Bench
Metal
slatted benches
Camera: Pentax K-r
Lens: Pentax
18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Exposure:
l/125sec at f/6.3 (ISO 200)
Andrew says:
Walking through my home town centre, I noticed a row of metal slatted benches.
The resulting picture is one of my favourites."
Ross Hoddinott: This is my type of image; beautifully simple. You can easily pass
by this type of subject, but by selecting a low shooting angle and isolating
just the metal slats, Andrew has created a really graphic abstract. The
contrast in the lighter and darker areas of the bench help give the image a
three-dimensional feel. I think the narrow depth-of-field works fine. If anything,
I would have been tempted to go even shallower and render more of the bench in
attractive soft-focus. The slats are at their brightest where the bench curves,
and this effectively directs the eye into the composition. I wonder if this
bright line' might have been better placed slightly off-centre, though. As it
is, my eye tends to be pulled straight through the middle of the shot, while
had it been placed off-centre, I think I would be encouraged to explore the
rest of the image space more.
I might also be tempted to 'tidy up' some
of the distracting, out-of-focus detail that's visible between the slats. While
this might be slightly time-consuming to do, it would ensure nothing conflicted
with the bench's clean, photogenic lines and curves. Verdict: A striking
abstract. I love the simplicity of this and idea behind it. A few tweaks
compositionally and a shallower depth-of-field might enhance it further.
Lee Frost: Once
you start looking you can find patterns everywhere, and more often than not
they make great photographs. Andrew clearly had his creative hat on when he
walked past this bench, spotting the repetition of the curved steel struts and
seeing the potential for a strong image. It has an almost kaleidoscopic effect
as your eye is carried from one strut to the next from the bottom of the frame
to the top, and I like the fact that the struts gradually move out of focus.
Converting the image to black b white was a wise move as it focuses all the
viewer's attention on the pattern.
If there's one question mark hanging over
this image,though, it's whether or not it would work better in a cropped
upright format? The tones on the right side of Andrew's composition are darker
and I'm not sure I like that, but cropping them out makes the composition
simpler and even more abstract.
Verdict: A
great pattern shot that works well in black & white.
Camera:
Pentax K-r
Photoshop ideas
It's never too late to reconsider the
composition of an image. By using the Crop Tool you can select the area of
the image that you wish to include: everything outside of this will be
cropped. In this instance, Andrew could have used the Dodge and Burn tools to
clean up the image further. Although time-consuming, by using the Burn Tool
the light areas between the slats could be darkened, making them less
distracting. The dark area to the right of Andrew's image could be lightened
using the Dodge Tool if the landscape composition is preferred.
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