Cleveland - Wade Oval Lagoon

[sapearl]

Ladies and gents - for your viewing pleasure ;). - Stu

[LeesaB]

OOO WOW! Pretty beautiful and Eerie at the same time!

[sapearl]

Thank you Lisa - the color shot was very satisfying but I wanted to see what I could do with a B/W conversion. I'd been scouting the area for a couple of weeks, and this was done about 7:20 AM back in April I believe.

OOO WOW! Pretty beautiful and Eerie at the same time!

[johnohio]

BEAUTIFUL !!!!

I'd bet the color version looks pretty good too.


john20d,gitzoandstuff

[sapearl]

Thank you John - very kind of you. I'll have to dig around on the hard drive for the color one now ;).

BEAUTIFUL !!!!

I'd bet the color version looks pretty good too.


john20d,gitzoandstuff

[sidx001]

Wow......Just Wow! I have been by there many many times and I love this shot! Very well done.

[sapearl]

Thanks James - Euclid is still pretty torn up with all the reconstruction in front of Severance, but just a few feet down the stairs to the path and it's like you're in another world. By any chance are/were you a CWRU student?

I just ran this print off on my R1800 using the Epson Velvet Fine art paper and was not disappointed; makes for a very nice 13x19 print with white 1 1/2" border.

[sidx001]

Not really a student, I designed and installed the Document Imaging System there about 6 years ago....I love that whole area!

[tomd]

An amazing shot. Very nice capture and processing.

Tom

[sapearl]

Appreciate the compliment Tom - this was the best of about 10 shots... some portrait, some landscape... playing around with some exposure adjustment layers a bit.

Below is it's color point of origin. I think the color is very pleasant and painterly, but I prefer the unique, almost unearthly look of the B/W.



An amazing shot. Very nice capture and processing.

Tom

[LeesaB]

I'd have to say I like your conversion much better! :-)

[sapearl]

Agreed - the color is a like a lot of post card shots I've seen. The B/W interpretation is not something you see everyday. Of course I certainly wouldn't mind the royalty sales on a large run of post cards :lol:. That would help fund my future retirement.

I'd have to say I like your conversion much better! :-)

[mammothz]

holy moly... this shot is awesome
was that how the sky was ?... looks like its been pp
good job

[silversldr]

I really enjoy both of them, but prefer the BW only if I had to choose between the two. Great work all around.

[sapearl]

Thanks mammothz - about that sky, I'd be lying if I said it was EXACTLY like that. And here's the thing with photoshop - I could have emphasized the sky and clouds to a degree in the traditional wet darkroom but nothing like this. PS makes it easy to enhance as well as go too far.

What I did here was create a duplicate layer, IMAGE ADJUST -> EXPOSURE -> (increase a bit.) And then I "erased away" the sky to get it to that point.

I think the effect looks pretty cool - very dramatic and unusual. But did I go too far? Perhaps. Typically you would rarely see this sort of thing with traditional silver gelatin wet photography. But digital makes it so easy to experiment. I like the effect, but it does not resemble the wet B/W work I did 30 years ago. That takes a little getting used to.:rolleyes:

holy moly... this shot is awesome
was that how the sky was ?... looks like its been pp
good job

[sam walker]

Nicely done Stewart I remember when Cleveland had a fabulous art museum to visit. I do miss our yearly visits. Cool look at St Oilcan.
Sam
North Olmsted

[sapearl]

Hi Sam - appreciate it. The museum is still there and undergoing a quarter billion dollar expansion and renovation right now. That would be off the the right, out of the field of view of this particular shot. Yes, the OilCan is quite a landmark :D.

Nicely done Stewart I remember when Cleveland had a fabulous art museum to visit. I do miss our yearly visits. Cool look at St Oilcan.
Sam
North Olmsted

[airfrogusmc]

Ladies and gents - for your viewing pleasure ;). - Stu

OUTSTANDING!!!

[sapearl]

Thanks Air - always nice seeing you :D. All the blossoms are gone now and summer heat has set in. I'd really like to time it for a day when a storm is rolling in over the museum grounds. But, there's this minor issue called a day job which cuts into my shooting schedule :lol:.

OUTSTANDING!!!

[airfrogusmc]

Thanks Air - always nice seeing you :D. All the blossoms are gone now and summer heat has set in. I'd really like to time it for a day when a storm is rolling in over the museum grounds. But, there's this minor issue called a day job which cuts into my shooting schedule :lol:.

Perfect conversion, great tonal range and a beautiful very well composed scene. Stu so many digital only photographers do not know what a really good B&W image should look like and this would be a perfect example. Nice detail in the sky and you held all of the important shadow detail. Another very nice image from your home town and thanks for posting it.

The B&W by far....
Allen
[/SIZE][/FONT]

[mammothz]

true... that is very cool... but i think its a bit too much :P... make the photo looks toward the "fake" side... where everything else sits perfectly in the real world

still a realy nice foto

[slimninj4]

Wow people still live there? j/k. Great shot. Cleveland does have a nice art museum and I think the zoo is nice too.

[sapearl]

Yes slim, believe it or not there are still plenty of us here ;). If you're one of the lucky who has a good job the city and surrounding area boasts one of the finest Metro Park systems in the nation, with a national park only 30 miles away. Healthcare is tops in the country too :D..... which is something to consider when you're turning into an old fart like me.

Wow people still live there? j/k. Great shot. Cleveland does have a nice art museum and I think the zoo is nice too.

[sapearl]

Mamomothz, that's a valid criticism regarding the comment on the amount of PP. It's something I periodically bring up myself in discussions on HDR in other threads.

When does something stop being an "accurate" photo representation of a subject, and start to become an artistic "interpretation" of the world?

Everything in the B/W conversion excluding the sky is a pretty faithful rendering of the scene, sans color obviously. The clouds in the color original were fairly prominent and I did punch up their contrast in the B/W. I think it's stunning, interesting and really grabs your attention. But does it mirror reality? I'd have to concede that it does not. But it was a fun experiment :D.

true... that is very cool... but i think its a bit too much :P... make the photo looks toward the "fake" side... where everything else sits perfectly in the real world

still a realy nice foto

[airfrogusmc]

Mamomothz, that's a valid criticism regarding the comment on the amount of PP. It's something I periodically bring up myself in discussions on HDR in other threads.

When does something stop being an "accurate" photo representation of a subject, and start to become an artistic "interpretation" of the world?

Everything in the B/W conversion excluding the sky is a pretty faithful rendering of the scene, sans color obviously. The clouds in the color original were fairly prominent and I did punch up their contrast in the B/W. I think it's stunning, interesting and really grabs your attention. But does it mirror reality? I'd have to concede that it does not. But it was a fun experiment :D.

Stu just remember this, Adam's Yosemite shot Clearing Storm was not that way in REALITY. He pre-visualized where he wanted his zones (tones) and exposed for the shadow and processed the film for the highlights(manipulating the contrast) and then printed the way he envisioned the scene not necessarily the way it was in reality but the way he saw it in his mind. That sky in Clearing Storm was nothing like that in reality. He burned and dodged and used whatever he could to get his imaged to look like the way his minds eye saw the scene. I think your image is PERFECT as is and a fine example of a good B&W digital image.

Photography itself doesn't mirror reality. Reality or better they way we perceive reality is motion and always changing. Once you freeze a moment in time its no longer the way we perceive reality so the very act of making a photograph is abstract to our human experience.

Great job Stu....

[namasste]

very well done Stu. The conversion is amazing. I'd love some insight into how you mixed your color channels.

so, have you gone all artsy on me and given the Flats a rest?? Lemme know what your plans are coming up, I'll meet ya down there like we've talked about for a year now, lol!

[sapearl]

Thank you Scott - color channels? What are those? :lol: Seriously, I cheated and took another route. I've got a plug-in that I bought off the Fred Miranda site that allows you to "convert" the color image as if you had shot B/W film through the traditional Red, Yellow, Green, Orange, Blue etc filters of analog yore. Once you select a particular camera filter you can tweak the individual results to personal taste.

Well, I haven't gone totally artsy. Actually haven't been in the Flats for a bit - distracted by actual wedding and bar mitzvah work. My wife gets aggravated when I don't take care of the paying clients in a timely fashion.:lol:

very well done Stu. The conversion is amazing. I'd love some insight into how you mixed your color channels.

so, have you gone all artsy on me and given the Flats a rest?? Lemme know what your plans are coming up, I'll meet ya down there like we've talked about for a year now, lol!

[namasste]

Well, I haven't gone totally artsy. Actually haven't been in the Flats for a bit - distracted by actual wedding and bar mitzvah work. My wife gets aggravated when I don't take care of the paying clients in a timely fashion.:lol:

LOL, I haven't been down there yet this year to shoot either. Sports season keeps me hopping and I haven't even processed our vacation stuff yet. Too bad it's just so damn much fun to shoot!:lol:

[sapearl]

Thank you for the support and vote of confidence air ;). I understand what you are saying and agree with all of it in principle. I guess old darkroom habits die hard and I'm still amazed at what can be achieved in CS3 so quickly with relatively little pain. I still have a bit of that "analog purist" attitude that might be holding me back a bit from some really wild out of the box experimentation.

But I know EXACTLY what you mean about how the camera sees something vs. how your mind sees something. I will very often happen upon and scene and just spend some time staring at it for a while, envisioning the tonality, various elements, and composition possibilities.

Speaking of Adams.... the iconic image that really sticks out in my mind is his "Moonrise Over Hernandez New Mexico."

http://www.fada.com/view_image.html?image_no=3543

I was fortunate enough to actually see this in the flesh at the National Archives in DC a few years back.

The LCD doesn't do the print justice but the original is absolutely stunning! I wonder how much of that was the actual reality vs. Ansels Mind's Eye perception. We will probably never know..... but does it really make any difference? ;)

Stu just remember this, Adam's Yosemite shot Clearing Storm was not that way in REALITY. He pre-visualized where he wanted his zones (tones) and exposed for the shadow and processed the film for the highlights(manipulating the contrast) and then printed the way he envisioned the scene not necessarily the way it was in reality but the way he saw it in his mind. That sky in Clearing Storm was nothing like that in reality. He burned and dodged and used whatever he could to get his imaged to look like the way his minds eye saw the scene. I think your image is PERFECT as is and a fine example of a good B&W digital image.

Photography itself doesn't mirror reality. Reality or better they way we perceive reality is motion and always changing. Once you freeze a moment in time its no longer the way we perceive reality so the very act of making a photograph is abstract to our human experience.

Great job Stu....

[airfrogusmc]

Thank you for the support and vote of confidence air ;). I understand what you are saying and agree with all of it in principle. I guess old darkroom habits die hard and I'm still amazed at what can be achieved in CS3 so quickly with relatively little pain. I still have a bit of that "analog purist" attitude that might be holding me back a bit from some really wild out of the box experimentation.

But I know EXACTLY what you mean about how the camera sees something vs. how your mind sees something. I will very often happen upon and scene and just spend some time staring at it for a while, envisioning the tonality, various elements, and composition possibilities.

Speaking of Adams.... the iconic image that really sticks out in my mind is his "Moonrise Over Hernandez New Mexico."

http://www.fada.com/view_image.html?image_no=3543


I was fortunate enough to actually see this in the flesh at the National Archives in DC a few years back.

The LCD doesn't do the print justice but the original is absolutely stunning! I wonder how much of that was the actual reality vs. Ansels Mind's Eye perception. We will probably never know..... but does it really make any difference? ;)

Last time I was in Santa Fe they had a 16 X 20 printed by Adams for sale. A bit rich for my blood though $160,000 and it had a sold tag on it.

Theres a great story behind the image. He was driving back from a day of shooting with his son and he had an old pontiac station wagon with a platform welded to the top of it. He was passing the town of Hernandez and he saw the way the late sun was lighting up the crosses in the grave yard. He quickly pulled the car over and grabbed the viewcamera, tripod and climbed up topside. He got up there and noticed he didn't have his spot meter. He wanted to make sure he didn't loose detail in the moon but he didn't have time to get down and get the meter so he remembered how many ft candles the moon put out at 3/4 and based his exposure then his neg development time on that info that he remembered. He exposed one sheet, told his son to bring him the meter, flipped the film back over and just as he was getting ready to pull the darkslide the sun went behind the mountains that were behind him to the west and the crosses went dead. He got the one exposure and what an exposure. Oh well, I thought it was great story. And it is a great photograph.

How many photographers would have placed the sky that dark? It was his interpretation of that scene. How many photographers have gone back to that spot and tried to get the same image? Thousands but theres still only ONE MOONRISE. Musta been his minds eye...

You still have it bro and what ever you do don't give it up.