Side by side is hard, and a revisitation

After a couple nice comments about the recent panorama I went back and looked at the other photos from that afternoon. This are the two I liked next best. Similar shots, though 3 things is generally better than 2 things in the shot, but I like the sense of spacing in the second photo.

I admit it, when it comes to image manipulation, I am a putz. I can barely spell Photoshop, and know nothing beyond that it uses layers and you have to have an advanced degree in image jiggery pokery to do anything more than open it.

Any image you see anywhere has been manipulated. I hope you know that. Film has been manipulated to develop it. Even so-called straight out of the camera has been manipulated by software. Thats why camera nerds get into arguments about camera brands and image quality. The only question is how much manipulation. I've struggled with how much manipulation should go into my images, and I've been gradually evolving towards my editing philosophy.

Subject to display screen limitations, most images I try to make them look like natural life, with a slight pop to them. Some images go to black and white, if I think of it, and if it's suitable for the image. (See below.) Some images I push the editing to look a specific way, for a specific reason, which might vary from image to image. I'll take out spots if I notice them, and editing the above image makes me realize I badly need to clean the monitor. (I was trying to remove what I thought was a bird, but no.) I'll fix rotation issues because I've noticed I tend to hold the camera rotated slightly anti-clockwise. But I don't like the results I get when I try to clone out something, so I don't do it much. Either I'm doing something wrong, or that particular tool in my version has a problem.

Sean had suggested that he liked a particular image and wanted to see it beside another image, and both in B&W. The convert to B&W and tweak is easy. The side by side part much less so. The two images are very different shapes. The panorama is 19390 x 6067 px, and the other image is 6206 x 4137 px. The first thing I was thinking is that if they are side by side, they should be the same height.

I admit that does not look especially nice. Not even a little bit. I think what needs to happen is that each needs to be printed in it's native proportions, at a reasonable size, the panorama about 5 feet wide by not quite 2 feet, and the other about 20 inches wide by about a foot high. Then mount them on a wall that is about the same colour as the sky at just the right distance apart. Alas, I don't know what that distance is. I suspect that's what Sean actually has in mind.

So the panorama you saw full size here. The colour version of the other is here. And for your viewing delight, here's the B&W version of the other image under discussion. Feel free to open them up on your computer screen and arrange them however you think looks attractive.

Deadwood of the Day
I wondered if I should find a B&W wood image I haven't used, or go with a contrasting bright colour. Hmmm. Guess which I picked.