Excellent explanation, I have the same feeling but just don't know how to
express it.
C.H.Ling
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Norton"
> 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
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