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Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> Challenge 79: Rule of Thirds (with Purple) (Host: mlynn) >> Eligible: Rule of Thirds (with Purple) > 12th Place (tie)
Dahlia
by Lonnit Rysher
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22-OCT-2006 Lonnit Rysher

12th Place (tie)
Dahlia
by Lonnit Rysher

Planting Fields, Oyster Bay, NY

Canon EOS 5D ,Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
1/180s f/16.0 at 35.0mm iso250 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time22-Oct-2006 11:20:28
MakeCanon
ModelCanon EOS 5D
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length35 mm
Exposure Time1/180 sec
Aperturef/16
ISO Equivalent250
Exposure Bias
White Balance
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Programaperture priority (3)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Canon DSLR Challenge01-Nov-2006 00:43
Multilinguistic typos are the best! :) ~ Lonnit
jbhgmvo01-Nov-2006 00:12
Right. I must confess then: I lied. It was a metaphor. What I really meant to say was that you are free to consider me a linguistic idiot. As for my native tongue, it was born and raised in Norway. Sure.. I know some english.. some german, yes.. even some french (*blush*). But first and foremost I'm prone to ugly typos. Just bleep past them. I don't mind.
Canon DSLR Challenge31-Oct-2006 23:46
LOL! Of course it does! ;) See the flower pic in Exhibition for your response. Excuse the interruption, but an important breakthrough has occurred - my daughter just entered the room (because she heard me laughing at your "shrapnel" comment), and according to her 11 years of life experience, this is indeed a good image. She claims the bright flower bursts through the darkness with an exciting and brilliant contrast of color and brightness, and the flower itself has a lovely shape and texture. So there, case closed, apparently we are both wrong and this is an extraordinary piece of artwork, destined to be hung in a museum! So there!!! :P************ LOL! Now, back to what I was saying.... as for the shrapnel, I'd say this image was equally painful! LOL! Oh, I just saw that you are familiar with the spelling of musuem... yes, yes indeed, I did spell it right. Phew!

BTW, I am confused, perhaps due to your lack of native tongue, but are you saying you've only had two weeks of education, and they happen to have been in English, and that is the total scope of your education - or, are you saying that of your complete and total education of X number of years, two weeks of them happened to have taken place in an english speaking classroom. And, how ironic if your only english class was kindergarten (German word) if the rest of your education was in German, being that your only english class would then be a German one - namewise!

~ Lonnit
jbhgmvo31-Oct-2006 20:30
Thank you for taking the time to reply. Some of it even makes sense ;) There's one explanation left that I want from you in this challenge. I'll ask it in exhibition if you allow, see flower pic there.

As for "brushnel", I know what I meant, I do NOT know the word, and in hindsight I praise myself lucky I didn't call it shrapnel. English is not my native tongue, my education consists of two weeks in kindergarten (german word). I do, however, know how to spell honor and museum ;)

Canon DSLR Challenge31-Oct-2006 01:20
Kiki, we all have our own taste - would be a very mundane world otherwise.

As for printing the image - I wouldn't. I know it's totally out of gamut, but I don't care, b/c as I said, I don't even care for the image. I did it as an experiment in extreme processing. I used PS filters that I never use, b/c I simply don't like them. I was playing. I thought the colors were pretty, that's about it. I posted it b/c I was curious if anyone with differing taste would care for it, before I trashed it.

I too absolutely HATED the white halos in the middle, and thought that absolutely ruined the image. I also thought it looked like a cheesy b-rate horror movie poster, and being halloween, I figured it was fitting. LOL!

I'd normally never destroy an image like this, but it was fun to fool around with some PS toys that I never touch - for obvious reasons - they're hideous! LOL! I don't know where you're getting your blanket statement about my processing though, b/c if you look thru my galleries http://www.pbase.com/lonnit/ )you'll see that it's only a small percent of my images that are heavily processed, and at that, it's only been a more recent bit of experimenting.

I only really cared for the big flower, and at that, only in full rez, where you can see the painterly effect. Here you lose all the detail.

As for the car, I wanted a more graphic, stylized look to the image b/c the car iteself is so full of character and shot at a very caricaturish angle. I wanted to go more comic book on it to keep the genre together. Genre - that's a french word - go look it up. LOL! ;) BTW, that about does it for me and French. Nothing does it for me and German, unless, perhaps, you happen to sneeze!

I also don't know what "Brushnel" is, but Brushnell, with two els, was an American inventor who designed (1775) a man-propelled submarine for use against British ships in the Revolution. The device proved ineffectual (it was ridiculed as “Bushnell's Turtle”) but earned him later regard as “the Father of the Submarine.”, but I didn't know that either - found it out when I looked up Brushnel. ;)

That little tree branch happens to BE the most important little branch in the world, hence it's distinction, however, I might consider cloning it out since I really did want this image to be about the car, not the tree, and we don't want to have competing subjects in the image. I'll go back another day and shoot the Brushnel Branch all by itself, and give it the attention and place of honer it deserves. :)

I do use layer masks and opacity adjustments all the time. I liked these effects this way. :)

Sometimes an effect is applied b/c the applicationist wants them to be seen, as in the case of this applicationist in this particular application. This image isn't supposed to be reality - it's a flashback to a time of razor sharp car fins, comic books, Saturday afternoon matinees (Oh, LOOK! I know another French word!!), red-headed freckley-faced little boys in buckeroo boots, blue jeans, and cowboy hats. It's a caricature of another time gone by.

This one, OTOH, wasn't supposed to be anything but a cheap shot. It was a throw-away. The image, in it's original coloring, was pleasant enough. However, I needed purple and this didn't have any. This version, of all the stupid versions I did, was suck-o amusing, as opposed to the others that were just suck-o yuck. I planned on ripping this from the gallery later b/c I didn't want my name associated with it! LOL! I was just curious if any oppo-lonnits would care for such drivel. Actually, you alone gave more postive comments on it than I ever imagined! LOL! :)

I'm a big fan of dR's work. The personalities in his images take center stage. I think it's patronizing to state that he developed his style to overcome a weakness in his equipment. It's equally ridiculous that I should sacrifice all sense of art, and produce only sterile images of flawless technical perfection, to the exclusion of all heart, b/c I have equipment that is capable of doing so. =8O

BTW, my stingray image has NO processing, other than changing the color from red to purple, then sharpeing. :)
~ Lonnit


Canon DSLR Challenge30-Oct-2006 18:42
Wild processing but beautiful flower! CJ
jbhgmvo30-Oct-2006 01:56
Ahh great. I'll brush up on my german some day. Perhaps my english too :) The quote goes: "In der Beschraenkung zeigt sich der Meister". It's about discipline.
jbhgmvo30-Oct-2006 01:49
Well I'm not your friend so I don't risk a thing. I've noticed your pictures for a while. Not because they're good, but because they're severely overprocessed. Which can make or break an image. It usually breaks it. There is almost always two things that strike me with your shots: I can see where you were going. And I see where it went wrong.

I agree that this one has the best colors. You'll get trouble printing it, but that's another story. Even the muted sunshine effect on the lower part of leafs and flowers is AOK. But the white halos in the middle part of the image breaks it completely and turns this into a horror movie-poster. Not even a good one. More like "The goo that ate the world".

It's like the background in the left middle half of the image is dripping with some jello substance - a rather apalling effect. But the same effect made those black outlines on the upper half of the image, where it works in a more desireable way. The white jello on the lower petals are also still OK. The big flower as a whole reminds me of antique asian prints. I like those.

There's a german proverb that goes: "In der Beschränkung zeigt sich en Meister". Look it up. What's wrong with the car picture, for instance, is that the effect that is applied to the car and pavement with success, also ruins the background. It is no longer just a unexplainably sharp background, it's a complete "in your face" background, begging to be noticed. Because there are bright halos accentuating every line there. Brushnel near the upper left corner have the same effect, applied at full force, as if it was the most important little tree-branch in the world. That is distracting.

If I were you, and wanted strong effects, I'd use layer masks. Mask AWAY the effects in areas where they don't alter the image in the right direction anymore. Personally I'd use the effects far more subtly. Just add a white layer mask on a duplicate layer, and make little black-to-transparent circular gradients where you want to fade an effect again, then adjust opacity to taste.

I am, however, of the opinion that when you can SEE an effect was applied, chances are it is overdone. Filters and effects often often add an immature impression. Effects are cheap. It's only right to experiment though - you should know your tools - in and out, but I keep my own "worst of" in the bin bucket.

I know of only one single person who can get away with severe USM oversharpening, btw: "dR." here on PBase, who also has a few other tricks up his sleeve. For instance that his composition always is stronger than his effects. I always suspected he started using extreme USM because his D70 is so darn grainy though. He has learned to make the best of its weakness. But you have a 5D, for gods sake. You paid for the details. Why blow them?
Canon DSLR Challenge30-Oct-2006 00:44
I find it vibrant, colorful, and just a wee bit scary. Excellent for Halloween. --Melanie
Canon DSLR Challenge30-Oct-2006 00:38
Well guys, confession time again. I was trying to force something for a third entry. I wasn't thrilled with any recoloring I'd done. This was the best of the worst! LOL! It did have some appeal to me, but really only when viewed in full size, where you could see the painterly effect. It's actually fairly nice like that. Here though, in a size I can post, I'm not thrilled. I wanted to get some feedback though, before trashing it, b/c I wasn't sure how badly it sucked. :) So, your criticisms merely serve to strengthen the friendship. :) ~ Lonnit
Canon DSLR Challenge29-Oct-2006 20:31
I don't really like it, but I'd like to not pass judgment until I can view the original-sized image, which thus far has been broken. Would you consider re-uploading it? -- Victor
jnconradie29-Oct-2006 19:25
Hi Lonnit, I know you said, "... and if you're not going to be stunned by EVERY one of my images, then I can't be your friend anymore..." Now I going to "endanger" :-) our friendship yet again: at first glance I thought it was the same picture you posted to flickr, but then spotted the differences. I liked that "style" a lot more, though. This just feel "too much PhotoShop, too little Photography" for me. But I know this is exceedingly subjective! :-) Can we still be friends? :-) :-) Regards ~jnconradie
Canon DSLR Challenge29-Oct-2006 00:27
Thanks. I think it would be easier to explain what I DIDN'T do to it! LOL! Ummmm... most of what I did to it I trashed, so I'm having a hard time recalling what the final process was. I think I changed the color of the flower from pink to purple, then ran a Nik filter on it - maybe midnight? - then one of the PS painting filters, then some burning. Like that vague explaination is of any value at all! LOL! ~ Lonnit
Canon DSLR Challenge28-Oct-2006 23:19
That's very striking. What did you do to it in PS?
Alastair