Hello all! I figured that I'm overdue for a post. Here's one from a manual Soligor 35-70mm f2.5 lens I grabbed off Ebay for cheap. I was quite surprised at its sharpness and colour (but crappy resistance to flare), so I thought I'd share, and one of our horses agreed to pose. I'm rather pleased at how this composition turned out, though I can't quite put my finger on why. Perhaps it's the shadows?Opinions?
-Colin
6 comments:
Colin
At the risk of appearing overly critical on your first post in ages (and see above re Damians), your photo does little for me, I'm afraid. It seems very cropped in, to the extent of even clipping off the very tips of the ears and mouth. To my eye, either get right in and have a dramatic crop, or don't crop, but the effect of just clipping off the extremes looks "lazy" and untidy to my eye. Sorry.
For the image itself, I find the shadow and fence distracting and I'm asking what it adds. I do like the way the mane comes across one eye, leaving the other nicely free, but the shadow then takes over, and I find it distracting against the white of the horse in general. Not sure how/if a crop would help, but may be worth playing around with.
Sorry D and C - both images do little for me.
Ivan
Point well taken about the ear chop. Unfortunately what you see is the full image, so the problem was poor framing on my part. I figured out why I like the shadow: the dark shadow is cast on her face at the same angle as the pale forelock, with the two intersecting right in the middle of her face, between the eyes. Pleasing symmetry.
It would have been nice if the fence weren't there, but if that had been the case she would have been roaming around the garden in search of edibles. Anyway I like the photo despite its shortcomings.
Ivan, I hope you weren't overly prejudiced by your earlier tramatic encounter with a horse photo. Hee hee!
Hi colin,
I'd like to see more with this lens. What's motivating you to use it? I have to agree with the shadow-naysayers, I'm afraid, and the rope in front of the nose is a bit bright and distracting. But sod it: if you're pleased with it, it's achieved something as an image!
Firstly, the image requires processing. The levels aren't right; its dull. Nothing jumps out. Is this how you remember the image?
As for the composition. I would ask why did you shoot this image? Just for trying out the new lens or did you see something. If the former, then fine. If the latter, then I would have worked out exactly what you saw and isolated it before raising the camera.
I always tell myself as I shoot that my camera is not used for looking. Its there for capturing what we I am seeing.
Damian
Colin - let me know what you think of my quick reworking. I personally like it cropped. Also, I agree with Damian's view that it's too dark - it has a very under-exposed quality about it, hence I lightened it in my reworking.
Keep posting, though.
Ivan
Colin - let me know what you think of my quick reworking. I personally like it cropped. Also, I agree with Damian's view that it's too dark - it has a very under-exposed quality about it, hence I lightened it in my reworking.
Keep posting, though.
Ivan
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