I was in Italy last week but, apart from my brother's wedding, I did not had many chances to take pics, spending most of my time with old friends and family.
However, the river passing through my home town had very little water due to the very hot summer and it gave me the opportunity for a few shots at the fishes in it.
The original pics are way too muddy and nearly monocromatic due to the nature of the terrain and to the dirty water.
I saw in the pics a great opportunity to produce some digital artwork and I came out with this:
I used the same techniques for the versions 1,2 and 4, trying to keep a good level of photorealism, while I went real wild with Photoshop in version 3.
I tought it could have been of some interest to share them here and I am very curious about the opinions of my friends on DPC.
Although each process is made of many steps, which I did not annotate, all of them share a fundamental step which had an incredible relevance for these kind of shots (so relevant, that it did surprise myself):
the "Auto" function of the "Levels Adjustment Layer".
This function usually does little or none modifications on my pics but in this case the effect were surprising.
I have put online a version of the original siccity nr4 so you can try it yourself and see what I mean:
I took the shots from over a bridge with the zoom set to the max (5x or 190mm for the Sony F707. f3.5, time 1/250 for nr.4) and all of them come with this muddy look that, however, is even better than what I saw in reality where the yellowish dominance was greater (in my eyes).
What surprised me more is that the fishes are actually blue! =)
You can nearly see it in the original shot and it becomes evident after auto-levelling. Once again, they did not look blue at all from my perspective! They looked like some kind of dark brown fish in a very dirty yellowish river.
My conclusion, after this experience, is to shot at everything that moves! =))))))))
Taking shots thru water I find very satisfying, the way the light is reflected and the way the objects beneath the water (in right circumstances) can be illuminated. Especially true in shallow amounts of water. One shot that I got many comments wondering about was water beneath, (black area):
//www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=32135 Another very interesting shot with water is this one:
//www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=35354 It would be neat to have a challenge 'water'.
glimpses nice job with the fish, I actually like 3 and the blueish areas that are not fish. The soft ripple effect is very appealling IMO.
It would be neat to have a challenge 'under water'.
well, ellamay, your shot is just the confirmation that you really are among my favs photographers: I gave it 9 during the "Right Angles" challenge.
I find the "Fugato" shot less interesting but just because I am strongly influenced by Photoshop... I have filters which would produce that effect and similar ones in more powerful and creative ways, while there is no filter which can reproduce the composition aspect in "2 Feet Squared".
Isn't it amazing how different we all see the world!
Glimpses,, it just doesn't occur to me to go.. Oh, PS can do that no big deal..
Curious.. I learn something everyday. thank you very much
Yes, you are very right.
I have spent most of my life breathing all kinds of software and that certainly affects my sensibility.
I hope to heal sooner or later! =)))
I find the "Fugato" shot less interesting but just because I am strongly influenced by Photoshop... I have filters which would produce that effect and similar ones in more powerful and creative ways, while there is no filter which can reproduce the composition aspect in "2 Feet Squared".
Water is a fantastic catalist for effects, indeed. I like your number 4 best, yet all of them illustrate your point.
As far as my "Fugato" image is concerned, I actually took a little pride in the fact that I managed to achieve the final result in camara. I cropped, minimally. No post-processing whatsoever.
Thanks for your compliments on my work glimpses. I have not used PS in my work either, I only know the very basics of it, tho am learning it. I like the challenge of getting my shots with as little post processing as I can for the most part. Once I learn PS I do have a childrens book idea that I would like to put together. Any way thats another story.
thanks again.
