RE: A camera question for alt-photo.

Hey Don,

Your non-list friend is certainly entitled to his very inaccurate
appraisal. ;^) On the other hand, you (Don) nailed it.

I like to think of the "look" as an emotional bait-and-switch, in which
the viewer is drawn into the images by the (dare I say it) beauty and
textural intrigue, and is then faced with the true sense of loss and
destruction. With few exceptions, it seems to work. The most frequent
comment is "I had no idea how bad it was."

Tell your friend that the University of Texas Press is doing a book on
this work and I don't think it's intended to be a book of cartoons. I
could be wrong.

To put things in perspective, here's my side of a good-natured exchange
with a talented editorial photographer (and good friend) who works in
black and white:

"What Photoshop filter do you use to give your work that weird no-color

effect. I sorta like it even though it's such a strange departure from
reality;

you know what a stickler I am for honoring the visual integrity of the

original location. What ever made you think of taking the color out of

the scenes in front to you? Aren't you afraid that your work will be

dismissed as over manipulated? I guess we'll eventually get used to

no-color work but right now it comes across as a bit contrived and phony.

Come-on buddy, share your "fake" techniques with a friend. I'm willing

to try it even though it's being less than genuine with the viewer."

Guess it's all in the eye of the beholder.

For me, monochromatic work of New Orleans would have lost much of the
flavor of the people and where they lived, worked and worshiped. To say
they are "colorful" people has lots of meaning indeed. HDR (high dynamic
range) was used, first to handle the brightness range, and secondly to
(and this was a wonderful discovery) reveal details and subtleties that
would otherwise go unnoticed. At ISO 100, exposures ran as long as 16
minutes (32 minutes by the time the camera finished its noise reduction
routine). The fruit of this is that every nook and cranny has detail and
invites visual inspection. That's a good thing in this case.

It's at this point that I'd normally insert a "snide" quasi political
comment but the last time that resulted in three potty mouths getting
their asses thrown off the list. Quiet on that front I remain...for now.

Hope this helps!

Dan

Don Bryant wrote on 7/1/06, 7:29 PM:

>
> Briefly, he feels that this portfolio is cartoonish and gimmicky. My
> position is that you made use of HDR techniques to suggest the surreal
> reality that one probably experienced walking around on the ground. A
> feeling that probably could not have been conveyed quite so intensely
> with a
> 'straight' rendering.
>
> Can you make any comments about your decision and/or intent to produce
> the
> portfolio in this fashion?

-- 
www.DanBurkholder.com
www.TinyTutorials.com