Beyond the Dome: comment on a fellow artist image

Beyond the Dome, originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs.
Blurry: Image is not very crisp or is blurred when viewed at full size. Image is too soft.


Artifact Problems: Noise/Grain/Chromatic or other artifacts due to low light, blue or purple fringing, high ISO, over-sharpening or post processing techniques, over-sharpening or post processing techniques. Please view image at 100% prior to posting.



Verdict: this image is the worst so far amongst the other works of yours. This image suffers, along with the mentioned technical flaws above, from color and luminance noise...

Note: this critique meant as constructive and unbiased expert, not self-opinion. No intention of disparaging the artist or his works. I have great respect for the Artist and I cherish his book "A World in HDR"

An excerpt from the book:

"....HDR is evolving (indeed, in its infancy, and let's not kill the baby before it's able to utter the word 'Mamma") form of art that enables the photographer to capture and display the full range of light that can be realized by the human eye..."

Although, we just read a real and loyal description of HDR, about taking better pictures in difficult low-high-light conditions, HDR is much more...and HDR is not an "art form" but as a fellow/collogue artist of mine, Emmy Award Nominee, Christian Bloch, puts it: HDR's a method to digitally capture, store, and edit the full luminosity range of a scene.

To cut the story short: HDR is science/technology used by Photography and Digital imaging. Just like tool brush used by a painter. However, the painter can be Van Gogh or Rembrandt. Van Gogh, an Impressionist, who did not know how to paint had not only refused the fundamentals of Painting, but also the Three Values that inherit everything in nature and our world as we see it. Values! The fundamentals of light. That is: Direct Light>Diffused Light>Shadows. One cannot do without the other. Stop reading, please, raise your head and look around you. No matter where you are, be it outside in bright, sunny day or inside a room, poor-lit or well-lit, you'll see that the "Light" falls on every object in the same way, with the three values, not spot-light.

This image does not only lack the "Basics" and "Fundamentals" of the Art (or craft, as I usually refer to the practice of photography) of Photography in general, but also rejects the other three interrelated forces that drive the progress of any form of art, be it Photography (HDRI [high dynamic range], LDR [low dynamic range] and general photography), sculpture, painting, ice skating etc.; The first driving force is an individual’s creative vision and the need for tools to express it. The second is the values within which the individual functions, and the artist’s inclination to resist, reflect or interpret those values. The third is technological advances that enable new means of expression by removing previous limitations, which brings us fellow photographers to have a closer look at the art form of HDR technology which has opened new ways to capture high dynamic range than ever dreamed of in photography…a technology that was only available in Hollywood studios until a few years ago. Although, some European photographers like Pete Carr and Robert Correll have incorporated this effect into a strong purposeful aesthetic, many others have completely misunderstood that purpose of HDR or “As the Eye sees look” to a “Plastic HDR look” of exaggerated color and contrast boost, (overcooked with unacceptable digital noise, chromatic aberration and color fringing, white and dark halos) that does not only look unnatural and surreal, but also dirty and “burnt look”.

Can we still call this image HDR? Not by my standards or HDR's. That's not how the human eye sees or I see, but how you, as an artist, see and interpret it. Thus, it's your interpretation or should I say a Hyper-Realistic impression of the scene...Nobody, can stop you from being Van Gogh, and from what I see, it's paid off big time for you...that's admirable achievement. This is a time to make a name in HDR since not too many out there, not even the media or publishers know what on earth is HDR? But remember: a digital noise is still noise, or as you put it, "Noisy Art of Form". When blown out and printed, those color noise and artifacts will appear even much as ugly as some acne on Miss America's face...

 Recommended ****   ***

  ***** Recommended   ** *
                                 *