Thanks for your comments ... By all accounts the pic sucks (no one seems to like it) , and I wasn't too happy with it myself. Although I tried, I just couldn't get it up to my usual standards. It's far from my best, but I like it anyway as a little slice of the action that happens on the street.
Anyway, it is what it is, and there's no need for you to make excuses for it, if that's what you're doing. I do, however, strongly disagree with your comment about the casual needs of the PAW and PESO postings. I believe those who post should at least try to make the best renderings possible. The world is already too filled with junk images and photographs, and posting crap without at least trying to make the results good, or asking for help, or at least acknowledging that one's skills weren't up to the task (which is, perhaps, tantamount to asking for suggestions), does the poster and the community here, as well as other viewers, a disservice. Shel > [Original Message] > From: Anthony Farr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <pentax-discuss@pdml.net> > Date: 4/17/2005 9:23:42 AM > Subject: RE: PESO PAW - Fire Eating Drummer > > Hi Shel, > > I also see the whole image, but only by a whisker because I have the > "Office" toolbar permanently docked to the top of my screen. I could > autohide it, but then it would unnerve me to by jumping in and out when the > cursor touches the screen edge. > > Bruce hit right onto my feeling about this picture, that the role of the > standing man is ambiguous. Is he associated with the performance? Is he > merely a bystander? Or is he a bystander who has ingratiated himself into > the performance? What is clear is that he is the most visually interesting > part of the picture, while the man whose story the picture tells is > secondary. > > But further, I'm underwhelmed by the tonal quality of this picture. Here > again it's obvious that the standing man is pivotal to the shot, because all > of the optimisation is upon him. He is wonderfully tonally rendered, but > the plastic drums, the building opposite, and the white car behind the > drummer all are practically toneless. > > If you tell me that this is a scan from a print, and that you disdain > digital post processing, and prefer to faithfully reproduce the print, and > that you don't care about tonal quality outside the subject matter of a > picture, then I'll withdraw my criticism. Not because the print (if there > is one) couldn't be better, but because correcting what I consider to be > problem areas without obvious burning and dodging transitions would be a > challenge not justified by the needs of a casual PESO PAW forum. > > Then again, if you do digitally post process your shots, there are several > pathways to optimising all the tonal areas of a picture. The fact that you > didn't use one of them suggests you have chosen the altruistic path of image > purity and integrity. That's my good spin on it, anyway ;-)
