lots of people suggested it... - DPChallenge Forums

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX Aspherical DF for Canon

02/03/2003 11:15:58 AM · #1

so here is a different crop of my windows entry. I'd left the
top window in the original to keep it more strongly in the windows and doors theme (the upper blue area was a window, the lower two white areas are windows in a door frame). This was shot candidly, as the guy turned around. He only presented this profile for about half a second, so I was pretty happy to catch it. I'd gone to this location with this sort of shot in mind, but it worked out better than I'd hoped for :) Good thing about Texas, plenty of people with interesting hats.

Message edited by author 2003-02-03 11:16:15.

jimmyn4

Canon EOS-7D

02/03/2003 11:19:28 AM · #2

This is much better in my opinion but I would have stuck with your orginal border. Very nice photo either way.

FranziskaLang

Nikon D100

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Nikon

02/03/2003 11:25:12 AM · #3

great improvement on an already wonderful shot, gordon :)

goodtempo

Canon EOS-450D Rebel XSi

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

02/03/2003 11:34:25 AM · #4

Much better and much higher scoring with me. Excellent!

jmsetzler

Sony Alpha a6000

Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 E-mount

02/03/2003 11:56:44 AM · #5

As a photograph in general, I like this crop (square) best... As a challenge entry, I like your original best...

LindaLee

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

02/03/2003 12:04:30 PM · #6

Originally posted by jmsetzler:

As a photograph in general, I like this crop (square) best... As a challenge entry, I like your original best...

I have to agree with this. I loved the top window in the challenge entry.

lisae

Olympus C-720UZ

02/03/2003 12:10:30 PM · #7

I gave it a 10 the way it was. This doesn't inspire me anywhere near as much! The extra window just creates such a sense of scale, light, space, airiness.... it makes the Stetson so surreal and weird.

Sonifo

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

02/03/2003 01:33:47 PM · #8

I didn't get the chance to vote on all of them last week, I do I like the cropped one better. I would have given the first one an 8 and this one a 10. I love the colors and the sillouete (sp?). Good job Gordon.

KarenB

Canon EOS-70D

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

02/04/2003 04:16:25 PM · #9

Gordon.. this is a much stronger image.. I liked it from the beginning, but this sings.

:0)

David Ey

Nikon D80

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f2.8D

02/04/2003 09:50:49 PM · #10

Gordon....Thanks for sharing your photos with us.
Could you explain, in elementry language for us dummies, how you achieved this photo? I am not understanding how you got such clarity and darkness in the silhouette with the posted camera settings. I don't even know why the cowboy is dark. Was it because you used a long lens. Does one just experiment with different settings or????? I guess I would expect a lot of grain at asa 1000. Do you have any shots of the same door, with people, that are not silhouette that we might see the camera settings? Was there a lot of PS involved? Just curious and wishing to learn.

Maybe what I am asking is..what if it had been asa 100 or 1/60 sec or 1/125 or f16 or f2 or,or,or? Just why did this photo turn out this way?
Thanks

Message edited by author 2003-02-04 22:30:37.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

02/04/2003 09:58:39 PM · #11

Silhouette

Kimbly

Canon PowerShot G2

02/04/2003 10:00:26 PM · #12

I like the original one you submitted better, G. Though the square does call more attention to the cowboy, I think I like the juxtaposition of the silhouette on a rather uncowboy-ish bg which is enhanced by seeing the other window at the top. Also, the extra geometric shapes give more of a contrast to the curves of the hat/face than just the frame of the door.

David Ey

Nikon D80

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f2.8D

02/04/2003 10:09:35 PM · #13

thanks General. I just returned from looking it up........while you are here.....How did Gordon do it?

Message edited by author 2003-02-04 22:14:23.

02/04/2003 10:31:07 PM · #14

David,
I'll try : This was shot in the Texas state capitol building, which at the time looked more like this at a 'normal' exposure setting:

(larger version)
This was shot at 1/30s, f4.0 at ISO 1000 as well. The D60 shows really low noise, even at very high ISO levels, as can be seen in this shot. (which is shot at 70mm)

I basically stood in the middle of the rotunda, which gave me 4 potential window/ door options to shoot at, and waited. I zoomed to 200mm which pretty much filled the frame with the windows, and exposed with a +1.5 compensation to deal with the bright light coming in the window and just took the opportunity when the person with the hat turned around. I was shooting in multi-shot mode so I have 3 shots of this guy, the first one he was facing the wrong way, the second was the entered shot and the third he's moved off, so not a whole lot of time to set it up. Because I was basically exposing for the window, I was pretty confident that the silhouette would be how I wanted it.

After that, the blue comes from using a tungsten white balance setting, and basically nothing else was done to it, other than a slight rotation and cropping and a bit of clone tool to tidy it up.

The ISO was so high so that I had a hope of handholding, even though something close to 1/500 would have been more suitable.

The straight from the camera version looks like
this

I've been playing around with getting silhouettes a fair bit recently:

here and here and
here

Message edited by author 2003-02-05 11:02:22.

02/04/2003 10:37:19 PM · #15

Originally posted by David Ey:

Was there a lot of PS involved? Just curious and wishing to learn.

Maybe what I am asking is..what if it had been asa 100 or 1/60 sec or 1/125 or f16 or f2 or,or,or? Just why did this photo turn out this way?
Thanks

Basically the ISO was so high so that I could get a shutter speed fast enough to hand hold (with the 1/lens length rule of thumb) I was shooting at 200mm, so 1/200 at least (ignoring the D60 1.6x crop). To get this, the lens had to be close to wide open (f4.5, the lens can go to f4 but is sharper not wide open) To get to this, I had to bump the ISO all the way up to 1000.

The exposure was set to this to not blow out the outside light, but there is such a wide range of stops between the interior and exterior lighting that it would be impossible to expose for the outside without getting a silhouette anyway.