I photographed this image last summer and just recently got around to scanning and processing it. It's part of an ongoing series of images that I'm photographing for a personal project at a nearby (1.5 hours away) state park. I had visualized this scene for some time, and I just needed the right elements to come together...and to be there when they did. So, as the mosquito's of midsummer buzzed around me, I set up and waited on this particular evening. The shutter was fired off, and film exposed when the earth's shadow was most intense. Enjoy.
Posted by Bernie Kasper on April 26, 2007 at 9:16 PM
Beautiful image Joel, love the warm evening glow, the reflections and the colors are amazing in this. Perfect example of a lovely "midwestern" scene, Great work as always.
Posted by Lance Warley on April 27, 2007 at 8:12 AM
This is just beautiful. It conveys the serenity.
Posted by Robert Helms on April 27, 2007 at 4:32 PM
This is really a beautiful image, Joel. The composition is just perfect, and of course the color isn't bad either.
Question for all of you: I've been struggling with exactly how much magenta should be in the sky to properly convey the mood. Though it hasn't been brought up, I'm kinda concluding that I should drop down a bit. The sky was certainly that twilight pink color...but does the intensity detract? Thanks in advance to anyone willing to offer their perspective. I'm probably going to tweak it when I get home from work tonight as I'm feeling it's a bit to much.
Posted by Robert Helms on April 27, 2007 at 5:19 PM
Personally, Joel, the magenta is just right for my tastes. It doesn't seem too intense at all to me, nor does it detract from the image. It's really what I would expect to see under these coniditions.
If you want to play around with it, and repost I'll give ya my honest thoughts
Thanks for the feedback Robert...I don't know, I probably just have been looking at it to long. Stare at a photograph long enough and it will start to play tricks on you.
Posted by Bernie Kasper on April 27, 2007 at 6:20 PM
Actually Joel it's what I like the best about it, I wouldn't change a thing.
Posted by Jack Graham on April 28, 2007 at 8:40 AM
Joel,
The answer is how ever much you like. I agree, I wouldn't change anything. I love the serene feeling.
I have a shot of Jackson lake with a sly that was literally pink. Many ( and I mean many" people have always though I photoshopped in the pink. I did nothing to it!).
I'd leave this alone. The color, the strong foreground and the placement of the moon all work in concert to make this a well above average image.
Hey Joel - very lovely image indeed. I love the end-of-day feel and the nice arrangement of elements. The color looks pretty good to me, on my work, uncalibrated monitor!
How do you like working with the Fuji color negative film? I have enough trouble with scanning and color correcting slides - how does the 160s work?
CJ - I really love 160s, and it's found a permanent place among my couple of E-6 film choices. I use it for it's ability to capture scenes with dynamic range that extends beyond what slide film can deal with. A number of my favorite captures from last year were on 160s, and I don't know of another way that I could have captured them as effectively. In this particular instance, the sky was significantly brighter than the trees and grasses in the foreground. I could have used a soft grad along with some slide film, but I think the grad effect would have been to pronounced when you consider how the trees are placed in the frame. The shadow area's would have dropped to a solid black, and the trees themselves would have been unnaturally dark - in other words, the sense of luminosity would be substantially different.
As you say, it's tougher to scan and color correct. It's also grainier and I generally will run neat image on the sky and smooth tonal portions before printing. I don't know what you scan with, but on my flatbed scanner, it's difficult to get accurate color (the scanner isn't truly linear and isn't calibrated for the specific orange mask of the film). Though, I can almost always get a good final result after I process it. Danny Burk is set up well for drum scanning color neg and he can get you off to a good start if you have something critical that you need enlarged.
Discussion
11 repliesI photographed this image last summer and just recently got around to scanning and processing it. It's part of an ongoing series of images that I'm photographing for a personal project at a nearby (1.5 hours away) state park. I had visualized this scene for some time, and I just needed the right elements to come together...and to be there when they did. So, as the mosquito's of midsummer buzzed around me, I set up and waited on this particular evening. The shutter was fired off, and film exposed when the earth's shadow was most intense. Enjoy.
Tech Stuff: Tachihara 4x5, Fujinon 90mm, Fuji 160s
Thanks for sharing
Question for all of you: I've been struggling with exactly how much magenta should be in the sky to properly convey the mood. Though it hasn't been brought up, I'm kinda concluding that I should drop down a bit. The sky was certainly that twilight pink color...but does the intensity detract? Thanks in advance to anyone willing to offer their perspective. I'm probably going to tweak it when I get home from work tonight as I'm feeling it's a bit to much.
If you want to play around with it, and repost I'll give ya my honest thoughts
The answer is how ever much you like. I agree, I wouldn't change anything. I love the serene feeling.
I have a shot of Jackson lake with a sly that was literally pink. Many ( and I mean many" people have always though I photoshopped in the pink. I did nothing to it!).
I'd leave this alone. The color, the strong foreground and the placement of the moon all work in concert to make this a well above average image.
Very well done.
JG
How do you like working with the Fuji color negative film? I have enough trouble with scanning and color correcting slides - how does the 160s work?
CJ
CJ - I really love 160s, and it's found a permanent place among my couple of E-6 film choices. I use it for it's ability to capture scenes with dynamic range that extends beyond what slide film can deal with. A number of my favorite captures from last year were on 160s, and I don't know of another way that I could have captured them as effectively. In this particular instance, the sky was significantly brighter than the trees and grasses in the foreground. I could have used a soft grad along with some slide film, but I think the grad effect would have been to pronounced when you consider how the trees are placed in the frame. The shadow area's would have dropped to a solid black, and the trees themselves would have been unnaturally dark - in other words, the sense of luminosity would be substantially different.
As you say, it's tougher to scan and color correct. It's also grainier and I generally will run neat image on the sky and smooth tonal portions before printing. I don't know what you scan with, but on my flatbed scanner, it's difficult to get accurate color (the scanner isn't truly linear and isn't calibrated for the specific orange mask of the film). Though, I can almost always get a good final result after I process it. Danny Burk is set up well for drum scanning color neg and he can get you off to a good start if you have something critical that you need enlarged.