critical hats on please for new B&W gallery

[Perry44574]

Lisa,

Great gallery!! I'll be happy myself if I could do half as good as you did.

I think you should link this one in the samples and gallery forum to get more exposure to the public.

Thanks for sharing

perry

 

[vulturesong]

Hi Kev...
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and look. I
completely agree with you on the flag/statue photo and I probably
should upload the one without the colored flag as it seems rather
unanimous that it is too heavy handed.

You know, I always loved BW film photography but I never shot in
it, and I never developed my own film. I feel as though I really
missed out on the classical aspects of photography and always think
I should take classic film photography classes. Then I think that
I probably will never shoot in film again so I abandon that idea.
Still, it nags at me.

I konw what you mean - When my Dad (brough up with hand held light meters, fully manual cameras etc) talks in terms of film latitude and other technicalities, it exposes the frailties in my essentially point and shoot mentality. I justify it citing the one big freedom digital gives us all, the opprtunity to experiment without waste! The skills of an experienced 'old school' practitioner will never lose value, but times change. Looking at your photos and those of other posters, I ask myself whether the lack of true technical knowledge of classical photography techniques reduces their intrinsic value. I honestly don't think so!

Thank you again...
liza

--
Kev G

--
http://www.lizawallis.com
http://www.lizawallis.com/photography

--Kev G

 

[Gene L47030]

Great set of photos! I thought that Barn and Lighthouse worked particularly well in B&W. I really liked Stevie shore, but am wondering if it would work better as a color photo. One minor nit-pick, consider giving these photos names befitting their character. Overall, very good composition on each of these, very good job!
-Gene L.

... I was hoping to get some solid constructive criticism of these. I
realize there are a lot of photos here and I don't expect you to
look at every one. But of those that you do look at it would
really help me if you could give specific feedback.

Thanks in advance for looking...
the whole gallery can be found at:
http://www.lizawallis.com/BW
liza
and here is one image to get you started:



--
http://www.lizawallis.com
http://www.lizawallis.com/photography

 

[SteveH]

By the way Steve, how do you
like the pocket bouncer?
See you in the samples and gallery forum...
liza

Liza, thanks for stopping by over there, I value your opinion. You know, in this forum I sometimes get frustrated with all the gab on 'discontinued' models and stuff that won't be available for months etc., but is you and a handful of others that make me keep coming back.

Re the pocket bouncer, right after your thread, I saw it in my local discounter, it was the last one and their January 10% off everything offer was about to end (I don't often trust myself to go in there in January) so I had to buy it but I have to admit that I havn't yet created an opportunity to use the yet - I'm not as lucky with mice as you seem to be! But I know it will be good when I do use it ;-)
Keep on keeping it interesting.

--SteveZurich, SwitzerlandFuji 4900Z & Fuji MX-2700www.pbase.com/steveh

 

[liza wallis]

Lisa,

Great gallery!! I'll be happy myself if I could do half as good as
you did.
I think you should link this one in the samples and gallery forum
to get more exposure to the public.

Thanks for sharing

perry

Thank you Perry... I may well decide to post it on the samples and gallery forum as all this feedback has been incredibly helpful as well as confidence building for me. I do need to redo the gallery however because it is not viewable by people who have Macs. Some weird behavior with my source code

Thanks again
liza
--www.lizawallis.comwww.lizawallis.com/photography

 

[liza wallis]

Great set of photos! I thought that Barn and Lighthouse worked
particularly well in B&W. I really liked Stevie shore, but am
wondering if it would work better as a color photo. One minor
nit-pick, consider giving these photos names befitting their
character. Overall, very good composition on each of these, very
good job!

Hi Gene... thank you for your comments.... The naming issue has been brought up before so I think I need to pay heed to that. It is a very good suggestion. Trust me on the "stevie shore" photo... it was simply awful in color. Converting to BW was an attempt to salvage it.

Much appreciative of your feedback and positive comments.

Thank you...
liza--www.lizawallis.comwww.lizawallis.com/photography

 

[liza wallis]

By the way Steve, how do you
like the pocket bouncer?
See you in the samples and gallery forum...
liza

Liza, thanks for stopping by over there, I value your opinion. You
know, in this forum I sometimes get frustrated with all the gab on
'discontinued' models and stuff that won't be available for months
etc., but is you and a handful of others that make me keep coming
back.

Thank you very much for saying this Steve... Sometimes I think I should shut up a bit more. I am glad to hear that you don't feel the same way.

Re the pocket bouncer, right after your thread, I saw it in my
local discounter, it was the last one and their January 10% off
everything offer was about to end (I don't often trust myself to go
in there in January) so I had to buy it but I have to admit that I
havn't yet created an opportunity to use the yet - I'm not as lucky
with mice as you seem to be! But I know it will be good when I do
use it ;-)

Aw, c'mon... that shot in the samples and gallery forum was great. You walk around there long enough and a mouse is bound to show up. By the way, I still want to see it in a different b&w... a rust duotone or a blue duotone or even a darker B&W... it has a lot going for it.

Keep on keeping it interesting.

Thank you Steve... I look forward to seeing more of your work
liza

--
Steve
Zurich, Switzerland
Fuji 4900Z & Fuji MX-2700
http://www.pbase.com/steveh

--www.lizawallis.comwww.lizawallis.com/photography

 

[Todd Medley]

David-- thanks for telling me about that. Seems like I remember seeing somewhere about the URL path with / vs. \ . Unfortunately I didn't make it back in time to test out the theory.

Liza-- beautiful shots. I've not read others' critiques (and it appears there have been lots!) but here's mine just for the heck of it.

My favorites include:

barn_window - nice shadows, simple subject... makes an impact.

dog school - not so much for the B/W shot but for the subject matter. I think this one would look better in color.

any shots with a fence - I'm a sucker for fences. Hopefully there's nothing psychologically twisted about that.
field - I miss the thunderstorms back east - brought back some memories.
stevie_shore - Again, great use of shadows & contrasts; great impact!

Thanks for sharing these.

Hi Liza,

The fence shot is great. However, when I go to visit you're B/W
gallery, I get 404's on all of the other pictures. Will try again a
bit later.

I read what David said to you about this being a Mac and PC
incompatibility problem. I just don't get it, but that would make
sense. I had a heck of a time getting the FTP to work properly
when I uploaded these so maybe that is the problem with the s and
\s going in the wrong direction?

Thanks for trying anyway...

liza
--
http://www.lizawallis.com
http://www.lizawallis.com/photography

--Best Regards,Todd MedleyRedmond, WA http://public.fotki.com/wagatorfan/

 

[liza wallis]

David-- thanks for telling me about that. Seems like I remember
seeing somewhere about the URL path with / vs. \ . Unfortunately I
didn't make it back in time to test out the theory.

Yes David... Thank you

Liza-- beautiful shots. I've not read others' critiques (and it
appears there have been lots!) but here's mine just for the heck of
it.

My favorites include:

barn_window - nice shadows, simple subject... makes an impact.
dog school - not so much for the B/W shot but for the subject
matter. I think this one would look better in color.

Hmmm... I am not sure whether I prefer it in color or black and white

any shots with a fence - I'm a sucker for fences. Hopefully there's
nothing psychologically twisted about that.

hopefully not, since I am a complete sucker for them as well.

field - I miss the thunderstorms back east - brought back some
memories.

Really, you don't have thunderstorms in Washington? I never knew that. The sky that day was incredible. Actually the spot where I took that shot from frequently has the most incredible skies and light.

stevie_shore - Again, great use of shadows & contrasts; great impact!

This photo is proving most interesting in the feedback... people with like it or really dislike it. I remain undecided. I just know that the color version was quite awful.

Thanks for sharing these.

Thank you Todd for taking the time to look and comment. I reloaded the whole site about an hour before you posted this so I don't know whether it was fixed when you saw it. I am still waiting for a Mac person to let me know whether it is working now.

Take care and thanks again
liza

Hi Liza,

The fence shot is great. However, when I go to visit you're B/W
gallery, I get 404's on all of the other pictures. Will try again a
bit later.

I read what David said to you about this being a Mac and PC
incompatibility problem. I just don't get it, but that would make
sense. I had a heck of a time getting the FTP to work properly
when I uploaded these so maybe that is the problem with the s and
\s going in the wrong direction?

Thanks for trying anyway...

liza
--
http://www.lizawallis.com
http://www.lizawallis.com/photography

--
Best Regards,
Todd Medley
Redmond, WA
http://public.fotki.com/wagatorfan/

--www.lizawallis.comwww.lizawallis.com/photography

 

[SFJP]

Liza,

Sorry to be late in this thread, but several days ago when trying to access your B&W gallery I found no images. Today I tried again and there they are.

Like Cassandra, these B&W pictures remind me of the past when I was doing B&W I was developping myself. I think B&W is a very difficult discipline because the pictures cannot rely on nice colors to be interesting. Composition is then very important and aslo some mysterious atmosphere that sometimes can be captures by B&W while color woulod destroy it.

I remember my main enemy was also white skies, which necessitated to use red filters.

I like many of your pictures. Especially for composition the picnic.jpg, which in addition has a funny aspect with the strangely piled-up tables, for the nice uncommon composition of plans (with the clearer in the foreground) the field.jpg. I liked also a lot the stevie_shore.jpg, perfect composition and balance of tonalities. Of course I liked also the fence_shadow.jpg, so good I feel it almost too good and "pro".

On the critical side, as you asked for, I'd say, to find some criticism to write, that some of your pictures are may be too clear, lack of B&W mystery thickness. For instance the horse_farm.jpg, which is very nice in terms of composition, seems to me on my laptop screen (which is not a good reference) to be a little too much on white side. But this is my eyes of course, and should not be taken as an objective remark. I remember that in the past I was so tense in not having too clear and white pictures that I was darkening them too much with a too emphasized contrast. This is what led me to stop photography for many years until I redicovered it with color digital picture. Nevertheless, I appreciate so much many of the pictures in your B&W gallery that I may be tempted to try again this difficult discipline...

Jean-Paul

I have just uploaded a new gallery of Black and White photos. If a
few of these look familiar it's because I have posted them here
before. Most of them are new.

I was hoping to get some solid constructive criticism of these. I
realize there are a lot of photos here and I don't expect you to
look at every one. But of those that you do look at it would
really help me if you could give specific feedback.

As for methods used... One of the photos was shot with a hoya
infrared filter. All the others were shot in color and then
converted in photoshop in the post processing. I heavily relied on
the channel mixer and also "glick efx" Infrared photoshop filter.
I did use Fred Miranda's Infrared action on one or two. Some of
them were also converted to duotones if I thought the B&W effect
needed a little extra punch.

Thanks in advance for looking...
the whole gallery can be found at:
http://www.lizawallis.com/BW
liza
and here is one image to get you started:



--
http://www.lizawallis.com
http://www.lizawallis.com/photography

--SFJPwww.pbase.com/sfjp

 

[liza wallis]

Hello Jean-Paul...

Imagine my surprise when I looked in on this forum and discovered that my B&W gallery post had been brought back to life. I appreciate so much that you took the time to check again (you must be working on a Mac, because these photos were inaccessible to Mac browsers until I managed to fix the problem thanks to David Dodd) and to give such a thoughtful post. I have missed your direct, honest responses as well as your wit since you have been in exile.

I remember my main enemy was also white skies, which necessitated
to use red filters.

hmmm what do red filters do? Deepen the skies in B/W photography? I think I really would like to get very good with black and white so any tips are greatly appreciated

I like many of your pictures. Especially for composition the
picnic.jpg, which in addition has a funny aspect with the strangely
piled-up tables, for the nice uncommon composition of plans (with
the clearer in the foreground) the field.jpg. I liked also a lot
the stevie_shore.jpg, perfect composition and balance of
tonalities. Of course I liked also the fence_shadow.jpg, so good I
feel it almost too good and "pro".

Whoa... thank you.

On the critical side, as you asked for, I'd say, to find some
criticism to write, that some of your pictures are may be too
clear, lack of B&W mystery thickness. For instance the
horse_farm.jpg, which is very nice in terms of composition, seems
to me on my laptop screen (which is not a good reference) to be a
little too much on white side.

Hmmm interesting... this is one of my favorites. Perhaps the fact that I used a digital infrared filter in the post processing made it too white. I may have to go back and try it with the channel mixer and see what I get.

But this is my eyes of course, and
should not be taken as an objective remark. I remember that in the
past I was so tense in not having too clear and white pictures that
I was darkening them too much with a too emphasized contrast. This
is what led me to stop photography for many years until I
redicovered it with color digital picture.

Really? this is so interesting... you are right of course that the contrast issue seems to be a never ending challenge... do I go for more contrast and blow out some highlights. or less contrast and muddy things up. I worked hard trying to find a balance so I am glad to see that I was not alone and that this perhaps is not an easy process for others either.

Nevertheless, I
appreciate so much many of the pictures in your B&W gallery that I
may be tempted to try again this difficult discipline...

oh excellent... I would like to see some from you. Once thing though... I don't think your miniatures would lend themselves to the B/W conversion!

Thank you as always for your frankness and your eye

liza
--www.lizawallis.comwww.lizawallis.com/BWwww.lizawallis.com/photography