Urban Shadows

Comments welcomed . . . Thanks

Great shadows and patterns. Love it, but I think this cries out to be done in B&W instead of color. The only weakness in the image is the bottom right corner. I think perhaps you should sacrifice the triangle at top right by just cropping the whole "indented" area at right. Focus on the five identical windows and the amazing diagonal shadows.

Thanks very kindly for your comment Chris; but the interplay of shadows is what I was aiming for. In fact the diagonals are so strong they are complacent. The door and shadow on the right offer an asymmetric reprieve from the diagonal dominance. Also, the white triangle is negative space so thanks for the observation; I was aiming at adjusting the contrast so as to create a tension between the shadows and white facade of the house---a type of figure-ground reversal. Thus, prima facie, when you look at this composition what do you see first the shadows or the facade. Keeps things interesting. Bytheway, I posted your suggestion; what do you think? Thanks again . . .

Hi Timothy,

 

Thanks for your comment on my portfolio, which I just noticed. I like the B&W, though I'm wondering if it might be worth making it just a bit more contrasty. As to the crop, this is interesting -- we have different aesthetic styles here, I think. I appreciate your original composition, with the negative space BR and the bright triangle TR to balance out the diagonals and throw things off a bit. But something in my head just compels me to want to crop along the right edge of that porch or whatever it is. I guess I'm just a fanatic for tight crops. ;-)

 

BTW, a nice element here is the color/tone of those bamboo screens inside the windows. So we've got the geometric figures of the windows and shadows, the lines along the house and the "dots" formed by the supports under the eaves, and we've got the distinct colors or tones (in B&W) of the shadows, white house, and the blinds. Graphically this is very, very appealing.

Photographers don't seem to understand that black and white photographs are flatter than their color counterparts. Simply put, there is no color and therefore no "color depth." While black and white values simplify compositions, they don't separate by value as effective as colour separates by colour. There can never be the push-pull relations of warm and cool colours in a black and white photograph. This is a very important point I think too many do not realize.

I've been struggling with a related issue recently. My photographic interests seem to be leading me to produce about 75% B&W work, 25% color. But many of my B&W's are too dark and lack sufficient tonal separation. (I'm working to improve my skills.) Of course, some of these B&W's looked perfectly fine as color images, because the color provides the needed light and separation. So I've found that an image intended for B&W is best visualized that way right from the start of raw conversion.

There are some advantages to using BlK/W film; it is fast and grainy but unless you purchase the professional quality Blk/W film, you will likely not achieve the sharp crisp image like that seen in an Ansel Adams photograph. Also the professional quality film is blacker whereas other Blk/W film has a faint brown or bluish tint. Converting digital color to Blk/W even using Photoshop does not produce the same results as the professional quality film. So if you really have the Blk/W bug, perhaps you should try professional Blk/W film. The results may be worth it.

Wow ! Superb shot, nice pattern. I like it very much.

Regards, Fernand

Thanks Fernand, Thanks for the comment.