July

Manhattan Before

How I did it  -  “Manhattan Before” was shot from the Empire State Building on a stormy day. The original was a Kodachrome 25 slide. [About 10 years ago all my images were Kodachrome 25 or Tri-X, except Christmas photos.] The scan of this slide shows a tremendous level of detail that can be observed using “lighten shadows” but that makes the overall photo very flat and horrible off-blue color. My tinkering with the image included: cropping, conversion to bw, slightly darkening the sky, selectively darkening the buildings on the horizon and toning down specular highlights in the buildings, and “healing” some spots in the clouds. This image is intended to evoke a strong feeling rather than depicting a typical skyline scene; therefore it is dark and high contrast to match the mood that I feel when I study this image. Intended for competition.

COMMENTS:
 

Marie Altenburg	Your photo is beautiful, Louis, and a fine tribute to what once was. Despite the darkness of the buildings, they’re still sharp. And the diagonal angle of the skyline draws your eye along the cityscape to the Twin Towers. I can just barely see the rays of sunlight descending from the clouds and wish they could be made more prominent but don’t know if that’s possible This photo belongs in a frame on your wall. It can never be duplicated.
Brad Ashbrook	There is a very cool ominous dark mood to this image. You have certainly captured that emotion in this image. You might have taken it a little bit too far. I think there needs to be a little more detail in the buildings, particularly the lower half. I really like the top half with the sky and water areas, but the bottom is just to dark and muddy. Keep working on this, you are almost there.
Margaret Price	Great sky and light on the water. From my point of view, I would like to see a little more detail in the foreground.
Vicki DeVico	You've done a wonderful job making adjustments to this image, Louis. The twin towers really do evoke a lot of emotion--especially in someone who is from the NYC area. I'd say that the processing you've done makes this a much stronger image (and that blue WAS awful)--it should do very well in competition.
Stephen Byard	Good light, lead in, and counterpoint against the river. The original was almost monotonal, so it’s no surprise it converted to give such a successful image
Carol McCreary	Good composition and conversion to B&W. You need to lighten it up some. Use a levels layer and move the slider to brighten the overall photo... then you can use the middle slider to darken the building area back to your dark tone effect. You need to put this one on your wall -- Sad memories but we do need to not forget it !!

Member Bio

Louis T. Duncan - Biography     My introduction to more serious photography began with a darkroom class over 30 years ago. I sold my coin collection to purchase an SLR with 20mm and 135mm lenses, and I was hooked. I shot mostly slides and b/w film until five years ago and now have a Nikon D-200. I still have a b/w darkroom and appreciate the grey scale of fiber paper, but my photo life is now digital including Elements 7.     I joined PSA about three years ago and am actively pursuing my goal to improve my images. I belong to a DSG Study Group, a b/w darkroom self made 11x14 study group, participate in the Photo Of the Month [POM], have attended PSA Expositions at Tucson and Yellowstone, and belong to the Carolina Nature Photographic Association which is a camera club affiliated with PSA. I am just starting to enter PSA recognized exhibitions.      I am a semi-retired aerospace engineer. My professional experience has been to apply the principles of aero engineering to cars, trucks, race cars and special projects. I have worked for NASCAR race teams for the last 28 years. One of my current sideline pro bono jobs is to conduct aero studies on the bobsleds of the US Olympic Bobsled team.       I have been married for 43 years to Orvillene Duncan. We have four grand boys and take care of our daughter’s 2 year old twins four days a week. That will keep you young.