WMC - River Ice Pattern

[Andrew McLachlan]

Here is an old Velvia slide (recently scanned) of an interesting pattern I found many years ago in some river ice.

Shot back in the horse and buggy days of photography :S3: with a Minolta X700 and a Minolta 100mm macro probably at f22 for about a second.

Look forward to comments.

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[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Andrew,
You did very well with the comp here.....isolating a nice bit of ice with an interesting shape. I am a bit bothered by the LR shadowed area.....which would be an easy clean up.....but overall I think you did an excellent job! Now you have to go out and do one digitally!:D

[Dave Leroy]

A very interesting shape. It looks like a bird pecking at the ground or perhaps a dinosaur of some sort!

In hindsight perhaps a bit lower or a move to the right may have handled LR.
I did not do much film photography but looking at old books I think photos are much "cleaner" now and perhaps getting cleaner.

Nicely exposed and very well seen.

Dave

[Roman Kurywczak]

A very interesting shape. It looks like a bird pecking at the ground or perhaps a dinosaur of some sort!

In hindsight perhaps a bit lower or a move to the right may have handled LR.
I did not do much film photography but looking at old books I think photos are much "cleaner" now and perhaps getting cleaner.

Nicely exposed and very well seen.

Dave

Great observations Dave! It is mostly due to the instant feedback on the LCD!!! I saw my macro improve by leaps and bounds with the first digital bodies.....because I didn't have to wait to make immediate tweaks by looking on the LCD and checking the histogram. Flash use/correction became instantaneus instead of waiting for the film to be precessed and taking notes! Gives a great sense of appreciation to the masters before the digital revolution!

[subhrashis]

Great patterns, i really love this one! The sparkling ice on the black bg works well. I am not really bothered by the shadow on the lower right, i think it improves the depth and '3-dimensionality' of the shot.

Roman, very true, the instant feedback of digital is really useful in learning for beginners like me. As for the experienced guys now, just look around at what magic they are doing with the added freedom to experiment!

[Julie Kenward]

Awesome image, Andrew! You've got such clarity throughout and the comp is very strong IMO. I might be tempted to tone down the LLC just a tiny bit so it doesn't pull as much attention. Really great processing on this knowing it's from the days of old... :S3:

[Ken Childs]

Hey Andrew, this looks great! I love the shape and all the various textures you found. I'm with Roman on the shadowed area but as he said, it's an easy fix. Isn't it nice to have the option to change it if you want? :S3:

[Andrew McLachlan]

Thanks all for the comments, very much appreciated. I'll go back and clean-up the lower right corner and tone down the LLC too.

I haven't done much of this sort of stuff with digital, probably time to get back at it though. I love the digital technology for slide scans though. Often I'll tweak slide scans with Viveza or use Nik's Remove Color Cast tool for casts on some of the old slides.

Thanks again.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Andrew. This was a very nice find and it looks great for a scanned slide. The shape is very interesting and you did well with the comp. The rim lighting really makes the ice stand out from the background. I'm not really bothered by the LR and LL corners, but I agree that tweaking them, as suggested above, would be an improvement. Well done.

[denise ippolito]

Andrew, The sculpted look of the ice is very interesting. I like the dark BG and think this looks great!! Lots of detail!

[Anita Bower]

Great observations Dave! It is mostly due to the instant feedback on the LCD!!! I saw my macro improve by leaps and bounds with the first digital bodies.....because I didn't have to wait to make immediate tweaks by looking on the LCD and checking the histogram. Flash use/correction became instantaneus instead of waiting for the film to be precessed and taking notes! Gives a great sense of appreciation to the masters before the digital revolution!

I completely agree.

[Anita Bower]

Nice ice shapes. Clear and crisp. Can't add much to above comments.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Thanks Anita, Denise and Steve, very much appreciated.