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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Challenge: Shadows.

Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The challenge is to find a subject where the shadows themselves are the dominent forms of interest, mystery and or strength.

Color or B & W

Describe what interested you about the scene and how you approached the shot and the processing.


Asher
 
D

Dierk Haasis

pro member
Scherenschnitt.jpg

Lonesome

Kreuz.jpg

A-cross

Volkspark.jpg

Altar
 
M

Mary Bull

New member
No words will be adequate.

I love the shadow images of Dierk, beyond measure and beyond my capacity to express.

Mary
 
R

Roger Lambert

New member
Here is one from several years ago when I was just getting into photography, and using my little Fuji 2800z.

I took this in an apple orchard under blazing skies, and processed it to look something like nighttime. :)

Eldritch Path
24193987.jpg
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Nill Toulme said:
Cem I agree the dreaded red X is indeed very scary — and you're right, the drop shadow effect fits right into the theme. ;-)..
Click to expand...
Nill,

I'm afraid you've lost me there. The "red X", "drop shadow"??? Could it be that you can't see the image? I have just checked it on an independent PC and it shows just fine??

Cem (confused)
 
A

Andrew Stannard

pro member
Hi,

My offering to this.....

Was looking for unusual angles for pictures of my local windmill. The low sun was producing dramatic shadows of the blades and also revealing the texture in the paintwork. A square crop seemed to work well and produced the abstract image style that I was looking for.

windmill_shadow.jpg




P.S Can see Cem's image fine

Cheers,
 
Last edited:
N

Nill Toulme

New member
Cem, yes I'm getting a broken link here. Can anybody else see Cem's image? Is it just me?

Here's what I get if I enter the URL directly:

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /opf/spooky.jpg on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apache/1.3.37 Server at www.usakligil.com Port 80

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Nill,

It is correct that you cannot see the image if you type in the url directly or click on the link shown in your e-mail notification, since the web site is protected against hot linking. I have created an exception for the openphotographyforums.com domain which allows the photos to be shown as in-line images in threads.

Considering Kris mentioning problems as well, I have just switched off the hot linking. Now you should be fine. But, I am not happy with this and consider it as a temporary solution. Any suggestions as to how best to deal with this?

Cheers,

Cem
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
KrisCarnmarker said:
Nope, FF provides the referer. BUT, I enter the OPF by typing "http://openphotographyforums.com/..." not "http://www.openphotographyforums.com", and this is reflected in the referer URL. So, Cem, are you allowing the literal www.openphotographyforums.com only?
Click to expand...
Bingo! Off to change it pronto :)
Thanks for the tip.

(I have changed the .htaccess to accept *.openphotographyforums.com)
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
New and improved version, yet more scary ;-)

I have hesitated when I posted the original image since it did not contain any "traditional" shadows. But it did have lots of shadows in the windows, door, cracks of the house and it certainly looked mysterious to me, and that is what Asher asked us to post to start with. So please excuse me if you think that the image is not a 100% fit for this thread.

The original image was taken using Fuji Provia in the "twilight zone" and came directly from the scanner without adjustments (just a simple crop). I then had a go at it in PS to tweak the lighting which was rather flat. The "improved" version looks like this:

spooky2.jpg


What do you think? Worth further tweaking?
 
J

Jack_Flesher

New member
Sean:

IMO the wasp's shadow is what makes this image... On a whim, I took the liberty of copying your image and converting it to B&W to see if that helped. IMO the B&W conversion makes a stronger image as it draws your attention immediately to the shadow instead of the wasp itself -- offered FWIW only...

Cheers,
 
C

Charles L Webster

pro member
Playground Shadows

The first thing I saw when shooting this session were the shadows on the sand.

Shot w/ an 1953 Argus C-3 w/ 50mm Cintar lens on Tri-X processed in HC-110.

I'm not totally happy with the contrast here, but wanted to keep some of the sand texture.

4865525-md.jpg
 
S

Sean DeMerchant

Inactive
Jack_Flesher said:
IMO the wasp's shadow is what makes this image... On a whim, I took the liberty of copying your image and converting it to B&W to see if that helped. IMO the B&W conversion makes a stronger image as it draws your attention immediately to the shadow instead of the wasp itself -- offered FWIW only...
Click to expand...

Jack,

Please feel free to post your interpretation. I would like to see it. Please just ensure the IPTC metadata remains in the file. I am just peculiar about the metadata. I regularly post images large enough to print low quality 4x6s and I find that a picture is often worth 350 more words of explanation (or thousands if you include artistic vision).

thanks,

Sean
 
J

Jack_Flesher

New member
Sean:

The Metadata did not stick when I copied the image so I don't have any of it(?) I did add your name as author, but will pull this image down after a few days -- or as soon as you tell me to.

If it were my image, I would crop a bit more off the left side, but I did not want to eliminate your signature logo...

seandemerchantwasp.jpg
 
S

Sean DeMerchant

Inactive
Jack_Flesher said:
Sean:

The Metadata did not stick when I copied the image so I don't have any of it(?) I did add your name as author, but will pull this image down after a few days -- or as soon as you tell me to.

If it were my image, I would crop a bit more off the left side, but I did not want to eliminate your signature logo...
Click to expand...

Hi Jack,

Did you use Save For Web? That strips metadata and is hence a bad route to take. Try Save As which is not as slick of a GUI, makes larger files, and produces higher quality output (it hits 1:1 chroma subsampling at a much lower setting which reduces color artifacts if my understanding is correct as I have not run the tests but taken other peoples word on it). Save As retains metadata and is easily scriptable which makes it my choice when mixed with the higher image quality.

Were you thinking along these lines?



B&W Conversion and Crop

thanks,

Sean
​
 
J

Jack_Flesher

New member
Hi Sean:

I *never* use save for web and I did use "save as". The issue was the metadata was *not* in the file when I copied it originally!

I do prefer the slight crop in your version. The main difference between the rest of what you did and mine is I also burned the edges a bit to better accentuate the shadow and soften the distractive hot spot on the far right. Let me know when you've compared it to mine and I will pull mine down.

Cheers,
 
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