Abandoned shed and emotion through texture for CC

blackrose89 · Dec 14, 2011

An abandoned shed

To me, it would've worked better if the shed itself wasn't so clean and had more texture, but I still liked it. I thought it was nicely framed, I alsothought the background had a lot going for it, but the subject was strong enough the background doesn't over power it.

#1

Ok now my first attempt at conveying a message through texture, acutally first time I'm trying to convey something other then " a nice photo"

The texture in these photos seem to be crying out in pain
#2
The branch on the right looks like it is shrieking in pain to me.

#3
The detail on the lower right looks like a face exhausted, tired collasped, and defeated.

Tell me what you think!

tirediron · Dec 14, 2011

C&C per req:

I see what your thought was here I think, and yes, the shed being so clean doesn't really lend itself to the overall idea of the image. I find the background distracting here; you've got the shed which is for the most part quite dark, and then you have all of the bright areas between the leaves above grabbing the eye's attention. How about reshooting this one, and lighting the inside of the shed? Put a speedlight inside at the near left corner so that will illuminate the interior of the shed somewhat and drop your ambient exposure down 2-3 stops.

I'm afraid 2 & 3 don't really work for me. Between the OOF areas, and the low contrast, my eye is having a really hard time finding a specific subject. You've clearly got a vision for these two, and that's step one, but I'm not quite seeing it yet.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

Pau1 · Dec 14, 2011

It's a good thing its digital, and not film and you don't need to pay to develop it. Other than that thought, I am not sure what to think about it. Perhaps some night photography would look better than an abandoned thread.

AlexMurr · Dec 14, 2011

Could you explain to me what a speedlight is? I thought it was an external flash you slide into the hotshoe?

KmH · Dec 14, 2011

Yes, a speedlight is a hot shoe flash unit, but they are more effectively used off of the camera than on the hot shoe..
Visit www.strobist.com.

Two hot shoe flash units were used to light this photo. One unit is camera left just out of the image frame, eye high on a light stand and pointed into a level 45" umbrella reflecting the light onto the outside of the telephone booth.
If you look closely at the lower left corne of the teiephone booth you can see a second speedlight sitting on the ground, pointing up to light the inside of the telephone booth. The door of the telephone booth is opened just enough to get the light from that speedlight inside the telephone booth.

rexbobcat · Dec 14, 2011

A speed light a hotshoe flash, but you can use radio triggers and hotshoe cords to take the speedlight off-camera.

bazooka · Dec 14, 2011

I'm running out of time so I'll be brief.

#1 Two things I'd like to see different to start off with. First, I don't like the angle. Why did you think to shoot it at an angle instead of straight on? (I'd actually like to know the answer.) It creates strong diagonal lines that lead me to nowhere at best, and out of the frame at worst. Work to keep the eyes in the frame. Watch those leading lines. Second, as TI pointed out, those white spackles above are really distracting. Is that sunlight or flowers? I agree, the exterior of the shed looks a little.... hmmm.... manufactured... run-of-the-mill.... textureless.... boring. I'm glad you see this.

#2 For me, because of the flat light (light that is coming from near the camera or behind the camera), it's difficult to actually see any real texture here. What we are seeing mostly is form. There are strong lines and forms there, but I don't really see any pattern or relationships that my eye can hold on to. Simplify!

#3 You have stumbled (intentionally or not) into complete abstract with this one. I can tell that it is something natural, but mostly it is a swirl of tones. I don't see any direction or intent (but to be honest, I don't see much direction or intent in most abstract... it's not really my cup of tea). It is somewhat disturbing, but I do not get a feeling of exhaustion from it. Lastly, if you want to go this route, I think I'd like to see the entire image sharp. The upper left hand corner is getting soft, I presume because you are at the limit of your DoF.

blackrose89 · Dec 14, 2011

I took it from that angle instead in front because, even though you can't see it, there is stuff just a few feet in front the shed, and I couldn't back up enough to get the whole shed in frame. I can clone out the speckles no problem.