A break from reality.
I normally like to display photos in a realistic way with most of my post processing limited to cropping, straightening and minor contrast and colour enhancements. Today however, being a “Weird Wednesday”, it’s a break from reality. As I was going through some of my Galapagos Islands shots, I opened up a rather ordinary looking “sunset over water” shot, in fact ordinary is being polite, insipid is probably more accurate. Rather than simply discard the image I decided to quickly throw a couple of Photoshop techniques at it to see if there was any potential there at all. Having done so I then thought, what the heck, I’ll pull out a few more stops and see what results. After a series of adjustments with masking, I decided to composite the frigate bird into the shot as well. I expect the image won’t be to everyone’s taste, but then again, neither is cheesecake.
Mouseover for original image.
This treatment of course gets us back into that old argument about what is a photograph and what is an illustration? In this case, I’ve moved far from reality with radical colour treatments and have changed the content with the compositing of the bird which wasn’t photographed at the same location, in fact not on the same day either. We are well and truly into the realm of photo based illustration.
As I’ve written before, I don’t think there is a strict right or wrong on this, provided there is an open acknowledgement of the process involved and there is no attempt to pass the image off as reality.
Recent website update.
As I wrote in a recent post, I have done a fairly substantial update to my main site with some new content there. For those who haven’t visited recently, I’d encourage you to do so, and check out the essays and articles section which I’m sure many of you will find of value. Over the last couple of months I haven’t updated the site as often as I should, this is something that I intend to smarten up on. As always, feedback, opinions and suggestions welcome.
And speaking of feedback, thanks to everyone who contributed their comments and thoughts on my blog entry 2 days ago, I think it’s fair to say the topic struck a cord with quite a few people. cheers KD.
Comments
Joseph Ferncez – 15/04/2009 12:00:25 PM
Kevin,
While the image does not necessarily reflect reality, you haven’t gone too far. It’s red, but not to the extent that I feel it is a martian view.
We do differ on our approach to the presented image. It only reflects personal preference which takes nothing away from anyone else’s preference. For me and for me only, I prefer not to crop an image. I only crop commercial images and “just for fun, holiday images”. On my part, I try (not always successfully) to compose my image in the viewfinder as it will print on paper. When working in 35mm format, I show the black around the image of the transparent film.
Here in the US, though a bit uncommon, I have seen days with the sun still about this angle really show a bright orange sky. It must have something to do with the atmosphere. It is most dramatic viewed over a golden field of wheat in the countryside. That is what your image brings to mind for me. Nice Job!!
This really makes me wonder how I will make changes to my perception when I do get a digital camera.
Ellen U – 16/04/2009 5:23:22 PM
Nice shot – with and without your Photoshop “cheating” 
The bird is doing the job here! About the red sunsets, they mainly show us that the atmosphere is polluted, isn’t that so..?
I have a raw photo from the northern Norway with a real bird in it(…). No sunset – it was taken in the middle of the day – but there’s nothing to say about the colors.
Ellen
kevin dowie – 16/04/2009 6:07:12 PM
“Cheating”?? CHEATING??? why how dare you madam. (stomping feet and shaking fist in indignation)(chuckle) I prefer to think of it as ‘creative licence’. OK, I’m getting carried away again. The red sunset here is obviously due to the photoshopping (interesting how a trademark can become a verb!) but yes airborne pollution can have an effect.
I recall that, probably 15 years ago, the volcano Mt Pinatubo in the Philipines erupted putting a huge amount of dust high into the atmosphere where it circled high up above the earth for about 2 years before settling. During that 2 year period sunsets were unusually colourful due to the effect of light scattering and defracting off the airborne dust. It’ll be interesting to see whether the recent eruption of Mt Redoubt in Alaska offers similar effects particularly for you in the northern hemisphere. It will depend on just how much the volcano spits out.
As to your Northern Norway shot (which I just went and had a look at) I guess you’re close to the arctic circle there so I should think the sun would be fairly low in the sky even at mid day and, of course, you’d have an extended twilight period start and finish of the day which offers some great opportunities for the “pastel” sky look we all like. KD
Lisa ♥ ♥ – 16/04/2009 6:54:30 PM
Just Beautiful . When you post I too make it a daily stop when I’m on my Computer. It’s Gold and Stunning . Nice work.
Here I Am Carrie – 16/05/2009 5:34:39 AM
I think what you have done is beautiful… It still take an artistic eye to make changes and have it look good. The bird adds so much to the photo..
Related posts:
- Galapagos Islands Panorama. An Exercise in Image Processing. Today I thought I’d present...
Touch – 15/04/2009 1:42:59 AM
I like the end product and you main page is one of my near daily stops. Thanks Kevin.