Blue Door Frame with Red Mullions
The faded blue upper and left rails of a door frame dusty panes of glass separated by red mullions. A sign or poster on a wall is faintly visible through the panes.
Right angles rule; there are no curves and there is no apparent form, only straight lines and rectangular shapes. Even the bottom row of windows is cropped in a way that rectangles remain. At the time, it did not occur to me to crop for square shapes in that glass, probably because it would have cut almost exactly in half the window as a whole. But it might be useful to experiment to crop in favor of a slightly different balance.
Contrast which seems so vivid in the color photo all but disappears when it is translated to monochrome; there is contrast in hue, but not much in saturation. Ignoring the notion implied in the “curves” adjustment and simply moving top and bottom sliders horizontally, approximately equal distances from their respective edges (not, however, too close to the middle) yielded a result that increased contrast and also rendered a moodier scene that is far less determinedly cheerful than the blast of orange-red and near-cerulean blue.
Composition slightly skews the rule of by moving three panes off-center. The middle of the image is clearly not the door’s center and the faint view poster behind the door disappears just below midline. By kicking away the equality in saturation, the curves adjustment succeeds in strengthening the overall composition. Lines of the mullions, now brighter, invite the viewer to try to peer through the windows where before the color — red for “Stop!”, maybe? — somehow put off, rather than welcomed, the visitor.
In this photograph, which is framed vertically to show the long line of the shutter and window bars, the rule of thirds has been formally, but imperfectly, applied. Whether it is a flaw or attribute, the slight tilt of shutter and window unbalances what is already an unsettling picture. Rusting bars on a window, the wood on the bottom sash incongruously new in an otherwise dilapidated structure, suggest an atmosphere more potent than the sadness that pervades abandoned houses. This is the stuff of tragedy.
The problem in grayscale conversion is that some telling details are lost, even as contrast brings out the cracks and splinters in paint and wood. The insidious yellow behind a window, whether of insulation pulled out of a wall or failed caulking, disappears in monochrome. Likewise, the fresh sash loses its luster. But minor adjustment to the color photo of curves and levels results in a compelling depiction of loss and decay.
If I were to print this piece, I would not be inclined to use a large format. A small print, busy with dismal detail, dares us to look away and imagine that our futures are safe. I have included in the portfolio the color image with adjustments.
next page: Natural Foreground Framing; Simple Toning: Hue Saturation or
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