Dead Nature Effect

[Archangel]

In a couple of months I'm going to participate in a photo exhibition. The theme is General Photography but there is also a section of "Artistic Merit" treated photos.
I need to choose some shots for the "Artistic Merit" theme and need some help in terms of which shots to pick.
Since most of the times what we like, is not the same with what other people like, I would like to hear opinions in terms of theme and artistic post processing in order to adopt the majority's opinion and adapt/adjust the photos to fit the public taste.

So any type of feedback is welcomed and from time to time I will post different photos of those I consider to pick for the exhibition. Though only 5 photos will be the candidates.

So here is the 1st one.
Does the "Dead Nature" effect works for you?
What would you personally change or adjust differently?
Feel free to post process the photo yourselves (if willing to do so and apart from commenting) and post back your interpretation.
It doesn't have to be some perfect success as I only need to see how you think of the idea of "Dead Nature".

P.S: The photo is full sized as taken. Haven't cropped anything yet and has been treated with brown/coffee effect, plus some noise added.





Regards

George

[Ian]

Re: Dead Nature Effect

I think there is a lot of potential in this picure, George. But the lower half of the frame works better than the top half for me - I really like the wooden shuttered windows and the stone wall; lots of nice, rustic, detail there. The tree feels a bit too dark and the centre is a bit of a black hole for me. I've not successfully added noise to my images to my own liking and I'm not wholly convinced here, though I don't know what the original looked like, of course.

I'd definitelyt be interested to see how this evolves!

Ian

[barann]

Re: Dead Nature Effect

In a couple of months I'm going to participate in a photo exhibition. The theme is General Photography but there is also a section of "Artistic Merit" treated photos.
I need to choose some shots for the "Artistic Merit" theme and need some help in terms of which shots to pick.
Since most of the times what we like, is not the same with what other people like, I would like to hear opinions in terms of theme and artistic post processing in order to adopt the majority's opinion and adapt/adjust the photos to fit the public taste.

So any type of feedback is welcomed and from time to time I will post different photos of those I consider to pick for the exhibition. Though only 5 photos will be the candidates.

So here is the 1st one.
Does the "Dead Nature" effect works for you?
What would you personally change or adjust differently?
Feel free to post process the photo yourselves (if willing to do so and apart from commenting) and post back your interpretation.
It doesn't have to be some perfect success as I only need to see how you think of the idea of "Dead Nature".

P.S: The photo is full sized as taken. Haven't cropped anything yet and has been treated with brown/coffee effect, plus some noise added.





Regards

George

George, I like this picture very much. But perhaps you tell something about the theme "dead nature". That is, because your picture does not necessarily tells to me that nature is dead - the tree mirrors hope and power of nature to me. Especially in front of the background. Hm, the picture is so fine, but I am not sure if the theme of the exhibition will recon it.
Martin

[Archangel]

Re: Dead Nature Effect

I think there is a lot of potential in this picure, George. But the lower half of the frame works better than the top half for me - I really like the wooden shuttered windows and the stone wall; lots of nice, rustic, detail there. The tree feels a bit too dark and the centre is a bit of a black hole for me. I've not successfully added noise to my images to my own liking and I'm not wholly convinced here, though I don't know what the original looked like, of course.

I'd definitelyt be interested to see how this evolves!

Ian

Ian,

I attach the original photo as it would be easier to see how exactly it is and easier to treat it artistically (but always in terms of the "Dead Nature" theme) because this is how I'm planning to use this photo.
I know what you mean about the black hole. Indeed it is due to applying effects filters. I saw it before I posted, whishing someone to comment on it and ask him if he knows some good plugin for Photoshop or Paintshop to use, since I don't have any of this plugin type.

The house is old and abandonded as you noticed and the pine tree is actually burnt. Now from the right side not so much visible new leaves are popping out and that is the reason I omited from the photo the right part of the tree.
I was hunting to find a cloudy day to take this photo in order for the entire photo to look dull.
Though the sky even cloudy that day, didn't help a lot. No clouds were visible, only one flat gey thing with a few yellow shadows scattered.

Here is the original, reduced in size only.





Regards


George

[Archangel]

Re: Dead Nature Effect

George, I like this picture very much. But perhaps you tell something about the theme "dead nature". That is, because your picture does not necessarily tells to me that nature is dead - the tree mirrors hope and power of nature to me. Especially in front of the background. Hm, the picture is so fine, but I am not sure if the theme of the exhibition will recon it.
Martin

Martin,

Thanks for commenting.
I replied to Ian and attached the original photo. The house is old and abandoned many years ago and the pine tree in front of it was totally burnt.
The truth is that when you are present on the scene, the "Dead Nature" feeling is very intense and much more of what the photo shows, because of the surroundings too, not shown in the photo.
I have to present the photo with this feeling since it is the realistic one you from these objects.
Maybe some people will not totally feel that, in the exhibition (most of the they will though, I know which people come there as I participate every year for the last 7 years).

The exhibition is free of themes. You can interpret your imagination however you like it. You need to go with 5 photos of general photography and 5 others of artistic treated effects.


Regards

George

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Dead Nature Effect

Martin,

Thanks for commenting.
I replied to Ian and attached the original photo. The house is old and abandoned many years ago and the pine tree in front of it was totally burnt.
The truth is that when you are present on the scene, the "Dead Nature" feeling is very intense and much more of what the photo shows, because of the surroundings too, not shown in the photo.
I have to present the photo with this feeling since it is the realistic one you from these objects.
Maybe some people will not totally feel that, in the exhibition (most of the they will though, I know which people come there as I participate every year for the last 7 years).

The exhibition is free of themes. You can interpret your imagination however you like it. You need to go with 5 photos of general photography and 5 others of artistic treated effects.


Regards

George

I can't say I like the heading name of Dead Nature, perhaps a slight change eg 'Natural Death' would be more intriguing! I did a little processing to illustrate what I feel could make pic a little more sombre to befit the title, using a Caravaggio plugin, slightly desaturated that & cropped a little.

[Archangel]

Re: Dead Nature Effect

I can't say I like the heading name of Dead Nature, perhaps a slight change eg 'Natural Death' would be more intriguing! I did a little processing to illustrate what I feel could make pic a little more sombre to befit the title, using a Caravaggio plugin, slightly desaturated that & cropped a little.

Jocelyn,

Thanks for taking the time to comment and edit the photo.
The title is under discussion as my English is not my mother language and some expressions or terminology is not the best I can come up.
All opinions are welcomed as I initially wrote and all will be considered.
Thanks for the name of the plugin too. I will try to find, download and install.
The photo will definitely be cropped from top as you did, to cut off some of the flat gray sky and possibly some of the stone fence (if it doesn't take away) the dramatic old ruined/recked feeling of the fence.
Though it looks that the photo doesn't need special color effects in order to have the "Natural Death" look as you described it

I'm off to my country house in a while for the weekend. From Monday night experiments start again.

Regards

George

[coupekid]

Re: Dead Nature Effect

Ian,

I attach the original photo as it would be easier to see how exactly it is and easier to treat it artistically (but always in terms of the "Dead Nature" theme) because this is how I'm planning to use this photo.
I know what you mean about the black hole. Indeed it is due to applying effects filters. I saw it before I posted, whishing someone to comment on it and ask him if he knows some good plugin for Photoshop or Paintshop to use, since I don't have any of this plugin type.

The house is old and abandonded as you noticed and the pine tree is actually burnt. Now from the right side not so much visible new leaves are popping out and that is the reason I omited from the photo the right part of the tree.
I was hunting to find a cloudy day to take this photo in order for the entire photo to look dull.
Though the sky even cloudy that day, didn't help a lot. No clouds were visible, only one flat gey thing with a few yellow shadows scattered.

Here is the original, reduced in size only.





Regards


George

Lovely picture George, but I have to say, I much prefer the orginal. The treated version appears a little flat, and I dont like the lack of sky.


Hope that helps!

[Tom]

Re: Dead Nature Effect

This version is my favourite but INMO if the sky is totally removed (yes you will also lose some of the tree) and a little saturation added we are left with a very artistic image (water colour like) indeed.

Ian,

I attach the original photo as it would be easier to see how exactly it is and easier to treat it artistically (but always in terms of the "Dead Nature" theme) because this is how I'm planning to use this photo.
I know what you mean about the black hole. Indeed it is due to applying effects filters. I saw it before I posted, whishing someone to comment on it and ask him if he knows some good plugin for Photoshop or Paintshop to use, since I don't have any of this plugin type.

The house is old and abandonded as you noticed and the pine tree is actually burnt. Now from the right side not so much visible new leaves are popping out and that is the reason I omited from the photo the right part of the tree.
I was hunting to find a cloudy day to take this photo in order for the entire photo to look dull.
Though the sky even cloudy that day, didn't help a lot. No clouds were visible, only one flat gey thing with a few yellow shadows scattered.

Here is the original, reduced in size only.





Regards


George

[Bearface]

Re: Dead Nature Effect

Hi George,

Just thought I might share my own interpretation of your image, for what it's worth. Personally I don't think the sky contributes anything to this shot, so I've cropped the image down to a square format and then I've added a bit of drama to the scene

This is by no means a criticism of your image; just an alternative point of view

[Archangel]

Re: Dead Nature Effect

Lovely picture George, but I have to say, I much prefer the orginal. The treated version appears a little flat, and I dont like the lack of sky.


Hope that helps!

Hi Ben,

I wanted to hear opinions, and by posting the original more precise conclusions/interpretations could come out. It seems to me as of now that the original (without any color effects treatment) works better for almost everybody. I guess sometimes, treatments show how artificial they are and originals how good they can be

Thanks for commenting Ben.


Regards

George

[Archangel]

Re: Dead Nature Effect

This version is my favourite but INMO if the sky is totally removed (yes you will also lose some of the tree) and a little saturation added we are left with a very artistic image (water colour like) indeed.

Tom,

Thanks for commenting. Indeed the sky didn't help that day. Even though I was hunting for a cloudy day to have dull colors for more sramatic style the sky was one flat gray washed out thing.
And I couldn't avoid it in my framing since if I had lowered the camera more down to avoid the sky I would have taken part of the road in front of the house. So I preferred to have the sky in and cropping it later if it couldn't be done anything with it.
For adding saturation, I don't know yet, as this might punch up the dull colors I really wanted to have. But I will try to experiment with that too. Maybe a very slight saturation boost won't ruin the effect of a dead scenery.


Regards

George

[Archangel]

Re: Dead Nature Effect

Hi George,

Just thought I might share my own interpretation of your image, for what it's worth. Personally I don't think the sky contributes anything to this shot, so I've cropped the image down to a square format and then I've added a bit of drama to the scene

This is by no means a criticism of your image; just an alternative point of view

Tim,

Your interpretation of the image is a lot valuable to me.
Indeed the sky does not contribute at all of the image. I couldn't omit it though as if I had to, I would have include then a big part of the road in front of the ruined stone fence, plus I would have cut part of the tree that I could probably crop no so tight in the future.

So I thought, that with a sky is much more possible to do something, adjust or modify than with a part of road that can't be done much.

I don't mind criticism in my image and especially in this one that will be used as an artistic merit image in terms of theme or post processing.
I need to have 5 good artistic merit images. I prefer them to be less exciting in the eyes but very interesting in terms of theme and interpretation. I've seen all kinds of crazy photos in these exhibitions, but I prefer my photos to be easily understandable from all ages, than to be some cultural, surrealistic compositions that most of the times are there to be admired because cannot be understand.
Sometimes (actually most of the times) people just admire without understand, crazy creations just to pretend that there is some art talent inside of them.

I was planning to use 5 images for this exhibition theme. No matter which photos I will use, they all going to be some B&W or other monotone/duotone images.

Be free to offer any critique ot my photos. I really don't mind that and especially from very good photographers


Regards

George