photo: The Rocker on the Porch

[Godfrey]

Hasselblad SWC + Ilford XP2 Super​

Thanks for looking! Comments appreciated.

G

 

[lynnb]

OK, first impressions:
- the title says it all, and somehow the picture doesn't deliver anything extra IMHO - it's very nice, but not outstanding. Maybe I was expecting more?
- the loss of shadow detail on the upper section of wall bothers me, as do the dark tones on the white-painted top of the door architrave and window. I'd dodge those areas to bring in more shadow detail.
- to my eye a better visual compositional balance was achieved when I scrolled down a little to hide the upper section of the photo, just below the horizontal dividing line across the centre of the upper window panes, but including the shadow of the eaves. YMMV.
- off-white tones and shadows on the supporting posts and lower woodwork is exemplary IMHO. Ditto the lower back wall, porch timbers, and shingles.
- the scrolled timber parts of the rocker that are well lit don't have any texture that I can see, although I suspect that might be accurately what they look like. The shadowed parts look very natural.
- I like the reflections in the window
- It would be nice to have a little more detail in the interior of the house, but that's just my preference. The light coloured reflection on the extreme right border draws the eye but there's not enough detail there to be able to identify what it is.

There's my 2c...


Edit: just looking at your Flickr photostream from the link, I think 052 Lilies on table is a much more satisfying image IMHO. It's beautiful.

 

[Godfrey]

Thanks for your commentary! And thank you for the compliment!

Looking at it again with your comments as context, I think a good bit of the upper area darkening, and the loss of texture on the scrolled portion of the rocker, are the result of downsizing for the web. I can improve those tones easily with a little editing. The details on the rocker wood are a bit more difficult—it is/was pretty smooth, the texture is apparent at full resolution but is fragile. Due to the fragility of the texture, this one really wants to be presented in a largish print for best rendering, it seems to survive reduction to about 2200x2200 pixels, below that it gets lost.

Thanks again. Good comments like yours help me to look critically at the details with an open eye.

G

 

[daveleo]

It is a pleasure to read this level of commentary and exchange regarding a photo. (And an education for me as well.)

 

[Kenj8246]

Hear, hear. It's refreshing when someone takes the time to say anything at all.

Kenny

 

[taskoni]

I agree with Lynn on the points he made as I find your photo way too contrasty. The beauty of that environment would be the pattern on the chair and the pillars. I personally don't like the composition and if I may say cropping from the top won't improve it. I think the chair should be much closer to the camera to fill that empty space on the bottom and to become a true hero object in the frame or. I would get rid of that plant out of the shot as it very distracting. Getting closer might improve a bit the composition ( left hand side is too busy and bottom part too empty). The reflection on the windows now are dominating and take all the attention from the chair (because of the contrast?). Seems the light was not so interesting too. When there's no beautiful light, there should be very rich texture and sharpness in the scene. Low contrast, warm tone and closer-wider when still bringing the chair away from the background will do it for me 🙂

My 2c.

Regards,

Boris

 

[shadowfox]

I like the image.
It has a lot of potential, but also some elements that would make me scratch my head.

- I like the different wall siding texture, the brick wall, those two can play together nicely
- I like the rocker too, but it's not prominent enough in the current version of the image
- I like the texture of the wooden planks on the floor

- I don't like the blurry grass at the left bottom corner
- Like Lynn and Boris, I don't like the shadow corner on top
- The two wooden posts beside the rocker, I'd be so confused on how to come up with a good balanced composition without sacrificing one or the other

- Something about the tones bugs me. It's grey, too much grey. It bugs me because I see that only my images too, usually when I spend too much time processing it on the computer.

 

[Godfrey]

Thanks for all the comments!

Lots of stuff to think about. I did very very little image processing ... that's pretty much the image as scanned from the neg, with a resize and a border added—whipped it up in about 40 seconds ... so there's a lot of room for development of the image. Also, the scan is about 8500 pixels square so I suspect there's plenty of room for cropping and rendering without compromising quality. ;-)

It's good to hear all the comments, let's me look at the photo from other people's eyes and see it more clearly. My head is too involved with the fact of that nice weekend with friends yet.

I was somewhat amused by the thoughts of the porch and chair image from the American South. I always associate that with languid, steamy heat ... And this is Mendocino, on the north California coast. Rarely that "languid, steamy heat".

G

 

[srtiwari]

I like the picture.
Like some, had this been mine, I would have cropped about a 1/4th of the left and bottom, but that would compromise the 'mood', I think, even though, compositionally, it might be better.
The lack of shadow detail does become hard to ignore, once pointed out. For me this brings up the question- aren't there images (and views in real life) that are too dark to have any detail ? If it represents 'reality' as seen by the photographer, why is it a flaw? Also, maybe detail in that area might have actually distracted from the main subject...

 

[Tuna]

Thematically it is good. Many elements of the Southern/American sensibility leaning toward the friendly, lazy summer. A porch, wood decking, aged wood columns, paned window, shingled siding - all speak to this theme. One may think of Steinbeck or Faulkner...

I believe Lynn has done a stellar job in doing the necessary work of breaking down the technical elements - agree with him or not. The only thing I would add to his summary is that I don't believe the star of the show needs to be centered to be the center of attention. I would suggest a crop of a fifth off the left and a quarter off the bottom (just to the top of the lower plant tip and to the right of the higher plant tip). I understand this would eliminate the square standard of your original capture but, for me, would be a more pleasing composition.

(Sorry, I thought I had double posted and deleted the post...I'll repost here)

 

[Tuna]

Thanks for all the comments!


I was somewhat amused by the thoughts of the porch and chair image from the American South. I always associate that with languid, steamy heat ... And this is Mendocino, on the north California coast. Rarely that "languid, steamy heat".

G

Hah! It's all about the stereotype my friend. Black and white picture of a rocking chair on a porch. If you are going for California, next time throw a pair of sandy flip flops in or lean a surfboard against something...😉

 

[sepiareverb]

I wrote a long post earlier when the server was acting up which has vanished into the etherm but the gist of it was that it looks a bit dark to my eye, but I love your making that secondary square with the white posts. Beautifully seen.

 

[Godfrey]

Hah! It's all about the stereotype my friend. Black and white picture of a rocking chair on a porch. If you are going for California, next time throw a pair of sandy flip flops in or lean a surfboard against something...😉

LOL! Until you get south to about San Luis Obispo, the water's too cold for that image. That's the Malibu/Santa Monica/Venice Beach thing.

Surfers up this way (San Francisco), and north (Mendocino is five hours north of here), wear wetsuits to keep from hypothermia. This is more Northern California with a surfer theme:

​

Redwood forests, funky mailboxes, surfboards ... ;-)

G

 

[Godfrey]

I wrote a long post earlier when the server was acting up which has vanished into the etherm but the gist of it was that it looks a bit dark to my eye, but I love your making that secondary square with the white posts. Beautifully seen.

Thank you, sir! 🙂

G

 

[Contarama]

I like all the geometrical shapes and how they relate and contrast with each other that are involved. Like notes in a piece of music. In this regard maybe the stark contrast works well. Color would have detracted from it immensely probably.

 

[alfredian]

The Shadows lead me in

The Shadows lead me in

The shadows at the top of the frame lead me in, and balance the whole beautifully. Then I pick up the coils of the rocker. After slowly cruising the whole scene, I finally pick up on the sharpest thing in-frame: the reflection of the trees in the window panes.

All in all, a really satisfying ensemble of light-dark, curve-straight, sharp-smooth. Thanks. And--plus One for medium frame! --alfredian

 

[Keith]

It's a nice photo but I'm puzzled that the shingled wall to the left of the chair appears to be in sharp focus but the chair is not .... I find that very distracting as the chair is the dominating feature of the image.