Cost like GOLD photos -TOP16

1) Cindy Sherman, Untitled №96 (1981), $3,890,500, May 2011, Christie's New York.

2) Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent II Diptychon (2001), $3,346,456, February 2007, Sotheby's London auction. A second print of 99 Cent II Diptychon sold for $2.48 million in November 2006 at a New York gallery, and a third print sold for $2.25 million at Sotheby's in May 2006.

3)Edward Steichen, The Pond-Moonlight (1904), $2,928,000, February 2006, Sotheby's New York auction.

4)Unknown photographer, Billy the Kid (1879–80), tintype portrait, $2,300,000, June 2011, Brian Lebel's Old West Show & Auction.

5)Dmitry Medvedev, Kremlin of Tobolsk (2009), $1,750,000, January 2010, Christmas Yarmarka, Saint Petersburg.

5)Edward Weston, Nude (1925), $1,609,000, April 2008, Sotheby's New York auction.

6) Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe (Hands) (1919), $1,470,000, February 2006, Sotheby's New York auction.

7)Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe Nude (1919), $1,360,000, February 2006, Sotheby's New York auction.

8)Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy) (1989), $1,248,000, November 2005, Christie's New York auction.

9)Richard Avedon, Dovima with elephants (1955), $1,151,976, November 2010, Christie's Paris auction.

10) Edward Weston, Nautilus (1927), $1,082,500, April 2010, Sotheby's New York auction.

11) Peter Lik, One (2010), $1,000,000, December 2010, Anonymous Collector

12) Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, 113.Athènes, T[emple] de J[upiter] olympien pris de l'est (1842) $922,488, 2003, auction.

13) Gustave Le Gray, The Great Wave, Sete (1857) $838,000, 1999.

14) Eugène Atget, Joueur d'Orgue, (1898–1899), $686,500, April 2010, Christie's New York auction.

15) Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol (1987) $643,200, 2006

16) Ansel Adams, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico (1948) $609,600, Sotheby's New York auction, 2006

 

 information from PhotoLIVE4u

Tilt-Shift Photography

Tilt-shift photography refers to the use of camera movements on small- and medium-format cameras; it usually requires the use of special lenses.
“Tilt-shift” actually encompasses two different types of movements: rotation of the lens relative to the image plane, called tilt, and movement of the lens parallel to the image plane, called shift. Tilt is used to control the orientation of the plane of focus (PoF), and hence the part of an image that appears sharp; it makes use of the Scheimpflug principle. Shift is used to change the line of sight while avoiding the convergence of parallel lines, as when photographing tall buildings.
Another, less cost-intensive technique called “tilt-shift miniature faking” is a process in which a photograph of a life-sized location or object is manipulated so that it looks like a photograph of a miniature-scale model

Tilt-shift miniature faking


A common technique for making an image of a full-size scene resemble an image of a miniature model is to have the image progressively blurred from the center to the top or bottom, simulating the blurring due to the limited DoF of a typical image of a miniature. The blurring can be accomplished either optically or with digital postprocessing.

Techniques

Optical

Miniatures can be simulated optically by using lens tilt, although the effect is somewhat different from the shallow DoF that normally results in close-up photography.
In a normal photograph, i.e., one not using tilt,

• The DoF extends between two parallel planes on either side of the plane of focus; the DoF is finite in depth but infinite in height and width.
• The sharpness gradients on each side of the DoF are along the line of sight.
• Objects at the same distance from the camera are rendered equally sharp.
• Objects at significantly different distances from the camera are rendered with unequal sharpness.

In a photograph using tilt,

• The DoF extends between two planes on either side of the plane of focus that intersect at a point beneath the lens .
• The DoF is wedge shaped, with the apex of the wedge near the camera, and the height of the wedge increasing with distance from the camera^.
• When the plane of focus is at a substantial angle to the image plane, the DoF can be small in height but infinite in width and depth.
• The sharpness gradients are at an angle to the line of sight. When the plane of focus is almost perpendicular to the image plane, the sharpness gradients are almost perpendicular to the line of sight.
• When the plane of focus is at a substantial angle to the image plane, objects at the same distance from the camera are rendered with unequal sharpness, depending on their positions in the scene.
• Objects at greatly different distances from the camera are rendered sharp if they are within the DoF wedge.

Despite the differences, for a scene that includes relatively little height, lens tilt can produce a result similar to that of a miniature scene, especially if the image is taken from above at a moderate angle to the ground. For a completely flat surface, the effect using tilt would be almost the same as that with a regular lens: the region of focus would be sharp, with progressive blurring toward the top or bottom of the image. The image of Jodhpur was made from such a scene; although the blurring was accomplished with digital postprocessing, a similar result could have been obtained using tilt.
Miniature faking using tilt is less effective if a scene includes objects of significant height, such as tall buildings or trees, especially when photographed at a small angle to the ground, because there is a sharpness gradient along surfaces that are obviously the same distance from the photo camera.
Though probably less common, similar difficulties arise if an object has significant extent along the line of sight, such as a long train receding from view, again photographed at a small angle to the ground, because parts of the train that are obviously at considerably different distances from the camera are rendered equally sharp.
With a view camera, tilt can usually be set with movements built in to the photo camera; with a small- or medium-format camera, a tilt-shift lens or adapter is usually required.

Tilt-Shift photo gallery 

taken from PHOTOGRAPHY

Out of the studio with Norman Parkinson

Norman Parkinson (21 April 1913 – 15 February 1990) 

  "I like to make people look as good as they'd like to look, and with luck, a shade better"

English photographer and eccentric whose career saw fashion photography transform itself from decorative depiction of aristocratic ladies to a more commercial and democratic medium. After apprenticeship to the court photographers Speaight & Sons of Bond Street, he set up his own studio at the age of 21. Like Cecil Beaton, Parkinson was noted for taking his sitters out of the studio and encouraging them to move naturally, resulting in elegant portraits captured in contrastingly grimy or working‐class environments. Sittings with contemporary figures including the Sitwells, Vaughan Williams, and Kathleen Ferrier for publications such as The Bystander, Life, and Look led to a close relationship with Condé Nast from the 1940s to the late 1970s. Parkinson pioneered the outdoor use of colour photography with then difficult to source early 35 mm stock, which he used for landmark fashion imagery for American Vogue. Many models were exulted to fame by Parkinson including Celia Hammond (who he discovered for Queen magazine), Jan Ward, Adele Collins, Davina Taylor, Carmen dell'Orefice, Enid Boulting and the first 'supermodel' and wife of fellow photographer Irving Penn, Lisa Fonssagrives.He spotted Nena von Schlebrügge, the mother of Uma Thurman at age 16 when she left her senior school in Stockholm, and brought her to London to model for Vogue Magazine.
In 1963, Parkinson moved from Twickenham to Tobago, where he set up a pig farm and marketed his famous ‘Porkinson's Bangers’ sausages. One of the first fashion photographers to enjoy personal celebrity, he was latterly known as the unofficial royal portraitist.

"The only thing that gets in the way of a really good photograph, is the camera". 

Norman Parkinson Photo Gallery

article from PHOTOGRAPHY