Hide Behind The Stairs
Down In It - 5.10mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/100 sec
I find it quite difficult to post photographs that don't thrill me. There has to be something there, something that raises the pulse while I'm exploring a composition that ultimately tells me if I like it or not. Over the past 24 hours I must have attempted to breath life into a handful of shots that, while not poorly composed, simply didn't thrill me. Maybe I should get more creative with my post processing. They may thrill someone else of course, just not me.
These images kind of remind me of those fine art photographs you see in posh offices. Like the ones you pay for in your private doctor's waiting room. Except in those photographs someone's actually gone and swept up before the photographer even gave the slightest thought to going shooting. And they don't shoot with a digital compact you can slip into the front pocket of your jeans, but a huge DSLR that weighs a ton. While I'm still learning and experimenting with photography: light, composition and post processing, I often think long and hard about just how much manipulation I am performing, and whether it comes across as inexperience, which lets face it, I'm pretty new to this, or if it comes across as my sometimes intended experiments with the dark and not the light. OK, let's stop right there: before I get stuck in the moment and launch into a completely inappropriate rant about something entirely unrelated like what I'm likely to do if I read one more word about Flash and the iPad.
Hide Behind The Stairs - 5.10mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/60 sec
So I began processing these photographs by heavily effecting the bottom one. It was far moodier than the image you see here now. Why post this version and not the original? What was wrong with the original? Well nothing really. I like it. But after looking at a few blog posts last night and today, I'm beginning to feel like I'm trying to create fiction, not take photographs. Luckily I enjoy both.
These photographs, I took with my D-Lux 4, have been processed with Ilford FP4 Plus 125 film in Silver Efex Pro and a modified Sepia 17 preset and a 10% vignette. I burnt the top edge too, which is something I almost never do. The rest of the details are in the preset file at the end of this post.
Gated Lower Life - 5.10mm at f/2, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/100 sec
