This image shows a latch of a closed shipping container. The predominant color of peach has probably resulted from the bleaching effects of the sun over a period of years. Oddly, the container’s original color was probably closer to the orange-brown rust now showing along the door’s edge. It is the rusted edge to the left of the latch that provides a side frame.
The frame’s vertical line echoes faintly in a seam near the center and, even more faintly and further right, in lines distressing the paint.
I experimented with shots framing the latch and the indented area with its shadow, the aspects which most interested me, in a number of ways. In choosing one of the photos to include here, I decided to choose an image that framed the latch so that it did not weight the bottom half of the image to the extent that the top would become irrelevant. Given the relative simplicity of the surface, this seemed important.
The histogram for the color piece shows, especially in midday light, how faded the paint has become. And on conversion to monochrome, the middle gray clearly exceeds the range of the camera’s sensor. Lightening the maximum black and mid-gray a little and slightly darkening the white was enough to markedly increase contrast.
This is a photograph of four rows tomatoes, each cut in half, lengthwise, to expose (except in the case of one) small yellow seeds. The rows are framed at left by a long, green cucumber. The relative uniformity of the composition is broken by a strawberry which, like the tomatoes, is halved along its length. The elements are arranged on a black background covered by cling film and the prominent colors are complementary colors: red and green.
The formal arrangement of objects diminishes the playful effect that is hinted at by the slightly askew strawberry. Thus, the mood is uncertain. Is this dinner? Or are these leftovers.
The arrangement might be stronger had the cucumber-frame been slightly wider. A small adjustment in the sharpen filter and in mid-range levels would have improved the photo, too. (These are examples of the kinds of adjustments I decided to forego this week, in favor of using the RAW image just as the camera delivered it.)
The histograms of the color and monochrome images show that converting the image to gray scale did not change distribution as much as in the container door image. The main adjustment was to apply some lightening, the opposite of which probably would have been helpful in the color image.
next page: Side and Top Framing; Monochrome Conversion Using Curves or
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