did i achieve my goal?

[Norman 202]

my intention was to convey tension, did i succeed? please, feel free to comment but no critiques as they are against the rules :-)

 

(feel free to post similar questions about your own photos)

 

Edited August 14, 2017 by Norman 202

[Uhooru]

Norman, honestly and just looking at this for a couple of minutes, I can't really say that is what it evokes in me.

[Norman 202]

Barry, thanks for that. I am grateful as sometimes i see stuff in my photos that isn't there and yet i would've posted the same photo to a 'tension' NW thread without hesitation.

 

i love the serendipitous*nature of my photography but i have never thought that i could shoot pics with a motive (or a theme) in mind.

 

i hope we can talk about desired objectives and acheved goals more often. to me that is as important as any photo critiqes (which in forums are banned, btw)

Edited August 14, 2017 by Norman 202

[Norman 202]

You should've simply asked what do you think or feel when looking at this? without telling what your goal was

Phil, thanks. I wasn't soliciting what others may think or feel. I am trying to calibrate my vision. I know i can take pleasing photos but I've always wondered if people are seeing the same things (symbols, relationships, etc) as i am. Hence the question.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Norman 202

[Ed_Ingold]

Is there a black cat (cow) in the picture?

[Sanford]

Lets see whats hidden in there...

[William Kahn]

I'm sitting in a theater, watching a horror movie, the hero(ine) is facing this scene. My reaction: No! Don't go in there! But, they always do, anyway...o_O

[Sandy Vongries]

No offense, the edit works better with the theme than the original. For me, the original doesn't have enough detail to evoke feelings.

[Ed_Ingold]

Horror movies would lose their effect if the victims locked their car doors. That works on Lower Wacker Drive (Chicago) too.

[Norma Desmond]

Yes. Tension, IMO, in the sense of oppositional forces, the stronger light on one side of the room in tension with the weaker light projected onto the opposite wall, taking place within a barely discernible darkened room, which would add a pshychological support for reading tension.

 

While I think a tad more light to allow forms in the room to become "almost" visible might add a bit of dimension to the shot, opening up the shadows too far simply destroys the photo as it undermines completely how the light is working.

[Uhooru]

I'm thinking Norman has provided us a great opportunity to discuss what people think creates tension in a picture. If you like:)

[Norman 202]

Barry, hopefully not only tension but other feelings as well.

[Wouter Willemse]

A certain sense of tension, yes, but more a tension of the unknown - what's next, where am I, how do I get out? I also get the tension Fred mentions with the light differences left and right, but it's also the play between the negative space and both light sources plays at least as big a role to me.

 

But frankly, "tension" isn't the first word that would come to my mind, rather "unknown".

[Norma Desmond]

To get a good sense of what you've communicated, you'd have to dig deeper than to ask about tension per se. People will use this word or that to describe their feelings. And most emotions are really a somewhat overlapping set of related descriptions. Even the best-communicated sentiments, I think, will not result in unanimous agreement on a single "feeling." I think, with good photography and art, one is creating a ballpark as opposed to a home base. One is zeroing in on an emotional direction and providing space for each viewer's sense of attention. There is not going to be a simple one-to-one correspondence of input to reception. More important is to note reactions and see how their variety fits into what was put into the photo, if at all. I think there is no purely subjective or objective approach to art despite many opinions to the contrary which like to overemphasize subjectivity. If art is too subjective, it leaves behind any hope at communication or harmony of expression and reaction. If it's too objective, it leaves no room for personal life history to play its vital role in helping determine a reaction.

 

A good comedy will get most people to laugh as opposed to cry. But questions about what, precisely, is causing the laughter will be answered in a variety of ways, all of which can be consummate with the expression of the comedian.

 

One could say that, recognized or not, a viewer being moved to lighten up a photo to see as clearly as possible into the room portrayed is a sure sign that some degree of tension (or something very close to it) was produced!

[bob_bill]

Norman, I like that you are trying to make more than pretty pictures, sharp and well exposed. What symbols did you think evoked tension in the photo? On my monitor there is next to no detail in the shadows. But darkness has many meanings. It would be more appropriate than brightly lit if a couple of animal eyes and fangs were all that was seen. You have found the mood it sets, but I think we need more information for tension, anxiety, fear, curiosity, Old adage Light reveals dark conceals, but need a hint to know what it concealed.

[Allen Herbert]

"my intention was to convey tension, did i succeed? please, feel free to comment but no critiques as they are against the rules"

 

No. A poor example when you have so many better examples from what I have seen. Of course some folk can verbose about a fart in a thunderstorm.

 

A dark room with some light . Hello.

[Allen Herbert]

Perhaps it has a particular meaning for you....trapped and unable to reach the light.

 

My take on tension.

[Norman 202]

No. A poor example when you have so many better examples from what I have seen

aw, shucks.

[Tim_Lookingbill]

The NOT reaching the goal of creating tension in Norman's image could possibly be caused by display calibration and how certain software editor's preview absolute black which in the case of Lightroom will lighten shadow detail near zeroRGB black and black itself causing the user to edit shadows darker than intended. To fix this in LR you have to turn on Soft Proof and set it to a non-printer profile output which in my case is ProPhotoRGB. This is one of several reasons I don't use LR and just work in CS5 ACR 6.7.

 

I can't see very much detail in the center of Norman's image which appears to look sort of like a curtain but it's too dark to make it out. All things working as they should be preview wise if a veil of soft shadow is desired to give an impression of objects in the dark, one should edit so RGB 5 looks separate to 10 and then 20 and so on. It may require point curve tweaks in this region.

 

Movies have no problem displaying soft shadows down to black due to the fact they capture in Log C. Sometimes when I shoot sunset cloud scenes at dusk I underexpose in Raw to capture the cloud highlights and this veil of shadows is automatically created in foreground foliage.

 

Also as in viewing in a darkened theater which makes theses shadows show up more, one must edit with the frame surrounded by the same level of darkness as it will be presented. In Norman's case it's a white field in the browser. If you edited the image within a dark surround as can be done in LR it will cause the user to make them darker than they will appear in a browser.

Edited August 18, 2017 by Tim_Lookingbill