Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Show & tell for all things creative...

Photo Comp - May 2014 - Your Winner:

Poll ended at Sun Jun 01, 2014 10:29 am 0

nyarla: Untitled #2
2
13%
OnlyIntruder: Into the Woods
10
63%
Whiteball: The Moon
2
13%
sdetoni: Te Miro
2
13%
 
Total votes: 16

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RiK
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Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by RiK »

Last months very worthy winner was Dvorak, and his choice for May is 'Atmosphere'
Dvorak wrote:Chosing the next theme was something I found tricky, since the comp seemed to have gained quite some momentum last month, and I felt a certain responsibility for preserving that (or at least not totally destroying it...). No idea how it will work out, but let's have "Atmosphere" as the theme for May.

Sometimes pictures are all about the object depicted, but sometimes they are not. Then they may live just by the mood, the feel, the atmosphere that they convey or evoke. I mean, how often did I try to capture a real-world atmosphere within the few bits of my camera sensor just to find out later that the cam actually saw it in a totally different way ("Oh, the colours are all wrong..."). Then again, my cam made a totally moody and appealing shot of a scene that I haven't seen that way at all. And then as a third, I sometimes found that I could work out something interesting out of an otherwise totally boring snapshot just by some (heavy) post-processing, conjuring up a feel that has never ever been there in the first place.

So, atmosphere. Be it peaceful, bright, gloomy, bleak, sinister, comforting, or just strange.
May it be a spontaneous snapshot or a carefully composed study.

Standard rules. Any kind of post-processing welcome (if you like). :)

Dirk
Dvorak wrote:Anyway, here's the shortlist.

Image
nyarla: Untitled #2

I love this one. You might nearly sense the presence of some underlying harmonics or golden ratios, yet the composition tilts into total unbalance.
There's a smooth distribution of greys - but a good third of the image is nothing but crushed black, sharply contrasted with a blown-out white detail.
That together with something that feels like a lurking but not apparent symbolism hidden right under the surface structure makes for a vibrant sense of
uneasy tension. Quite fascinating to see how blatant violations of standard photography textbook rules can create such a dense atmosphere.

Image
OnlyIntruder: Into the Woods

A wide angle capturing a movement of view in just one static image. A very balanced composition of high and middle frequencies, of shadows and light.
Entangled tree branches normally let me crack cheap jokes ("How many Black Metal Band logos can you spot?") - but this one is really lovely.

Image
Whiteball: The Moon

Could not other than to put this onto the shortlist: that's exactly the pale moon I watched through my dad's field glasses when I was a kid.
What an alien ... thing.

Image
sdetoni: Te Miro

Panorama Sphere App stuff may be something we'll have seen too much too often pretty soon - but, hey, this here IS the Shire.

D.





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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by RiK »

And I'll kick off with this one I took a couple of weeks ago..

Image
Dartmoor-9823 by Richard Olpin LRPS, on Flickr
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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by Dvorak »

Wow. :)

Ach, I should've incorporated a clause in the rules that would demand some hints on how it was done...

Polarising filter, okay...
Any sharpness added in post?
>take off sunglasses
Seamen and fishermen alike swear to have heard voices in the rising tide. Inhuman screams, some of them say.
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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by RiK »

Dvorak wrote:Ach, I should've incorporated a clause in the rules that would demand some hints on how it was done...
No need for a clause, I'm happy to share..
Dvorak wrote:Polarising filter, okay...
Any sharpness added in post?
Yup, B+W Kasemann polariser, lovely lovely thing it is too..

Shadows pushed and highlights lowered in Lightroom then mono conversion in Silver Efex Pro using one of my own handrolled presets.
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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by RiK »

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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by Meow »

Image

The slaughter house.


Umm...Me sky's are still rubbish.
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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by RiK »

Meow wrote:Umm...Me sky's are still rubbish.
which camera model is it? Lets see if you can do exposure compensation on it (look for a little +/- button).
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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by Meow »

RiK wrote:
Meow wrote:Umm...Me sky's are still rubbish.
which camera model is it? Lets see if you can do exposure compensation on it (look for a little +/- button).
It's a FinePix Z Series and to take that picture is about 300 miles drive away now. :roll:
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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by RiK »

Right, well checking the manual for the Z10, which seems to be the first of that series, that definitely had exposure compensation, so we can assume all the later models probably did too.

You've got a couple of options, either use the first half-press of the shutter the lock the metering on a brighter part of the scene then recompose the shot and shoot it, or let the camera handle the metering and ude the exposure compensation to drop it about -1 stop to bring back some detail in the bright areas. Either way it's worth experimenting with! :-)

Here's the relevant page of the z10 manual:

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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by Meow »

Brillant thanks RiK.
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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by sdetoni »

Image
From Nexus 4 phone:

Te Miro, Hobbiton is only a few hills away.
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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by RiK »

Is that a built-in HDR mode?
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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by sdetoni »

RiK wrote:Is that a built-in HDR mode?
yes and no. There is a built in HDR mode but not in panoramic mode. The HDR mode is a little hit as miss as you need a steady surface to stabilize the camera to get good results, and not for fast moving images.

I post processed this to bring up the left side of the image as it was darker than the right.
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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by PFVA »

First attempt of the month

Saturday Morning

(It's generally on saturdays and sundays in the mornings that we see more sails in the river)

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Re: Photo Comp May 2014 - 'Atmosphere'

Post by nyarla »

no photo yet but today i was given a hand-me-down EOS 5D + 35mm lens! so, so amazing. i've figured out a bit of how to use it so far.... planning on joining this compo a lot more regularly now :)

i have a pic idea for 'Atmosphere'.. a scene down the road i've wanted to photograph every time i've seen it.. just have to get there at the right time / circumstances. and get over my camera-in-public shyness.
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