Once and Future Ghosts

[daq7]

Had to sit absolutely still for 8 exposures.



Oddly the reflection and refraction plays hell with the highlights on the wine glasses. Makes it look like an image alignment problem, but it ain't. Every exposure has the same issue, and the non-reflected image may not be tack sharp, but it is in focus and aligned ok...

I kind of like it...

[Frog]

I'll be coming back to look at this again...probably several times.
I like the feeling and my eyes do a lot of exploring.
I'd prefer a hair more on the left.
I don't think the highlights in wine glasses nor the softness of the non-reflected image are an issue.

[daq7]

Thanks for looking at it Frog, and after reflection I would appreciate feedback. Trying to look at this through eyes that did not take it, I think the thing that makes it work limits it. People tend not to be attracted to images that are not in focus. Right? And if you don't look carefully to see that the foreground is in pretty good focus, it is easy to dismiss the image just because it looks messy.

It does create an etherial feeling to me, but one thing I learned a long time ago is that it is very hard to turn off the bs filter when you were involved in the production. Of COURSE it is brilliant, because it was rilly rilly hard. Yeah...

[jetrim]

This is a pretty neat shot. It doesn't appear so much to be out of focus, as it does to have a "soft focus" which is not unpleasant or distracting. The only thing I notice, is that there is very little to hold my attention toward the right side of the frame. Despite the great leading lines, my eye wanders to the right only for a brief second before it wants to come back and explore more around the subjects and speculate about what's down that hallway. I'm thinking this may be a very good candidate for a square or 4x5 crop.

[armando_m]

To me, the image looks like the screenshoot of a video while it is merging two scenes :blush2:

Maybe this what you tried to do

[Greg McCary]

I really like the shot. It could use a little more room on the left and top. But I can see the exit sign seems perfectly focused. Nice work. The placement of you and the girl are perfect.

[daq7]

You know jet, the right side of this shot OUGHT to be really strong, since it has the reflection of some cool buildings, but they get lost in the homogenisation of color and the texture confusion that came out of the tone mapping. I think maybe they need a different tone map and a blend in photoshop to fix it, because I don't want to give up the width and the depth that the composition SHOULD be able to offer. Dunno if it can be fixed.

[Shebang]

This is Creepy, daq7. The thing that is good about it being creepy is that it makes me feel. When a photo can do that, it's a success. I knew there was something about it that bothered me -- besides "creepy" -- but I could't put it in words -- but jet described it well. It will be interesting to see what you guys come up with.

[daq7]

Well, I tried to enhance the creepiness or eeriness with the title. I'm not much of an artist, but what there is in me tends to gravitate to what is ugly, but I don't want to be creating ugly work. I prefer to strive for what I think of as strange beauty. Something that is undeniably beautiful but unsettling. What I mean by ugly is the work of HR Geiger, which I love a lot, but it is just spiritually ugly...

[daq7]

Ok, I did not necessarily agree with this crop, but if you don't listen you can't learn so I did it anyway. I still don't know if it works better than the original...

[Ridgetop]

I like it better than the original. Since it was hard to pick out the reflection of the buildings it seemed like lost space. This crop works a lot better for me. Talking about an awesome mix of reflections in a whole bunch of stuff.

[Greg McCary]

Maybe you should try and clone the camera...Add a little more mystery to it.

[daq7]

I agree that taking the camera out would probably improve things. I think I could do it. I have a lot of skill with photoshop I think, but that would be a challenge to do. The soft focus would likely help. Maybe I will try that at some point.

[daq7]

Ok, I clone stamped out the camera and tried to reconstruct my face and the reflections. I think it is ok, but man if this were to get blown up it really needs noiseware applied to it or something. At that point the edits might become more apparent. Hard to say.

[daq7]

Sigh, I just realized the tripod is visible inmultiple reflection points. I took out the major one, and the ancilliary ones will be easier. It is quite remarkable how much control you actually have over the final result if you are willing to paint the answer....