* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #852 / Revived #072 on 2024 08 14 *

It is difficult to lose friends and family Paula. Sylvester looks much too young to leave life and he is obviously happy on his green machine.

For your crop I would leave a tad more on the left side so as not to abbreviate the fender. As I recall you are using PS. Assuming you are on the cloud plan with the Ai abilities you could ask it to remove your brother from the image. It does a pretty good job of that sort of thing from the examples I have seen. I could not do it manually and get a decent result. If you do have it and you can get it to do a good job then I would crop the image as shown in the example below. I also like the close up crop that was shown that crops out most of the tractor. Dan's result is good too but I have no idea what the family will like and they may prefer a more straight up image.

I am sure you will make an excellent choice as always.

Andrew

Thank you for looking and commenting. The reason I left a hint of the background is to show that this fight is in the arena and not on the beach. 😀

Thanks Kumsal, I hadn't even thought of that but monochrome has its advantages, there's a reason why it is so classic. The crop you added later is especially nice.

Nice sparring match. The lights (unsure how that was done) make it even more interesting. I think I would crop more to get in closer and eliminate the distraction in the dark part of the left side.

When I first glanced I thought this might be a mockup using action figures but these guys are real! (I have had a lot of fun with mockups my grandsons set up so that's probably why I thought of it).

Naw, I'm about as far as you can get from the Pacific and still be in the US. Our herons are mainly Great Blues. We see some little blues, and some occasional other passersby as they migrate but the Great Blues rule. Same body type, same flight form, same eyes. Obviously cousins! And yeah I understand the devils' bargain we make when we use m43 equipment. It's portable, it's lightweight, you get a lot of bang for your lens length buck, lots of built in toys. But you pay for it with noise and detail when you're not in really great light. Always choices about whether to risk using a higher ISO, or risk lack of sharpness with lower shutter speeds, or whether to underexpose and try to do more in post, or whether to just walk away and grumble about it.

Thanks Mike. I am continuing to work on it and will finalize next week, so all input is appreciated. The color work is the hardest decision. We do have a real live color cast that affects how everything looks (and captures) in summer, because there's so much green and yellow that reflects down on us outside, especially later in the day. Getting rid of all of it makes the photos look abnormal because it doesn't reflect what the world looks like to us. So it's a balancing act. I'm still fiddling.

Thanks for a creative suggestion. I had considered a little regressive blur but hadn't tried it yet. I'm not sure about a totally discolored background but selective muting of saturation might be a thought. Sylvester's mom is even older than me and I think pretty traditional so I don't want to get too creative in this one. Appreciate.

I am glad to hear from someone who loves vehicles and can appreciate Sylvester's love for this beautiful green machine. I like the idea of including a bit more of the vehicle for the part it played in his life, which was significant. Not entirely sure about the blur edge. Like I told Dan, Sylvester's mom is even older than me so is on the traditional side and I want to please her first of all. It does call more attention to that trademark smile though.

Thanks Mike!

No, not Mondrian, though it's flattering that you suggest that.

I think if the light and shadow playing out inside the room were more visible, the late afternoon, high-contrast lighting -Edward Hopper feel that I experienced at the scene might have come through.

The window screen is too dirty to let it show, but when I was there, the inside looked much brighter. I guess I could bring that quality out more in post processing.

Another subject that I need to (actually) revisit and/or work on with the material I already have.

Rich

Thank you minniev. The lights are actual sparks flying off of the swords when they hit each other. The reason I have not cropped it is that I wanted to give a hint that this match is in arena and not on the beach. 😀

No problem but I initially thought it was on a beach anyway and the back wall was just some kind of barrier for spectators.

With all due respect Andrew...
Death is a serious matter.
There is no room for Photoshop tricks.
I always tell myself please hold back, but in this case I just can't.

No problem but I initially thought it was on a beach anyway and the back wall was just some kind of barrier for spectators.

No this was a show in a big arena.

So what? That is just repeating your previous post.

I didn't doubt your comment but when I initially viewed your image without the extra information I thought it was on a beach as described earlier.

So nothing. Just showed to the people where this event happened.

Ok, no problem.

Your intent wasn't clear because you chose to reply to my post instead of replying to the thread. There are 2 buttons to choose from when replying to posts.

The photo is good but the story make it much better. The repeating, diminishing arches with the tiny figure at the end convey the scale and atmosphere. The text adds more meaning and scale to what we see. The offset to the left is clever. It gives light and detail to the stone wall and shows a corner. The actions of the ruler deserve to be more widely known. A European king doing this would have been besainted and immortalized in legend.
A thought for the Australians looking at this photo. Dan and Bryan, remember Weeties boxes? Perhaps they were before your time.

The question is whether these strong colors are actually needed around the deceased.
They distract a lot from him.
Solution: Get rid of the colors!