Spinnaker (a) Graded paper 3

The multigrade print @ Grade 4 is far more interesting to look at, and has way more visual impact. This looks rather flat by comparison.

My feeling as well, Thomas

It's actually has rather more sparkle than the multigrade or it least it does when viewed in the hand. I prefer this. I will make a final decision tomorrow when one of them is going on my office wall. It is a picture taken locally to my office. The other print is a bit brooding and I don't think I want to look at that every day. This is more cheerful and far closer to the actual scene.

To each their own. It's a subjective enterprise, of course. To me, the moment we press the shutter of the camera we alter reality by filtering it through a lens and onto a film that takes all color out of it. Various films sees color differently. Then we process the film to have a tone curve, which we then lay on paper which has a tone curve, and in a paper developer that affects the tone curve and color of the print. We might tone it also. To me, I guess reality is so far removed from what we actually saw that for my purposes I try to accomplish something within me, a feeling or a mood that I experienced when I was there. Then I can just worry about visual elements, how they play together in an attempt to recreate that mood.
I can tell from your comment that your method would be something entirely different, which is why I think viewing other people's work is so much fun. Thanks for sharing so selflessly, both your picture and your opinion. It's great to read.

Thank you Thomas. I also realise that it is a matter of personal taste which is the reason I posted both. I suspected that the harder grade print would prove more appealing to most which is why I posted both. I agree that the other print is more dramatic and perhaps more interesting but......I also have to choose photographs for my office that are not too challenging -I don't want to upset my patients! Not only is an interpretation of a scene open to personal view and preference but one has to remember where a photo will be displayed and how it might be interpreted........endless scope! Generally though, I don't like to stray too far from the actual scene and I will usually have taken a quick mobile phone snap so I can remind myself later. I remember a radio programme about clouds with reference to the artist Constable, famous for his skies. A certain painting (one of the Hampstead Heath pictures) had a very dramatic sky but the presenter said Constable had dated the painting and that reference to the meteorological records of that day showed that such a sky was not possible so either the artist had dated the painting incorrectly or he had made up the sky.

Then you would never want one of my pictures in your office, because of the rather heavy mood most of them show... Seriously, though, unless Constable was commissioned to paint the sky as accurately as possible on a particular date, the artist is free to that sky look any which way they want. Pink and green, for all I care. I don't want to rattle the cage, I'm only playing the devil's advocate here: Why is it important to stay true to the scene? I'm completely serious and very interested in your reply.

I really don't think it is particularly important for Constable to stay true to the scene. I confess I was a bit confused as to what the point was of the radio programme but I was driving and it was something to listen to. For example, not only did Constable paint the sky as he saw fit but he even adding buildings that are not actually there.

I suppose that I feel there is a recording element to my pictures. I don't mind emphasising something or adding a bit of "punch" to an otherwise uninteresting photograph but I would like to look back at a print in years to come and say "Ah yes I remember that" and not "Where on earth is that? I don't remember weather like that". One of my friends who was with me in the Alps in September said "nice photo but it didn't look anything like as dramatic as that" which got me thinking. So if a photo is personal to me I would rather it didn't stray too far from reality. Of course, I could just make 2 prints, one of the scene close to what it was and the other more dramatic. This is pretty much what I have presented in these 2 prints. For the audience who were not there when the photograph was taken I think this distinction is less important but I do look at photographs sometimes and think "bold but over the top". It think people have been debating this since the beginning of time......cave paintings on the wall, "that mammoth was never that big!".

Understood. My father photographs much the way you do, with documentation in mind. If that is your personal goal, then I think that's all that matters. Thanks for the conversation! Very interesting.

Thank you too Thomas.

Just showed both prints to a friend. His immediate reaction was print b is too dark. Might be a sc@nning issue or just the difference between viewing an image on a backlit screen vs a print. It is difficult to present a print here that is anything other than a representation and I am a complete idiot with the electric seeing machine. I don't know what any of the settings mean and I'm afraid to change them. So what has happened is both prints look lighter than they actually are giving the result that on screen "b" looks better and "a" looks too light. In fact, "a" is about right and "b" is too dark.