Fence
Wednesday, January 5. 2005
Ely, Minnesota (Jun 6, 2004)
A photo with a fence posted by Charles a few days ago inspired me to get back at a fence image I shot this summer. We were in northern Minnesota for a meeting of Mayli’s collaboration and I had some time to kill driving around the countryside. This farm was close to the town and struck me for its wooden fence, which looked like as made with “mechano” pieces, for the way the logs where combined together as in 3D puzzle. The slow arch that the fence was describing in the grassy field was quite imposing and I tried different perspectives to capture the way it was hugging the hill with the farm in the top. This is the one I like more, maybe for the way the curls in the clouds echos the curvature of the fence.
Addendum (Jan 8, 2005). I have looked for the original photo from which I derived the image above to see if a different processing could lead to a better separation between the horses and the tree. I am attaching a screenshot of the image below:
Ok, I admit I was quite surprised by looking at the original image. I didn’t remember to change it so much. Apart for the heavy crop and the removal of the electricity pole in front of the barn, the rich texture of the wispy clouds is barely seen in the original.
Now, I tried to reproduce the same B/W conversion and I couldn’t. I normally save the full photoshop editing file, with all its working layers, so that I can always reconstruct the exact steps I performed on any image, if I wish to to that at some time in the future. This photo, however, was processed when I was just starting to use photoshop on the Nikon Raw format, and I probably intended it only as an experiment, so I saved only the final result. As much as I tried today I wasn’t able to reproduce the same effect I got at the time. One thing I learned, though: it would not be possible to separate better the horses from the trees behind, because the trees have a strong brown component, so any change I will make on them will also reflect on the trees.
So, I leave the image as it is: as Alfred said, one can keep editing forever, but in the end the best results are obtained when the foto is good to start with, and this one wasn’t that good after all.
The fence as it was B.P. (Before Photoshop)
Ok, I admit I was quite surprised by looking at the original image. I didn’t remember to change it so much. Apart for the heavy crop and the removal of the electricity pole in front of the barn, the rich texture of the wispy clouds is barely seen in the original.
Now, I tried to reproduce the same B/W conversion and I couldn’t. I normally save the full photoshop editing file, with all its working layers, so that I can always reconstruct the exact steps I performed on any image, if I wish to to that at some time in the future. This photo, however, was processed when I was just starting to use photoshop on the Nikon Raw format, and I probably intended it only as an experiment, so I saved only the final result. As much as I tried today I wasn’t able to reproduce the same effect I got at the time. One thing I learned, though: it would not be possible to separate better the horses from the trees behind, because the trees have a strong brown component, so any change I will make on them will also reflect on the trees.
So, I leave the image as it is: as Alfred said, one can keep editing forever, but in the end the best results are obtained when the foto is good to start with, and this one wasn’t that good after all.
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Beautiful -- I love the fence & clouds. My only quibble is that I wish the horses’ bodies stood out more from the background.
Massimo, you are a great promoter!
The composition works well for me and the sky lends a mood to the image. However, the sky,land,trees and horses are merged in dark grey, in the absence of white spaces separating them.
Digital or film?
Perhaps it could be reworked in PS using shadows and highlights or curves, but you are the expert in this. My instinct would be to add a .75 stop in exposure as well.
The composition works well for me and the sky lends a mood to the image. However, the sky,land,trees and horses are merged in dark grey, in the absence of white spaces separating them.
Digital or film?
Perhaps it could be reworked in PS using shadows and highlights or curves, but you are the expert in this. My instinct would be to add a .75 stop in exposure as well.
This type of fencing is very common where I live. Wonderful sky, good feel to the image, as all of your photographs have.
Massimo, the exposure/tone is excellent in this shot. Is this digital or film-based? There’s a great silvertone quality to it.
Thanks for all the comments. The shot is digital (Nikon D100, RAW) and I have converted it to B/W using the channel mixer, using as little as possible of the blue channel (hence the dark sky) and more of the green and especially the red.
It is true, the trees have the same tone of the sky and are not well separated. I should try to dig out the original data, and see if with different settings (more green and less red) in the conversion I can bring more separation from the two. That may also isolate a bit the horses from the background.
Yea, I waited a bit to see if the horses were moving in the center of the field, but they didn’t oblige
(other perspectives didn’t work)
It is true, the trees have the same tone of the sky and are not well separated. I should try to dig out the original data, and see if with different settings (more green and less red) in the conversion I can bring more separation from the two. That may also isolate a bit the horses from the background.
Yea, I waited a bit to see if the horses were moving in the center of the field, but they didn’t oblige
(other perspectives didn’t work)
TPB is right in that the exposure/tone is OK ... if you are only looking at the field and fence, and the silvertone (which we all seek) is very evident in this part of the image. It will be interesting to see how you tweek it Massimo, and now that I’m really into this image, I’m curious to see the original alongside
I like how converting a color photo to b&w turns a bright blue sky into some dark frightening mass -- esp. when ignoring the blue channel!
ciao, this is one of my favorites, I love it...Massimo I’m at Logan now about to board...see you Sunday, let me know when you’ll be coming in ok?
Massimo, I think you did a great job here. The problem with too much adjusting in photoshop is that it often tend to be just that. Too much. That`s my biggest problem. I dont`t know when to stop. I posted a photograph of a fence today too. Take a look if you have the time 
Alfred.
http://thelocomotives.blogspot.com/2005/01/entrance.html
Alfred.
http://thelocomotives.blogspot.com/2005/01/entrance.html
Nice composition for the tricky square format Alfred - I posted to your site but I don’t think it accepted
Charles
Charles
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