A picture about nothing at all except the light that made it...

Any value here, or am I the only one so easily fascinated. I find value in the infinity of tones that the light creates. The angles are pleasing and the density of the glass that hides what is behind it interests me. If this were on a gallery wall I would stand and look for quite a while. Photography for me is more about light and flow of tones than the "importance" of the picture.

Jim Galli said:

edsel​

Any value here, or am I the only one so easily fascinated. I find value in the infinity of tones that the light creates. The angles are pleasing and the density of the glass that hides what is behind it interests me. If this were on a gallery wall I would stand and look for quite a while. Photography for me is more about light and flow of tones than the "importance" of the picture.

Click to expand...

Hi Jim,

Only you can make an Edsel look so good . I have been contemplating the small crumbs you leave all over the place in your posts; the ones about the importance of tonality and light. Also about the digital cameras and the resulting high impact, high sharpness, high saturation (high everything) pictures which we come across daily. Who knows, you may "win me over" in that respect although I'll never go back to shooting film on 35mm ;-).

Cheers,

Cem_Usakligil said:

Hi Jim,

Only you can make an Edsel look so good . I have been contemplating the small crumbs you leave all over the place in your posts; the ones about the importance of tonality and light. Also about the digital cameras and the resulting high impact, high sharpness, high saturation (high everything) pictures which we come across daily. Who knows, you may "win me over" in that respect although I'll never go back to shooting film on 35mm ;-).

Cheers,

Click to expand...

Thanks Cem. Nor will I ever go back to 35mm film. I believe in brute force. A 13X18 cm piece of film will get that done :~'))

Hi Jim
I agree exceptional light!
Though I had preferred without the spots on the glass
You are the king of the bokeh! Please do something ; -)

Hi Jim,

I too am fascinated and would stop and look for a seat in the gallery 10 feet away to enjoy it.

Still I have some questions as to whether the presentation is finished. For that, what lens and aperture? Will it be out of place to locally sharpen a few details? I ask because I'd like a part of the grunge on the window to be sharpened and several of the water drops. Then I'd want to see if the highlights can be tamed a tad in Photoshop: Image: Adjustments: Highlight/Shadows.

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

...Then I'd want to see if the highlights can be tamed a tad in Photoshop: Image: Adjustments: Highlight/Shadows.

Click to expand...

LOL. My dear Asher. When you say these words about a photo of Jim who obsesses about the quality of light in his creations, it is a bit like "swearing in the church" as we Dutch say... ;-).

Asher Kelman said:

Hi Jim,

I too am fascinated and would stop and look for a seat in the gallery 10 feet away to enjoy it.

Still I have some questions as to whether the presentation is finished. For that, what lens and aperture? Will it be out of place to locally sharpen a few details? I ask because I'd like a part of the grunge on the window to be sharpened and several of the water drops. Then I'd want to see if the highlights can be tamed a tad in Photoshop: Image: Adjustments: Highlight/Shadows.

Asher

Click to expand...

Thanks Asher. I've taken a little heat lately on other forums such that I blabber too much about the lens and the picture would not stand alone without the ecclectic lens info so I chose not to say anything much about that.

But since you asked :~'))

The lens is a very simple achromatic meniscus from about 1880 called a Waterbury. They were included with a cheap everyman's Model T of a camera that Scovill marketed in the 1885 era. The lens is factory throttled to about f12 or so with a soldered disc. Knowing that some of the best soft lenses on earth are AM's I wanted to remove the disc and use it wide open, which I did here. It surprised me being sharper that way than I expected. The glow from abberation is there but it's almost microscopic. I doubt sharpening anywhere would improve it, wrong tool for that job. Here is a much larger file though if anyone would like to fiddle with it. I welcome that.

BTW, Ken, if you're resisting taking a swack, don't. I know these aren't your bread and butter pictures but I've really learned to enjoy your critique's.

Cem_Usakligil said:

LOL. My dear Asher. When you say these words about a photo of Jim who obsesses about the quality of light in his creations, it is a bit like "swearing in the church" as we Dutch say... ;-).

Click to expand...

Hi Cem,

Swearing can be like praying! Twitter has 2 million instances of using the F word in the last month! It's a catharsis and healing. Better than breaking things!

Asher

Jim

Thanks for offering the larger file. It works so much better than the small image on my screen. The tonal range is delightful and I had a quick play with a bit of sharpening and levels, curves etc, but did not really improve on the original. I might sharpen slightly, but the tonality's fine as it is.

Mike

Jim Galli said:

Thanks Asher. I've taken a little heat lately on other forums such that I blabber too much about the lens and the picture would not stand alone without the ecclectic lens info so I chose not to say anything much about that.

But since you asked :~'))

The lens is a very simple achromatic meniscus from about 1880 called a Waterbury. They were included with a cheap everyman's Model T of a camera that Scovill marketed in the 1885 era. The lens is factory throttled to about f12 or so with a soldered disc. Knowing that some of the best soft lenses on earth are AM's I wanted to remove the disc and use it wide open, which I did here. It surprised me being sharper that way than I expected. The glow from abberation is there but it's almost microscopic. I doubt sharpening anywhere would improve it, wrong tool for that job. Here is a much larger file though if anyone would like to fiddle with it. I welcome that.

Click to expand...

Hi Jim,

No one will accuse me of not swearing! Still, I'm somewhat reticent to yell epithets in a place where filtered light comes from the heavens to paint the saints. So I take these steps with care and present my suggestions to bring out more of the depth and presence of these images. I assure you, I couldn't do this in a wet darkroom!


I must admit, that just doing as I suggested, taming the highlights, gave little back. Still I did make some tonal changes that bring back more components that are now, I believe better represented. This provides a greater presence without taking away from the beautiful light quality.

Asher

Now, Cem, why on earth would a mere mortal and sinner, like me, actually jump up in the sanctuary? Well, someone has to do it, even if it's very holy territory! It's to clean up the cracks to let the the glory in!

Asher, trying to make something out of nothing! I'd have to change the title.

I actually did a bit of fiddling myself. Duplicate layer - change to soft light - roll down opacity. Makes it much punchier of course but in the end I had to go back and leave it just as presented.

Jim Galli said:

Any value here, or am I the only one so easily fascinated. I find value in the infinity of tones that the light creates. The angles are pleasing and the density of the glass that hides what is behind it interests me. If this were on a gallery wall I would stand and look for quite a while. Photography for me is more about light and flow of tones than the "importance" of the picture.

Click to expand...

Certainly there's "value here", Jim. Your enjoyment of photographing antique automobiles with antique lenses imparts plenty of value to this image. In this case, this is a telling little detail from mid-20th century automotive design and craftsmanship not to be found today. Those were the days (1960's) when we really thought we were something. (I always liked the wing vent design and never fully understood its discontinuance.)

But Jim, really...how about a grill shot of this car? That's what really made this beast unique! A nice, softly-lit shot with one of those great ground-in-the-garage lenses of yours! I'll bet that would look terrific.

Ken Tanaka said:

Certainly there's "value here", Jim. Your enjoyment of photographing antique automobiles with antique lenses imparts plenty of value to this image. In this case, this is a telling little detail from mid-20th century automotive design and craftsmanship not to be found today. Those were the days (1960's) when we really thought we were something. (I always liked the wing vent design and never fully understood its discontinuance.)

But Jim, really...how about a grill shot of this car? That's what really made this beast unique! A nice, softly-lit shot with one of those great ground-on-the-garage lenses of yours! I'll bet that would look terrific.

Click to expand...

Ken, I thought you'd never ask!


'tis a worthy beast. White on turquoise Citation convertible.

Oh........and soft light in outdoors Nevada at 6000 elevation is something we only dream of.

Now that's a car that looks like it knew where it was going, albeit for only a brief time. I like the framing and focus here, Jim. I think the harsh Nevada light works ok, particularly since it looks, from the sliver of hood you've shown, like the paint is sun bleached.

Thanks Jim!

Jim Galli said:

Ken, I thought you'd never ask!

'tis a worthy beast. White on turquoise Citation convertible.

Oh........and soft light in outdoors Nevada at 6000 elevation is something we only dream of.

Click to expand...

Jim,

Is this yours or a neighbors? There are not a lot of them around! What a pity they vanished. This and the original are a lot of something about something, the transience of our attempts in life, but each leaves their mark on us.

Asher

I missed this!

Thanks for the bump up on this thread.

Jim - I love these. I saw the first post and chose not to scroll down for quite a few minutes. Being a person who loves the old cars, I did not see the title so I stared at the car - I saw it was a convertible, loved the wing vent window view and was trying to imagine what color it was, it's location and it's history.

Then when I did scroll down and saw the grill! Magnificent. I can see this printed two on a page and framed and matted the same way. Maybe it needs a 1950ish turquoise shade for it's mat fillet or a turquoise frame.

Anyway - well done.