weekly brman's Photo52 2012 - week2, "Fear"

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Name
Toby
Edit My Images
Yes
EDIT31-1-12: Fear now added, see index
EDIT: Adding index of pictures to make this easier to follow.....

Week1: Directions - this post
Week1: Directions V2. modified to remove blown highlights
Week2: Fear

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I've never tried anything like a 52 before but it might be a good way of getting me to think more when taking pictures so I thought I would give it a go. I'm also not used to having to describe what I mean by a picture so that in itself will be a challenge but I look forward to some honest critique!

I've also decided to post them in a flickr set along with my comments. This can be seen here.... http://flic.kr/s/aHsjxENWVp

Anyway, my 1st post, Directions.....

Empty bridge by tobyjm, on Flickr
I was drawn to this by the strong shape and symmetry of this bridge along with the contrasting tones of the fairly new wood and harsh light. I also deliberately took it without anything at the end of the bridge so the eye is drawn to the empty path and you are left wondering where to go next. Left? Right? or what is that hint of a clearing in the woods?

This was taken with a new camera (Canon S95) and I was actually trying to blur the background with a large aperture (f/2.0) but you can see that with a wide angle (6mm, 28mm equiv) and the small sensor it hasn't had the expected affect. With hindsight a good thing but a definite learning point when switching between a DSLR and compact!

Toby
 
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Hi Toby, welcome to the 52 wk project. It certainly is a great project to do. Your first picture is excellent. If anything the right hand side of the bridge rail is a tad over exposed, but that is only minor. Loving the black and white conversion. Looks like the s95 is a great little camera. Look forward to seeing the rest of your pics. (y)
 
Sounds like an interesting brief. 'Directions' is quite a broad subject if it's translated in different ways.

Good luck on the 52 and I've added you on Flickr to keep tabs on things if I forget to drop by on TP :)
 
@Michael: thanks! I agree about the right hand rail. Lazyness on my part as the detail is there in the original and I killed it in the B&W conversion :bonk:
I am certainly starting to like the S95. If I pixel peek and compare it to my DSLR it looks terrible but if I am prepared to work round its limitations it does a fine job.

@Pat, you are right, interpreting the theme is going to be one of the challenges in this :)
Lets hope my enthusiasm gets past the 1st few weeks!

Toby
 
That's a really strong photo, really looks 'impactful' with the bridge in the foreground.

Sorry I can't be more informative why, I'm not very technical yet:p

Great shot(y)
 
Hi Toby,welcome to the tp 52 week project,i would like to say that i like your conversion into black and white,i think it gives a real punch of detail and atmosphere to your picture,i am also new to this project,hoping to get my picture soon,,good luck for the coming weeks,
 
So that is two positive comments on the B&W conversion. A shame as I usually start with a raw and spend loads of time in PSE trying to get the conversion right. This time I just loaded a jpg into Faststone, a slight straighten and crop then used colours to stretch the contrast and turn the saturation down to -100%!
Maybe I'll use faststone more often in the future ;)

Toby
 
Nice interpretation of the theme Toby, I missed the path on first looking as it's a tad dark but now that I see it it's good. Being picky there's a very slight slope from right to left and the rails highlight it :)
 
Congrats Toby - love the way you genuinely don't know which way to turn once you get over the bridge. Love the way all the lines work together.

On to Week 2 - G.
 
I like this shot it works for me. Only thing i could see was the rails on the right are a little blown out.

Out of interest does the bridge slope down from a higher level to a lower one or was it arched? If that makes sense?
 
the bridge is arched, both ends being roughly the same height.

Ok, I've made an attempt to remove the blow highlights on the right hand rail. I've had to use a different processing package (Capture NX2) as Faststone doesn't allow selective control and I think I go the overall contrast slightly different. Anyway, is this better?


Empty Bridge 2 by tobyjm, on Flickr

Toby
 
Liking the edit, the blown highlights definatly distracted the eye from moving along the railings. Edit is much easier to look at,

Also liking the idea of a flick set, shall be copying that!

Good luck
 
Hi Toby
Welcome to the 52 and a good start as others i agree the second edit is a lot better. Week 2 will come soon enough.
 
Good first image (y) I must admit I'm struggling to think of something a bit different to interpret direction :thinking: Oh well still got over a week to come up with something..
 
Hi ya Toby

Fab start to your 52 challenge ( welcome aboard by the way :) )

Love this shot....the symetry , the mono...edited version much better & the idea :clap:

Best of luck with the next 51 weeks (y)
 
There's a picture of a girl in a blue coat jumping over a puddle in your flickr. Now that's a good picture for direction. IMO. :)
 
Nice. B&W works very well.

Composition has to be spot on with these types of photographs and you've done well. Just the nails down the centre don't seem to go straight down the centre :thinking:

Great start and I'll pop by again.

Cheers.
 
Andy: true about the nails. In fact the whole bridge isn't quite straight but my attempts at cropping/skewing it to improve things just made it worse so I left it as minor straighten. I think a lot more time and a tripod would be needed to get it absolutely right.

Sam: I see what you mean about the girl over the puddle but that was taken before the challenge was opened and I am only allowing myself pictures taken for the theme.

Thanks to everyone for the comments,

Toby
 
Another vote for the edit and a great example of the theme.

Cracking start and look forward to seeing more work as the weeks tick by :)
 
week 2, "Fear"

With this I was trying to evoke a feeling of the fear of the dark or the unknown. I hardly ever use flash so this was also an experiment in using off camera flash in manual. In this case the flash in in my daughters lap, diffused with an old tea towel. I would have liked a better expression on my daughters face but she was getting bored an restless and I was time limited so I cut my losses with this ;)


Darkness by tobyjm, on Flickr
 
I like the lighting, the tea towel done a good job :D
Here's to the next 50 (y)
 
Direction : The second version is great... very nice.

Fear : As you indicate, the expression could be better for the theme, but other than that, it works really well... nicely lit, good idea to use the tea towel.. nicely done
 
Love both direction shots, and as others have mentioned, the 2nd version the better of the 2. Brilliant idea with the fear theme, love the lighting too, and genius idea with the tea towel (y)
 
Great start Toby

Wk1 - Love the composition of the shot, a good angle, the treads nice and level and I personally like the shiny nails :) the edited shot is much better well done

Wk 2 - A good pic... I like the lighting, nicely done (y)

Look forward to seeing the rest of your 52... Good Luck :)
 
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