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ctfchallenge | all galleries >> The Best of CTF Challenges >> Best of 2007 > 3rd: Fading into darkness by Rose
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04-JAN-2007 Rose

3rd: Fading into darkness by Rose

Canon PowerShot A80
1/800s f/8.0 at 16.2mm hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time04-Jan-2007 11:56:40
MakeCanon
ModelCanon PowerShot A80
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length16.2 mm
Exposure Time1/800 sec
Aperturef/8
ISO Equivalent
Exposure Bias-0.33
White Balance
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Program
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium original auto
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alexeig10-Jan-2007 22:18
I love the atmosphere and the composition here
Rose Atkinson09-Jan-2007 09:52
Wow - I wake up and there's been a whole debate going on about this pic while I' ve been sleeping ! Thanks for all your comments, I'll try and answer some of your questions...

I took the original pic in colour (I never use the in-camera B&W setting) but with the aim of converting to B&W. It was the conversion that really brought out the image I saw in my mind's eye - a timeless scene which could have been taken anytime in the last 150 years.

It was taken in St James' Park, reputably London's prettiest park, which lies between Horseguards Parade and Buckingham Palace. The street furniture is Victorian and the path is gravel.

By the way, this shot was taken with my old A80 - still making good pics !

Rose
ctfchallenge09-Jan-2007 03:33
Great shot...but the bright part of the sky distracts from the darkness of the bottom half. - RK
Guest 08-Jan-2007 23:57
Lots of people have commented on how well this says darkness. I won't repeat. I will comment that the first thing that catches my eye is the foreground street lamp. I love architectural detail. That is one magnificent street lamp. Next I see the line and lighting of the fence rail. It's highlight but not overly done. It's uniform but not too uniform as it varies with distance and angle. The texture of the pavement in the foreground feels like I could skin my knee if I touched the monitor. Nicely done Rose.
Canon DSLR Challenge08-Jan-2007 22:15
Great work Rose, Looks something out of a movie! -Cat
Brent 08-Jan-2007 21:51
Very nice feel to this Rose, great work. Looks like our Seattle weather of late, is this in London somewhere? I can see just a hint of a grand building behind the lamp post.
Rod 08-Jan-2007 19:28
All artiiiiiists are misunderstood Carole:-) Of course we're here to learn & me too as I was right into photography over 35 years ago for about 3 years then I hardly picked up a camera for the next 30 years until we bought the G2 a couple of years ago, so I'm really no expert. That doesn't mean you don't have to take notice of me anymore though:-) Sorry if I sounded a bit gruff:-)
ctfchallenge08-Jan-2007 18:29
You misunderstand my comment Rod. I know you have been into photography a loooooong, loooooong, loooooong time [ ;-) ] and already know all these things, but I haven't, and I look at all of these great pictures as a learning experience - isn't that what these challenges are for? So I was curious as to how this tone was achieved - was it done in camera or in PP? Since I really want to learn how to produce a nice result like this, I was interested in the camera settings.
This picture has a lot of interesting features Rose, besides the lighting. I really like the leading lines of the road and the fence and the look of the lamp outlined by the sky. Very nice! ;-) CJ
Guest 08-Jan-2007 18:26
This picture really "feels" dark. Nice shot.
ctfchallenge08-Jan-2007 13:15
great picture - love the way it fades away and the tops of the buildings that point through the trees.

gsbrooks
Rod 08-Jan-2007 10:46
Carole I think you're being a bit too literal with the way you're viewing the picys the exif has nothing to do with the viewing of the picy. It's irrelevant when or how a picy is taken or the settings it was taken with. What is relevant is the feel of the picy when you view it, in this case darkness.. The light meter in the camera mustn't tell us wot to do we must tell the light meter wot we want it to do to get the picy our mind sees. If the topic was "parks & gardens" then this shot would be under exposed because it looks like too fast a shutter speed was used to get a normal exposure, but knowing the topic is "darkness" then I would have set a too fast shutter speed or stopped the lens down from wot the meter was telling me so I could achieve this result.Don't forget Carole the ahrt of photography is painting wiv light so if the scene needs manipulation with metering to suit what we want then that's another part of photography we have to learn. The art of seeing:-) See wot you've done Carole you have started me off again:-)
ctfchallenge08-Jan-2007 02:57
Rose, when I saw the 1/800s shutter speed, I thought that it must have been fairly bright out to require that fast of a shutter - my mistake I guess! As I said - nice shot - I like it! :-) CJ
Rose Atkinson07-Jan-2007 18:49
No, I didn't PP the darkness, there was not much light anyway, and it came out this way when I converted to B&W :-)
Rose
ctfchallenge06-Jan-2007 23:40
Nice shot Rose! I see you had to PP the darkness, but it looks great anyway! CJ
Rod 05-Jan-2007 21:54
I think this is a very good example of how detail in the general shot conveys darkness far better than a silhouette & the sky isn't too bright. Well done Rose.