First Foray into High Key

David · Expire: 2013-01-25

I tried (by accident, I admit) some high key photography this weekend. Pentax H3V, Kodak Vision 3 250D (developed in D-76, as described below.) The lenses and aperture settings are listed by the image. These were an accident, but I want to know if these are on track as suitable high key subjects and how they could be improved.

1

2

3

Notes:
1- I did a couple versions of this. This was the lowest-contrast and I felt the better of the two.
2- When I edited these, I liked the frame on this one (which I usually don't) and felt it lacked something left naked. I'm not married to that idea.
3- My least favorite of the images, but also the most starkly different, so I wanted to include it to provide a different chance for commentary.

All of these were scanned in no-thumbnail mode because the scanner couldn't detect them when I asked for a thumbnail. I edited the first to draw out the tree's details a bit, but basically left the others alone (no auto contrast, just an unsharp mask at 15%, 20 pixel radius, which suitably removes modest softness without overdoing it.)

For the film, I develop my 250 D (and other color motion picture stock) in D-76. After the initial minute-long rotation, I place the developing can (this works best with metal cans) under a slow hot (no mixing it with cold) water stream between agitations for the following 3 minutes. The hot water flow is about a pencil's width at the spigot. The hot water heats up the developer about 8 or 10 degrees. After 8-9 minutes of total developing time, the film's typically got pretty good tones and contrast.

ForenSeil · Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 2726 Location: Kiel, Germany.

#1 would win a lot from PP
Could you upload it in high resolution?

I personally don't like the other two

tobbsman · Joined: 25 Jul 2008 Posts: 2578 Location: Austria

this is awesome stuff which really hits my taste !
love the compositions, also when they seem weird at first glance.
at second glace it seems all in balance Wink

my fave is #2 !

I am not sure yet if I like the tiny little vignette Wink

Cheers
Tobias

mo · Expire: 2016-07-30

I don't know anything about "high key" but I do like the 2nd one the most, and the first if there was a little more detail in the tree....I say this just how I see it not from a technical point of view.I think this style is something worth pursuing and mastering.

The first one just says to me "Bonsai tree" Very Happy

David · Expire: 2013-01-25

Thank you for your comments! I'm trying to expand my work so it's not all just Panoramio-type images.

@, Forenseil, I'll try and get the high-res uploaded somewhere. Maybe Flickr?

@Tobias, I can try it without the border. The black frame is unexposed negative. I had to scan this as part of the negative instead of automatically as a thumbnail due to how thick the negative is. It's an easy mod I'll do tonight to get try it out without a border.

@Mo, The original scan actually had a lot less detail in the tree. During post processing I copied the image as a second layer and dropped the gamma to about 30. Then I used a brush eraser to remove most everything except the tree (the sky got dark and speckled from the exposure change.) I set the tree layer's transparency to 60% or thereabouts and the detail in the bark came out in much greater relief than it had.

David · Expire: 2013-01-25

Ask and ye shall receive:

And the high-res tree:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/david754/7898149412/in/photostream

mo · Expire: 2016-07-30

You certainly can see the details in the High res image!..... It does look a lot better.Thanks for taking the time to post the link.