This photograph was taken in midday under extreme lighting conditions without any filters. In the original print there is full detail in the extreme highlights of the clouds as well as in the deep shadows of the mountains. Unfortunately, my scanner was unable to record that information.
Very interesting, Steve. Hurry up and write your article (or a book, if there's enough there) on masking techniques, while we've all got film to try them out with.
My own sense of color is also more muted, but clearly you're pushing the boundaries of what most people think possible with color neg film, and many people could benefit from learning this kind of technique.
First I would like to say that this image in not intended to be serene nor soothing. I is an exercise in a depiction of the extreme graphics elements of opposites. It is about the extreme differentials of of elevation, of lighting, of color, of form, of kinetic energy, and of texture. The great land gestures of the interior western landscape are not feminine in nature, but rather very masculine, bold, and strikingly graphic.
The peaks in the original scene were far taller and prominent then portrayed here. They shot up into the heavens straight from hell and back. The kinetic movement of the clouds was surreal. They moved across the sky like a time lapsed film creating shadows that swept across the land faster than a speeding bullet, and yet, there was no wind at ground level. One minute the land was black with deep sinister shadow and the next minute there was a explosion of holy light. Nothing but fire and brimstone that day. Vaughn, either you are going to love the image or you are going to hate the kinetic tension that lies within its borders. I was very much aware of the tension you talked about at the time I constructed this composition and did everything I could to exploit it's presents.
A couple of things need to be noted about my photographic processes:
1. The contrast of my images lie between slide film and negative film. They are not as punchy as slide film and not as soft and muted a color negative film. They have a unique feel to themselves. Internet images are backlight images and tend to overstate the contrast that is in my prints.
2. I cannot change colors or add light. I can only embellish on what is there. There must be traces of pigment in the film for me to exploit. For example, if you have a washed out white sky that has the faintest of blue in the negative but not in the print, then I can turn the sky to a blue that was there in the original scene. If there is a mountain that is drenched in dull muted alpenglow, then I can restore the glow that was there in the initial scene. My CIMs can only amplify the colors and light to their true values in the original scene that modern day film or sensors were unable to capture.
3. I cannot alter the elements of the original scene like you can with PS, period. I cannot cut and past, and I cannot create light where light does not exist.
4. Because CIMs are organic in nature their effect is more natural and continuous then digital which is finite and discrete. The photographs do not look forced. The tonal range is creamy and smooth across all boundries. The colors are lush and rich. The contrast is natural and not punched up like Cibrachromes. I believe that CIMs offer the best of all worlds. Are they perfect? No. There are problems with them, but I have solved most of them except one which I have been able to minimize at this time. I dought if many of you could see it.
In general, I can do to color what Ansel Adams did to black and white to further the expressive process that has been absent from color photography since it's conception. I do not consider the intelligent algorithms of computer generate art that is embedded in Photoshop and elsewhere to be an endeavor of human art nor a substitute for the gifted individual.
Thanks for all your great comments. I do appreciate any and all frank criticism. No words will offend me, but they will surely help me. Sometimes I respond and sometimes your words simply end up as a seed in my tiny little brain that will influence any future considerations. Vaughn, your words have not fallen on deaf ears even though we may disagree. I will consider your points each time I construct a composition. They have been logged into my field notes I review before every trip.