Something different? Post your working with textures shots here.

[arith]

Well done Steve. You have a trend / way / project or like you called it a basic theme. Something I wrote about a few days ago.
Indeed I was too enthusiastic with what I did and I posted the triptych. OK I know it is a triptych already and not one single image but not consistent/persistent enough to be considered as a theme. And a theme is really the right direction.
Look herewith at what the editor of Silvershotz - Clive Waring-Flood - wrote in the last issue. I scanned the page for you to read.
And if you have the chance loot at the work of Fritz Liedthe - published in Silversotz Volume 7 Edition 1 the very same issue - and all his links. Look at the dimension of such a work. Consistent, solid. I am already planning to do something like this but for now I will not tell you about it. Sorry. Just not the moment.

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Yes Raylee this works for me. I mean I like it. It is not among my preferences but I like it. We can't like everything can we ?
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David is that flower made on paper ? Looks pretty nice the way you are presenting it
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Well Steve, let me tell you frankly: Your picture doesn't impress me and doesn't make me feel sad or whatever. I can't see anything wrong with you in there my friend Wrong bet.
I understand - yes I do - that you would feel miserable at that time but that is your point of view. Try again Steve. Look at the picture with other people's eyes and pass to them how anguish of bad you were feeling at the time.
Make something really strong. I think I am being too harsh now but I know you from here for some time and I am sure you, not only agree with me, but you will not get mad at me either.
OK ?

Yes, I've been given at most five years to live, Antonio. Why not capitalise on it. I think it is real and the five years surreal, but anyway I got rid of originals even though I thought at the time it might be interesting. Of course the doctor is wrong and I will live long enough to annoy even more people.

The lisp is due to surgery causing minor heart attacks.

I think I had better correct that statement; I was given at most 5 minutes to live if I didn't have immediate surgery for which a more experienced surgeon was called upon from a different hospital on a blue light, and he wouldn't fix it without his own team, which mean't the operating theatre was closed and I was in there 5 and half hours although the operation lasted a couple of hours.

I was drugged up to the eyeballs, so that if I started to bleed I would bleed to death. Because it was so dangerous and not uneventful they decided to leave the rest of the problems to fix another day, should they be needed to be fixed.

Then I was told by the original surgeon, I was the luckiest person he had ever seen, and this is where I've was a tad misleading; if I continued with the lifestyle and didn't give up smoking, something I took up after I got a brain injury from being run over, I didn't drink or smoke before, then I would be dead within three months, but if I changed my lifestyle they wouldn't expect me back for five years, to fix residual problems no doubt.

I just get so depressed since I didn't even smoke until after the accident, and I'm inclined to exaggerate a little bit. sorry.

[mythlady]

Steve, I didn't have a chance to respond right away, but I too found the picture very moving. It's a powerful portrait, and I applaud you for sharing it.

[Katy Noelle]

Hi, Steve (arith-one)! The emotion in your eyes.... oi!

[Antonio Correia]

Steve, I didn't have a chance to respond right away, but I too found the picture very moving. It's a powerful portrait, and I applaud you for sharing it.

Hi, Steve (arith-one)! The emotion in your eyes.... oi!

Thank you Steve for the explanation. Probably I made a wrong judgment when looking at your image. I must recognize this regarding what other people say about it.

However, would the image transmit such comments if we didn't know what is behind it, without your explanation ?
I mean: an image should be strong enough to transmit feelings and emotions without the help of text. It is also true that some images do need text to have sense and meaning. I myself hesitate here.
Hope you live enough to annoy many many people Including myself

[Wirefox]

And a theme is really the right direction.

I am in two minds about this. I can appreciate Clive Waring-Flood is getting at but for me good art does not need to demonstrate a transparent thought process or a theme. I have stated my view before about this requirement that establishment critics seem to have where everything must be explained and transparent. They seem to feel uncomfortable with images that they cannot measure with a yard stick. I take the opposite view that regardless or theme or content, if the image stirs emotion (of any kind), it is successful.

At the moment I feel more comfortable with giving myself a theme because it helps me make sense of the technical side of the processing. My aim is to get onto the screen the raw thoughts in my head...then I will have achieved my goal

[arith]

Thank you Steve for the explanation. Probably I made a wrong judgment when looking at your image. I must recognize this regarding what other people say about it.

However, would the image transmit such comments if we didn't know what is behind it, without your explanation ?
I mean: an image should be strong enough to transmit feelings and emotions without the help of text. It is also true that some images do need text to have sense and meaning. I myself hesitate here.
Hope you live enough to annoy many many people Including myself

Sometimes text helps. I can't explain the hopeless feeling, mortality is inevitable but do you need to be reminded of it. I will in the end probably outlive you, but I know the fragility of life: did you think, after not smokin or drinking for most of your life, that you would be told if they don't operate they cannot guarantee you will live five more minutes, GASP
I now will live a long time, except for the Osbournies that might fix it otherwise.

[Antonio Correia]

A colorful image

[Antonio Correia]

Another one for the day. Oh look ! It is already the 22.ed November 2010

[arith]

It is indeed colourful; the red is what I wanted, but I don't know how.

[arith]

Last one for a bit.



Levels 18-1-243 Out 11-255
LBA 51%
Denim on Multiply 21%
Dark Glass on Hard Light 35%

[Wirefox]

Antonio, the first one is a very striking abstract. The colours are intense and liquid. The only yhing that knocks the overall effect off balance for me is the very dark area in the lower right corner...but it could be my monitor. I am overdue a calibration.

The second image is not as intense as the first but I suspect if I saw it on its own I would have a slightly differing opinion. The top half is very effective although I personally would have applied slightly more contrast. The thing that does not sit right with me is the blue in the lower half. It seems detached from the texture in the rest of the frame somehow.

[Antonio Correia]

Antonio, the first one is a very striking abstract. The colours are intense and liquid. The only yhing that knocks the overall effect off balance for me is the very dark area in the lower right corner...but it could be my monitor. I am overdue a calibration.
The second image is not as intense as the first but I suspect if I saw it on its own I would have a slightly differing opinion. The top half is very effective although I personally would have applied slightly more contrast. The thing that does not sit right with me is the blue in the lower half. It seems detached from the texture in the rest of the frame somehow.

Thank you Steve
I returned to the first image because I agree with you but I couldn't overcome the problem with success. I gave up. It is not from your monitor.
I also agree with your remarks on the second image and I went back to it and re-cropped under another format.
It is better now. Thank you.
I have done better

[Camellia]

[Wirefox]

It is better now. Thank you.
I have done better

Much better Antonio. The crop was enough to bring the blue area into the image. It was that lower edge that caused the problem. You are producing some very interesting images here. I am inspired to do more....when I finally get five minutes to myself.

Raylee, I really like the textures and I love the colour. If it were mine I would crop the cornice off the top of the image. It will make a much simpler composition and allow the eyes to rest on the centre of the image.

[Antonio Correia]

You know Steve, we must make this kind of work sloooowly, looking at it once, twice... evaluating, seeing the next day before posting an dif you don't like it just erase it and begin the next day to get read of the vices.

[Shadowman]

Trunk



Shot with Nikon S220 point and shoot

[Camellia]

Raylee, I really like the textures and I love the colour. If it were mine I would crop the cornice off the top of the image. It will make a much simpler composition and allow the eyes to rest on the centre of the image.

Revised version:


You were right Steve - it is less complicated now. I still like the cornice but maybe with a different texture...

[Wirefox]

Raylee, I think that has much improved the overall effect of the image. I must say that the more I look at this the more I like it.

You know Steve, we must make this kind of work sloooowly, looking at it once, twice... evaluating, seeing the next day before posting an dif you don't like it just erase it and begin the next day to get read of the vices.

You are absolutely right Antonio. I always find myself rushing due to constraints on my time and I can always detect that in the image when I go back to it after a couple of days. I need to learn some patience for this game although it may be a little late for that. I have started recently to hit the close without saving button when I get to a point where the effort outweighs the effect of the end result...no point in flogging a dead horse as we say over here.

[Camellia]

Raylee, I think that has much improved the overall effect of the image. I must say that the more I look at this the more I like it.

Thanks Steve

Here's another one for consideration.



I was reading about the use of lines in photographs - curves lead the eye, horizontal lines give stability, vertical lines indicate strength. It said diagonal lines are dynamic and unstable. This photo makes me feel dizzy and gives me a sense of movement. Do you get that impression too? I've used subdued colours in the texture - does this create a contrast with the diagonal lines? Does it balance the sense of instability? Or are the 2 elements too different and just don't fit together?

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

[QUOTE=arith;69571]Originally I got rid of this since it was taken a few hours after I returned from hospital; where I was reminded of my mortality, and I didn't take a shaver with me

But since others are putting depressing pics up, bet you can't beat this. I only had a jpeg and so far I don't get how to work towards something but I think the smoke and glass do it.

[/QUOTE
Hi,
To mirror Yours I think that is more standing by You
Radu Dinu