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ctfchallenge | all galleries >> Challenge 78: Think Inside The Box >> Challenge 78:Eligible > In the Barn *
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April 5, 2005 Mary Anne

In the Barn *

Westfield, Massachusetts USA


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~elements 10-Apr-2005 15:42
thanks Mary Ann
I just want to say that usually shadows are my favourite subject when taking photographs.
much depending on how the shadows are throw around
I think in this case it spoils the picture.
ctfchallenge10-Apr-2005 02:56
Thanks. The house actually appeared to be empty, but that green tractor indicated that someone was around somewhere in the vicinity.

Mary Anne
janewigginsphotography10-Apr-2005 00:08
I also like the photo - after all we do have shadows in real life and it was captured the way it was. As far as the white spots on the left on the barn...I'll just imagine them as bird poop as most barns have on them :0 Great capture since you were worried about a shot gun!!!
Rod 09-Apr-2005 07:23
Mary Anne, you have no BHs in this shot it's just someone having a go at me:-)I had a play with this shot in PS, I made the lighter areas a bit darker, cloned out the white spots in the shadow & lightened that shadow a little. I was going to post in the forum after Shirley & Lonnits shots that I butchered, but some little controversies got in the way. Can't you clone out the white dots, what image software do you use?
ctfchallenge09-Apr-2005 01:51
Well, this controversy has been fun, although that certainly was not my intention. I just wanted to get in and out with what I thought was a decent shot before someone came out of the house with a shotgun and ordered me off their property. It was a bright sunny day, preventing me from seeing results in my LCD screen, which resulted in some exposure problems. I may or may not crop off some areas or lighten some of the shadows as suggested, but I still like the photo. Maybe my eye still isn't trained to it, but I didn't think blown highlights were a problem here...I was more concerned about the white specks that showed up in the shadows on the left. One thing I do know is that I won't go back and remove that broom. ;-)

Mary Anne
~elements 08-Apr-2005 10:50
the idea of the picture is lovely but I think the shadow on the left spoils it.
cropping is certainly not the answer either
the broom may have been there but it looks daft stuck in front of an engine
( albeit's not moving ...yet)

: )
wonder who left it lying around like that

perhaps a witch dropped by and is having a roll in the hay in there somewhere ...
? :)


maybe taking the shot from an area on the left and looking towards the lighter side of the barn would have been better . if the situation was suitable.
maybe it was not

very nice and good controversial picture
I love the colours
Rod 08-Apr-2005 07:29
See wot you started Mary Anne:-)
ctfchallenge08-Apr-2005 01:31
Mary Anne, this is a great picture and right on topic. I have one very similar to this and I love it. In fact, I was going to post it in the samples for this challenge day one, but something stopped me from doing that. You have done a good job. All the international debate aside, if saturation and/or BH appeal to you go for it. Its your picture and you should be satisfied with it. All of these are point of views of different experts. -Cat
ctfchallenge08-Apr-2005 01:27
I'm not that thrilled with the deepness of the shadows. I don't think the shadows from the overhang should be as dark as the shadows inside the barn. Dark, yes, but there needs to be some more visible separation because it's too blocked up right now. Other than that, it's a nice shot. :) ~ Lonnit
Nugar08-Apr-2005 01:20
I remember Lonnit :o)
I just checked and in fact the blown area is about 45% of the image.
Pissing off Rod is fun.
ctfchallenge08-Apr-2005 01:18
Rod, I know of the intentional blown highlights shots he's talking about. He'd emailed me some samples a few days ago. It's not minor, accidental areas (a la my bucket), but more of blown highlights being virutally the entire background. It's a very stylized thing and I'm sure if you saw the style you'd say in a minute that it is a thing unto itself. You may not like it, but you'd agree that it's an acceptable style, not an error. :) ~ Lonnit
ctfchallenge08-Apr-2005 01:14
Nugar,

Remember though how I warned you to watch out not to blow the highlights in those shots? Well, except where they are intentionally blown, and blown big-time so nobody mistakes them for unintentional ones. When you break a rule, you must remember to REALLY break it or else it looks like a mistake. ;)

Lonnit
Nugar08-Apr-2005 00:15
I frankly don't care if you're fed up Rod. I'm just telling you that you don't own the truth. Of course I won't start adding BHs on purpose, that's also in jest. But everytime someone has a BH, you start pontificating about it. Just your opinion, but you do have a way of making it sound like it was a mortal sin, where it is not. Lets just agree to disagree here. Maybe I'm accustomed to reading American English and I understand Australian's and UK's English differently.

About the agency guiding about what they want, yes, they are a client in a sense and if their experience tell them that is what selling, then I will produce what is selling. It is just good market sense. And I don't apologize for wanting money either, since as someone else said, my family has this tendency to want food and shelter.

Saludos,

Humberto
Rod 07-Apr-2005 19:57
Yes I do have a too much to say but I did assume that you read what I have written, as I DON'T think Blown Highlights should never be in a picy & even said under Lonnits shot that if she showed the light streaming in the BH would work. Jude's excellent shots had plenty of BHs in them BUT she intended them to be there & used them to fit her vision. If your country like ours has the light & you would have lots more colours in Panama then why use Provia filters to over saturate an already colourful image? I'm getting a little fed up here that when I put a smiley in you take my girly/bloke comments seriously. How many smiles do you want me to put in Humberto? As far as deliberately putting BHs into a shot is the most ridiculous thing I have heard you say unless you have the vision of a Jude. So you will let the agency selling your shots guide you as to what is a good shot will you Humberto? This tells me that the money is what you’re after & not photographic satisfaction.
Nugar07-Apr-2005 18:19
Rod, did you eat from a pot? Here in Panama, when they say to you "comiste en paila?" (did you eat from a pot) it means that you're talking too much. And boy, have you spewed long parragraphs this time!

About the image, I love the saturation. Interesting that even though saturated feels vintage. I live in a saturated country, love spicy foods, strong colors, rythmic and noisy music, complicated women and I can quite assure I'm not girly myself. So let the lady be. The image is cool. About blown highlights. I'm in the middle or relearning photography. Over here, we place a lot of weight to the right exposure. But interestingly enough (and I hope Lonnit reads this, she'll know what I'm talking about) a lot of what you see in the agencies breaks these self-imposed rules. As a result, some images I submitted for evaluation and that were accepted were overexposed.

So this whole thing about the BHLs is of course subjective and they can be accepted in some settings. A picture having BHLs is not automatically a bad picture. A saturated picture is not a girly picture.

And as we've seen, most pictures regarded as artish and having a mood have nothing to do with what we do here, but are one or more of the following: grainy, out of focus, moved, badly composed and who knows what else.

I for one will start to blow my highlights again and saturate more my pics :oP

Best regards,

Nugar
Rod 07-Apr-2005 11:28
Well seen Mary Anne you have produced a wonderful girly shot here. But if you wanted to turn it into a mans shot then don't get seduced into overdoing the colour saturations. The brain always thinks it looks better but using the various colouring filters around like provia & the shadows & highlights tool can make your shots have too much of the same flavour & they can become less interesting. The G series of cameras produce shots with plenty of saturation in them as though a polariser was used. I just use the sponge tool in PS set to saturate & just do small parts of the shot.
Now for a bit of critique, for me I wouldn't have the ground, front of tractor & the roof so bright as I find these three parts trying to grab my attention all at once. If these were darker the red wood would get the attention it deserves. I agree with you that there's enough detail in the shadow area, any lighter & it would also be competing for attention. So wot are you Mary Anne, a girly girl or a bloke?;-)
ctfchallenge07-Apr-2005 00:26
Alexeig, I have you to thank for the colors here, as I followed (sort of, but not quite as complex) your description of how you used PS to get such rich colors in your photos. Can you see the red wood grain beneath the shadows on the left? The details there are quite clear on my monitor.

Shu, I didn't want to crop any more off the left because I want the tractor to be off-center. I actually would have left more on the left, but I wanted to get rid of the distracting front bumper of an old truck. BTW, I remember your earlier mention of the lady in Massachusetts who yelled at you. You see where this one was taken. LOL.

Mary Anne

Mary Anne
ctfchallenge06-Apr-2005 20:31
Perhaps a slight crop on the left? I'm not sure, tho. It's beautiful either way. I know what you mean by being uneasy aiming the camera at someone's private property. A lady screamed at me in the boondocks of Mass.last year. But there are so many beautiful areas there it's worth the risk. Shu
alexeig06-Apr-2005 19:59
Great wood texture and color. I would open the shadows to the left a bit but Rod would disagree
Guest 06-Apr-2005 15:46
Very nice shot, I like the lights and the composition. Well done.
ctfchallenge06-Apr-2005 14:58
The broom is not a prop...the scene is as I found it, and I was afraid to touch anything because I was on private property. There's a house just to the right of the barn, but it appeared to be empty, so I boldly walked up the driveway and quickly shot a couple of photos. I really wanted to get the interior of the barn, but without permission I was hesitant to get any closer.

Thanks for your positive comments.

Mary Anne
Shu06-Apr-2005 14:35
Marvelous shot! Great color and shadow! I don't think of the broom as a prop, however. It adds interest. Shu
Paul 06-Apr-2005 06:38
This is excellent, i love all the colours and textures and right in the middle is this pitch darkness that could contain anything, all you can make out is the top of the tractor cab but the rest is a mystery. The broom looks like a bit of a prop though.
Regards
Paul