Hi again all - I've just spent most of my day at a memorial service at Manchester Cathedral and again I have reflected on this thread. Many of us who read it will I hope agree with me that we owe Rudra a great debt of gratitude for lifting the veil on, what for me certainly, was a real revelation about the work and care that goes into advertising photography. Yet for me his signature work is still those shots of the mountains and valleys with the rolling thunderous clouds, other shots also leap to my mind, you may recall them yourselves - a simple flight of stairs, a superb record of a machine made by the photographer, some great shots of Cambodia, of a girl called Freya, a mandarin duck, a snipe, a tulip, of aircraft, trains, ships, of Whitby and its Abbey, numerous portraits and experiments - in fact they are too many to mention.
So what is the purpose of my "toys" as I call them? In many ways my photographic heart is in landscape, architecture and abstract or experimental forms.
The "TOYS"- the software has two functions - in the landscape and architecture its function is to enable me to do any post processing necessary as quickly and easily as possible. In the abstract or experimental form it is to enable me to go as far as possible in turning out what I consider to be a work of art, a concept that goes way beyond the record of the original subject.
This I think best explains my love of effect filters.
If a byproduct of that is something that I feel makes normal post processing easier and for me more intuitive then I feel I must share it with others. If they don't agree - fine - we all develop our own ways of working - just as some of us use Canon's or Pentax and Windows instead of Nikon's and Apple Mac's. And let's face it - some of us even still dabble in developer, hypo and fixer !!
All the Nik software mentioned comes in FREE TRIAL VERSIONS - If you like it - fine - If you don't - fine. But unless we try these things we never know - for example - Photoshop CS3 better than CS2 ?? Of course it is - its on another planet! Too expensive ? Way over the top! but that's the price of progress and anyway once we find what suits us why bother changing?
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