
I’m flattered that you like my mucky bits, Alan, just wish I had some inspiration/energy/time to get out and take some damned photos these days.
As for the image, I can see where you’re going with it but for me it doesn’t work.
Aside from minor issues like fringing, which can easily be fixed with nothing more technical than time and patience, you’ve chosen an difficult image to work with. Mainly when I’m doing my doomygloomy landscapes what I’m trying to do is balance the tonal range of the sky with that of the foreground, with the lighter parts of the image where I want the eye to be focussed. Sometimes the darkened foreground land is merely the framing device, weird, to show off a dramatic sky – the land bit might serve no other purpose than to give a sense of scale, so it doesn’t matter if it quite dark and holds little detail. Sometimes you can faff around with an image for 10 minutes and process it just right, sometimes it can take hours, sometimes it’s only months later you realise you’d cooked it to a crisp. I love making mistakes, just not the same ones twice ;)Anyways buh, the problem with the processing here is that it heightens the contrast between the flappy flying animals and the sky, and also heightens the contrast bewteen the sky and the water – so you’ve created two competing points of focus between light and dark areas. It’s also created a colour imbalance between sky and water, so there’s two competing colour palettes where there should be one – as water generally reflects the colour scheme of its environment.
I really like the photo, Alan, it’s excellent.
Do show the original when you get a chance.Cheers Rob, Mick, Sharon, Pat & Josephine.
SO, faffed too far and in the wrong direction…I thought that but needed confirmation. It’s hard to tell when it’s an image that displays reality but “faffed”.
I’ll post the original earlier but my gripe with the original was the white swans against the white sky and white water lost their definition and impact hence the trigger to burn a couple of hours. I’ll try to correct the original and post.
Thanks for all the comments, again I appreciate the frankness. That’s what it’s all about!
Alan
Now you can see why I mucked about with this one. The water was as it is. I’ve just darkened this, added contrast and sharpened. Some slight burning of the clouds but it still looks milky.
Just for those that were interested…
Alan
I FEEL(!) it looks very nice. I like it! It’s better then a picture with some green-khaki sky (IMHO)
I like natural colours, maybe to add a bit blue in water but anyway it looks more better.The original is great Alan,why not give it another go to see what you come up with..
Sean.
Hi Alan~~
I totally agree you have a wonderful difficult shot here!
I love it and considering you know it has all kinds of potential..I agree with Sean..why not start again and see how you can improve the next edit..
in the same vein as the other…because we all know that *Mickstyle* is absolutely fabulous and there is no way he perfected it in a day~~~~~~~~~~~` :D
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