Judith Lesnaw  

Dad's Plane by Judith Lesnaw

May 2023 - Dad's Plane

May 2023 - Judith Lesnaw

Original

About the Image(s)

This image is the second in a series focused on my Father's tools. Shone here is his hand-held wood plane. I placed the plane on the unfinished windowsill of my enclosed gazebo, and photographed it with a Canon EOS R 5 and Canon RF 24-105 lens at 105mm. The hand-held camera was set to aperture priority, f8.0, ISO 1600, 1/13 sec shutter speed.
I angled the camera for interest. While processing the image it occurred to me that "plane" had several connotations here. The tool is a plane, there are various planes formed by the angled camera, AND my Father himself is in quite another plane now. I imported the image into Lightroom and attempted to convey these ideas by first rotating the image to the right. I then cropped a bit, sharpened in Topaz Sharpen AI, bleached the background, and corrected the white balance to restore the silver of the metal. All thoughts and suggestions will be appreciated!

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

Karl Leck   Karl Leck
Hi Judith, The final image looks like a graphic catalog illustration. I get all of the 'planes' but that is somewhat obscure in the bright scene removed from the reality of what we see with our eyes. I could do without the small knot in the wood in the upper left quadrant. Removing and subduing areas of background give a nice dimensional effect. As an artistic graphic illustration, the image is excellent. It could have been drawn with color pencils. Karl   Posted: 05/11/2023 10:13:04
Judith Lesnaw   Judith Lesnaw
Oh my. That was not at all the image I wanted to create. You are right, it does look rather like a pencil drawing. I wanted to produce the illusion that the plane was being seen in memories, suspended in a past project. I am going back to the drawing board.   Posted: 05/11/2023 11:03:14
Lauren Heerschap   Lauren Heerschap
Hi Judith, here is another idea: if you can, set it on a piece of scrap wood and get the shavings to come out - you will be illustrating the use of the tool and will have it in correct perspective. Have you seen the series by Brooks Jensen of tools? His is a monochromatic series worth looking at. It is called Made of Steel. See: https://www.brooksjensenarts.com/books.html   Posted: 05/11/2023 15:52:42
Gerard Blair   Gerard Blair
Judith
As an Englishman, I love puns but I am not sure how many viewers will identify the connection between an askew image and a second "plane".
I would suggest that the tool has sufficient interest (especially shape) in itself to pay tribute to its former owner. One idea might be to escape into B&W (I love the NiK silver Efex pro) and then to add color back with merging layers. This was my take - not to suggest you replicate it but rather to exemplify another possible direction now that you have already rejected your first.   Posted: 05/14/2023 15:15:33
Comment Image
Freddie Kelvin   Freddie Kelvin
I did not get all the connotations of plane, but perhaps my imagination is insufficient. The depiction by Gerard really draws me in; every time I look at it, I see a shoe or a mutated roller skate, and the purple really grabs me!   Posted: 05/15/2023 17:55:43
 
Hi Judith

I am afraid I didn't get the plane thing you were going for. To me the bleach treatment makes it look too new. I would love to see this in black and white. It might give it more of that old timey feel you were trying for.   Posted: 05/16/2023 22:18:37