Portland, OR landscape

[Arya Wiese]

This was taken on my way to a wedding rehersal in Vancouver, WA and I happened to get stuck in Friday afternoon traffic that was soon congested with tons of accidents. What should have taken 40 min ended up taking almost 3 hours. While stuck in traffic I pulled out my camera - really what else was I to do on the freeway that had become a parking lot? I would love to know what you think about my color. I love b&w and I am starting to come around to the idea that color does exist in the world...hehe. This was taken a little after 6:30pm very bright sun. My EXIF data is listed below. I do appriciate your comments and opinions on your feelings of the image and any technical issues you see.

EXIF DATA:
Flash used: No
Focal length: 50.0mm (35mm equivalent: 75mm)
Exposure time: 0.0010 s (1/1000)
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv.: 200
Whitebalance: Manual

 

[nicolas claris]

A warm welcome to the rich world of colors!

 

[Asher Kelman]

A warm welcome to the rich world of colors!

Nonsense,

This picture is good in color too! Try it in B&W, the clouds are spectacular. It's not good to be drunk by the common superficiality of color. Color might be enticing but it's very hard for it to be right. When it is, truly, the picture bursts with life.

Seeing color photographs of man-made things reminds me of the well-endowed girl whos entry to a room stops conversation and turns heads for the instant "Wow!" reaction. That's how we are, quite superficial, LOL!

Black and white allows one to see tonality. This picture has the beautiful sky and below it the city. I'm happy just to see the clouds. For that, what's better than B&W?

There's something primordial about great clouds billowing up in swirling plumes and layers and charriots of light. Seeing that over a city can make an place look great.

Still, Nicolas, my very good friend, the picture works well in color too! So we can agree! Still, Arya, I might want to bring out more the detail in the clouds as there's more to see.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

BTW Arya,

Expensive gear in a signature is searchable on the net. In your profile it's hidden. So we like to see stuff stashed where we can see it but they cannot! Anyway, we assume everyone has sufficent gear! I love to learn that someone uses a Nikon like you do or a Pentax, Leica or Digital Back, Pinhole or LF camera, interesting stuff, for that gives an idea of our breadth in resources. When you list gear in profile under "Photographic Interests" we can better understand our strengths!

Asher

 

[Greg Rogers]

Hmm. How much trouble do we get into here when we respectfully disagree with the "boss"?

My tenure being short, never know how much to opine. I like this one as is, Ayra.

I'm off to convert to BW to see if I've made a fool of myself. Ok, just did. Tried 5 or so B/W conversions. The greys in the sky and the majority of the buildings add quite enough B/W for me, and I like the slightly, but not overdone "gold" of the hi-rise on the right. That one building, accented by the subtle, yet not overdone blue of the water, pops the shot. (just my opinion)

-Greg

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Nonsense,

This picture is good in color too! Try it in B&W, the clouds are spectacular. It's not good to be drunk by the common superficiality of color. Color might be enticing but it's very hard for it to be right. When it is, truly, the picture bursts with life.

I agree with both Asher and Nicolas, not because I don't dare to choose sides but because both are right. Most of my early photographic life, including my professional education/training consisted of black and white imaging. I've spent many many hours in a photographic darkroom as well, experiencing the magic of images literally developing in front of my eyes. The image processing part was almost as important as the picture taking part. Color processing was not fun at all, the technical tolerances were too tight, and took most of the time to get right, very distracting in a creative process.

Shooting in Black and White is a great way to learn and think in tonal gradations, and it is very hard to do well. There are some subjects that can benefit from the abstraction, mostly ones with strong composition and with an intricate play between light and shadow.
Color adds another creative possibility to the tonal ones, which makes it sometimes harder for an image to transcend from a mere picture into art. When the color element is exploited to its fullest, it will IMHO invoke stronger emotions than possible with B&W, but it is also very hard to do well.

With regards to Arya's image, I feel the color is an important element. The golden tones in the buildings contrast beautifully with the cooler tones of the water and sky. The chosen crop balances the man-made structures against the natural clouds and water, but the colors prevent them from fighting for dominance.

Bart

 

[Arya Wiese]

Thank you Asher, I didn't realize it wasn't ok to put my equipment in my siggy, I moved it. I don't think I have a ton of expensive equipment, just the basics - I would like to get a few more and a nice backup camera (digital of course)...anyways...sorry for the ramble.

Thank you Nicolas, colors are begining to stick on me and I am loving it.

Asher I did try it in b&w and loved the richness that I got tonally and the clouds did look awsome but I ended up putting the color one on my wall because the color spoke to me a little louder then the b&w. I really do appriciate the visual you gave about the billowing clouds...I too was amazed that I didn't blow them out to nothingness - Thank you for taking the time to let me know you thoughts.

Greg Thank you for respectfully disagreeing with the boss - isn't that what art is all about - What the viewer sees and not so much what the artist sees. It's about seeing what moves us and building on it and enjoying the varing aspects found within.

**I have only been here a few days and already I love everyone's bluntness and views - they are differing but bring a different perspective to me that I may not have seen before - I can't wait to get more involved. Thank you all for your wonderful comments and insights**

 

[nicolas claris]

Nonsense

Asher And I, as the best friends in the World, like to tease each other…

But for once I'd like the things to be very clear in regards to my "position" toward B&W and colors:

- None is easy to achieve

- color, as B&W, can be serious or fancy, depending of the photographer's intent

- I don't do B&W but I can appreciate a B&W print

- Real life is colored (AFAIK)

- If there is a color that I don't like when framing, I move to another angle, or frame differently, or don't shoot…

- I think that B&W where done largely when color was not affordable or poorly (quality wise) printed.
This statement does not mean that there is no Art in B&W ;-)

- I deeply think that a photography -therefore the choice of tonality/colors/B&W) must be in the mind of the photog (position "a" of the Arc of Intent) before acting the shutter, whatever will be the needs of post-process.

- Therefore, a photographer wishing/intending a B&W picture, will think B&W (not my case, but I understand some others do), hopefully shoot B&W (except if the colors are needed in the worflow…).

- I don't think that a bad color image can do a good B&W picture. A bad image is a bad image: to be deleted!
- There is no rescue possible. Rescue cannot be part of a workflow, or at least, cannot be expected as.

- One should be very carefull not to fall into the blind adoring of B&W as if it were the only serious way of doing "art photography"

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

....
- Real life is colored (AFAIK)
...

- I deeply think that a photography -therefore the choice of tonality/colors/B&W) must be in the mind of the photog (position "a" of the Arc of Intent) before acting the shutter, whatever will be the needs of post-process.

- Therefore, a photographer wishing/intending a B&W picture, will think B&W (not my case, but I understand some others do), hopefully shoot B&W (except if the colors are needed in the worflow…).

- I don't think that a bad color image can do a good B&W picture. A bad image is a bad image: to be deleted!
...

Thanks Nicolas for these powerful statements, I agree with them 100%!

Before I get flamed I should hastily add that this is not to say that I therefore disagree with the rest of what has been written in this thread; au contraire! <smile>

Cheers,

 

[Ray West]

Hi Cem,

I'm afraid I can only agree with what Nicolas has stated for 70%.

I think about 80% of Asher's fewer statements are right.

If you are not careful I will itemise where I see it differently.

(Am I to assume everyone is referring to Landscape photography (I'll allow seascape for Nicolas ;-) Do we want to move this to the dangerous side?

Best wishes,

Ray

 

[nicolas claris]

(Am I to assume everyone is referring to Landscape photography (I'll allow seascape for Nicolas ;-)

Thanks Ray, but I don't see any reason to separate land and sea scapes…

In the past, the so British Frank Beken and his son Keith did beautifull B&W marine photography (their successors do shoot digital and color nowadays…)
More on Beken of Cowes

 

[Ray West]

Hi Nicolas,

I wasn't trying to separate, that is why I included both. I think much of what is said on this sort of thread topic depends entirely on the subject material, although there is a certain amount of overlap. For example, portrait photography has a different requirement to forensic or medical photography, but there is a large overlap.

I'm not actually sure if Beken actually did/do much seascape as such. I think it may be more akin to architectural or product photography, i.e. the yacht is the main interest. I suspect it could be different if they are shooting for a specific customer, or for stock/themselves.

Best wishes,

Ray

 

[nicolas claris]

Ray
My previous post, the one with statements, was purely ethical about photography, there is no possible distinction, wether the pic shows a bear, a fish, a mountain, a beach, a wasp, a tree, a car, a boat, the sky, a man or even a women!-)

 

[nicolas claris]

Ray
My previous post, the one with statements, was purely ethical about photography, there is no possible distinction, wether the pic shows a bear, a fish, a mountain, a beach, a wasp, a tree, a car, a boat, the sky, a man or even a women!-)

 

[Ray West]

Hi Nicolas,

Well, I found three points I disagree with, although I can not argue with you with reference to your preferred way of working, it is what suits you, after all. I am saying that three of these statements, are not necessarily valid for others, wrt landscape, and are not ones that I would agree with. If you wish to consider the whole gamut of photography, there are possibly more differences.

There are, after all, many ways of skinning a cat. First, find a cat....

Best wishes,
Ray

 

[Charles L Webster]

I agree with Nicolas 100% on the point I quoted below. It is for that reason that I seldom shoot B&W. I do not see in B&W any more!

When I was young and learning about photography, I could not afford color, and couldn't cope with the rigors of color processing even if I could. So I developed my photography skills in B&W, learned "to see as the camera sees" in B&W. But more than 20 years away from photography has caused me to loose that ability. Now I see in color, and therefore must make color pictures. Any picture of mine these days that is good in B&W is purely happenstance.

Asher And I, as the best friends in the World, like to tease each other…

But for once I'd like the things to be very clear in regards to my "position" toward B&W and colors:

-snip-


- Therefore, a photographer wishing/intending a B&W picture, will think B&W (not my case, but I understand some others do), hopefully shoot B&W (except if the colors are needed in the worflow…).
-snip-

- One should be very carefull not to fall into the blind adoring of B&W as if it were the only serious way of doing "art photography"

 

[janet Smith]

- Therefore, a photographer wishing/intending a B&W picture, will think B&W

I agree with Charles & Nic, when I was at College studying photography, my lecturer had a difficult time getting me to try B & W, I was completely hooked on colour, but as part of the course I had to learn to hand process film & print, and ended up addicted to B & W as well (much to the delight of my lecturer.) I worked from home for several years, hand printing B & W portraits, but it was all far too time consuming to be profitable. I haven't intentionally shot for B & W for some years, it has now become something I tend to use to try and rescue shots I'm not completely happy with. I intend to start a project working on flowers in B & W soon, perhaps, with dying and fading flowers, the two seem to go hand in hand....

If I get anything of interest I'll show the results.