Dodging & Burning - Kaunus Cathedral Basilica

[Manfred M]

I've written that I spend a lot of time in post-processing doing dodging and burning. I have just spent some time redoing my shot of the Kaunus Cathedrdral Basilica in Kaunus, Lithuania. If you open the image in Lightbox, you can step through each of the three versions to see the changes that were made between each step in the process.


This is the finished (for now) product.






This is the same image after I made some very minor tweaks (correcting perspective distortion) to the image that came out of the raw convertor. I shot this with a 24mm shift - tilt lens that was hand-held, so the verticals are close but not quite perfect.






This is the SOOC image before any work was done in the raw convertor.

[mugge]

This is a very complex scene with many nooks and crannies that need either dodging or burning.

I think this was a bit of a project not to mention patience and a steady hand.

I would like to take on a project such as this one but in our travels we have never seen anything as variegated as this scene.

[Jim A]

In my limited opinion, Manfred, the gains made in the two processes above are *really* good. My one worry is that on the right the "facing" image denotes the edge of the scene, whereas on the left more is revealed. I would crop so that both sides correspond. Plus the lighting on the left is more muted, especially at the top and bottom (middle is okay). Nevertheless, what a marvelous scene.

[pschlute]

That is quite the transformation.

[Donald]

Good job.

[DanK]

Very nice work. I agree--I'd take care of the asymmetry of the foreground.

I once thought I would visit that area, as my family came from a small village 55 km east of the cathedral. I decided against it, however, because of the Lithuanian state's comprehensive failure to confront the history of Lithuanian collaboration in the Holocaust, which was terrible even by Eastern European standards. Much of the abuse and final murder was conducted by Lithuanian nationalists. This was the case in the village my family came from. Of roughly 1,000 Jews remaining in the village at the time of the war, only 5 (2 women and 3 children) are known to have survived. Some were murdered nearby, but the majority were taken to a nearby town, Kaišiadorys, where they and people from a few other nearby villages were shot and dumped into pits. Historical accounts, as you would expect, are fragmentary and inconsistent: some place the primary blame on nationalists, while others say that the nationalists were working with the Nazi Einsatzgruppen.

Over the past 15 years, the Lithuanian state has taken a number of steps to deny all of this, including threatening legal action against now-Israeli scholars who published historical accounts of the roles of some nationalists.

So I figured I'll spend my money someplace else.

Sorry to take this off topic, but this is something that shouldn't be forgotten.

[Manfred M]

Very nice work. I agree--I'd take care of the asymmetry of the foreground.

I once thought I would visit that area, as my family came from a small village 55 km east of the cathedral. I decided against it, however, because of the Lithuanian state's comprehensive failure to confront the history of Lithuanian collaboration in the Holocaust, which was terrible even by Eastern European standards. Much of the abuse and final murder was conducted by Lithuanian nationalists. This was the case in the village my family came from. Of roughly 1,000 Jews remaining in the village at the time of the war, only 5 (2 women and 3 children) are known to have survived. Some were murdered nearby, but the majority were taken to a nearby town, Kaišiadorys, where they and people from a few other nearby villages were shot and dumped into pits. Historical accounts, as you would expect, are fragmentary and inconsistent: some place the primary blame on nationalists, while others say that the nationalists were working with the Nazi Einsatzgruppen.

Over the past 15 years, the Lithuanian state has taken a number of steps to deny all of this, including threatening legal action against now-Israeli scholars who published historical accounts of the roles of some nationalists.

So I figured I'll spend my money someplace else.

Sorry to take this off topic, but this is something that shouldn't be forgotten.

Dan - Unfortunately this seems to be a prevalent view taken by a lot of European states with the attitude that it was the Nazi's fault and had nothing to do with us. Being German, I certainly "get" what has happened that there has been a lot of cultural soul searching as to what and how things happened that lead to the Holocaust and how to prevent something like that from ever happening again.

Other countries have found it convenient to blame others, even though their citizens were willing participants in these events. A number of Eastern European countries have even passed laws to prevent anything other than the official versions of the "truth" from being told. This is unfortunate. What I find interesting is that the former West Germany came to terms with the past, but in the former East Germany (like a lot of the other former Soviet Block countries) have not.

[Wavelength]

Really a great job!!!

[DanK]

Dan - Unfortunately this seems to be a prevalent view taken by a lot of European states with the attitude that it was the Nazi's fault and had nothing to do with us. Being German, I certainly "get" what has happened that there has been a lot of cultural soul searching as to what and how things happened that lead to the Holocaust and how to prevent something like that from ever happening again.

Other countries have found it convenient to blame others, even though their citizens were willing participants in these events. A number of Eastern European countries have even passed laws to prevent anything other than the official versions of the "truth" from being told. This is unfortunate. What I find interesting is that the former West Germany came to terms with the past, but in the former East Germany (like a lot of the other former Soviet Block countries) have not.

Sadly, that's true. Poland, with its new laws criminalizing certain honest presentations of the events in WWII, and Hungary, with its institutionalization of anti-semitism, are among the worst, but those at least get fleeting attention in the Western press. Perhaps because it's so small and is presented as an underdog anti-Soviet state, no one seems to pay much heed to this aspect of society and politics in Lithuania.

I have spent a fair amount of time in Germany over the past 15 years and was very impressed by their efforts to confront their history. Some of the steps are big and well known, e.g., the Topographie des Terrors museum:



and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe



both in Berlin. Some of it is little things, scattered around. I no longer have a photograph, but I had a photo of a wall plaque at the Hackescher Markt commemorating the murder by the Nazis of a family member of a friend of mine who was a leading Expressionist at the time. Notably, the plaque used the word "murdered" (ermordet), not "killed".

Antisemitism is still present in Germany. I remember a lunch conversation with a German friend who asked me if I had personally experienced antisemitism there. When I said that I hadn't, he nodded and replied "You won't see it. I do." And it's getting worse, but it's still less severe than in many other European countries, perhaps in part because society has confronted it so openly.

[Rufus]

What a fantastic demonstration of the power of masks and dodge and burn techniques (and no doubt other tools too) and testament, of course, to the skill and patience that Manfred has to use them to such a powerful effect.

[Donald]

the skill and patience that Manfred has to use them to such a powerful effect.

Indeed. The ultimate demonstration of skill is to have the viewer completely unaware that any D & B has taken place. I think this would be our conclusion if we just saw Manfred's final image.

[Manfred M]

Indeed. The ultimate demonstration of skill is to have the viewer completely unaware that any D & B has taken place. I think this would be our conclusion if we just saw Manfred's final image.

Thanks Donald - that of course is the whole idea when one dodges and burns. Enhancing the image in subtle ways that "calm" it by darkening the highlights locally and opening the shadows locally. If you look at the works of Adams, Karsh and Cartier-Bresson's work; they (Adams) or their print makers (Karsh and Cartier-Bresson) were outstanding at the craft of dodging and burning and that is part of what makes their images so special.


Here is the update with suggestions made on cropping the left hand side a bit.

[Martin A]

... Here is the update with suggestions made on cropping the left hand side a bit.

Manfred, you have crafted a marvelous image, and I love the balance this crop provides!