Visited a Sculpture Garden Today.

Geaux · Sep 12, 2010

Finally got a chance to go shoot at the Sculpture Garden in City Park in New Orleans. I didn't realize it was open on Sundays and figured while I was out there with the wife and dogs, why not take a walk through it. That is my explanation for the bad lighting, as it wasn't the most favorable :thumbdown:. Anyways, here are some of the shots from the day.

1. BY far, my favorite piece in the garden, I can't way to go back and catch this at other angles and in better lighting.

2. Yes, pieces are cut off, it was done intentionally. I wanted to center it along the bridge for symmetry, and only way to do it with the space i had to shoot it, was to cut a LOOOOOOONG arm off lol

3. One of the more 'over edited' shots, but I felt a 'vintage' look would fit the image well.

4.

5.

I only edited 8 shots, but I know how this place is when over posting shots, so I'll just put the link here if you're interested in seeing the others. (City Park - Sculpture Garden - a set on Flickr)

DanFinePhotography · Sep 12, 2010

Sweet images, lighting looks a little harsh in a couple. Overall some pretty good shots here. Possibly a tad overexposed in a couple

Geaux · Sep 12, 2010

Yeah, there were other works of art that I would have loved to shoot, but the lighting was horrendous lol. I had to do with whatever was dealt to me today, as it wasn't a planned walk through that park

Thanks for your kind words though!

Geaux · Sep 13, 2010

Morning bump, since I posted it late last night.

Geaux · Sep 13, 2010

Ok, so what's the issue, I can't ever get good CC or comments on my shots here anymore. Am I missing something in my shots, is the subject matter not interesting to most?

I'm at a loss, when it comes to getting people to comment on this site lol.

Taylor510ce · Sep 13, 2010

Compositions on 2 and 5 seem a little off to me. I really like the sculpture in #1...#4 is by far my be fave though. Maybe try this in black and white witg a red filter applied for the sky. Its almost monochrome as it is.

Geaux · Sep 13, 2010

Why a red filter for sky?

Taylor510ce · Sep 13, 2010

Darkens blue skies.will probably give a b&w version more contrast.

Geaux · Sep 13, 2010

Excellent, I'll give that a shot later. I was totally confused on red lol.

Derrel · Sep 14, 2010

1. This is a tricky shot...the subject, the alphabet sculpture, has many different planes and is semi-transparent...I like the way you have shown the sculpture as seen against the shaded trees in the background. I think there needs to be a bit more space alloted at the top of the frame, where the head of the sculpture comes close to the edge of the frame. The subject is causing some lens CA to appear. The question is: is this the optimal aperture for the correct amount of foreground/background separation? The time of day is very good, with the subject in sunlight, and the backdrop in shade. Focal length used,and aperture used, would be the two variables that could be used to improve this shot of an admittedly tricky subject.

2. Working with a very formal balance in mind, I think you did a good job, and made excellent choices. The sunlight is working well at showing the texture of the sculpture. I think this is a pretty good job of showing how this piece fits into its environment. I like how the tree in the background sort of fills in as the missing leg!

3. The LOVE sculpture. To me, the background area on the right hand side of the frame is very distracting. Light advanced, dark recedes is the old maxim; in this case, the light areas come zooming forward, visually, stealing the thunder from the LOVE sculpture.

4. The metal abstract. This is a photo that emphasizes or is based mostly on the repetition found in the original sculpture. Repetition is the main design element that the sculptor emphasized. That and line. And shape. And texture. Put another way, this sculpture is about line, shape,texture,and repetition. I think in this photo, the shallow depth of field is working against the final impact of the picture. Here, the selective focus (aka shallow depth of field) is working AGAINST you, in my opinion. This photo would have been vastly different in appearance is the f/stop had been set to say f/16. it does however, show the edge of the unfinished metal, and at least one of the heavy duty screws that hold the pieces together. Overall, to me, this is not as successful a picture as I think it could be on a return visit.

5. Female figure holding an object aloft. Now this photo is a super example of how to use shallow depth of field!!!!! This is an almost-textbook example of how to position a narrow depth of field band for both emphasis, and for maximum creative impact. And this photo is an example of how to carefully CONTROL THE BACKGROUND. This photo shows a nearly perfect foliage background! Clone out that small distracting bit in the LRC, and it's a perfect background. This image also uses what the Japanese call out of focus foreground bokeh, on the torso of the sculpture, as a design element.

The thing about photographing sculptures is that they do not move, and the light is what is there at the time you shoot each shot. The last photo demonstrates total success, even in the presence of a couple of blown out highlight patches...the overall,total command of a telephoto lens and background control and judicious depth of field placement make the last picture stand out as the best of the set. I would think that referring back to the first photo, and considering how its could be portrayed with a shallower depth of field versus the deep DOF of the wide-angle lens used, is the most important lesson to take away from this C&C. That,and comparing how shallow DOF can TOTALLY "work", as in photo #5, and how it can lessen the impact of the object being photographed, as in photo #4 of the repeating metal bar sculpture.

Infidel · Sep 14, 2010

Thanks Derrel; I learned a lot from your post, as I imagine Geaux will too. Looking at the photographs again, with your comments in mind, I now see them in a new way. I too particularly like 4 and 5. I thought I would mention that there is a little foliage in 4 (left side), that perhaps if it were cropped out would make the shot even more abstract.

sovietdoc · Sep 14, 2010

The last shot is by far the best. Good DOF, positioning is just right.

Geaux · Sep 14, 2010

Answers and more questions in Quote (bold)

Derrel said:
1. This is a tricky shot...the subject, the alphabet sculpture, has many different planes and is semi-transparent...I like the way you have shown the sculpture as seen against the shaded trees in the background. I think there needs to be a bit more space alloted at the top of the frame, where the head of the sculpture comes close to the edge of the frame. The subject is causing some lens CA to appear. The question is: is this the optimal aperture for the correct amount of foreground/background separation? The time of day is very good, with the subject in sunlight, and the backdrop in shade. Focal length used,and aperture used, would be the two variables that could be used to improve this shot of an admittedly tricky subject.

I noticed the CA after editing and was wondering what could have caused it, it seems to be on the overexposed areas where the sun was directly reflecting off the letters, I wonder if that has anything to do with that. I'd like to go back and get a smaller DOF to 'bokeh' the background a bit more, I was afraid to not capture the whole sculpture in the focal area, which is why I went with a higher F.

2. Working with a very formal balance in mind, I think you did a good job, and made excellent choices. The sunlight is working well at showing the texture of the sculpture. I think this is a pretty good job of showing how this piece fits into its environment. I like how the tree in the background sort of fills in as the missing leg!

Thanks for noticing the textures, that was one of the elements I wanted to capture while taking the shot. The tree 'leg', on the other hand, was total accidental and an awesome 'accident' indeed lol, GREAT EYE!

3. The LOVE sculpture. To me, the background area on the right hand side of the frame is very distracting. Light advanced, dark recedes is the old maxim; in this case, the light areas come zooming forward, visually, stealing the thunder from the LOVE sculpture.

I definitely see what you mean about the brightness on the right side of the image, definitely a live/learn moment. Another thing I'm not too happy about was cutting off the corners of it's base, but with space constraints and signage, I couldn't do much more lol.

4. The metal abstract. This is a photo that emphasizes or is based mostly on the repetition found in the original sculpture. Repetition is the main design element that the sculptor emphasized. That and line. And shape. And texture. Put another way, this sculpture is about line, shape,texture,and repetition. I think in this photo, the shallow depth of field is working against the final impact of the picture. Here, the selective focus (aka shallow depth of field) is working AGAINST you, in my opinion. This photo would have been vastly different in appearance is the f/stop had been set to say f/16. it does however, show the edge of the unfinished metal, and at least one of the heavy duty screws that hold the pieces together. Overall, to me, this is not as successful a picture as I think it could be on a return visit.

I have a few shots with larger F, I'll play around with those later and try to repost here. The reason I chose the smaller DOF shot was because of the shape/angle of the other bars in the shot. They seemed to blend anyways bc the spacing was not shown with the angle I shot at.

5. Female figure holding an object aloft. Now this photo is a super example of how to use shallow depth of field!!!!! This is an almost-textbook example of how to position a narrow depth of field band for both emphasis, and for maximum creative impact. And this photo is an example of how to carefully CONTROL THE BACKGROUND. This photo shows a nearly perfect foliage background! Clone out that small distracting bit in the LRC, and it's a perfect background. This image also uses what the Japanese call out of focus foreground bokeh, on the torso of the sculpture, as a design element.

Wow!, this is the surprising cc of the group. I didn't think this one was my strongest shot b/c I thought everyone would hate the small DOF, but I wanted to focus on the eyes and object the most, which is why I chose it. I looked like an idiot getting the shot b/c I was shooting with my 35mm prime and was laying in the mud below it to shoot up on the subject (gotta do what you gotta do to get the shot you want lol). The shot, to me, gives the effect that it is a large/tall structure, but in fact .. it's rather small and not as 'up there' as the image conveys, which is what I wanted.

The thing about photographing sculptures is that they do not move, and the light is what is there at the time you shoot each shot. The last photo demonstrates total success, even in the presence of a couple of blown out highlight patches...the overall,total command of a telephoto lens and background control and judicious depth of field placement make the last picture stand out as the best of the set. I would think that referring back to the first photo, and considering how its could be portrayed with a shallower depth of field versus the deep DOF of the wide-angle lens used, is the most important lesson to take away from this C&C. That,and comparing how shallow DOF can TOTALLY "work", as in photo #5, and how it can lessen the impact of the object being photographed, as in photo #4 of the repeating metal bar sculpture.

Thank you so much for your time in cc'ing these photos. I can't wait to get out there around the 'golden hour' and try some smaller DOF on the alphabet structure and catch it from some different angles. You've taught me a lot, it'll take a bit to sink in. I've actually read your critique a few times already, referencing my shots, and I see what you mean. THANKS again!, truely awesome.