[Leica] Colored light, or pure light?

[pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)]

Everybody:  Thanks for the suggestions.  I do much prefer the color 
version.  The picture really is about the light color in this case.  The 
B&W is a completely different picture, striking in its own way, but not 
what I was after when I took the picture.

Ted:  I did crouch, actually.  If I got too low or too close, stuff got 
between me and the backlit chollo cactus.  I was also intrigued by the 
backlit saguaro on the right.  I saw them in relationship to each other.  I 
also had to keep the sun behind the saguaro, lest the sun be in the frame 
or just outside it. That would have been a very different picture, and not 
what I was after.

Here's the general scene, shot (I think) with a 35mm 'Cron:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/Arizona/az4215_07web

And here's how I posted it.  This is practically a full-frame shot, with a 
50 'Cron, cropped in-camera:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/Arizona/az4215_07web

And here is the frame above, drastically cropped. I can't decide whether to 
get rid of the bit of saguaro on the right side.
http://gallery.leica-users.org/Arizona/az4215_09CropWeb
http://gallery.leica-users.org/Arizona/az4215_09Crop2Web

And yes, there indeed was the issue of not getting stuck in the 
rear!  However, you'll be happy to know that I ruined a good pair of pants 
slithering over rock on my belly to get a shot in Chiricahua.  As I heard 
the scraping sounds of cloth giving way to sandstone, I though, "At least 
Ted will be proud of me!"   :-)

--Peter


At 08:32 AM 7/15/2006 -0700, you wrote:
>Peter Klein offered:
>Subject: [Leica] Colored light, or pure light?
>
>
> > After I re-posted this photo, in response to Ted's Maxim #7, I had a
> > thought.  Here's the original:
> > http://gallery.leica-users.org/Arizona/az4215_09web
> >
> > And here's a B&W conversion, with starker contrast:
> > http://gallery.leica-users.org/Arizona/az4215_09BWweb
> >
> > What do you think?  I have an opinion, but I'd like to hear others'
> > first.<<<<
>
>Peter,
>I have this gut feeling in both cases you are not getting the best out of
>this exposure, maybe. This is something one never knows until they crop
>tighter and try it.
>
>Because the needles/spines, sharp pointing things stand out so distinctively
>due to the strong back lighting, have you tried cropping tighter with
>greater concentration on the plant rather than the "whole plant and desert?"
>The "light content - effect" in both isn't being seen as strongly as I think
>it could be.
>
>One other thing.... did you bend you knees for a lower almost straight on
>kind of angle, rather than the looking down at it? Yeah I know you'd
>probably have got stuck in the butt with like shaped pointy things if you
>did. ;-)
>
>If I were shooting this I'd have shot one similar to yours, a kind of
>establishing picture, but definitely worked the plant and light by going in
>and shooting tighter. It just seems there's greater potential here than
>you've shown in this rather loose "overall" type photo.
>
>Quite possibly you did and didn't post.  If not, please take a moment and
>run out in the desert and shoot a few more. ;-) ;-)
>
>
>ted