[Leica] Colored light, or pure light?

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Peter Klein offered:
Subject: [Leica] Colored light, or pure light?


> After I re-posted this photo, in response to Ted's Maxim #7, I had a 
> thought.  Here's the original:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/Arizona/az4215_09web
>
> And here's a B&W conversion, with starker contrast:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/Arizona/az4215_09BWweb
>
> What do you think?  I have an opinion, but I'd like to hear others' 
> first.<<<<

Peter,
I have this gut feeling in both cases you are not getting the best out of 
this exposure, maybe. This is something one never knows until they crop 
tighter and try it.

Because the needles/spines, sharp pointing things stand out so distinctively 
due to the strong back lighting, have you tried cropping tighter with 
greater concentration on the plant rather than the "whole plant and desert?" 
The "light content - effect" in both isn't being seen as strongly as I think 
it could be.

One other thing.... did you bend you knees for a lower almost straight on 
kind of angle, rather than the looking down at it? Yeah I know you'd 
probably have got stuck in the butt with like shaped pointy things if you 
did. ;-)

If I were shooting this I'd have shot one similar to yours, a kind of 
establishing picture, but definitely worked the plant and light by going in 
and shooting tighter. It just seems there's greater potential here than 
you've shown in this rather loose "overall" type photo.

Quite possibly you did and didn't post.  If not, please take a moment and 
run out in the desert and shoot a few more. ;-) ;-)


ted