I'm sorry if I came across a little snippy to Chuck. But let me
explain my thinking...
1. The bokeh effect with the partially blurred gate is part of what I
was attempting to achieve here. By having the gate gradually get
softer the way it does, it draws the eye back to the left and towards
the post again. The eye gets trapped in this photograph by following
the lines around though the scene. Had the gate been fully sharp the
transition point between the end of the gate and the road would have
been too harsh (as it is already on the opposite sides of the
brightness values) and the eye would not make the smooth movement back
to the upper-left. Eye flow is pretty well trapped in a anti-clockwise
circular motion with a secondary exploration of the sunlit trees and
the in-focus rocks in the lower right.
2. Everybody has their own opinions about grain/noise, but as the
image is substantially blurry, but contains a tremendous amount of
visual information in the blurred area, the eyes are screaming for
something to focus on. By providing texture through grain, the eyes
are able to establish a distance point-of-reference. However, not
without a twist...
Grain, dots, noise, etc., in an image such as this, or an
impressionist painting trigger a very interesting visual trait. The
human eyes will rarely focus on the exact same "dot" in the picture.
In fact, the left and right eyes relocate to different "dots" pretty
much every time you blink or move your head. This causes a slight
focus shift as well as a slight positional shift. The end result is a
very slight 3D effect as the background in the scene takes on a
movement shimmer. Our visual processing nullifies most of this
shimmer, but the effect is there. This is why many impressionist
paintings look 3D. Everybody has a dominant eye, for close-up and the
other eye is usually dominant for distance. In a picture such as this,
the human brain will be switching back and forth between the eyes as
dominant. This also contributes to the 3D characteristic as well as
implied movement within the picture.
Paintings almost always have a "tooth" to the surface. Either through
the underlying canvas or the brushstrokes themselves. This tooth is
what provides a focus point for the human eye. On a
noiseless/grainless photograph printed on smooth-glossy paper, the
picture lacks any surface reference point for the eyes. We end up
seeing the glass or reflections in the surface. Same with computer
monitors, unless you have a nasty monitor (like the one I use at the
office), the transparancy is such that you end up looking through the
image if there is large areas of blurriness.
Thanks for all the comments.
AG
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