Murray Valley Skies
I have reason to travel to Yarrawonga in northeast Victoria on the Murray River regularly now, and while the landscape on the flood plains is flat, the skies can make up for the lack of dramatic scenery.
I was surprised to learn that the Murray carried more paddle steamers than the Mississippi in their respective 19th century heydays. Perhaps that was a patriotic Aussie lie. However, the Murray is a long river with major tributaries in a generally very dry continent (although dwarfed in every respect by its distant sister), and provided a major transport route for farm produce to reach shipping - perhaps wheat or wool to be loaded on to a clipper bound for Mother Britain, back in those colonial days. At least Yarrawonge has a First Nations' name, unlike the state and the river.
I am interested to hear what people's views are about the skies - they're a long way from the rather dull reality of the RAW file, and I'm well aware of the risks of over-processing. Having fairly recently embraced monochrome, this could well be a time I overdo things, to my later regret! However, for now, I like them this way, and am quite happy to pursue a romantic or heroic vision rather than just depicting reality.
6 Comments
Ciao Sir!
You want to read comments about the sky. I loke that you included at least a very minimum of ground, to keep oir feets on! Loosing the ground in a photograph feels odd to me.
I think over processing images is important to learn. For sure not to show up in a portfolio.
Normally I develop an image and then close it. Reviewing it a few days later. Do I still like it? What is overdone? And come back again 1..2 weeks later and ask the same. Yrs, it slows me down. No quick results. But it helps me to do things better.
#1 the sky is a bit busy for me. There are ,2 interesting spots in the clouds.
#2 mor contrast max add more drama
#3 the bright stripe in the cloud draws all attention
#4 2 layers of clouds covering a blues sky, not dramatic. A summer sky. Relaxed.
Thanks for your observations.
I like all of these but the last two I like best. I don't think they are over done at all. I like the last one the best out of all of them. I think daytime skies look great in a very contrasty black and white. When you can get that blue sky to be almost black and those white clouds just pop! I love that look personally. Nice Job!
Thanks, Kyle. I like the last one best myself. I think that may be because the lower, smaller, fluffy clouds with high cloud behind & above create a greater sense of the depth & vastness of the sky. Also the composition is less busy overall.
Over processing, under processing. No one can, or should tell you one or the other. They're your images and you say what you want to say. Some will like them, some won't. Again that's a subjective judgement. If you want to know if their judgements have validity go an look at their work. If there is none then do with their opinion what you would with an annoying fly. If they have work up then look at it. If you like it then figure out why you like it and incorporate those elements into your work. Never let someone else force their tastes and opinions on you, be your own voice. What you will find, as time passes, is that your vision will change and your rendering of a scene will change over time, which is normal. My personal guidelines as they carry over from decades of working in black and white with film. I try to avoid large areas that are just black with no tonality - in fact I hate having those in my work. I think they're just butt ugly. Next I try to avoid significant highlight areas that blow out to white with no detail. We used to call them "blocked up highlights". The phenomenon is now called white clipping. I want radiant, glowing mid tones.
How do you do that? in your original exposure pay attention to the histogram. Don't use the LCD display to lie to you. Next, when you import the image look at the histogram on your computer. I like to export the image from Light Room as a pretty flat original with good detail in the shadows and the highlights, then I can expand the image contrast as I want to in Photoshop, and those are the only two software tools I use. Keep your life simple and do what makes you feel good emotionally.
Thanks, Nathan. Wise words.