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Wallpaper Details: Cal 1

High-resolution desktop wallpaper Cal 1 by Alexander Bayonne Stross
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Cal 1

April 19th, 2008

3 shot HDR on the coast of california near ragged point.

Wallpaper Categories

This wallpaper has been tagged with the keywords:

california » clouds » grey » high dynamic range » landscape » nature » photography » ragged point » seascape » sky »

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Comments from the Community

Posted By: chickenwire
about 15 years, 11 months ago
Overall I really like this. Nice composition and general mood. Beautiful scenery. I think you did a good job with the HDR merge and tone mapping (colors aren't ridiculous, etc) but I do see some editing artifacts in the upper right hand corner where the sky meets the mountains. Would love to see an updated version where this issue is corrected. other than that, great photo!
This comment is rated: insightful
Posted By: Beans
about 15 years, 11 months ago
pretty cool, makes a nice desktop
This comment is rated: insightful
Posted By: bdwilcox
about 15 years, 11 months ago
There are a few technical blemishes, but overall a nice job. Stylistically, there are some shortcomings. First, there is really no focus, so the eye wanders around the picture. There are actually three parts to this picture (the sky and distant gray mountains, the sea, and the colorful angled mountains) but with no unifying element and no place for the eye to rest. The road, with its "S" curve is a bit of a resting point, but it's broken and obscured in the photo.

The grass of the mountains could have used more saturation to contrast with the steely gray of the rest of the photo and the drainage pipe in the lower right-hand corner should have been either cropped or 'shopped.

Overall, a nice try, but needs a little work in Photoshop.
This comment is rated: immature
Posted By: brizkit
about 15 years, 11 months ago
Nice work! I actually really like the contrasting background and foreground, both in color and focus. In my opinion, the lower saturation on the mountains does this one some good. The scene is soothing and well framed as well.
This comment is rated: insightful
Posted By: atlantis4 from smtp.ru
about 15 years, 11 months ago
About "a place for eye to rest" - I see here several places, thats why I loved this photo. I can look at it for long time and still find new details, just like standing there. Nice HDR work!
Posted By: rewind from gmx.at
about 15 years, 11 months ago
worst pic on IFL so far. sorry, quality is horrible.
This comment is rated: immature
Posted By: karan
about 15 years, 11 months ago
good picture. Thanks
This comment is rated: insightful
about 15 years, 11 months ago
Thank you all for the constructive critisim.
Se7en: I actual noticed the artifact right after I uploaded it. Will correct ASAP.
bdwilcox: I understand where you are coming from about lack of a focal point but are wall desktop back grounds supposed to have a focal point? I'll mess with it a bit and post a link to a "fixed" version.
brizkit: Thanks I really apprecate it.
This comment is rated: insightful
Posted By: bdwilcox
about 15 years, 11 months ago
Stross Arts said: "I understand where you are coming from about lack of a focal point but are wall desktop back grounds supposed to have a focal point?"

I think a better question would be, "Are all pictures supposed to have a focal point?" The answer to that would be no, but most should. There are photos, like color or pattern studies, that don't have a "true" focal point, instead the color or pattern being the focal point that encourages the viewers eye to scan the picture. But most photos should have a composition that leads the viewers eye into the photo and gives their eye someplace to come back to as it wanders around the picture.
This comment is rated: immature
Posted By: bdwilcox
about 15 years, 11 months ago
There is an old joke that the three most important things for a successful business are location, location, and location. Likewise, the three most important things to a successful photo are composition, composition, and composition.

There is a reason that the masters like Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Eliot Porter and John Sexton excel(led) at their art. Their composition is near perfect. This was most likely due to their use of view cameras which invert and reverse the image on the ground glass, making composition the primary concern in setting up a shot. It's an interesting way to view the world and a fun experiment if you can get your hands on a view camera.
This comment is rated: immature
Posted By: bdwilcox
about 15 years, 11 months ago
If you're interested, the best book on photo composition is, hands down, Michael Freeman's "Image-Designing Effective Pictures". Of course, it's out of print, so you'll need to find it at a library, used book store, or auction website. I can't recommend it highly enough.
This comment is rated: immature
Posted By: cyreus
about 15 years, 11 months ago
Very lovely wallpaper!
This comment is rated: immature
about 15 years, 11 months ago
bdwilcox: thanks of the recommendation. I just ordered a copy for amazon. I'm alway looking to improve my image quality.

I have uploaded a artifact/fixed version of this.
This comment is rated: insightful
Posted By: derek1980
about 15 years, 11 months ago
Thanks, looks great on my desktop. I especially like the colors and level of detail from the HDR.

rewind: What was the point of your comment?
This comment is rated: insightful
Posted By: PatrickBateman
about 15 years, 11 months ago
I've seen better HDRs...but nice approach.
This comment is rated: immature
Posted By: Barney Gumble
about 15 years, 11 months ago
What I dislike are the piles of mud on the hill in the foreground, and the already mentioned drain pipe. it kills the picturesqueness. also it seems a bit undersaturated in a way that what should have been a gray background takes over the whole picture. also would have been a lot better had the watter been blue. this way it melts with the background.

seems like a lot of critique, but overall i still like it. composition-wise it's a great shot.
This comment is rated: immature
Posted By: the vSaL
about 15 years, 11 months ago
Yeah I'd agree equally with Se7en and Barney. If you fixed that mix-up in the upper right hand corner I'd really like it. But like I said I do have some of the critiques that Barney has such as the drain pipe and grayness.

Other than that, as a whole I really like it.
This comment is rated: immature
Posted By: bristol9 from mail.com
about 15 years, 11 months ago
"There is an old joke that the three most important things for a successful business are location, location, and location." -- bdwilcox

I don't get the joke...?
This comment is rated: insightful
Posted By: sean from sm2designs.com
about 15 years, 11 months ago
I'm a fan of the subtle use of HDR in this photo. Good work, and I look forward to seeing more of your future submissions.
This comment is rated: insightful
about 15 years, 11 months ago
You can download this fixed version here until the IFL file is updated.

http://alexstross.com/photography/temp/cal1-1.jpg

non-hdr version

http://alexstross.com/photography/temp/cal1n-1.jpg
This comment is rated: insightful
Posted By: InterfaceLIFT
about 15 years, 11 months ago
The wallpaper has been replaced with Stross Arts's fixed version.
This comment is rated: insightful
Posted By: Dominic Kamp
about 15 years, 11 months ago
I really like the fixed version. Especially the great contrast and the nice textures! Good work!
This comment is rated: insightful
Posted By: sean from sm2designs.com
about 15 years, 11 months ago
Thanks again for the updated version. This desktop is one of my favorites to show up here at IFL in a bit.

Thanks for sharing.

-Sean
This comment is rated: insightful
about 15 years, 11 months ago
Thanks y'all. I'm always trying to improve my work. All of your comments are appreciated.

Alex
This comment is rated: insightful
Posted By: Tim H.
about 15 years, 6 months ago
Forget all negative comments. This is an excellent submission. It's just yet another addition to my Wallpaper Master rotation. But it's definitely one of the many that I take extra time to look at. I love it.

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