white – The Graceful Image

White Pom On Black

zevsteinhardt — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 12:49:32 +0000

I did some experimentation using off-camera flash to achieve a low-key picture. I was going for a white flower starkly set against a pure black background. It took a few tries, but eventually, I got ti right. This shot was the result:

What do you think? Let me know.

Red Amongst White

zevsteinhardt — Wed, 04 May 2016 14:00:42 +0000

This week’s theme for 52 Frames was “Red.” I gave some thought about how to do this. There were several things I considered — a macro shot of a red flower or something else, a model wearing something red, or maybe even a sunset with the color of the sun shifted toward red. In the end, however, I decided to go for a contrasting shot where the red in the picture would stand out.

I bought a dozen roses — eleven white and one red. After arranging them, I took the shot. I wanted to emphasize the red while downplaying the rest of the picture. One way I could have done this was by using selective coloring to turn the entire picture black and white and then restoring the color to the red rose. However, I’m not really a fan of selective coloring, so I decided to try a slightly different approach.

After performing some basic enhancements, I reduced the saturation of the entire photo except for the red rose. I then bumped up the saturation of the red rose so that it further stood out.

What are your opinions about this shot? Would you like me to put up a tutorial on how this shot was processed? If so, please let me know.

Zev

Bar Code Drain

zevsteinhardt — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:02:36 +0000

When discussing lines in photographs, we tend to think of leading lines, which is one of the many compositional tools that exist for artists and photographers. Of course, not all lines have to be leading… nor do they even have to be straight.

When the theme of “Lines” came up for 52 Frames, I had, to be truthful, an entirely different type of shot in mind. However, it didn’t quite work out as I planned. Fortunately, I had a backup shot in mind which I could quickly pull off.

This shot was I like this shot for several reasons. It was a different take on the theme. I knew that everyone would be presenting their photos with lines (and there were some truly extraordinary pictures there), but I wanted something just a bit… different.

I also like this shot because we don’t often think of bar codes in this way. Bar codes are ubiquitous — we see them tens, if not hundreds, of times a day. Of course, they’re all different, but to us casual observers, they are pretty much the same. We’re so used to seeing them in the same format and in the same style that when you see it differently, as in this picture, it makes you stop and think about it for a minute.

One last thing I like about this picture is that it was remarkably easy to make. Do you have Photoshop? Do you want to be able to produce this type of image? If so, I put together a quick video (under four minutes) that shows you how it’s done. Let me know if you want me to include further video tutorials on my photos.

Zev