Archive for December, 2009

Nikon D80 Challenge: Silhouette II

This photo was taken for the Nikon D80 Challenge #102: Silhouette II. The goal of this challenge was to:

A silhouette is a view of a object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. The term has been extended to describe the sight or image of a person, object or scene that is back lit, and appears dark against a lighter background.

Many photographers use the technique of photographing people, objects or landscape elements against the light, to achieve an image in silhouette. The light might be natural, such as a sunset or an open doorway, a technique known as contre-jour or it might be contrived in a studio.

Quite simply, your challenge this time is to take a photo where your main subject is a silhouette with no discernible features visible. It should be black and outlined by the light situated behind it. The subject and post processing is up to each individual.

I think this was one of the firsts challenges that I’d gotten a decent number of votes in. I knew what I needed to do to get a silhouette, but I needed a subject. Well, once again I got my little model to help out.

He had just gotten ready for bed and I asked him to put an ornament on the Christmas tree. While he was busy finding a spot, I shot a couple of photos for the challenge.

I added a black faded border around the picture and played around with the levels to enhance the glow from the lights. I think I got a decent shot. View the image at flickr to see the camera settings.

Nikon D80 Challenge: Rule of Thirds

This photo was taken for the Nikon D80 Challenge #94: Rule of Thirds. The rules were as follows:

The Rule of Thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photography and design. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to photograph a subject of your choosing while keeping in mind the challenge topic.

Any new photo where the Rule of Thirds is used properly in your photographs composition is welcome. The manner in which you create your photo and the post processing is entirely up to the individual.

Once again I needed something at the last minute to make the challenge deadline, so I looked out of my office window and took a picture. That night I processed it and met the deadline. I wasn’t looking for anything special. It was a rainy day and kind of dreary outside. I’m not even sure if I have got the concept correct (the car was part of the subject). I guess you win some and you lose some.

Christmas Card Fun

A couple of weeks ago, I took the boys outside to take some pictures for our annual Christmas card. It was definitely very trying for me because they were all over the place. I’d read in a Flickr forum that following toddlers around and catching them in a pose was a good way to get a picture of them. I decided to try that along with some posed shots to see what I could get.

I don’t know how photographers did it back in the days of film because I took around 130 pictures. Most were unusable, but there were some that I was able to keep. I thought I’d share some of those along with the final poses I used for the card. The last picture is the card that I created at ritzpix.com. I probably should review their service, but I’ll save that for another post.