Comments | mistress_elaine: White stupas

mistress_elaine

White stupas

Apr 10, 2006 11:52

Other than portraits of monks and people with yellow cheeks, this is probably the most quintessentially Burmese photo one can take.

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desat, burma, architecture, panorama

Comments 9

mitzimaybe April 10 2006, 11:00:04 UTC

Gorgeous. Lovely angle.

mistress_elaine April 10 2006, 15:51:34 UTC

Ta, as usual. :-)

(The comment has been removed)

mistress_elaine April 10 2006, 16:02:46 UTC

You don't know Heibao (Black Panther), China's greatest rock band of the 1990s? "Pa ni wei ziji liu lei" is from their nameless first album, which I think may well be the greatest rock album in Chinese history, although I'm fairly stuck in the nineties when it comes to Chinese music, and therefore a bit out of the loop with the current wave of Chinese rock stars. Dou Wei, now a successful solo artist, was Heibao's lead singer on this album, and wrote most of the songs on it. I'd definitely check out the album if I were you. It's worth it just for "Pa ni wei ziji liu lei", which is my favourite Chinese rock ballad, but it also contains classics such as "Wu di zi rong" (probably Mainland China's all-time greatest rock hit), "Take care" and "Don't break my heart". Contrary to what you might expect, the latter two songs are mostly in Chinese, despite their English titles.

mortsleam April 10 2006, 17:13:10 UTC

Wow. What did you do to the picture to get that saturated look? The tree in the background is quite pixelated on my (admittedly low quality) monitor, but it almost verges on a watercolor feel. It's definitely unnatural, but very interesting.

mistress_elaine April 10 2006, 17:37:02 UTC

I, er, raped this picture in Photoshop. First I desaturated the photo by applying a fifty-percent black-and-white Gradient Map to it. Then I increased the contrast by ten points and decreased the brightness by ten points, and then I got really, really crazy in Curves, which is what caused the sky to become so dark, the stupas to become so shiny and the tree to look so pixellated. Then I sharpened the picture (which was a bitch -- this was my twelfth attempt, and I think I overdid it, but I couldn't possibly get it any better) and added some vignetting, which wreaked even greater havoc on the image quality. So, yeah, I raped the photo worse than George Lucas ever raped anyone's childhood. And as I said, I'm sure the result looks horrible on Mac monitors. But somehow I like it. I love how those shiny white stupas stand out against the dark sky. Even if it does look completely unnatural, as you say. :-)

shizunde April 10 2006, 20:56:45 UTC

*coughs*
how can you remember even how many points you increase or decrease something?

the composition is great, and the cropping just perfect, till the last pixel.

shizunde April 10 2006, 20:58:31 UTC

aaaaah!
to the last pixel! to!

i'm so sorry T__T sorry :)

mistress_elaine April 10 2006, 21:21:52 UTC

No worries. I frequently make "to"-and-"till" mistakes myself. English can be quite tricky when it comes to these little words. :-)

("Till" these little words? Naaaah...)

mistress_elaine April 10 2006, 21:18:42 UTC

how can you remember even how many points you increase or decrease something?

I have a fantastic memory for trivia. I'm wont to forget things which really matter, but when it comes to insignificant details, my memory is strangely reliable. Ask me who got what score on which apparatus in the all-around final of the 1983 world gymnastics championships and you'll get an accurate answer out of me. Ask me some of my best friends' birthdays and I will mumble something apologetic and run for the hills. Sad but true.

the composition is great, and the cropping just perfect...

Pity about the rest, though, eh? :-)

Nah, thanks. As always. :-)