Author Topic: Results and Feedback for the Contre-Jour Weekly Photography Assignment  (Read 1945 times)

keithsnell

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1407
The guidelines for this assignment were to photograph a scene in the Contre-Jour style, which is a photographic style of shooting into the light to produce high contrast, dynamic, and somewhat impressionistic images of your subject.


Jaime did a great job controlling the exposure in his Colors in Light image, and a nice job balancing the brightness of the foreground statues with the stained glass window.  Beautiful image Jaime.


Colors in Light
Photographed by Jaime Dorotan (girod)


I enjoyed the intense color, strong composition, and atmospheric effects in Julie's Into the Fire image.


Into the Fire
Photographed by Julie Schroeder (WriteHeart)


Julie's Into the Clouds image was a great example of the Contre-Jour style, with bright, almost overpowering backlighting and a very strong, dynamic composition that is almost impressionistic in its simplicity.


Into the Clouds
Photographed by Julie Schroeder (WriteHeart)

Julie's Into the Sun is another good example, although the composition isn't quite as strong or dynamic as her Into the Clouds image.  It was a great idea to convert this image to monochrome so that the colors did not distract.


Into the Sun
Photographed by Julie Schroeder (WriteHeart)


Luc's series of images of frost on the leaves did a wonderful job of capturing the detail of the very delicate ice crystals.  His middle image was my favorite.  The backlighting helped accentuate the fine detail, and the softly blurred background complemented the scene well.  Everything came together nicely in this middle image, with a very nice balance between detailed subject and softly blurred background that provided just enough "context" for the scene.


heavy frost on leaves 30.11.10
Photographed by Luc Bigler



more leaves gripped by frost 30.11.10
Photographed by Luc Bigler



heavy frost on leaves II
Photographed by Luc Bigler


I did think Luc's images could benefit from a little post-capture sharpening, and so pulled the middle image into Photoshop and added just a touch of Smart Sharpen to help accentuate the detail in the ice crystals:


more leaves gripped by frost 30.11.10
Photographed by Luc Bigler, sharpened by Keith

Chris did a nice job cropping his Out of the Cage image to remove distracting detail and help focus the viewers attention on the primary subject.  His decision to convert the image to black and white was also a good one, since this helped to alleviate any color issues caused by the mixed lighting.


Out of the Cage
Photographed by Chris Franklin


Lars' Into the fog was a beautiful image that reminded me of a painting.  The combination of linear perspective (diminishing size of the road) and atmospheric perspective provided by the fog was very effective at providing a sense of depth and helping to draw the viewer into the scene.  At first I wasn't quite sure that I liked the cars parked on the side of the road, but then I realized they helped draw the viewer's eyes deep into the scene.  One small thing that caught my attention was the yellow splash of color on the pole in the right side of the image.  I thought this splash of color drew my attention a little too much, and so I pulled the image into Photoshop and desaturated the color on the pole and used a layer mask to combine the desaturated pole with the original image.  I've posted the modified image below for you to see.  It's a very subtle difference, but I'm no longer distracted by the color of the post in the modified version.


Into The fog
Photographed by Lars


Into The fog
Photographed by Lars, desaturated pole by Keith


Lars' Winter Grass was an outstanding image, with sharp detail and texture in the grass and snow, and a softly out of focus background with shapes and textures that complemented the "flow" of the grass.  Very well done Lars.  I'm not sure however that the bright spot in the background complemented this scene.  In my opinion it grabbed too much of my attention without contributing to the overall concept of the image.


Winter grass
Photographed by Lars

Lars' Frozen Sailor was a nicely composed, whimsical image, and one that took on more interest if the viewer took the time to examine the image in more detail.  I loved the snowy beard on the sailor's chin and the other accents provided by the ice crystals.  Good eye and very nice composition Lars.


Frozen sailor
Photographed by Lars


Rick's Old Wagon at Sunset was a beautiful image.  It's actually a bit too serene to fit into my concept of what I consider the Contre-Jour style, which typically incorporates very bold backlighting and a dynamic, almost impressionistic composition.  It's a beautiful image nonetheless.


Old Wagon at Sunset
Photographed by Rick Pepin (TrvlRick)

Michele's image of Lauren by my bedroom window is a nearly perfect rendition of a very challenging scene.  I've learned from experience that shooting directly into the light very rarely results in anything worth saving, so I've gotten into a habit of avoiding those shots.  This assignment has been a great reminder that I shouldn't automatically dismiss a potential image just because I would be shooting into the light.  Michele's image is beautiful, with an outstanding composition, great exposure, rich tones, depth that draws the viewer into the scene and a "feeling" that makes the viewer wish they were the one sitting there enjoying the warmth of the sun and the magical winter scene.  I like that Lauren is placed slightly off center and somewhat small in the frame.  She becomes a supporting element in the image and doesn't dominated the scene too much.  This is simply an outstanding image in all respects and I've selected it as Editor's Choice for Artistic and Technical Merit.  In addition, this image won the vote for People's Choice.  Congratulations Michele, and thank you for inspiring us with this outstanding image.


Lauren by my bedroom window
People's Choice and Editor's Choice for Artistic and Technical Merit
Photographed by Michele Bollhalder

Michele's It's a big world out there... is another successful image.  I think Michele did a great job composing the image to support her theme.  She placed Lauren so that she was fairly small within the frame and dominated by the "big world" outside the window.  I wonder though if this one would have also been a bit more effective if Lauren would have been placed off center?  It's hard to say without trying it...


It's a big world out there...
Photographed by Michele Bollhalder

Marilyn's Merlot by candle light was another very creative image, with a bit of mystery to it.  It's a fairly simple composition, but this image continued to grow on me the more I looked at it.  I like the play of light, and the rich tones barely perceptible in the wine.  VERY nice job Marilyn.


Merlot by candle light
Photographed by Marilyn McKinney

I don't know how you all feel, but to me this was a very successful assignment.  I pushed myself to look for and photograph scenes "against the light" and managed to produce at least one successful image.  I was also very inspired by the images you all produced, and will consider Contre-Jour to be a new style in my repertoire.  Thank you again for sharing your images and your inspiration.

Keith
« Last Edit: December 13, 2010, 12:28:06 PM by keithsnell »

Michele

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 326
Re: Results and Feedback for the Contre-Jour Weekly Photography Assignment
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2010, 01:29:01 PM »
Thank you for that really nice feedback, Keith.  I'm really happy that you liked the photo.  I'm going to enjoy logging on to spirit and seeing Lauren there.  I appreciate all the motivation from everyone one this site.  I really do!

Tomorrow is setup for the slow sync and I am looking forward to it.  It might be hard keeping up the assignments while I am away but I am certainly going to try.  All the work you do for us is so motivating, I could never have been luckier as to have landed on this site.

Michèle 

prairiedust

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 159
    • PrairieDust
Re: Results and Feedback for the Contre-Jour Weekly Photography Assignment
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2010, 05:26:57 PM »
It's a beautiful image, Michele, and well-deserved recognition.  There was some really strong competition this week, but that image really shines.  Work pressures have me a bit out of the loop for the time being, but I'll be back in the game  - soon as I have time to do some worthwhile photography.
Dave Leiker (PrairieDust)
Exploring the Rural Midwest

marilyn

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 124
Re: Results and Feedback for the Contre-Jour Weekly Photography Assignment
« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2010, 12:14:03 PM »
I agree ~ this is a simply spectacular image, Michele.  I hope you are framing it and giving it to Lauren!  But then again, I bet there are lots of images of the twins around your house!  How cool.  As always, thanks for inspiration -- both in terms of creativity and craft.