November passes into December and may things happen and the one is that we have a new artist. Please welcome Leen Koper and I am sure you love the work of this very talented artist and friend.
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Leen, Beautiful, beautiful! I really admire your use of blur to give a wonderful…almost nostaligic feel to your images. I am going to work on developing that technique. Thanks for the inspiration. Bert
Thanks for sharing more of your beautiful work; your love for photography shows through in each and every image. I’m absolutely wild about image 15, a gorgeous shot! It’s nice to see your studio, you are very fortunate to live and work in such a picturesque village.
November passes into December and may things happen and the one is that we have a new artist. Please welcome Leen Koper and I am sure you love the work of this very talented artist and friend.
*If you have been looking recently and have cache set please hit refresh.* — Grant
Grant, thank you for publishing my children in such a beautiful way. I consider it an honour to have my images presented to such fine digital workers and helpful people on the forum. I would never have been able to produce these images without the help of all of you. That’s why I made my selection just only from the images I shot during the last six months. Everyone on the forum, I love you all for your wonderful input and making me feel I’ve got new family. A day without being able to visit the forum is like coming home in an empty house.
Bert, my soft focus technique is rather simple: I create a layer from the background, apply the free plug in "Dreamy FX", usually I choose the "white" preset on the bottom row, switch off the color by moving the slider to the left, hit OK without any further changings and with the opacityslider in the layers menu I determine how much soft focus I need. That’s all.
Barbara, this #15 has recently been published in the leading glossy magazine for the lesbian community; I ‘m extremely proud of that as they published it as a full spread over two pages in the middle of the magazine. Now I hate staples 😉
Leen, Your pictures are beautiful! It took me a long time to pick my favourite, as each and every one is lovely, but I finally came to a draw between 20 and 21. Jane
The photographs you chose to share with us are magnificent. I have been to your website so I was already aware of the quality of your work.. I agree with Barb, 15 is one of my favorites. If I could choose but one favorite it would have to be #2. The expression you captured of the child, especially in the eyes is priceless. Capturing that fleeting moment in time you seem to have told an ageless story of the wonders of motherhood.
Leen, I don’t think that I can be anymore eloquent than those who have already posted regarding your work.
Your story is extremely intriguing, as well. It illustrates wonderfully how many of us start in one direction and then, because of one small act, begin a trip down another road altogether. It is obvious to me that despite any talents you had for accounting, photography was the right path for you.
In looking through all of your images that are posted, I keep coming back to number 17. There is something incredibly joyous and peaceful in that image.
Very nice of you all -next to your kind words- to pick a favourite image. Of course I have my own favourite as well, but this year I will not reveal it. 😉 This "election" is very helpful to me as it tells me what my customers might like the best. The worst thing of choosing ones images to present in this galery is to "kill your darlings". There are so many other images except for these 25 I love as much and afterwards one always regrets the ones you left out.
That’s fabulous, I can see how they would choose image #15 for their centerfold, excellent composition and mood. Need some transparent staples. 😉 Your shot through the draping veil, image #17, is really special, beautifully done!
Thanks for sharing your soft focus technique, very effective.
It gave me great pleasure to view your images. You have a great "eye", your creations are absolutely lovely and ‘moving’. Thank you so much for sharing these with us.
Leen — Beautiful pictures — you’ve made a great selection. If we’re choosing favorites, I’d have to go with #2 (you caught the gaze and the hand position perfectly), but they are all terrific. Bob Warren
I’ll try to comment a little on some of those lovely critiques. I’m a little blushing in front of my monitor….
Dick, only very few people seem to do the work they originally have been trained for. Moreover, I wasn’t a that exceptionally good accountant.
Bert, there shouldnot be any secrets. If we all tell how to achieve certain goals, we all can benefit from that. Moreover, I tell all my colleagues how I work, but everyone seems to apply my shared knowledge in a different way.
Barbara, I wasnot inspired by Van de Weyden, but by Rembrandt; he was the first photographer among the painters, he was in my opinion the first one who knew how to use "clair obscure" without making it look too artificial.
Jodi, I think I hardly deserve the right to be the artist of the month as I just only submitted twice to the Challenge. I don’t have the time and the inner rest to work on something that isnot client related at the moment.
Chris, this pregnant woman is a lovely girl that frequently posed for me when I wanted to try something new. Recently I covered her wedding and now she is pregnant, we agreed that each month we would record how she looked at that time. Another image of her, the next month, is the one at the beach. When the child will be born the serie will end with the father holding the baby.
Thank you for opening to us your "world" of seeing. Until going over your site, I have not been so entranced by what photographs can convey in a long, long time. Good job!
Well if we’re picking favorites I’d have to pick the Woman In Red (number 4). There is something dreamy, celestial and ethereal about her. The contrast between her the water and the beach is just awesome.
Leen, my response was given to the fact that I’ve always been a fan of your work since you first posted your business site months ago. Anyone who frequents this forum knows enough about what you do and how well you do it. You do not need to submit to a challenge on a weekly basis to prove your worth as a featured Artist. We ( I ) know you are a busy man with your exciting photog biz and your work is ‘art’ and deserves much praise here in the Featured Artist link of this special forum addition. We all are inspired.
Well, I hope not to make you blush again Leen. There is a certain magic that is created though your lens and you just happen to be holding the camera at the time. 🙂 What I notice the most is the capacity to evoke and capture a quality from your subject that really radiates such warmth and beauty. I really enjoy an image that is shot from the heart, whether it’s a person, a place or an object. I try to keep that in mind when I compose an image. Thank you for sharing your images and your guidance.
BTW Grant, that is a great layout for Leen’s images.
Yes, Mark, I was noticing that too. Although black is often a great background color for photos, the muted grays Grant chose really complement Leen’s body of work.
I went through your gallery a few times just to look and re-look (if that is english?) at your images. To me they all seem to exude an enormous feel of intimacy and trust and in some humour is added as a bonus 🙂 Apart from that, the people you photograph all seem to feel special and secure, almost like movie stars. It is a joy to watch your images.
I agree with the others that the chosen lay out enhances the subject in the images. It gives the images a certain lightness and frailness.
LEEN, # 14 kept me spellbound wishing for that kind of peace. I first went to the sight where there were a few pictures on each page. From those I chose in #5, the girl whose hair is blowing. So many women are ‘beautiful’ but this girl looks "real" and someone I could say hello to. Marty
Leen Your photographs and giving nature are very appreciated and I look for your responses on the threads because your opinions and thoughts always help to educate and inspire me. Thanks Julio
Julio, especially for you, some extra inspirational answers. 😉
Byron, there is a song about "When Irish eyes are smiling". This is true, she is Irish! In my opinion -not just only mine- the eyes are the most important part of any human being. When I meet someone the first thing I look at are the eyes. I happen to know that’s about 12 inches higher that the average male does. I didnot know a better way to emphasize those beautiful eyes than by isolating by means of the shoulder of te groom.
Robert, you make me blush. No man ever did that before. 😉 People are feeling secure if they notice you seem to know what you are doing. And I’m very good in pretending I do know. But I’m never afraid to show I’m human with all my doubts and uncertainty.
Marty, don’t tell anyone. (she is real) The most diffcult thing in portraiture is to prove most people are more beautiful than others usually see. Everyone can be beautiful.
Any other questions? 😉
Leen
BTW, did anyone notice my image on the cover is a hyperlink to the website of a wonderful German photographer who made this portrait? Thank you Grant, she deserves it!
Thank you for sharing those wonderful images with us. I especially like #24. Where did you shoot that? It reminds me of a landscape that you might also find in northern Germany, windblown and flat and very beautiful (behind a dike?).
Jürgen, it is about 100 meters from my house. Indeed it is in a polder behind a dyke about 4 meters below sea level, half a mile from the sea. This landscape is very similar to the German Friesland, flat, windy and with extremely beautiful light, due to the reflection on the water surfaces that surround our island.
You certainly live in a beautiful area. I was actually reminded of a landscape on the left bank of the Elbe river, not too far from Hamburg. Thanks again.
I developed Leen’s site using styles so once set up was very easy to play with. I agree with you that black really shows off colour but in this case it was over powering. White just took away the impact of Leen’s work. An extremely soft brown was used and this was much better but while it added to the site, it did not add to Leen’s images. Next I tried an off-white which was better but lacked a certain sparkle as the colours became a bit wishy. Finally I tried off white with a pale grey frame and this did it for me. I then varied the width of the frame from 2 to 50 pixels and settled on 15 as optimum. The over all intent was not to make the site beautiful but to accentuate the beauty of the images.
BTW, this challenge has given a boost to the number of visitors from the USA to my website. According to my sitestats the number of visitors this year is almost 11.500; 8.7% is from the USA. That is exactly 999! It has been 999 for two days now. Who wants to be the lucky #1000 USA visitor? 😉
For what it is worth I like 3, 15, 20 and 21 with 3 being my favourite. I like particularly the shade in the grass surrounding the girl as it emphasizes the girl.
Rober, this is actually a "Photoshop shadow". Often I paint with a large soft brush at about 50% opacity my "shadows" with black on a layer and afterwards I adjust to the right density with the opacity slider.
In the "days before digital" I used a black vignette in a Lindahl shade. This way my vignette was either round in square images or an oval with rectangular images. Photoshop provides me with the vignettes I want in any shape I might need.
Darkening the edges is an old technique dating back to the nostalgic old days of the wet darkroom. After dodging and burning during the exposure time we used to burn in the corners and the sides after the normal exposure. This way we created a relatively brighter centre to draw the viewers attention to the main subject of the image. With Elements I don’t need such a large waste basket like in those "early" years.
With Elements I don’t need such a large waste basket like in those "early" years
Leen, I spent a lot of time in my "darkroom" back in the 70’s. I converted a bathroom into a darkroom once a week or so, after the rest of the family was in bed. Once I went to all the effort to set it up, I usually printed for several hours, into the wee hours of the morning, and then had trouble getting up to go to work the next day! Eventually, I tired of it and gave the whole setup…cameras, lenses, enlarger, tanks, trays, etc…to my daughter. For the next twenty years, I did not even own a camera! When digital cameras appeared, my interest was reawakened, and when I first bought Photoshop Elements, it was like a revelation! I could almost immediately do things far beyond anything I was capable of in the darkroom. So, I’m having fun again with photography, and now that I’m retired, it’s especially nice to be able to take the time to do really satisfying things, even though I am still a beginner. Bert
I had a feeling it was a "technical" shadow rather than a natural one. Nonetheless it works well for this picture.
Arriving to this same result in the pre-digital days must have been quite intense. I once saw on tv how a professional photographer waved a round object in front of a photo sensitive paper just to create a dark corner. Each image must have been different in those days.
Actually, you’ld be amazed at how consistant you could be when you were an experienced darkroom worker. I had a permanent home darkroom for years and, besides my own work, did custom prints for the photographers in the area. After a while you almost didn’t have to think about the technical details, just the artistic ones. I always recorded what I did and all the technical data so I could reproduce the print when they came back a few months later and wanted an extra print (they loved doing that too).
My darkroom has been gone for many years (disappeared after I had children and needed to use the room for something else). I enjoyed the wet darkroom work but I’m much happier with the digital darkroom.
Bob
Arriving to this same result in the pre-digital days must have been quite
intense. I once saw on tv how a professional photographer waved a round object in front of a photo sensitive paper just to create a dark corner. Each image must have been different in those days.
I didn’t know that about the consistency back then. I try to imagine how difficult it must have been for instance to create a contrast rich sky only and leave all else on the negative as is and then make a number of these images. To me these could all be slightly different, something you would not get with digital printing, plus with digital it would be faster too.
I’m from the same generation as RobertH and I still tremeber the problems about dodging a brides dress and burning the grooms dark grey suit and still not loosing detail in any of their cloth. But, nevertheless, usually the difference between the various prints usually didnot depend on technical skills, but the way you considered a negative a few months later and what was the right way of printing it as ones view changes in time. It is much easier to print your own negatives than somebody elses as a professional photographer always previsualises an image at the time of the actual shooting and the darkroom is just only the technical part. Once you have previsualised an image, you will never forget how it should look in print. I have the same experience in PSE. I know beforehand what I will try to do with this image and shoot accordingly. Although I often try to do someting else I always seem to return to my initial ideas.
One of the nice things about digital is that you don’t have that sudden light flare when you come out of the dark! I taught B&W Photography for many years in a Michigan High School and that was what always got the kids most….the transition.
Also had a home darkroom for about 18 years but I must say I don’t miss it as much as I though I would.
I worked for several years in the summer as a b&w tech at a pro labe in Michigan, it was great, got to make prints from 3×3 in all the way up to 9’x12′. It was a great time.
Dick and Leen, Someday it would be fun to get together and talk about how we used to do it in the old days. Then, we could have some good coffee and swap techniques about how to do the digital stuff.
Leen, quite right about the artistic vs technical issues. The photographers always had clear ideas of what they wanted and we discussed and documented everything (usually marked up an 8×10 print made detailed notes and instructions and initialed by both parties) including what paper to use before negative ever went in the enlarger. Came in useful as some remembered things a little differently a few days later.
Dick, did you teach any advanced printing techniques (unsharp mask, contrast reducing mask, depleted/exhausted development, sponging, etc.) or was it mainly the most used and standard techniques including burning, dodging, contrast control etc.
RobertH, tell me time and place and we might have a meeting, provided you can produce a good strong coffee. There is only one exception: if you live at the west coast it takes me too many hours in a plane. I really would love to meet other members of the forum somewhere in New England. This is serious!
As you can imagine, high school students are a different bunch. I taught basic techniques and then I had some more "advanced" studnets that I worked with in addition.
We did "hot developer" stuff, sponging, selective toning, all sorts of stuff. Also had two kids who delighted in coming in early in the morning and making "big" prints. Big enough to paper their bedroom ceilings with.
Dick
Oh, in addition, we did a lot of photo silk screening.
Please let me know if you plan a get-together in New England. We go to upstate New York several times a year to visit daughter and family, and often make forays into New England. We’ll be in Africa the whole month of May next year, but if you plan something for later in the summer, it could work. Bert
RobertH, Over the last ten years Sinterklaas has developed to an event especially for children. I don’t like the change of centuries old traditions, but Christmas has evolved into the Anglo Saxon tradition. Unfortunately I don’t have any grandchildren. My son seems to love the exercises but obviously he doesnot realise there is a goal to any training. Modern grown up children don’t seem to be aware of their parents rights any more. ;-(
I still love the idea of a Pow wow. Whenever possible I will attend, but my agenda is filling up quickly these days.
In Canada Christmas is at a runaway commercial rate. The latest statistics from StatsCan claims the average Canadian family spends over $1500 at Christmas and the province of Ontario is in the lead. I suspect it is hard to break this habit if you have young children but … My son is a now grown and a few years we all sat down and discussed this insanity. The options were to continue spending on gifts that may or many not be what the receiver wanted or stop. We opted to a compromise now we draw names form a hat and donate a fixed sum to the charity of that persons choice. It is five years now and no one seems to feel we are missing anything. An added advantage is that all the stress of the season has evaporated. We still have the great get together with the bird and all that stuffing
Yup, X~mas is a stressful time of year for me. I can barely afford for my own children but expected to supply gifts for other people’s children. Something has got to change. We survive the best way we can and spoil ourselves from time to time ’cause gosh darn it …we deserve it…BUT that doesn’t mean we’re rolling in the green stuff. OK ba humbug…there I said it.
I’m a little late in joining the others to tell you your work is fabulous, outstanding, marvellous ! I felt transported from one slide to the other. A thousand bravos 🙂
Leen, I enjoyed viewing your work. Your work is absolutely fantasic. I find very mystical aspects in your pictures – very creative.
I would have responded earlier . . but having major Internet problems so the only connection I’ve had in the last week or so is using a very old laptop (2 gig harddriver) and 33 modem – dial up connection. Very primitive equipment but at least I can check emails. Unfortunately I can’t do anything else.. . and I hope to get back to my other computer and high speed next week. 🙂
Ray and Beth, thanks to both of you for the compliments.
Good photography is just mainly a matter of working hard to improve ones quality and setting your standards as high as possible. I’m not one of those extremely gifted photographers, like I sometimes happen to meet, but just working extremely hard over many years slowly turned me into a better photographer.
Sometimes I sacrificed too much for my addiction. For quite some time I had a rather bad relationship to my only son as I was almost always away from home and left his social education mainly to my wife. Our relation has improved in the meantime, but I still regret we have lost so much quality time together.
Bob Warren’s reign as Featured Artist is coming to a close. If there is anyone on this planet that hasn’t seen his pages now is the time. First read the Bio, then go over to the Gallery, and finally end up at Bob own Website.
