Jerry Snyder
May 2023 - Photographer as Subject
Original
About the Image(s)
I had planned to take an image of a valley known as the Parade Grounds within Valley Forge Park and was heading for a location to stand when I noticed an individual photographing the same scene. So he became the main subject of the image. The photograph was taken with a Sony a6000 hand held at 46 mm. The exposure settings were 1/80th sec, f/5.6, and ISO 1,250. The image was cropped in FastStone Viewer and some tonal adjustments were made to tone down the atmosphere and darken the photographer. In Lightroom additional tonal adjustments were made along with sharpening and noise reduction. Resizing was done in FastStone. A copy of the original image is also attached.
6 comments posted
A great composition! Photographing the subject from the rear adds mystic, especially with the long black coat. Posted: 05/13/2023 10:01:48
Jerry, I like the story and the image, but I like the original image much better than the monochrome version. For me your monochrome tonality is not as sharp for some reason as the color and tonally flat. I am going to offer, for what it is worth, my type of edited alternative view of the image as B&W and Cropped differently. I think the left frame crop could have been just left of the tree that is left of the building and the top frame crop could have been at the top of that same tree. I did some curves adjustment and other tonal adjustment and the crop I am thinking of. Posted: 05/13/2023 12:13:20
What I was thinking when I cropped and adjusted this image was that I wanted to remove distractions and simplify the image as much as possible. My crop was a compromise between wanting to show what the photographer was looking at while not adding distractions to the left of the white spring house. I also wanted to show the photographer as a dark mysterious subject and was looking for a tone like you would see in Alfred Stieglitz' Camera Work. I felt like I achieved that. That being said, I also like your crop and tonal treatment, John. Posted: 05/19/2023 09:38:20
I find it an interesting comparison between the two mono conversions. I think that John is right, your conversion has lost some sharpness, Don. Notice the clarity of the foreground plants, especially over the house.
The colour version does have its own charm, despite the colour being slight, but the blue haze has come out well as grey distance haze, so I like the mono equally.
I like John's crop better than yours, your left edge just cuts off the house edge which jars a little for me.
But with a little reworking along these lines, I think it's an enjoyable picture with a good story. Posted: 05/16/2023 15:05:45
The colour version does have its own charm, despite the colour being slight, but the blue haze has come out well as grey distance haze, so I like the mono equally.
I like John's crop better than yours, your left edge just cuts off the house edge which jars a little for me.
But with a little reworking along these lines, I think it's an enjoyable picture with a good story. Posted: 05/16/2023 15:05:45
The inclusion of the person adds depth and we know it is a photographer as a hint of photographic gear is visible. If the gear was not visible at all it would add a lot of mystery as the viewer would have more answers to the who, what, why. Not sure why you cropped so on the left. I like inclusion of all the building plus the tree as per John's suggestion but I do like your little crop off the top to get rid of some of the light sky. John's edit is sharper and has more detail overall which I like better. Posted: 05/22/2023 05:16:44
Jerry, I rather like the soft, misty, dreamy quality of your elongated, uncropped original tho I would crop some from the top. The single dark figure is effective with the framing pine, but I find the white building distracts, especially since the photographer is your subject/title. I think it adds to the scene so would darken it or add a lightened earth tone from the field rather than trying to clone it out. A soft, contemplative scene, we know why the photographer stopped for it. Posted: 05/23/2023 01:16:58