Crickyn

Sometimes when you are out there shooting a subject comes along that is just plain hard to shoot. Shop windows tend to be difficult in general. There is usually a glare on top of the reflection, then the reflection, then what is in the foreground, the subject itself, and a background. Imagine being a camera lens with one or more focusing points trying to figure out what to focus on? I don’t know about you, but i only have one brain and it is hard enough to focus that. It is not unusual when trying to shoot shop windows to have to not only move the camera around to somewhat realign the focus centers, but also move your body to different positions and angles. Sometimes if you can remove one or two layers by doing this you can get a focus on what you want. Sometimes you can’t. The last time I was at ARTpool shooting the big storefront windows I had a great deal of trouble with focus. No matter what I did, the camera preferred to focus on the reflection, not the contents of the window. I finally decided to just go with it and see what happened later. While I prefer to remove color from my photos this one is all about that yellow popping off the blue, and to change this to grayscale would be a muddy mess. I like the moodiness…she looks almost like a ghost from the past. Not every photo taken under these conditions would work. You need a bold out of focus subject and a focused subject that doesn’t compete too terribly much with it. If you are shooting something you really love, and the focusing is off, try everything you know to do and if it doesn’t correct, try going with it. The results could surprise you.

I love the face on this mannaquin. She has lovely features and I think the feather hat sets off her look perfectly. The fringe earrings are the creation of Marina Williams of ARTpool Gallery. I particularly like the way the smaller side of the face is highlighted, although the window from the other side is blown out. I was surprised that the shot came out as it did, considering the camera had three completely different levels of light to meter. Got lucky. This girl will probably be featured in upcoming artwork.

Playing around with a mannaquin image shot at the marvelous ARTpool Gallery in St. Petersburg. I flattened the image by pushing the contrast, highlight and shadows to the ends of the scale, creating a less detailed surface. Then I applied the Lomo filter from Topaz Labs, making it look sepia, vintage and edgy all at once. I like the stuff in the background playing across the flat look of the profile, and the detail in the jewelry. This kind of altering, using filters and pushing the lighting levels takes only a few minutes and gives you many options for one good photograph.