2009.07.14 "Purple" discussion

[primesuspect]

Snark: Awesome in every way. I have no critique

Dras: Your composition is incredible! That's so fucking cool. The white balance is way off though - picture is way too hot. What's supposed to be purple is more red than anything. Regardless, I'm in love with the photo.

[primesuspect]

Mine's way too contrasty. I went too far with post.

[primesuspect]

I started with this:

http://icrontic.com/images/prime/2009.07.13.Purple.ORIGINAL.jpg

and obviously cropped it quite a bit. In post I played with levels and added the border

[primesuspect]

How I setup:

http://icrontic.com/images/prime/purple_setup.jpg.

Fan for the hair, floor light, direct flash, crazy purple makeup, an old abstract painting as a backdrop.

[Snarkasm]

Dras - big fan of the game theme, and I like the organization. Agreed that it's a little warm, but we talked about that already.

Prime, I liked the color a lot, but you did end up washing it out a bit. Her hair ended up green by the end. Still, good for you getting a live subject, and again, I really like the killer background.

[Snarkasm]

Great shot from shwaip - has a fantastic old-timey rainy day feeling to it. Very nice.

[primesuspect]

Shwaip: The color is right; definitely looks like a gloomy rainy day. Great white balance.

I wish it popped more though; maybe even the background needs to be a bit more vibrant to bring out the purple in the flower.

[Koreish]

I agree with Prime. The background is a bit to blurry, if it had harder lines that flower would be jumping out of the screen.

[shwaip]

I tried not to do to much with post processing - and the changes i can make with picasa are pretty limited. Yeah, i can definitely see that more 'pop' would be better.

I do wish i had a slightly larger DOF - the edges of the flower are out of focus a little. It was just a bit too dark when I went to take these photos - any smaller aperture would have been difficult to hand hold - and I was actually in the roundabout and a car was on the way...

[primesuspect]

Nemikan: With a bit of post processing, notably contrast or increasing black, that would be perfect.

The idea is very creative. Nice entry!

[primesuspect]

In retrospect, I should have submitted this one instead

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/icrontic/3719780192/" title="Chelsey by Icrontic.com, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2468/3719780192_33bb981d55.jpg" width="500" height="417" alt="Chelsey" /></a>

[primesuspect]

BlackHawk: very cool composition. In post, perhaps a little more saturation would have brought the purple out more. The DoF and contrast are great though.

[Black Hawk]

Thanks. I had already increased the saturation but didn't want to over do it.

[shwaip]

BH - I'm kinda distracted by the telephone poles in the right half of the image - they're different enough from the rest of the background to draw my eyes there, but they're out of focus so it's distracting. Also, the large white sky in the upper left draws my attention away from the flower.

[primesuspect]

Mondi: Maybe it's my monitor or my shitty eyes; I'm failing to see purple in your otherwise awesome photo. I believe that may be a wine glass? If so, is it filled with wine?

I'm beginning to think I need to calibrate my monitor if other people say that the light behind the glass is purple, cause on my display it looks red.

[Nate_LapT]

it has a hint of purple to it, but its too dark in general to tell, I checked on two monitors.

[mondi]

It is indeed a a glass of wine.

This is an interesting question - the image was definitely inspired by the color purple, and even has purple(ish) elements in it, although I purposely shot it dark because it was way more interesting that way. Should we be more literal with the themes or can we just use them as a starting point - I mean, if I'd shot a field of sunflowers I can imagine there'd be some contention, but should the image really have to be a strict interpretation of the title?

[primesuspect]

No, not at all. If the theme inspired you to take that particular shot, then that's all the purpose of the exercise is; I just wanted to make sure that I'm seeing it right, mostly to make sure my monitor is not all bitched up. It's old as shit. :D

[drasnor]

CB, I like what you did there though I think your shot could benefit from more depth of field. I would love to see what the shot would look like with all the flowers in focus. I think that would probably be the landscape mode on your A610.

-drasnor :fold:

[primesuspect]

CB: This is nothing personal, I'm not a fan of the "selective desaturation" photo style. That's just a personal preference. I do like the angle and composition; I would like the photo a lot more if it were entirely colorized.

Chris: Awesome photo.

[shwaip]

CB: This is nothing personal, I'm not a fan of the "selective desaturation" photo style. That's just a personal preference. I do like the angle and composition; I would like the photo a lot more if it were entirely colorized.

prime, i don't see how you can draw a line between the desat'ing that cb did and how much you can change levels and contrast like your photo. It seems to be an arbitrary line. CB's looks potentially more "natural" as you can still see some green in the leaves. (personally, i don't really like either effect).

[chrisWhite]

Thanks Prime!

I agree with you, you should have posted that other shot, it's much, much more awesome them the one you did post. The only thing I'd think about would be to tighten up the composition a little so your photo fits more into a rule of thirds instead of a line almost below the middle.

Here are the defining lines in your piece:
http://img.skitch.com/20090715-ens2997hqn8pcx4yuidamtyj4b.png
Checkout this crop:

http://img.skitch.com/20090715-cftn2q57j1fc2h2466p1pnanyt.png

[chrisWhite]

Dang it, I had responses to everyone else almost types up and FF crashed. I need to head home but I'll add my thoughts later, not ignoring anyone :)

[_k_]

hot

[primesuspect]

prime, i don't see how you can draw a line between the desat'ing that cb did and how much you can change levels and contrast like your photo. It seems to be an arbitrary line. CB's looks potentially more "natural" as you can still see some green in the leaves. (personally, i don't really like either effect).

The specific effect of turning everything grayscale except for key elements; I see it a lot in child photography (a black and white baby holding a yellow flower, etc.) and I feel the effect is over used and contrived at this point.

I just don't really like it, that's all. It's a completely different effect from changing levels and overblowing contrast.

I don't like my entry either, but then, that's the purpose of this exercise: to become a better photographer :)

[primesuspect]

Chris: Even though I know it's "technically" correct, with the rule of thirds, I prefer my cropping over the "proper" one.

[drasnor]

ReyRey: VERY NICE.

-drasnor :fold:

[shwaip]

Yes, I really like yours reyrey - the non-purple in the frame really makes the purple pop out.

[Nate_LapT]

how about a reversed grayscale photo :P the ONLY thing b/w should be the object

[primesuspect]

Rey, looks great. You definitely have an eye for composition. I always find it hard to make sensible composition out of a jumble of elements.

[chrisWhite]

Chris: Even though I know it's "technically" correct, with the rule of thirds, I prefer my cropping over the "proper" one.

I can totally understand that and I don't think it's any thing more then guidelines, I mostly just felt that there was too little interesting space above her head and your eyes got trapped up there instead of focusing on her eyes.

[Snarkasm]

BH - Very nice, but I'm always a huge sucker for bokeh. The flowers look a tiny bit overexposed, but I enjoy it a lot.

Mondi - I mistook it for water on the first glance, but I like it. I would agree that the theme need not actually be in the photo - mine was going to be just the royalty aspect as it relates to purple, but I decided to purple it up at the last second. As long as you can relate them in some way, it's all gravy. Very cool shot.

CB - I like the way the stem hairs catch some light and almost radiate. Cool picture.

Chris - Nice shot and great colors, though I think I personally would have preferred at least one bar to be in perfect focus. Very soothing image, though.

ReyRey - good use of another color to emphasize the theme. I'm with Brian - I find it hard to take a snap of part of a huge section of something. Good framing on your part.

Marushka - very cute. I like your style. :D

[chrisWhite]

Good point Snark, I need to be better about my focus.

[chrisWhite]

drasnor, nice job, interesting concept, definitely cool down the colors and don't be scared to crop off the top for better composition.

shwaip, I really like this, I love the focus right where it is and I think you could make it really pop out of the background through a little stronger contrast and saturation. Something about how almost grainy the bokeh in the background is really appeals to me.

Nemikan, cute photo but I must be missing the joke

Black Hawk, this photo is superb, so well composed, perfect contrast and color, wow, awesome!

mondi, I love this one too, I love that you let those beautiful blacks come through, great shooting!

CB, I'm not huge on this one either, something about it doesn't feel right, i think it that the fuzz on the vines and leaves are so back lit that it gives those white edges and it looks like a poor masking job. Something you didn't have any trouble with considering how well you isolated the flowers.

ReyRey, so peaceful, love that the purple really is just the background while your eye darts over the green, the color and the edges of the green leaves just make them pop right out.

Marushka, err, is that your tongue? Clever idea :)

[Marushka]

Yeah, that was me and my tongue. I was at a potluck and I brought nerds and jolly ranchers and purple popsicles and everyone wanted to help me with my shot and make their tongues purple! I had this glorious group shot in mind, but I failed horribly at actually TAKING a good shot of everyone.

[shwaip]

chris: I also think that if you had one of the bars in focus it would have been better, but otherwise i like it.

unfortunately the 'grainy' bokeh is a result of the cheap prime i'm using to shoot with - if there were any lights in the background, you totally would have definitely been able to tell - i end up with a whole lot of pentagons (from the 5-blade shutter). it looks good in this photo, but not some others.

[chrisWhite]

I can imagine so, but I also find bokeh fascinating to nerd out to too so I might think any interesting bokeh is good.

[primesuspect]

Marushka: I love it :D it's cute and made me smile. What more should a photograph do?

[ardichoke]

It's a pity that this theme was a few days ago. I just went through a house that had a wood floor that was painted royal purple. It was really awesome looking. Would have made a good photo (at least if I was a good photographer).

[Nate_LapT]

post it anyways, your just not conforming to the rules, oh well :P

[ardichoke]

I didn't end up taking a picture. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

[Nate_LapT]

Go through the house again. oh well if you dont buy it, just take the awesome photo :P
maybe if you actually like the house you could negotiate the price down a bit more taking photos.
tell them your taking photos to get contractors opinions on how to fix this awful purple foor.