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Creative Photography (Railway Related)


Ian J.
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Continuing the "lines leading the eye" theme from a few posts back, I suspect it works a bit better if you can get the camera down closer to the rail. The portrait format works here with the straight track, but maybe less so with curves where you need a wider sweep to get the effect of leading the eye round the curves?

 

Didcot 1986:

post-6971-0-69730700-1373998981.jpg

 

I like the way it leads you to the loco, but then the light-coloured top of the kid peering at the wheels takes over.

 

 

Later edit: 

By the way, this one was a bit of lesson in post-editing: the original scan of the colour slide was cropped (losing the pylon, the light-coloured stuff to the left, and the person walking out of the frame), straightened, changed to black & white because the colours were a bit muddy, and then brightened up a bit. Here's a small version showing the original composition:

post-6971-0-22752000-1374000040.jpg

Not a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but rescued it enough to post I reckon.

 

Edited by eastwestdivide
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I would argue that what art there is in photography is largely a matter of selection. The photographer chooses a subject, a viewpoint, and those technical aspects that control the image - choice of lens, DoF etc.  She/he might add image manipulation to the mix, in the past in a darkroom, now (most likely) with a computer, but the scope for creativity is necessarily limited when compared with that of a painter.

 

Artistic merit is, and always will be, a matter of opinion, in photography as much as any other creative medium.

 

Chacun a son goute.

 

Chaz

 

To some extent Chaz, this is true,

However, lighting alone is a subject in its' own right

Indeed, it's a subject many study,

but not so many "master"

 

Lighting is possibly the most important factor, in both painting and photography

And were it not for light - we wouldn't be able to see in the way we do....

 

Not all forms of manipulation are undertaken on a computer

You could even go so far as to argue that any print taken from a traditional colour negative

is in fact, a manipulation of that negative

 

e.g. take your neg to a high street lab, and then another

the result you get each time will vary in terms of colour balance,

saturation, hue, vibrance and contrast....

Which one is actually "right" or correct though

Probably none of them -

 

Most colour labs - even professional ones used to increase reds

in portraiture - they argued it made people look a bit "healthier"

I knew several pro lab workers when I was training

 

My old lecturer also used to say

"Many photographers have said that Painters are the ones who have it easy"

"If there's a tree in the way, or a building just where you don't want it,

we have to put up with it, or change our composition, perspective and or viewpoint...."

"Painters on the other hand, can just leave that element out!"

 

Of course, this is only partly true

I'd say that it is just a different art form....

To me, Photography can be just as much an artform...

Just look at the works of Ansel Adams, Bill Brandt (my fave) Simon Marsden

...or many others...

 

I'd also say, there may be many photographs that could never be considered art

This is also true, but I'd add that there are many many paintings & sculptures that also fit this bill

The fact that there may be many more photographic examples of this

is merely attributable to the accessibility of photography itself...

 

Sounds like I'm rabbitting on again eh? ;)

 

Cheers

Marc

 

EDIT: You also have to realise that I'd argue Railway Modelling is a type of art-form too... ;)

 

 

 

 

Edited by marc smith
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The elevated section through Los Boliches, on the Málaga – Fuengirola line, April 2005.

No, not just an excuse to air a holiday snapshot; I think the photo shows that it's worth taking a bit of trouble in choosing a point of view. Standing on Los Boliches station and thinking what a dull place it was, I looked along the line towards Torreblanca Hill and wondered what it might look like from up there... A circuitous half-hour climb later, I was rewarded by a nicely balanced shot of the line making its sinuous way through the concrete canyons. Not everybody's idea of art, I know, but I do have a weakness for brutalism.

 

post-7286-0-63892400-1374160215.jpg

 

Edited typo.

Edited by bluebottle
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Tonight at Shoreham Bridge over the  River Adur

 

post-3744-0-23953300-1374180501_thumb.jpg



Tonight at Shoreham Bridge over the  River Adur

 

post-3744-0-92104600-1374180565_thumb.jpg



Tonight at Shoreham Bridge over the  River Adur

 

(Daughter said that this one was cool!!)

 

post-3744-0-43989100-1374180587_thumb.jpg

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Well, I like 140,000 others I went along to the NRM A4 event. Before going I’d decided on not taking any phots but once there, couldn’t resist the temptation of pulling it of my pocket.

Can’t decide which one, so have two…

 

post-508-0-57949700-1374428159.jpg

 

post-508-0-38548600-1374428214.jpg

 

Porcy

 

 

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