Bridge in Harrisburg

blansky · May 31, 2015

Interesting pictures, but this and the other one of the waterfall look like have some exposure issues as you have blown out areas in them. Sometimes it could be just the time of day and you are dealing with scenes with too much range in highlight and shadow. I find your pictures interesting but one thing I notice in them is that you tend to try to "record scenes" to some extent, which is obviously a choice, but in doing that you, in my opinion, limited what you are capable of with the various pictures. It's sort of subtle, but I think you could move forward more if you instead, consciously tried to make each shot instead of a recording, an actual artwork or conceptual piece. I guess an example of what I mean is you are more of an architectural photographer in these than an artist. And I think you should try to push forward to the artist level. I also find it interesting that in your nude photography you are not clinical at all like your landscape stuff. Your artistic side is very prevalent there.

JackRosa · May 31, 2015

Thank you, Michael, for your comments and suggestions. The pictures I uploaded are scans of the 8x10 test sheets that I do (initially) with each picture. By the time I have a final print (usually 11x14, 16x20 or 20x24), there are no blown-out highlights nor important shadows that are too dark. In addition to selecting the appropriate contrast (with VC papers/dichroic filtration), I employ dodging, burning-in, as well as unsharp masking and other types of mask (SCIMs, dodge masks,fog masks, etc.).I do find your comment about recording vs. making a shot very interesting and am going to take inventory of how I am approaching landscape photography and see whether the "artist" in me could come out and improve help me "make" better pictures.I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to comment and share your insight.

blansky · May 31, 2015

JackRosa said:
Thank you, Michael, for your comments and suggestions. The pictures I uploaded are scans of the 8x10 test sheets that I do (initially) with each picture. By the time I have a final print (usually 11x14, 16x20 or 20x24), there are no blown-out highlights nor important shadows that are too dark. In addition to selecting the appropriate contrast (with VC papers/dichroic filtration), I employ dodging, burning-in, as well as unsharp masking and other types of mask (SCIMs, dodge masks,fog masks, etc.).I do find your comment about recording vs. making a shot very interesting and am going to take inventory of how I am approaching landscape photography and see whether the "artist" in me could come out and improve help me "make" better pictures.I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to comment and share your insight.

It's just a feeling I get when I look at a lot of your work. No big deal. But sometimes we get so close to what we do we get tunnel vision and it's interesting for someone to point something out, we were unaware of. I think when we work with people, we have to direct, light and control all the elements. But when we do landscape stuff we back that off because we may feel a lot of it is done for us. But I don't really think it is, and we have to be more artistic and selective with the elements we decide to pull out of the scene to use, and how we accentuate them just like with your nudes.

Trail Images · Jun 1, 2015

I really like the flow to the bridge giving a bit of a diagonal composition to the scene.

JackRosa · Jun 3, 2015

blansky said:
JackRosa said:

Thank you, Michael, for your comments and suggestions. The pictures I uploaded are scans of the 8x10 test sheets that I do (initially) with each picture. By the time I have a final print (usually 11x14, 16x20 or 20x24), there are no blown-out highlights nor important shadows that are too dark. In addition to selecting the appropriate contrast (with VC papers/dichroic filtration), I employ dodging, burning-in, as well as unsharp masking and other types of mask (SCIMs, dodge masks,fog masks, etc.).I do find your comment about recording vs. making a shot very interesting and am going to take inventory of how I am approaching landscape photography and see whether the "artist" in me could come out and improve help me "make" better pictures.I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to comment and share your insight.

Click to expand...

It's just a feeling I get when I look at a lot of your work. No big deal. But sometimes we get so close to what we do we get tunnel vision and it's interesting for someone to point something out, we were unaware of. I think when we work with people, we have to direct, light and control all the elements. But when we do landscape stuff we back that off because we may feel a lot of it is done for us. But I don't really think it is, and we have to be more artistic and selective with the elements we decide to pull out of the scene to use, and how we accentuate them just like with your nudes.

JackRosa · Jun 3, 2015

Thanks again. I am certainly open to critique and in fact appreciate it. I value the fact that fellow APUGers take the time to review my images and provide comments & insight. I plan on taking careful inventory of how I approach landscapes and hope I will find a way to improve my photography by bringing the "artist in me" into the equation.

JackRosa · Jun 3, 2015

Trail Images said:
I really like the flow to the bridge giving a bit of a diagonal composition to the scene.

Thanks. That was my initial intent . . . a diagonal composition.

Bridge in Harrisburg

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