Ernst Haas assignment – water and earth
Yikes! – eight days to go before the cutoff date for my assignment (and my course) and I haven’t even made a decision about what to include, never mind organising the prints. I’m usually pretty good at getting things done on time, but this one has crept up on me. I’m going to get prints made of all the possibles, and then make the final decision when they arrive (and just hope and pray that none of them need rejigging). This is the almost final line-up, although there are a couple I’m still working on as well. I’d be very grateful for opinions, suggestions – any kind of feedback at all. I’ll number them for ease of reference, and just to refresh your memory, I need to produce twelve images in the style of Ernst Haas, and on the theme of the elements water and earth. I’ve put the water ones first and the earth second, although a lot of them contain both water and earth. I’ve also included some of my thoughts about each one.
#1 I’m quite pleased with this one, but wonder if it needs warming up more, or more contrast.
#2 This one is another favourite that I feel captures the Ernst Haas aesthetic; I’m just a little concerned that there isn’t a definite enough area of sharpness.
#3 This seems very ‘watery’ to me, and I love the colours. I just wonder if I’m getting carried away with the colours – does it work compositionally?
#4 This one plays with scale a bit, which I haven’t done much with the watery ones.
#5 I like the colours here, and it’s definitely in the Ernst Haas tradition. However the others are close-ups and this one isn’t.
#6 This is my favourite of the lot, and is definitely going in.
#7 Too many images of colour reflected on water?
#8
#9 I’ve got several of this curvy mud stream; the others have no water in them, and I don’t think they work quite so well. With all the mud images, I’m not sure how much to warm them up – these strike me as a bit cool.
#10 I’ve got two versions of this; the first is better balanced in terms of contrast, etc and I think the second is a bit dark but I like the way the light is falling on it and emphasising the depth.
#11 This is a bit of a wild card. I know my tutor will hate it because he hates anything high contrast, but I think it might have something, and Ernst used a lot of high contrast so it’s in keeping.
#12 A little bit boring, maybe?
#13 Only one of the following two can go in; I know which one I prefer, but I’m not saying at the moment!
#14
All help and opinions gratefully received…….I can’t think straight about it all right now.
May 20, 2012 @ 6:47 pm
Just having a break from my assignment work now myself. Here are some very quick thoughts – which may or may not be helpful. Even if you decide they are half-baked I find it can be helpful to have other ideas as they help you decide what you do and don’t want and I offer these in that spirit.
It’s difficult to comment on, e.g. sharpness as the pictures are small, even when I click on them.
No. 2 looks fine on screen anddoesn’t look too soft but it is hard to tell how it will look in print. No. 1 also looks fine and I don’t think it needs more colour or warmth.
I’d lose 5 – the colour is lovely but it just doesn’t sit with the others. No. 4 would possibly make a great final water image – linking water and land as it were.
The colours in 8 and 9 look quite rich to me as it is and I don’t think that any more is needed. I’m rather drawn to the darker no. 10 – not completely sure why – I think the composition and overall tone is better. It might benefit from a little work to bring back some of the midtones and a little colour, but as it stands it might work well as a pair with 11.
I see what you’re saying about 12 but wonder if a little work on bringing out some of the details and tones might not help it. For me the first no. 13 has better shapes and the second better colour. You could enhance the colour at appropriate points in the first, or possibly crop some of the foreground and left hand side of the second. I say ‘possibly’ because I am trying it with fingers as a mask but doing it for real would tell you one way or another if it would work.
Overall I think you have a good set, definitely in the spirit of Haas. Best of luck Gilly!
May 20, 2012 @ 7:25 pm
Thanks, Eileen, that’s really helpful. One of my problems is that my Raw files won’t open for some reason. It’s not the computer, because I’ve tried it on two different ones, and it’s not the memory card, because images that I’ve opened in Raw before now won’t open. I’m at a bit of a loss to know what’s wrong, and I don’t have time to figure it out so I’ve had to work mostly with jpegs, and they don’t allow me to do nearly so much with them in terms of tones and colours and so on.
May 20, 2012 @ 8:23 pm
What a pain! I’m having a problem with Windows not being able to see the RAW files on my new pc and that’s apparently to do with the right codec not being installed (or in fact available if I’ve understood right). PS can see them so this is more of an irritation than a real problem. When my camera was new and I didn’t have an updated version of PS I used Adobe’s DNG file converter – that might be worth a try for you, pending a longer term fix? The converter is free, easy to install and use and as long as it’s happy with your RAW files it will convert them into a format that PS should be happy with. DNGs are as good as RAW and should enable you to extract the maxiumum from the files.
May 21, 2012 @ 7:54 am
Thanks, Eileen, I’ll look into the DNG converter, although I don’t think I have time now to reprocess everything. However, there are one or two in particular that would really benefit from it so I might give it a go. I’m hoping that once my new computer turns up and I get my new software on it, the problem might be resolved – but that’s not going to happen before this has to be in!
May 21, 2012 @ 4:48 am
Hi Gilly,
I’m so glad that you’ve put your series on your blog, as I’m really enjoying them.
Here are some of my thoughts:
#1) I would try warming only the three focal rocks slightly, as that would increase their interest and bring them forward a touch. I’m not sure about increasing contrast. Sometimes color temp change does the trick, without any value changes.
#2) Love it – the color and movement – as is.
#3) Beautiful color, composition just right with the 2/3 warm colors and 1/3 cool. I’m all for color!
#5) Seems out of character with the group. To retain it, I think that it would need to be cropped in a lot tighter, so it had a more abstract feel.
#6) Spot on about this one – it is a gem. The patterning and magical light are the keys here.
#7) I really like this piece – bold color and pattern. Plus, it has green as the cool color, so it seems like a good transition piece between some of the others (I might change the order of a couple of the pieces).
#8) Wonderful design.
#9) I like the cool, green look of this mud. Wouldn’t change it. Very successful.
#10) I like the second, darker image better. Maybe because its near B&W look gives it more of a classic fine art feel???
#11) A keeper. Drama and mood. I can relate closely to this piece, as it reminds me of many moonlight scenes that I’ve experienced on our lake (although I realize that isn’t the subject).
#12) Like the design, I’d burn the two foam edges as the reach the frame, to stop their visual exit, and dodge the interesting foam shapes that lie just off center-rightish.
#13) I prefer this one over #14. It has lots of interesting shapes and change of scale from foreground to background. Might bump up the color just a touch.
So, that’s my two cents.
What a successful exploration of form, color, composition, and mood. You must be pleased!
May 21, 2012 @ 7:52 am
Anna, thanks so much for taking the time to go through these – some good suggestions here, and I’ll be trying them out. My own thoughts are in line with most of what everyone’s said, but it’s funny how much you can be influenced by knowing what your tutor does and doesn’t like. I know he’ll come down hard on anything high contrast and it’s so difficult to keep that out of my calculations. It’s incredibly helpful getting this feedback from a mixture of people as it helps combat this tendency.
May 21, 2012 @ 5:53 am
Some good suggestions above Gilly so I won’t really add much. Overall, there is a wide range of colours and 3 works well compositionally for me. The first version of 10 works better for me because there is more detail but, then, that might be less in Haas style. I agree with Eileen regarding 13 and 14.
Such a good set and no wonder you’re finding it hard to make a decision. All the best for the Assignment feedback. Are you going for the July assessment?
May 21, 2012 @ 7:56 am
Thanks, Catherine, it all helps. Definitely not going for July assessment! – I need all the time I can get to re-do or tweak several previous assignments and to put something together for the logbook. I’ll be hanging out for the longest possible time before I need to get it in for assessment. I can’t afford another course anyway, so it keeps me in the loop for a bit longer.