Kingman Farm & Re-Post

Gallery: LandscapePosted May 27, 2014398 views18 comments

Spring flowers have not really hit NH yet, but I found this small group of dandelions that had gone to seed while on a mnt. bike ride and thought there might be some possibilities. I returned and used a 16-35mm and took several exposures for a focal blend. No exposure blending required, as the lighting was pretty even and rather dull for a color image. SO I went the BW route, figuring the detail and contrast of the flowers and surrounding green might be interesting.

The great thing about these super wide lenses is that relatively small areas of interest can be used as subjects when moving in really close. But you all probably already knew that! I'm finding it out now!

ISO 100, f11, 5D mark II

Your thoughts welcome. Large version included.

Post Upload Edit - There seems to be an HDRish feel to the image that I am trying to avoid. Not sure if it a compression problem due to the fine details in the image, or a combination of over-sharpening & compression? Any ideas on that welcome. The original file avoids this look. Maybe more contrast?

Comments

18 comments

Comment posted by Kathy Barnhart on May 27, 2014 at 5:35 PM

Very cool looking...good choice for B and W and excellent processing. Lots of good detail from front to back. Love it.

Registered on November 11, 2011, 404 Posts, 1639 Comments

Comment posted by Joel Hazelton on May 27, 2014 at 5:56 PM

That must have been one hell of a focal blend! I never would have imagined so much drama from a dandelion picture. Very cool shot. Love the processing.

Registered on August 6, 2008, 194 Posts, 1315 Comments

Comment posted by Jeffrey Sipress on May 27, 2014 at 7:10 PM

Nice imaging, Harry. A bit of WA distortion is visible, but does not detract much. I hate those weeds in my neighborhood.

Registered on February 17, 2004, 236 Posts, 1197 Comments

Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on May 27, 2014 at 8:08 PM

Love the frame filling texture. B&W is working very well here. Nice work

Registered on January 24, 2011, 576 Posts, 6942 Comments

Comment posted by gary phillips on May 27, 2014 at 8:44 PM

I love this, Harry. I really appreciate it when ordinary objects are made extraordinary thru vision and insight. The distortion has been noted but is a small nit in a great image. You ask why I used ISO 50 in my last post . I'm not sure I have a good answer to that. I use both 50 and 100 somewhat indiscriminately and have noticed no difference in outcomes. It was full sun and I quess I figured if 100 is good, 50 is better

Registered on October 24, 2013, 185 Posts, 4136 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Teller on May 27, 2014 at 10:19 PM

The image works very well in B&W. I especially like the feeling of depth in the image. The trees, dandilions and clouds just suck you into the image.

Registered on August 23, 2010, 1162 Posts, 6692 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Reid on May 28, 2014 at 9:06 AM

Very unique idea Harry and B&W suits it well. Very nice depth of focus through the scene also. The sky maybe feels a little over processed especially in the centre which is what you may be seeing as HDRish. Maybe more contrast there. Just a thought. Great job on this.

Registered on January 27, 2013, 65 Posts, 2460 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on May 28, 2014 at 10:53 AM

Amazing depth you achieved here, Harry. I don't think I would have ever thought of shooting these dandelions like this after going to seed, but you really made it work! I like your b&w conversion for this very much.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Navin Sarma on May 28, 2014 at 11:15 AM

I like the comp here Harry, but the contrast is a little tough on my eyes I think. I am only starting to understand B&W photography, though, so take that with a grain of salt

Registered on July 17, 2011, 233 Posts, 1373 Comments

Comment posted by Daniel Rappaport on May 28, 2014 at 5:47 PM

Cool composition. It does seem to have a lot of midtones especially in the sky, but doesn't strike me as HDRish.

Registered on September 9, 2009, 294 Posts, 2006 Comments

Comment posted by Aaron Feinberg on May 28, 2014 at 5:52 PM

Holy crap I love the bw...hypnotizing. So cool

aF

Registered on October 26, 2009, 399 Posts, 2789 Comments

Comment posted by Pat Sampson on May 29, 2014 at 10:38 AM

I like the comp, the conversion and the energy conveyed from the scene. No suggestions on my part.

pat

Registered on May 19, 2007, 953 Posts, 15989 Comments

Comment posted by Joseph Campisi on May 29, 2014 at 2:21 PM

Very cool patterns created by the dandelions Harry! I don't think more contrast would be in order. In fact, maybe a tad less would make it look a little less harsh. And it seems like the wide angle you used created some distortion, particularly in some of the foreground flowers.

Love the image though. It has great visual impact, and the B&W conversion works well to showcase the patterns of the flowers. Definitely an image worth working on to improve as much as possible!

Registered on November 24, 2008, 304 Posts, 3211 Comments

Comment posted by Harry Lichtman on May 29, 2014 at 2:45 PM

Thanks everyone for the input. The distorsion was intended, and I will probably not try to correct it. It is somewhat a surreal view, so the distorsion helps to exagerate it for me. I am going to reprocess all of the RAW images, paying special attention to the sky. I may have tried to pull out too much detail. I realized I applied sharpening to the sky for the post, which may not have been a great idea. When I converted to BW in PS using the BW adjustment, the sky was mostly blues and cyan. SLider adjustments in those areas created an un-evenness that I will try to correct. ANyone has ideas on how to avoid this during conversion, please chime in. If the new version is markedly different, I will re-post. Thanks for the ideas.

Registered on September 17, 2010, 304 Posts, 3507 Comments

Comment posted by Paul Breitkreuz on May 30, 2014 at 12:08 PM

Albeit a gardeners nightmare, this works wonderfully for a photog's take and thinking outside the norm. I like the very low to ground perspective here, Harry.
Not sure you can work around any compression issues for the web sizing here at NPN. There is just too much detail and I would not waste time trying to correct that for the show and tell aspect. No doubt just fine for making a print. As for distortion, it is noticeable, but when recognized and part of the intent it works just fine IMO.
I like your experimentation, I've been trying some odd approaches myself as of late after shooting so MANY somewhat standard takes, so to speak....

Registered on February 25, 2006, 525 Posts, 8448 Comments

Comment posted by Harry Lichtman on May 30, 2014 at 9:02 PM

I tried to reprocess the image - mostly smoothing out the sky tones was the end result. Otherwise not much of a change can be seen Thanks for the suggestions, and I agree Paul, the print version will overcome the shortcomings of such a small web version. Here is the end result. Thanks everyone.