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[OM] Re: How much is too much?

Subject: [OM] Re: How much is too much?
From: hiwayman@xxxxxxx (Walt Wayman)
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 14:41:32 +0000
In my defense/defence (since we're being bilingual now) let me say that my 
question was about the propriety or ethics of making the changes I did and not 
about the decision of what things to change and the skill with which the 
changes were made.  If I had intended to make a print of even a modest size, 
say an 8x10, of this image, certainly I would've exercised more care in 
sweeping up, stealing the man's fungo bat and pool cue, sticking his hand in 
his pocket (more about which later) than I did for an 800 pixel wide, medium 
quality JPEG.  That's my excuse for some of the sloppiness -- sort of like 
painting the ceiling in a closet; if anyone wants to look too closely, they 
deserve to see something ugly.  :-)

Now for the missing hand.  That was the last thing I did, and I debated over it 
with myself until one of us had too much to drink, got abusive, and the other 
abandoned the argument, so the man lost his hand.  In the original scan, a 
7232x4880 pixel, 211,752,950 byte TIFF, there is detail in the hand, things 
like fingers, etc., but in the little JPEG, it just looked like a blob of meat, 
which part of me found to be distracting.  So, being the winner of the 
argument, that part of me lopped off that part of him.  Or put it in his 
pocket, if you prefer, just like I, of course, gave him back his newspaper and 
wooden implements when I was through.

Finally, I could have shot this scene without all the surrounding empty space, 
particularly since it was taken with a 28-105 zoom lens at 28mm.  At the time I 
shot it, however, I thought the empty space added a sense of loneliness and 
abandonment to the fellow, and when all the detail can be seen in the full-size 
scan, it does have a certain impact that couldn't be conveyed in an image with 
lower resolution.  In the end, though, I prefer the crop the way it is.

Walt
--
"Anything more than 500 yards from 
the car just isn't photogenic." -- 
Edward Weston

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Winsor Crosby wrote:
> 
> >I guess I will say something too. 
> >
> Me too, me too! May I piggyback on yours, 'cause it address pretty much 
> the same things I'm interested in.
> 
> >I think it changes the picture quite 
> >a bit which is all right if that is what you want. I think the trash 
> >says something about the place and the extreme fatigue of the man who 
> >would feel safe enough to snooze there.
> >
> And yet... The shiny stuff under the bench pulls attention away from the 
> main subjects. There are already so many subjects that I don't want 
> something so shiny down there. Leaving the paper in the light would be ok.
> 
> >Removing the hand from his case cancels the anxiety that made want to keep 
> >it 
> safe in the event he dozed off. 
> >
> I really agree with this. Getting rid of the bright white rolls is fine, 
> but I think the hand tells an important part of the story. Also, without 
> the hand's position to tell me that the forearm is resting well back on 
> the suitcase, explaining the lack of a visible shoulder on that side, I 
> think he looks a little like an amputee.
> 
> >The bulge in his jacket 
> >
> I thought the bulges on the sides were the bunched up sides of an 
> umbuttoned sports jacket under the coat. You can see the collar. then 
> the coat is pulled tight across empty space in the center.
> 
> >seems to indicate the priority of 
> >what needs to be most protected, the case with the hand next, then the 
> >case next to him and then the umbrella. I think the unphotoshopped 
> >picture is much stronger.  And I am more comfortable with the dark 
> >shadows with trash under the bench than I am with the digital noise and 
> >round edged clone stamps that replace it.
> >
> Me too, but it could be done more effectively. I would probably have 
> just selected the whole area and lowered its brightness quite a bit.
> 
> > The crop is great.
> >
> Yes, without it, all the energy disappates.
> 
> >I don't have much problem with using Photoshop. I believe you really have to 
> >think about why and how you are going to do it though.
> >
> As I'm sure Walt did. We all have different ideas of what looks best
> 
> Moose
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