Al Denelsbeck wrote:
Paul Furman wrote

I'm not sure I like this or not:
http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php...Area/San-Franc
isco/edgehill-garden/Nursery/plants&PG=8&PIC=45

Comments?
I think perhaps it needs to be cropped square.

It is not sharp either at 1/100 sec at 200mm with closeup lens, f/7
ISO 800 in the shade. But I guess sharpness isn't the point here.

I'm also not sure what sort of framing/matting treatment to use, it
doesn't look good with the contemporary narrow black wood frame and
white matt that I have used before.

My suggestion, both cropping and framing:
http://wading-in.net/Add/_DSC1632+3-edit.jpg

Yeah that helps, thanks. I was fixated on that print ratio.


It also looks pretty good in greyscale (sans the matte). Perhaps
darkened a little in that case.

How do you hang stuff without a matte? I mean, still framed or just dry
mounted to a black board?


My approach to matting, if and when I do it, is often to find a
complementary color to some part of the image, but muted - this provides
accent but lets the natural colors of the image take control. In this
case, most of the colors were deep, so it seemed to call for a light
treatment.

Thanks and that makes sense. My later attempt was a bunch of strong
colors & that probably got a bit rude.
http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=California/Bay-Area/San-Francisco/edgehill-garden/Nursery/plants/2006-05-29-closeups/framed&PG=1&PIC=5


I kind of like the approach, actually (the image itself). Most
people would have aimed for focus on the plant innards, but this way the
entire image became a bit surreal, and with very smooth gradients. I also
wonder what you would have produced with a misting bottle, both with and
without an off-camera flash to produce specular highlights.

Thanks. Just a bunch of shots, trying different approaches fairly
quickly & pick the interesting ones later. It would be interesting to
set up the laptop as a mobile studio. That really only works indoors
because I can't see the screen well outdoors but I do have a tripod with
a rack to hold the laptop & a black cloth over it would complete the kit
(ha).