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[OM] Re: Photos for your critique

Subject: [OM] Re: Photos for your critique
From: "John A. Lind" <jalind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 01:17:42 -0500
At 03:33 PM 5/14/2005, Moose wrote:
>Chris Barker wrote:
>
> >I agree, but what has caused the outlines around some of the flowers?
> >
> >
>Looks like the result of sharpening. The twigs in the lovely "Thoughts
>of Summer" TOPE photo also show sharpening artifacts, little halos of
>lighter background beside/around each little twig and the right and
>upper sides of the branches and the bench back.

Yes . . . it is the effect of sharpening . . . and will likely have me 
working with the scans to adjust it again!

>As one who is always trying to walk the line between nice and sharp and 
>oversharpened, an all too often overdoes it, I recognize the signs. 
>Frustrating how what seems just right in PS can look overdone on the web page.

It's frustrating trying to get sharpness back after downsizing an image . . 
. which softens it . . . and have changed strategies for tweaking it over 
time.  Currently I try to find some region of sky with an expanse of very 
little change in tonal value and watch for artifact generation as 
sharpening parameters are increased or decreased.  Some of my older images 
are oversharpened.  It's also interesting how different the sharpening can 
look on different monitors . . . especially between an analog CRT and LCD 
panel.  I don't have PS; I use PictureWindow which has most of the features 
of PS, but they are controlled in a different manner.

>In a possibly related note, I have recently changed the background on my 
>web pages from dark blue or dark neutral gray to black, having found black 
>to look good to me on other's sites. Now I notice that an image that looks 
>good "in black" can look a little washed out against the lighter, tannish 
>background of the TOPE site. Not a complaint, just an observation. I just 
>very slightly darken images for TOPE.

When making a large print with gallery or salon presentation, I consider 
the mat color.  Depends on how it will be used and to whom it might be 
submitted . . . some galleries and salons require white mat of minimum 
width for all work submitted to a juried show (any other color or less than 
minimum width results in summary rejection).  If color isn't specified, I 
consider matte black, matte white or a muted tartan green.  The color 
depends on the photograph, and it does affect its visual impact.  I don't 
try to match some prominent color in the photograph . . . it's impossible 
to get an exact match and it can distract from other important elements in 
the photograph.  The purpose is providing separation of photograph from 
surroundings (e.g. wall) and to allow the print to come forward to the eye 
from the surrounding mat.  If viewer's of the work don't remember the mat 
color or style and color of the frame (for gallery presentation), but do 
remember the photograph, the presentation is working as it should.  It 
cannot give a photograph visual impact, but it can destroy it in one that 
otherwise would.  The "traditional" mat color for photographs is a matte 
white . . . but that doesn't work as well as black with some 
photographs.  I use the muted green much less . . . usually with 
photographs like the flower macros that have a green background well out of 
focus.  Gallery walls are typically an off-white although I've seen 
something similar to the TOPE page color used.

Background page color surrounding web images similarly affects how a 
photograph visually moves forward out of the page to the viewer's eye 
although the color(s) that work effectively may be different from what one 
would select for matting a print.

-- John Lind


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