A bridge too far

Mike McCarty · 09-13-2004, 11:39 AM

This is "Terminator 1" and "Terminator 2"

I took these fourteen year old twins to the Philbrook Museum here in Tulsa. Here are some of the results. When I get myself into these situations I feel obligated to take a few pic's just for photo sakes.

Mike McCarty · 09-13-2004, 11:47 AM

Even my fancy smansy new camera couldn't overcome these conditions. I really like this first composition. However, I just could not get it done with these conditions. I would love to go back and make a plan for this shot.

The second one is a little flat and cool but I like it.

The third must be the perfect compositon for two teenagers.

And the last just goofing around.

Mike McCarty · 09-13-2004, 11:51 AM

This first image was extracted from the second raw image. It's amazing to me that there is that much information packed into that image.

Mike McCarty · 09-13-2004, 07:10 PM

Would anyone like to offer some advice regarding the re-shooting of this image?

The colors are so strong, they influence and reflect onto all that come near them. Even if you brought in some auxiliary front lighting, which I think you might want to do, I don't think you could get around the strong effect these colors would have.

I suppose you could just deal with it in black and white and introduce your own colors.

Allan Rahbek · 09-14-2004, 12:02 PM

Hi Mike,

I am going to make a wild guess on what to do. Could it be that the D70 could not handle the big difference in light, coming from the window, and the softer light in the room.

I would try at a later time a day, so maybe the sunlight is coming more from the window, that we don

Mike McCarty · 09-14-2004, 03:51 PM

Allan,

That's some pretty good thinking. The large door windows were facing due east at about 11:00 AM with a full sun day.

In the afternoon on a cloudy day might just do the trick. I'm sure I did spot metering but the light was just too intense and it turned those colors electric.

I may not get to redo with these gals but it's a good learning
experience.

These two person compositions are not so easy. I thought I had something going here but I'm put off by the elbow.

In the next shot notice how much reflected red this gal got on her nose and upper lip.

Mike McCarty · 09-14-2004, 04:16 PM

Here are two young girls by Bouguereau called "Hazelnuts."

And then one more two person composition by W.B., which will no doubt be forthcoming for these girls.

Tom Edgerton · 09-14-2004, 04:26 PM

Mike--

Regarding the one in question with strong colors, I don't think it's just colors reflecting off of the environment. It looks like a classic case of using daylight film when the predominant light is tungsten--if it were film (I realize it's not). Would your digital camera be keying off of the window somehow unintentionally?

If the camera was set for warm tungsten light, the window would read bluer, I'd guess.

I just find it hard to believe that all of the contamination on the girls is reflected color bouncing onto them. I've been wrong before, but it looks like a wayward camera setting to me.

Cheers--TE

Allan Rahbek · 09-14-2004, 04:54 PM

Mike,

I like your pictures and admire your enthusiasm. It

Garth Herrick · 09-14-2004, 06:16 PM

Mike,

I love this series of pictures.

Regarding the colorful shot in the museum, what, if any enhancements did you make to this photo in Photoshop, before you sized it down and posted it above? I have the sense that you had to drastically lighten it in "Levels" or "Curves" beyond the digital forgiveness range. This is because I see jumpy, grainy color transitions, with some over-saturation. Was this photo much darker originally, with the metering being thrown off by the brightness of the window? This has happened to me a lot too.

I agree with Tom that tungsten lighting appears to dominate as the interior light source.

In general, are the pictures ready to use as exposed in your camera, or do you routinely adjust them before we see them? I guess I am trying to sense if there is a significant difference between the way a 2 year old Nikon D100 and a new Nikon D70 will interpret the same imagery. Typically my shots are slightly dark and underexposed (using -.03 exposure compensation) so I will better preserve the highlight information. But to share the photos, I usually need to brighten them up slightly first. In general, I get the sense that your camera handles highlights better than mine (just part of camera evolution, I guess).

Thanks for sharing these,

Garth