Author Topic: Results and Feedback for the "Depth" Weekly Photography Assignment  (Read 1350 times)

keithsnell

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Thank you to everyone that participated in the"Depth" assignment.  The guidelines for this assignment were to compose an image to convey "depth," meaning "the distance from the top of something to its bottom, from front to back, or from the outside in."  I also encouraged participants to review the "Linear Perspective" and "Near, Middle, Far" assignments for techniques that could help convey "depth."  Participants were also encouraged to compose an image to convey a more conceptual meaning of "depth," such as “the strength of a feeling," "complexity of character or thought," or "richness of a color."  Or better yet, create a composition that combines both the "perspective" and "conceptual" meanings of "depth" for an even more compelling image.

Congratulations to Naomi, whose Into the Distance image won the vote for People's Choice.  This image was a wonderful example of the use of linear perspective (the difference in size between near and far objects) to provide a sense of depth.


Into the Distance
People's Choice
Photographed by Naomi


I thought Marilyn's A Riparian Respite image was a beautiful image that incorporated many of the techniques used to convey depth, including linear perspective, atmospheric perspective and "near, middle, far" elements.  This image was successful in that it "made me want to be there," and gave me the impression that I could step into the scene and begin exploring along the stream.  I've awarded this image Editor's Choice for Artistic and Technical Merit.


A Riparian Respite
Editor's Choice for Artistic and Technical Merit
Photographed by Marilyn


Marilyn emailed me asking why the image she uploaded didn't have the same color or sharpness of the original image as viewed on her computer.  I identified three primaries reasons:  

1) The image did not have an embedded color profile, so Safari (her color-managed web browser) did not know how to correctly display the image.  (If you want to see the images on this website and others displayed with the "correct" colors and saturation, I recommend that you give Safari a try.)

2)  The image needed to be sharpened to compensate for resizing it to a smaller size.  (The perceived "sharpness" of an image is primarily determined by "edge acuity."  When you take a large photo and re-size it to a much smaller size, many of the edges become so small that they are invisible.  Photographers typically compensate for this by applying sharpening, or "un-sharp mask" to the image after resizing.)    

3)  The level of compression in the JPEG she saved and uploaded to the site.  The JPEG file format uses "lossy" compression to reduce the file size, so it is important to strike a good balance between image quality and file size.  I've found that when re-saving JPEGs for display on the web, a "quality" setting of 8 (out of 12) provides about the right amount of compression vs. file size, and is a good compromise for web display.  

Marilyn sent me a copy of the original (JPEG) file and I reprocessed the original to embed an sRGB color profile (best for web viewing), then re-sized the image and applied a small amount of "sharpening" to bring back "edge acuity" or perceived sharpness.


A Riparian Respite
Photographed by Marilyn
Converted to sRGB and sharpened for web

I wasn't quite happy with the results of sharpening on the bare branches at the top of the scene (they looked "over-sharpened"), and realized that the sharpening had removed some of the "atmospheric perspective"  (softening of distant details due to atmospheric distortion and haze) that enhanced the perception of distance and depth in the original image.  To correct these "sharpening artifacts" I used a layer mask in Photoshop to "hide" the upper portions of the sharpened layer, letting the original un-sharpened layer show through in this portion of the image.


A Riparian Respite
Photographed by Marilyn
Converted to sRGB, sharpened for web, layer mask to "hide" sharpening on top of tree and distant mountains

As an aside, Rebecca and I often get asked for recommendations on image editing software.  It is hard to recommend Photoshop because it is so darned expensive ($699).  Consequently, we often recommend Photoshop Elements ($89.99), which includes much of the capability of Photoshop.  There are however two reasons I hesitate to recommend Elements to someone with more than a casual interest in digital photography.  1) The interface is different, which prevents you from taking advantage of the tremendous number of online tutorials and support forums available for Photoshop.  2)  And more importantly, Elements does not include the robust layers and masks capabilities in Photoshop.  I find layers and masks an indispensable tool for serious image editing, and wouldn't be happy with any program that doesn't include these capabilities.  (Note that Lightroom, which many people are describing as an alternative to Photoshop, does not include layers capability either.)

In the end, if you are serious about digital imaging, you will need to bite the bullet and purchase the full version of Photoshop in order to use the powerful capabilities provided by layers and masks.  If you are a qualified "higher education" student, you can take advantage of the student discount to purchase a full version of Photoshop CS4 Extended for $199.  If you are a qualified teacher or K-12 student, you can purchase Photoshop CS4 Extended for $299.  

I appreciated that Lars' Determined image conveyed the concept of depth, illustrating "complexity of character" in his excellent portrait of the Royal Swedish Guard, and wanted to recognize this image with an Honorable Mention.


Determined
Honorable Mention
Photographed by Lars

Viewers are encouraged to respond to this thread describing why you like a particular image, or think it was particularly successful at meeting the guidelines of the assignment.

Thank you to everyone that participated in the "Depth" assignment.

Keith
« Last Edit: August 03, 2009, 02:17:38 PM by keithsnell »