I wonder if I am toning down a tad today??

[Walter Glover]

Early light on beachfront textures.





A house to help listen to yesterday.


I wonder if my processing is a little on the dark side today? To be honest, I suspect that Flickr may have darkened the high values somewhat. Than again: maybe it was me.

[Maris]

Toning down? Nah! "Early Light" and the "Listening House" both show an orderly progression of tones from very light to very dark. I reckon human perception is adapted to read these as a full scale scenes with no jolting anomalies. They look real nice too.

It's an interesting experiment into the subjectivity of perception to take a A4 sheet of printer paper into the sunlight and ask what colour it is. The answer is always "white". Then take the same paper into a dim room and ask the same question. Again the answer is "white". But the photographic lightmeter may find a million to one brightness difference between the two examples. A strange and wonderful result.

[Mick Fagan]

That beach front textures is wonderful. The ability to make the light coloured building render appear light coloured, but still stand out from the light coloured background, implies you are on top of your game.

What really lifts it above the ordinary for me though, is that it appears one can have an Earth Friendly Eco burger, then go next door to the Chemist to get a chaser to ensure it stays down.

Mick.

[Walter Glover]

What really lifts it above the ordinary for me though, is that it appears one can have an Earth Friendly Eco burger, then go next door to the Chemist to get a chaser to ensure it stays down.

Mick.

We think alike Mick. It was a very deliberate inclusion.

Thanks very much guys, I appreciate your comments.

[Walter Glover]

A comparison:



Well, I had another look fuelled by the Indians thrashing the Aussies and I feel more content with these.



Back at the time, I did a ripper print of this on Resin-Coated Agfa. However, resin-coated had all the appeal of digital to me so I endeavoured to print it on fibre base. I could NEVER get a tonality that pleased me or matched the RC.

I feel that this second rendering may be a good deal closer to what had pleased me so well with the RC.



And:






In the second rendition of this I have lightened the street elevation of the structure just 12% and I think it begins to sing.


Cheers,

[Maris]

Forgive the presumption but I'll still vote for your original vision. I reckon you hit the optimum balance between (light + air) versus (shadow + substance) first up.

Then I have to confess I do much the same thing but more from self-doubt rather than the pursuit of artistic excellence. Once I think I've got a good tonal balance on the wet photograph (seen under a 18 lux darkroom inspection lamp) I'll reduce enlarger exposure 10%, 12%, maybe 15%, for the next one. This to get more "luminosity". Then I re-build the "shadows" by upping the contrast grade by 1/2 or 1 step. When the two photographs are dry I compare them under the 350 lux workshop light. Sometimes going lighter works. Sometimes it doesn't. But I can't leave the possibility unexplored.