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2013 Landscapes

Alain Briot

pro member
MG_0071-warped-Flat.jpg

Blue Mesa Cottonwoods
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
MG_0071-warped-Flat.jpg

Blue Mesa Cottonwoods


Alain,


This is immediately fascinating. That blue rock formation is quite distinctive. I presume this is in Arizona. Is this Hopi territory and can one just go there and explore or does one need a Hopi guide?


Asher
 

Alain Briot

pro member
Thank you to both of you. Acually it is in Southern Utah, near Hanksville. No need for an Indian Guide!

I also have a vertical version:

Cottonwoods-Blue-Mesa-Vertical.jpg

Blue Mesa Cottonwoods - Vertical Version
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
The colors are gorgeous, but I find the fence a bit distracting in the horizontal version.

Something else: I notice that the title of this forum section is about Phase One P45 - Hasselblad V (wrongly spelt Hassleblad... but nobody noticed for years). Do you still use that camera combination?
 

Alain Briot

pro member
Hi Jerome,

Yes, I still use the Hassleblad P45 combination ;-)

Personally I like the fence and that's why I left it in there. I did quite a bit of digital work on the composition of this image and I could easily have taken out the fence.
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Personally I like the fence and that's why I left it in there. I did quite a bit of digital work on the composition of this image and I could easily have taken out the fence.

It may work better when one sees the image bigger. For me, in the present size, it would need more of the grass in front of it to detach it from the frame. But I can see that there is already a thin strip of grass left in front of it. That may be sufficient in a bigger print.
 

Antonio Correia

Well-known member
Excellent images.

However, I like best the vertical one. Perhaps a bit more of soil... just a tad.

Do you stick to certain crop ratios or vary accordingly ?

Myself I tend to "standardise" crops. It is also true that I just use a humble 5D... :)
 

Alain Briot

pro member
Hi Antonio,

I use whatever ratio, or format, necessary for the image. Very often I reformat the image to get a 4x5 ratio because I like it. To do that I use image size in Photoshop with 'keep proportions' unchecked.

Alain
 
I use whatever ratio, or format, necessary for the image.

Hear, hear,

I fully agree with Alain on this. Whatever makes the image better, is what the final crop will be. Having said that, I also initially compose for the 3:2 aspect ratio of my camera, to utilize as many meaningful pixels as possible AND because I like that ratio (close to a golden ratio). However, when the image can be improved by tweaking that ratio I wouldn't hesitate.

This is something that also favors stitching, over striving for a fixed ratio on a given sensor resolution. When I stitch multiple images, I gain full control over the final aspect ratio, without any compromise to pixel count (thus allowing both hyper-detail and optimal image driven aspect ratio).

Cheers,
Bart
 

Antonio Correia

Well-known member
Excuse me but I do not agree !

I like to use always the same ratios for coherence sake and when I want - remember that I am a very humble photographer - to make a collection/set of images under a theme, whichever it may be, I like to have the same size and crop factor for all images and even all should be either landscape or portrait.

Another important factor in this coherence in the general predominance of colors you will find in all photographs, they contrast...

On a wall you like as much as I do - I am sure - to see the frames aligned and not all at random.

For me, cropping is essencial and in spite of trying to make my best when photographing - I use just an old 5D - it is in this action that I decide my image.

However, when I make a portrait I photograph vertically with some exceptions of course.
Accordingly, landscaps are predominantly horizontal...

Have I been a bit confusing ?
 

Alain Briot

pro member
'The world does not come in 4x5 ratio' Ansel Adams. Nor does it come in 6x17 or 24x36 (35mm), or ... you name it! The world comes as it is, unconcerned by photographic formats.

When I decide to use a specific format I do so because it is the strongest way of showing the image. That being said I don't actually select a specific format. I crop the image as I see fit and Natalie cuts a mat to fit the image size. Each mat is custom cut and virtually all my mats are a different size.

And I use an 'old' Hasselblad V, (actually I should say Hassleblad) much older than the 5D! So don't feel bad for not using the latest digital camera. It is you who create the image!
 
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Antonio Correia

Well-known member
Excellent image Alain :)

I like the shadow of the ladder, twisted, bended, strongly composing the image and the dark blue sky enhancing the whites of the house, perhaps a church with the cemetery at our right side.

This is really an image with latin influence... :)
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
_H6T8393-2-600.jpg

Mission and Ladder, Northern New Mexico


Alain,

I immediately am attracted to this B&W "mini-urban" landscape picture. That curved shadow adds life to what otherwise would be a still image. We know the shadow is from the sun and imagine it slowly moving, giving a sense of passing time in the place and of us actually being there. Now once having entered the picture here, we get rewarded by the little "gifts" scattered around: below, an interesting window, to the right above a cross on the roof, in the distance a tightly packed tree line and then the repeated sets of stone making up the successive walls and the curved entrance to the church. What all these disparate elements do is provide the weight to balance the strong feature of the ladder and the live shadow it forms that would otherwise overpower the image.

Just as in a portrait by a skilled photographer, the setup and timing can be so critical, adding the artists fingerprints to the picture. That shadow does it for me here. Kudos!

Now there's one question that remains; would it work so well in color? B&W allows the values of the physicality to work, one against the other. With color, it could be a totally different experience.

Asher
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
On a wall you like as much as I do - I am sure - to see the frames aligned and not all at random.

I too - in general - prefer uniformity of frame sizes and orientations (but not always). That does not stop me from using different image proportions though. I use the frame mat to provide the consistency. I many times place horizontal images in vertical frames if that is what is pleasing to my eye with regards to the configuration of the frame. I absolutely love using very small 4x5 to maybe 6x8 prints matted out to quite large frames - and love using square format prints or proportions that are longer than normal to suit a crop that enhances the image.

One time when I put together a small exhibit - I had noticed other photographers just sticking up a mismatch of frame sizes and colors - - - and wanted a consistent elegant look even though I was using horizontal and vertical images and some prints that were not the same proportions as others. I think it worked well by worrying more about similarity of the frames than how the prints were cropped or positioned - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG8ptCJywmc&list=PLAC04A4B31C075FD5


However, when I make a portrait I photograph vertically with some exceptions of course.
Accordingly, landscaps are predominantly horizontal...

I know that when I started in the professional portrait business back in the late 1970's and 1980's - this was the common sentiment. However, I soon found works by photographers I admired that did not follow that ritual. Of course I had a strong inclination toward square prints at that time and sold much of my portrait work that way. Nothing stopped me from shooting and selling horizontal portraits and photographing landscapes in vertical format.

Same was said about pano shots always being horizontal. My studio walls displayed different vertical panos that were very pleasing to my eye.

I don't think it's necessarily what the images needs when it comes to cropping or orientation - I think those are as much the feelings and needs of the photographer at that point in time. Some other day, he/she may print the same image completely differently (as I did many times being I processed all of my own work).



That said - we each have out own preferences and those need to be respected. I do respect your viewpoint.

-----
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
I need to mention - Stunning Images Alain

My preference as well is for the Horizontal image. The fence does not bother me at all.

-----
 

Antonio Correia

Well-known member
I too - in general - prefer ... That said - we each have out own preferences and those need to be respected. I do respect your viewpoint.

It was a good idea to make the video while working on the spot. Perhaps I will do the same next time I expose if I get someone to make it for me :)

In the last (an unique, so far LOL) exhibit I have done I have used - for economical reasons - a simple A4 printed by myself with a white frame mat and frame.
The "set" was composed with this frame and a small legend and a work of the artist. The idea was this one from the beginning. I have photographed just 8 persons which were enough to fill the available areas.

Here is a photo of the combo.

8438140969_783806cd9a_z.jpg

I was invited for an exhibition also in Setubal for March but it was postponed to June. I suspect it is just a way to make me forget the invitation LOL
I do not belong to his political party and I am very critical regarding this people. Well ...
 

Alain Briot

pro member
"I wonder if it would work as well in color?"
Here is the original capture, you be the judge:

_H6T8394-2.jpg

Mission and Ladder, original capture

_H6T8393-2-600.jpg

Mission and Ladder, Northern New Mexico
 

Antonio Correia

Well-known member
You know Alain... I wanted to tell you in the beginning that I thought the crop is too tight but I didn't dare.
But now that you have posted the original version, I go ahead and say something else.
I hope you don't mind. :)

At first your B&W image looked to me kind of infrared as the sky was very dark and the trees far away look like IR. Perhaps it is my interpretation and I am absolutely wrong. I do admit so.

Both images look to me rather tight. As if they were needing to breed. They need more space all around... but mainly on top and on the right side.

Now I read that it is a mission confirming that it is in fact, a church !

I like best the B&W version ! :)
Thank you for letting us see the original.
 
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