Outeniqua

[Dawid Loubser]

Just wanted to share a landscape photograph which I recently made in the beautiful Outeniqua mountains in the Garden Route, Western Cape, South Africa.

Outeniqua

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Wonderful Dawid, was this film or digital?

 

[Asher Kelman]

Just wanted to share a landscape photograph which I recently made in the beautiful Outeniqua mountains in the Garden Route, Western Cape, South Africa.

Outeniqua

Dawid,

A masterful shot. You've used skies others might feature as the key elements as the feature to balance the formidably carved dark mountains. So well crafted! No tones left unused!

Thanks for sharing,

Asher

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

This is a great photograph alright... Excellent choice of framing and beautiful processing! Those multiple mountain tops, not only look like the same one repeats itself, but they remind (imo), the most sexual attracting female breast one can imagine of... The dimensionality of the image is just su-pe-rb.... One's view just disappears to the depth of it! ....Beautiful! ...Thanks for sharing Dawid.

P.S. Are those two faces (the ones that form deep at the center of the image) an accident, or is it something you observed and contributed on the inspiration for the shot?

 

[Asher Kelman]

Theodoros,

I must admit, even searching hard for the forms you see, I come up empty handed.

Asher

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

Theodoros,

I must admit, even searching hard for the forms you see, I come up empty handed.

Asher

Lol.... I bet you Alain would have spotted it immediately...

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

It, Theodoros,?

I was referring to your discovery of breasts!

Asher

Ohhh... that is a "parallelism", I thought you was talking on the faces in the centre of the image!

 

[Asher Kelman]

Lol.... I bet you Alain would have spotted it immediately...

The composition I read as a whole and no images within this frame have asserted themselves to define their presence, as of yet. Not to say that hints might not be revealed later on, but this, I thinks speaks to the great formal design of the composition: it reads so well as a whole, it's so coherent, that one is not so easily distracted by any potential sub-units.

Asher

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

it reads so well as a whole, it's so coherent, that one is not so easily distracted by any potential sub-units.

Asher

I never said that the forms that are present are a distraction Asher (nor I ever referred to them as such)... Actually, what I say, is the opposite.

 

[Jerome Marot]

I see mountains... and clouds. Maybe I should try whatever you are smoking.

Why is the left slope of the right-hand mountain darker than the rest?

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

I see mountains... and clouds. Maybe I should try whatever you are smoking.

Why is the left slope of the right-hand mountain darker than the rest?

I think it's because the rest of slopes are lighter....

 

[Asher Kelman]

Just wanted to share a landscape photograph which I recently made in the beautiful Outeniqua mountains in the Garden Route, Western Cape, South Africa.

Outeniqua

Guys,

This picture deserves your attention! I wanted to give folk a chance to see this again as it's so well done!

Asher

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Guys,

This picture deserves your attention! I wanted to give folk a chance to see this again as it's so well done!

Asher

Well, the picture was given due attention by Jerome, Theodoros, you and me. Dawid has not comment back yet (which is not like Dawid), I hope that he has been doing alright.

 

[Dawid Loubser]

Good evening all,

I must admit, I feel just terrible for abandoning this thread like that, and after you have all responded to positively to my latest image. I am very sorry! I think I forgot to subscribe to this tread, and cleanly forgot about it.

This image, together with Downstream Escher, are - in my opinion - probably my two most significant images of 2013. I have printed both to A2 size on heavy matte paper, and they make me smile when I look at them!

Back to the image: I must admit, the "faces" that Theodoros sees were not something that I saw during composing the image - only afterwards in the processed end-result. A happy and subtle accident! Nor have I personally made the connotation with female breasts (for those, I'd have to post some different photographs...) but I can see how somebody might.

This image - as several of you have remarked - is all about the tones. Starting with deep, rich tones in the foreground, uniformly fading to a delicate, graphite-drawing-like background. The overcast light was playing just right on the fynbos-covered mountain surfaces for this image to work.

It was also an excercise in seeing for me - just as the 114° ultra-wide-angle field of view in Downstream Escher challenged me to see laterally - but here, to delicately compose an image with balance and depth using a telephoto lens, in a genre that I don't often partake in, namely the "straightforward" landscape.

Thank you all for reminding me that this forum is primarily a place to discuss photographs (and not cameras like so many toxically-combative other internet photography forums). Hope to share in more discussions with all of you fine gentlemen (and ladies) soon.

I hope you all had a wonderful christmas!

kind regards,
Dawid

 

[Dawid Loubser]

Wonderful Dawid, was this film or digital?

Cem,

This was a digital image, made with an Olympus E-5 and the 35-100mm f/2 lens.

It was shot in RAW, and processed in the open-source Darktable application on Arch Linux. I made careful tonal adjustments and converted to monochrome using a limited part of the colour spectrum (simulating colour filters), to emphasise the shadow/light relationships, and to make the sky more dramatic.

I continue to shoot an equal amount of digital and (larger-format) film, but for telephoto images, there's no competition really: Both 'equivalent' options for my Mamiya or Linhof are just too cumbersome to get to the top of a mountain like this on foot

 

[Asher Kelman]

Good evening all,

I must admit, I feel just terrible for abandoning this thread like that, and after you have all responded to positively to my latest image. I am very sorry! I think I forgot to subscribe to this tread, and cleanly forgot about it.

Dawid,

Glad you're back, our holiday gift!

This image, together with Downstream Escher, are - in my opinion - probably my two most significant images of 2013. I have printed both to A2 size on heavy matte paper, and they make me smile when I look at them!

I'm impressed at the results you get with the diminutive but elegant Olympus E-5 digital camera and that you can print to A2 size! Compared to your film cameras, how limiting has it been in printing larger images? How large do you think you could go without folk losing that genuine impact of being there?

Asher

 

[Dawid Loubser]

Dawid,

Glad you're back, our holiday gift!

I'm impressed at the results you get with the diminutive but elegant Olympus E-5 digital camera and that you can print to A2 size! Compared to your film cameras, how limiting has it been in printing larger images? How large do you think you could go without folk losing that genuine impact of being there?

Asher

Hi Asher,

I feel strongly that these digital prints match or exceed - in most aspects except "tonal smoothness" perhaps - the best I can do in the darkroom with my Mamiya RB67 and fine-grained film, i.e. Pan F at ISO32. It does not come close to what I can do with 4x5in in theory, but in practice, it often beats it, because it's so very much easier to make a large digital print, and because even my large format lenses are no match for these olympus lenses, and it's also very challenging to obtain edge-to-edge sharpness because of film bowing in the film holders, minute lens movements, etc.

I did not at all feel this to be the case years back when I shot Canon and used Apple Aperture, but now my digital tools have changed for the better.

The only thing that is dimunitive about the Olympus E-5 SLR (not to be confused with the E-M5 mirrorless) is its sensor. The camera body is the same size as a full-frame SLR. I use it, because it mates perfectly with the three Olympus Super High Grade zoom lenses that I use, and these lenses are simply the best lenses that I have ever owned.

We have moved so far past what is necessary to make superb images with high-end digital cameras, I feel that if you cannot make it with an Olympus E-5, you cannot make it at all.

The latest advancements (which largely constitute releasing new camera bodies for which no adequate lenses exist, it seems...) don't cause me any trepidation or doubt.
The 'ancient' E-5 really resonates with me, and exceeds my expectations. I mean, what more could I ask for, than stupendously perfect lens coverage from 14mm to 200mm equivalent (35mm)? This is sort of a holy grail, where only my personal vision is the limitation.

 

[Asher Kelman]

The only thing that is dimunitive about the Olympus E-5 SLR (not to be confused with the E-M5 mirrorless) is its sensor. It's the same size as a full-frame SLR. I use it, because it mates perfectly with the three Olympus Super High Grade zoom lenses that I use, and these lenses are simply the best lenses that I have ever owned.

Full size sensor, Dawid? I thought it was just a 4/3 12 MP sensor?

Or dod you mean that it's the same size camera as a Nikon or canon DSLR,

Asher

 

[Dawid Loubser]

That's right, Asher, it's a four thirds sensor (quarter the area of 35mm film).

If you re-read my comment (which I have edited to be more clear), you'll see that I am referring to the physical size of the E-5, which is indeed as big as a Canon 5D.

What one gets in return is incredible lens performance from the oversized, telecentric lenses, effective in-body image stabilisation, a very good articulated rear screen, a large, bright optical viewfinder, ultra-tough weather sealing, and generally great handling.

Like I said - if you can't turn out top-notch work with this, Olympus' best of 2009 technology, you're not going to do any better with anything newer.

 

[Asher Kelman]

That's right, Asher, it's a four thirds sensor (quarter the area of 35mm film).

If you re-read my comment (which I have edited to be more clear), you'll see that I am referring to the physical size of the E-5, which is indeed as big as a Canon 5D.

What one gets in return is incredible lens performance from the oversized, telecentric lenses, effective in-body image stabilisation, a very good articulated rear screen, a large, bright optical viewfinder, ultra-tough weather sealing, and generally great handling.

Like I said - if you can't turn out top-notch work with this, Olympus' best of 2009 technology, you're not going to do any better with anything newer.

Amazing testimony to the camera, Dawid. Your pictures do attest to that! Olympus is a venerable and really wonderful company, albeit with some management issues. Nevertheless, if a Canon 6D with lenses of the same reach were offered instead, would you accept?

Asher

 

[Dawid Loubser]

Nevertheless, if a Canon 6D with lenses of the same reach were offered instead, would you accept?

This is of course a matter of personal taste, but I only think I would consider it if Canon made comparable lenses, and if the 6D (which is a "budget" body) compared to the fully professional E-5 body. For my needs, I would thus not accept.

There is something about the contrast and the colour, together with the E-5 sensor, that really pleases me. It really makes the best of those 12MP. Pixel-peeping looks like a Leica M8/9 file, without the excessive Moire or corner light falloff. The only thing that draws me to other systems are the possibilities of shallower depth of field when you need it. For that, I really do miss my 50mm f/1.2L. Such an artistic lens!

The Olympus lenses are not artistic. They are perfection. So if your subject is not truly great, the lenses are not going to inject them with visual flavour like a 50L does.

I have a healthy dose of "artistic" with my film cameras, so the E-5 performs it's function for me in the digital realm. It was with a shock that I saw, the other day, that a Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II has four stops of light falloff in the corners - exposing at f/5.6 when the centre is at f/1.4.

With my Olympus lenses, when I expose at f/2.0, I get f/2.0 evenly across the whole frame (less than a stop of falloff). With a limited sensor such as the E-5 posesses, this is important. I like to add vignetting when appropriate (sometimes), not remove against my will (always)