Diana Magor, MPSA, APSA  


Crossover by Diana Magor, MPSA, APSA

August 2020 - Crossover

August 2020 - Diana Magor, MPSA, APSA

Original 2

August 2020 - Diana Magor, MPSA, APSA

Original 1

About the Image(s)

I have been doing a lot of macro work during lockdown. I have seen pictures of forks in competitions, usually balancing eggs for some reason. So I tried balancing all sorts of other items and I like them quite a lot but I also liked the one with no added items. This was lit with an LED light above the camera and to one side. The forks were on an old glazing plate from my darkroom days when mounting glossy prints. I needed a reflective surface and decided this would work well. When I opened in RAW, I pushed the dehaze button far to the right to maximum, increased the clarity to 10 and the saturation to 80 to get a lovely purple look. You can see there are aberrations in the forks and in the background. Then I opened in Nik and played with the colour balance and lightened the centre area, then converted to mono, and darkened the areas to the right which were lighter than the left side. It sounds complicated but only took about half an hour. I do enjoy ‘playing’ when I have plenty of time.
So what do you think? Will it get anywhere in competitions? Or do I go for the balancing act?


This round’s discussion is now closed!
12 comments posted




 
I think the result was pretty good, original idea (no balancing eggs...) and expertly done. Using the dehaze button here I would not have thought of. It shows another area where this function is useful. Also, the reflections on the glazing plate worked very well. I would surely have tried this image in some PID-M sections and see what some judges say... If you do, keep us info'd.
  Posted: 08/06/2020 09:33:10
Diana Magor   Diana Magor
I have just entered the colour version in a comp and I intend to use the mono soon. i will let you know how they do.   Posted: 08/06/2020 09:41:43
 
Diana,
I agree with Asbjorn about submitting the images. Personally, I feel in many ways like you did with my submission this month. I like the color version better than the black and white. I also find the smaller version of the black and white is more appealing to me than the larger version. There are some background problems that you can see in the larger version.   Posted: 08/07/2020 09:34:17
Diana Magor   Diana Magor
Yes I didn't do the improvements to the background carefully enough. Sorry!   Posted: 08/07/2020 13:16:10
 
I only mentioned it because, if you decided to enter the black and white version you needed to know..... Let us know how you make out with the competition you entered with the original version.   Posted: 08/07/2020 13:23:15



Stephen Levitas   Stephen Levitas
The color version is very interesting.
I like very much that I can see the imperfections in the highly magnified details.   Posted: 08/09/2020 23:26:08



Tom McCreary   Tom McCreary
To me you have too many shiny areas on the monochrome version. I do think that the color version is interesting and better because of the colors.   Posted: 08/16/2020 11:30:57
Diana Magor   Diana Magor
You are right that the shiny bits seem to have increased in the mono. I'm beginning to get the feeling that this is much better as the colour. Thanks everyone!   Posted: 08/16/2020 13:30:05



 
The monochrome image is pleasant and well composed, but actually I'm partial to the color version. I think there's more interest because of the water marks on the top forks and the difference in warmth between the actual forks and their reflection. Cool on the top of the subject, warm in the reflection. l would take all the imperfections out in the background, but not the forks themselves.
  Posted: 08/23/2020 16:16:51



Jennifer Doerrie   Jennifer Doerrie
I agree with Asbjørn that this image seems more unusual than the balanced eggs. As others already have mentioned, I also prefer the color version. I wondered whether it would be better to crop some more from the left side, so I tried it. I think I like that, but you can see what you think. It also seems this might be interesting flipped vertically.   Posted: 08/27/2020 23:47:19
Comment Image
Diana Magor   Diana Magor
OK so I did try. Rotating to the right looked pretty good but to the left looked totally wrong. is this better?   Posted: 08/28/2020 03:44:30
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Jennifer Doerrie   Jennifer Doerrie
I like it vertically, but "better" is subjective yet again. Some people possibly may be bothered by the reflection being to the side rather than beneath the forks.
  Posted: 08/28/2020 12:17:24