Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] Panorama - Crop? H or V?

Subject: Re: [OM] Panorama - Crop? H or V?
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:11:03 -0500
Personally, I would like the tonal adjustment to be turned down a notch.
The control only goes to 10 and this one looks to be set on 12.  I
understand that this adjustment is for illustration purposes so it is
exaggerated a bit, but it does represent one thing I find most grating to
me.  The clouds look too crunchy with the amount of highlight recovery done
on the image. This is not only unnatural but doesn't even remotely look
comfortable.  The clouds, when processed that way, snap and pop in the scene
giving that "wow factor" when you first see the image, but the image then
becomes old in a real hurry.

But what about Ansel Adams pictures?  Aren't they the same way?  Yes, they
are.  In fact, I also crunch the snot out of the clouds in my B&W pictures
too, but there is one very important difference:

B&W images are abstract by their very nature. The fact that they are already
abstract means that you have freedom to bend reality a bit without
disturbing the viewer.

Color images, on the other hand, are not abstract by their very nature, but
can be made to be abstract when you remove the tonal point-of-reference.

The tonal point-of-reference in this image is the sky.  Everybody, except
those in the UK, know what a blue sky looks like. It is firmly ingrained in
our visual processing centers. When we look at a photograph like this we
instantly calibrate our vision to the point-of-reference, which is the blue
sky. We know in our minds what clouds are supposed to look like.
Unfortunately, a highly processed image like this has the clouds moved too
far down the tonal scale in relation to what the mind knows is correct.

What if?  What if you were to tightly crop the image on only one cloud and
process it heavily. Is that OK?  Yes it is, because the point-of-reference
(blue sky and other known objects) have been removed.  Once you remove those
elements, you end up with an abstract image which is this free game for
artistic intent.

AG
-- 
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz