Saturday, May 12, 2012

Happy Mother’s Day!

Here a happy family and a couple of paintings. All to wish our mothers a most wonderful Mother’s Day!

.:.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Tall Ships in Savannah

The first weekend of May 2012 saw the Tall Ship Challenge visit Savannah. River Street looked absolutely wonderful with the ships complementing the old river front buildings.

For larger views, click on the photos.

For more photos see Gallery Ludwig – Tall Ships in Savannah

.:.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

High Noon Photography

This weeks photo was taken during that period when the sun is highest in the sky. Photographers are admonished to avoid this time of day – the light is harsh, the shadows dark and deep, the angle of the light is unflattering … All that is true, but even the high noon time sun can provide some magical light and allow some subjects to be at their best.

The photo for this week is a leaf. There are other leaves in this picture, but the high sun played just beautifully with the texture of the central leaf.

No trickery or post-processing magic here, just light and shadows. I loved the way the structure is highlighted and edged with wide shadows.

The texture of vertical object can be well photographed with the high sun angle. A wall, like here in flat light, shows the colors but essentially nothing of the texture. Light at a steep angle can bring out the real look and feel of these walls as shown in the next two images.

The high-angle light makes walls look very realistic and brings out the dimensional characteristics.

The high, noon-time sun may not work at all for portraits of people, but don’t dismiss this kind of light as too limiting. Many subjects can be well photographed in the overhead sun. Mid-day is not just for siestas, so squint if you must, but look for picture opportunities. Here two more images to show that harsh down-light can be flattering after all.

Click on the images for better views.

.:.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Weekly Photo (Week 18)

Light Touch - Heavy Touch

This week you get to vote: How much “enhancing” is too much?

In digital photography it seems to have become mandatory to run each photo through “post-processing”. There are small adjustments of exposure, cropping to get that perfect composition, and a myriad of other refinements and effects. For many the objective is to present a masterpiece photograph, for others the goal is an image that is merely based on the photo, “based on a theme …”.

Each week I present a “work”, a piece of “derivate art”, over in Silver Canvas. Those are meant to be just playful “café art”. In Gallery Ludwig, on the other hand, I present photographs – not works of art, just, hopefully, enjoyable images.

So the question becomes, were is the line? When is a photo no longer a photo. A while back I explained that I have an arbitrary demarcation, and when one of my images crosses that line, I place a signature on the picture. Photographs, realistic images, even when enhanced, don’t get a signature.

So today three images – all from the same exposure. All with post processing. Photos, or “derivative art”? You be the judge. Your comments are invited.