Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
frank theriault [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I sent a jpeg to Vivian, and she liked it too, and that's even more important than what I think. ;-) -- Mark Roberts Photography and writing www.robertstech.com
Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 17:22:55 -0400 (EDT), Jerome Reyes [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2815736size=lg This is one of my favorite in your bike collection, yet, frank. Very nicely done. - jerome Well, thank you, jerome! Even though it's not perfect (as we all decided earlier, the aperture could have been opened up a bit more to deal with that distracting background a bit better), I have to admit that I like it. I sent a jpeg to Vivian, and she liked it too, and that's even more important than what I think. thanks for looking and commenting, and thanks even more for liking vbg, frank -- Sharpness is a bourgeois concept. -Henri Cartier-Bresson
Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
Damn, it's nice and sharp with good tonality and contrast, about the only thing theriaultian about it is the relatively unconventional composition. frank theriault wrote: http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2815736size=lg Comments, as always, are welcomed and encouraged. thanks! -frank -- I can understand why mankind hasn't given up war. During a war you get to drive tanks through the sides of buildings and shoot foreigners - two things that are usually frowned on during peacetime. --P.J. O'Rourke
Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
Sunday, October 24, 2004, 6:57:23 PM, Shel wrote: SB Gotcha and that 90mm is a little jewel, iirc. But, as long as you're SB lusting, there's also the little, skinny, tele-elmarit, with a max aperture SB of 2.8. Y'may as well lust after that one. It should work on the CL ... SB BTW, what's going rate for the 90 Elmar C? Do you know if it's even SB smaller than the skinny tele-elmarit (for which I'm lusting even though I SB have the larger, newer version). IIRC the going rate for Elmar-C or Rokkor-C are lower than the corresponding (Tele-)Elmarit 2.8 lenses, and the lens is also smaller. Yep, it would be an interesting addition, my longest is a 50mm. I am also considering a 3.5/90 Apo-Lanthar from Cosina/Voigtlnder. Not expensive either and new. Good light! fra
RE: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
Hi Frank ... This popped into my mailbox just as i was about to log off. Glad to see it. I like the concept. Essentially a nice portrait framing Vivian within the frame of the bike. The background, however, is distracting. It's too busy, and takes away from the impact of the subject. Try shooting with wider apertures when making such portraits. A little softening of the background would go a long way to improve this and similar photographs. Having Vivian stand by the bike rack is a nice touch, yet the rack and the numerous bikes behind her, while adding a bit to the story, take away from the impact of the portrait. Again, a wider aperture, more selective focus, which would still show the bikes and the rack, would be preferable. Now that you've got Photoshop, you can load up the pic and play around with blurring the background and other such manipulations. PS is a good tool for seeing how your photos might look if photographed or presented differently without the need of making numerous trial prints or shooting a gazillion frames of film. While I know that what I'm going to suggest is not what you had in mind when you made this pic, for I'm sure you wanted to show more of the environment, pics like this sometimes look great, and make a stronger statement, when photographed against a more neutral background, such as a wall. There are then fewer distracting elements and the viewer's attention is, literally, focused on the subject. Well, just a few random thoughts. And you got me to think about a few of my bike pics, which I've not looked at for some time. Thanks for posting this one ... it's a nice way to greet the morning, along with my cats and a cup of hot Mariage freres French breakfast tea ;-)) Shel [Original Message] From: frank theriault [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2815736size=lg Comments, as always, are welcomed and encouraged.
Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
On 24/10/04, frank theriault, discombobulated, unleashed: http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2815736size=lg Comments, as always, are welcomed and encouraged. Very nice but think 'background', mate. If you're out and about, borrow a box to stand and and get your butt in the air baby. Look down at her (and the bikes in the rack). Of course this may be a putrid vantage point for you and you can therefore tell me to get my butt on a bike and pedal off into the focal distance ;-) Cheers, Cotty ___/\__ || (O) | People, Places, Pastiche ||=|http://www.cottysnaps.com _
Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 17:17:39 +0100, Cotty [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 24/10/04, frank theriault, discombobulated, unleashed: http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2815736size=lg Comments, as always, are welcomed and encouraged. Very nice but think 'background', mate. If you're out and about, borrow a box to stand and and get your butt in the air baby. Look down at her (and the bikes in the rack). Of course this may be a putrid vantage point for you and you can therefore tell me to get my butt on a bike and pedal off into the focal distance ;-) Point taken. At the time I took it I was thinking of getting all the Urban Crap (street, buildings, cars) in there for atmosphere. I think I shot it at about f4.0, but I now think ideally I should have opened up wide (it's an f2.0 lens) to get the background more OOF. I thought at the time that getting ~too~ much of the bikes in there would be too cluttered with bikes, but you may be right. In retrospect I'd like to have shot the way you suggest, and also with my framing but at f2.0, as I think either of those would improved on what I have. Thanks for looking, and I appreciate your thoughts and well-reasoned critique, Cotty. cheers, frank -- Sharpness is a bourgeois concept. -Henri Cartier-Bresson
Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
Good point about changing vantage points. While I'm not sure the box thing would be ideal for ~this~ shot, your point is well made. Too often the photog shoots from a typical standing position, camera to the eye. We certainly agree on the background here, too. Shel [Original Message] From: Cotty [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: pentax list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 10/24/2004 9:18:52 AM Subject: Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2815736size=lg Comments, as always, are welcomed and encouraged. Very nice but think 'background', mate. If you're out and about, borrow a box to stand and and get your butt in the air baby. Look down at her (and the bikes in the rack). Of course this may be a putrid vantage point for you and you can therefore tell me to get my butt on a bike and pedal off into the focal distance ;-)
Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
On 24/10/04, frank theriault, discombobulated, unleashed: Thanks for looking, and I appreciate your thoughts and well-reasoned critique, Cotty. Now will you marry me? Cheers, Cotty ___/\__ || (O) | People, Places, Pastiche ||=|http://www.cottysnaps.com _
Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
You could also use a longer lens Shel [Original Message] From: frank theriault [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2815736size=lg Comments, as always, are welcomed and encouraged. Very nice but think 'background', mate. If you're out and about, borrow a box to stand and and get your butt in the air baby. Look down at her (and the bikes in the rack). Point taken. At the time I took it I was thinking of getting all the Urban Crap (street, buildings, cars) in there for atmosphere. I think I shot it at about f4.0, but I now think ideally I should have opened up wide (it's an f2.0 lens) to get the background more OOF. I thought at the time that getting ~too~ much of the bikes in there would be too cluttered with bikes, but you may be right. In retrospect I'd like to have shot the way you suggest, and also with my framing but at f2.0, as I think either of those would improved on what I have. Thanks for looking, and I appreciate your thoughts and well-reasoned critique, Cotty.
Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 08:34:14 -0700, Shel Belinkoff [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Frank ... This popped into my mailbox just as i was about to log off. Glad to see it. I like the concept. Essentially a nice portrait framing Vivian within the frame of the bike. The background, however, is distracting. It's too busy, and takes away from the impact of the subject. Try shooting with wider apertures when making such portraits. A little softening of the background would go a long way to improve this and similar photographs. Having Vivian stand by the bike rack is a nice touch, yet the rack and the numerous bikes behind her, while adding a bit to the story, take away from the impact of the portrait. Again, a wider aperture, more selective focus, which would still show the bikes and the rack, would be preferable. Now that you've got Photoshop, you can load up the pic and play around with blurring the background and other such manipulations. PS is a good tool for seeing how your photos might look if photographed or presented differently without the need of making numerous trial prints or shooting a gazillion frames of film. While I know that what I'm going to suggest is not what you had in mind when you made this pic, for I'm sure you wanted to show more of the environment, pics like this sometimes look great, and make a stronger statement, when photographed against a more neutral background, such as a wall. There are then fewer distracting elements and the viewer's attention is, literally, focused on the subject. Well, just a few random thoughts. And you got me to think about a few of my bike pics, which I've not looked at for some time. Thanks for posting this one ... it's a nice way to greet the morning, along with my cats and a cup of hot Mariage freres French breakfast tea ;-)) Thanks, Shel. I shot this IIRC at f4.0, but it wasn't wide enough. I should have just opened it all the way to 2.0. I was thinking that at the time, but both of us were in a hurry to be off to other places, and I only shot two frames. If there's one thing I have to do, IT'S SHOOT MORE FRAMES of a particular subject. Take another minute or two, and fool around with apertures, etc, to give myself more choice. That especially makes sense now that I'm getting contacts, and maybe only blowing up one or two on average per roll - it's really not going to cost me money by wasting frames if I'm only getting one or two printed either way, right? I do like the shot (and I think Vivian will too, when she gets to work tomorrow and sees the jpeg I sent her), but you're right, it could certainly be improved upon. Thanks for your thoughts as always. cheers, frank -- Sharpness is a bourgeois concept. -Henri Cartier-Bresson
Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 09:34:52 -0700, Shel Belinkoff [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: You could also use a longer lens Not with that camera... At least, not until I get that 90mm Elmar C that I lust over. vbg cheers, frank -- Sharpness is a bourgeois concept. -Henri Cartier-Bresson
Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
Gotcha and that 90mm is a little jewel, iirc. But, as long as you're lusting, there's also the little, skinny, tele-elmarit, with a max aperture of 2.8. Y'may as well lust after that one. It should work on the CL ... BTW, what's going rate for the 90 Elmar C? Do you know if it's even smaller than the skinny tele-elmarit (for which I'm lusting even though I have the larger, newer version). Shel [Original Message] From: frank theriault [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 10/24/2004 9:40:29 AM Subject: Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 09:34:52 -0700, Shel Belinkoff [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: You could also use a longer lens Not with that camera... At least, not until I get that 90mm Elmar C that I lust over. vbg cheers, frank -- Sharpness is a bourgeois concept. -Henri Cartier-Bresson
Re: PAW: Portrait of Vivian
http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2815736size=lg This is one of my favorite in your bike collection, yet, frank. Very nicely done. - jerome
