Vikas - did you do the shoot? Post it in the thread where I can find it when you do. Yeah, right, like I could ever teach YOU something! That'll be the day! LOL! ~ Lonnit
Thanks a lot Lonnit, appreciate your comments and your viewpoint. What I am going to do this Sunday (my weekly off) is to reshoot this one with everything in focus and also NOT desaturate part of it. Will do so and hopefully post on Sunday itself. Would greatly appreciate your looking at that one and letting me know your thoughts on the same.
Once again, thanks. This is turning out to be a great discussion on this pic and I am leaning from it.
Gayle - it's so funny that we seem to be at opposites on so many shots this challange! LOL!
Vikas - With your explaination, I'm thinking that maybe the desaturation or the shallow DOF, but not both. LOL! Ok, after another stare - here's my real problem. You've got that lovely, colorful, sharp focused handle, that we all know is supposed to be the star of the show, and rightfully so... but can you guess where I'm stuck looking and I can't get away? Right smack in the lower right intersection of thirds! Everything in the image is pointing towards that black spot on the intersection! So there I'm pulled and there I sit, and no matter how many times I try to look back at that pretty handle you want me to notice, I just get sucked back to the black spot on the lower right! I think this is why the shallow DOF is irritating me - you're forcing me to look at a particular spot, yet OTOH, you've made it out of focus, so I find myself fighting with the picture. All in all, it makes an excellent example of a picture that's good for discussing how composition and treatments work in terms of bringing attention to things in an image.
As for the grey underside, since it was already grey, why bother to desat? I'm just curious on that. ~ Cheers! Lonnit
I didn't care for the partial desaturation either but now that you've explained it, I can see why it works. I like the DOF, it puts the viewer right where you want them to be!
Gayle
Lonnit, I cant believe what you just did, you made it snow in New Delhi for the first time ever! Gosh, woke up this morning and the ground was covered in a blanket of white. Its all over the news, CNN, NBC, Reuters, you name it! :- )
Seriously though, thank you for your constructive comments, really appreciate it. Regarding this pic, I actually had this idea ever since the challenge was announced and the monsoons hit New Delhi, since all around were umbrellas galore. Went looking for the right one to photograph and came across this gem; brilliantly coloured handle, black cloth on the outside, grey on the inside. Knew exactly how I would shoot it as soon as I saw the umbrella and proceeded to do so. Usually I dont go for the part desaturated look but in this case the b/g kind of lent itself to it well, (I thought) and so went for it. Also, the B&W look added more depth to the frame, hence this treatment.
Regarding the focus, I actually didnt want any more DOF than this, for a couple of reasons. The first being that I wanted the focus and the viewers attention solely on the handle since that is the main subject. The metal underpinnings of the umbrella are actually a piece of art in itself (which is a photograph for another day soon) and had those been in focus too, then the viewers attention could have wavered. The second being that the middle bit of the umbrella had the manufacturers logo which I definitely wanted to avoid. Tried at different settings but at f/6.3, it seemed the best and hence this shot.
Excellent idea! I will be totally honest and say that I don't care for the partial saturation - I'd have liked it all in color. The other problem is that I also would have liked it all in focus. Apparently it will snow tomorrow b/c I don't think I've ever given a Vikas shot negative feedback! LOL! :) ~ Lonnit