Posted on November 13, 2021
There is something faintly threatening in this silhouette of a French military helicopter against a backdrop of looming clouds. Not to worry though, it was only at a nearby air display a few years ago.
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Anything That Flies
Category: Black & White Tagged: Air Show, Black & White, Cee's Black & White Photo Challenge, Helicopter, Silhouette
Posted on May 18, 2018
For this week’s Black & White Photo Challenge, Cee has asked for an image of anything that ends in ‘ock’.
I do have a picture of the large black rooster from the farm just up the road, but making the post title fit the brief and at the same time observe propriety was too problematic.
Instead, here is an entirely respectable photograph taken from inside the clock tower of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. If you’re wondering why a museum should have a clock tower, in this case it’s because the building used to be a railway station.
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Something ending in ‘ock’
Category: Black & White Tagged: Black & White, Cee's Black & White Photo Challenge, Clockface, Musee d'Orsay, Paris, Silhouette
Posted on September 5, 2016
Looking through my photo library, I seem to have rather more pictures of sunsets than of sunrises. No surprise there: sunrises tend to involve having to get up early.
Nothing wrong with sunsets though, and this one, featuring the silhouetted line of trees that forms the boundary between our two fields, is a good example.
52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 5 – Sunset
Category: Landscape Tagged: 52Weeks, Silhouette, sunset, Trees
Posted on February 5, 2016
The original image for this month’s One Photo Focus challenge was provided by Stacy at lensaddiction and is what I’d call a bit of a tester.
Before
After
There’s a lot going on in the original image and not all of it sits comfortably together (a sailing ship and modern high-rise buildings, for a start).
After a lot of thought, I decided to crop in on the rigging and, in particular, the two human figures, which I placed on a Rule-of-Thirds point.
Having looked at the blown-up image, I felt that there wasn’t enough detail in the figures to command much attention so I went for the opposite extreme and effectively turned them into silhouettes by taking down all the sliders – Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks – to -100.
This also made the background sky more interesting and to compound that effect I used a Graduated Filter at the top to reduce the exposure of this part of the image. This not only darkened the clouds but also reduced the ‘blown-out’ area where the sun sits. I think the final result is quite dramatic.
Category: Before & After Tagged: ABFriday, Editing, One Photo Focus, Rigging, Sailboats, Silhouette
Posted on January 8, 2016
Sunsets can be highly dramatic subjects, but they can also be the devil’s own work to get right, because the sun itself is almost inevitably over-exposed and leaves everything else devoid of detail.
Before
This photograph was taken at dusk, looking over the giraffe enclosure of the nature reserve on Sir Bani Yas island. Capturing it was pretty much a case of point and click – the sun sets very quickly so close to the tropics. As it stands, it’s not a bad image, but I thought it would be interesting to see what could be done in the way of post-processing to improve it.
After
By the way, did anybody else spot the bird sitting on the branch (at about 7 o’clock if the sun was a clockface)? I didn’t see it at all until I’d completed the editing.
Category: Before & After Tagged: ABFriday, Abu Dhabi, Dusk, Editing, Silhouette, Sir Bani Yas, Sunlight, sunset
Posted on October 29, 2015
For this week’s challenge, here’s another image from the Burjuman Centre in Dubai, showing a section of the walkway on the top floor. The starburst effect on the lights is a real bonus here.
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Indoor Walkways
Category: Black & White Tagged: Abstract, Architecture, Black & White, BurJuman Centre, Cee's Black & White Photo Challenge, Dubai, Silhouette, Staircase, Walkway
Posted on January 11, 2014
A stained glass window in the church at Montrol-Senard.
Category: Weekly Photo Challenge Tagged: France, Haute Vienne, Montrol-Senard, Silhouette, Stained Glass, Weekly Photo Challenge: Window