Surreal

[wanzw]

taken this one my way back home from school. my original intend was to take a late afternoon shot of the school. i thought that creating a warm and brownish colour hue to the image will actually bring out another meaning to the image. something that is different from the way we view urban buildings as. thus the title as surreal.

i shot on a 17-55 at 17mm on a 400D. shot in raw and edited the colour temperature and tone curves. send in to photoshop and further adjusted the shadows and highlights.

i thought this exposure would be great. as it will define the boundaries of the sky and the buildings distinctively.

would to like members here to comment on.

-is this interpretation of colours good to bring out a "surreal" mood?
-anything for me to improve on the composition?

other comments and critics are most welcomed! thanks a lot.

[nigel84]

My guess would be maybe you could lower your ISO setting a bit, but from the way u describe it seems that you might not be bringing your tripod to where u were at... Foreground could be cropped tighter alternatively have more light there, its lacking of detail. I do agree with you saying it does define the sky and the building, but having achieve that it show that the sch seems to be deserted with all doors seem so dark, gives one an errie feeling though... Just my noob 2 cents worth...

[materoppuppets]

I cropped the photo. Reason? The lower half don't have much details...very dark. I also removed the peeping leaves from a coconut tree I supposed. I cloned the other pole in the left. Add a little noise and photo filters (just want to see what it will turns out). This is the result.

Though the sky don't have much details, at least to my opinion it separated or put a boundary between the sky and the building and the trees with the pole in the right emphasizing that I maybe tall but not tall enough to reach the sky.

I am not sure if surreal is the correct title - surreal = strange

Anyway I tried my best to play with the levels, contrast and colors to put that strange look.

[wanzw]

Originally Posted by nigel84 My guess would be maybe you could lower your ISO setting a bit, but from the way u describe it seems that you might not be bringing your tripod to where u were at... Foreground could be cropped tighter alternatively have more light there, its lacking of detail. I do agree with you saying it does define the sky and the building, but having achieve that it show that the sch seems to be deserted with all doors seem so dark, gives one an errie feeling though... Just my noob 2 cents worth...

wanted to give that kind of eerie feeling though. i considered a higher iso option to bring out noise level. was done at iso 800.

thanks for your comments!

[wanzw]

Originally Posted by materoppuppets I cropped the photo. Reason? The lower half don't have much details...very dark. I also removed the peeping leaves from a coconut tree I supposed. I cloned the other pole in the left. Add a little noise and photo filters (just want to see what it will turns out). This is the result. Though the sky don't have much details, at least to my opinion it separated or put a boundary between the sky and the building and the trees with the pole in the right emphasizing that I maybe tall but not tall enough to reach the sky. I am not sure if surreal is the correct title - surreal = strange Anyway I tried my best to play with the levels, contrast and colors to put that strange look.

hi there! thanks for helping me by contributing your adjustment to my picture.

i love your framing. looks pretty good. cloning out the leaves and the additional pole may be a good idea but then my opinion is to keep everything there. just my opinion. but then i find your colour rendition a bit weird, maybe that's just me.

thanks!

[night86mare]

Originally Posted by wanzw taken this one my way back home from school. my original intend was to take a late afternoon shot of the school. i thought that creating a warm and brownish colour hue to the image will actually bring out another meaning to the image. something that is different from the way we view urban buildings as. thus the title as surreal. i shot on a 17-55 at 17mm on a 400D. shot in raw and edited the colour temperature and tone curves. send in to photoshop and further adjusted the shadows and highlights. i thought this exposure would be great. as it will define the boundaries of the sky and the buildings distinctively. would to like members here to comment on. -is this interpretation of colours good to bring out a "surreal" mood? -anything for me to improve on the composition? other comments and critics are most welcomed! thanks a lot.

Surreal, a little. More moody than anything else. The picture is a little too dark to be surreal, in my book. Also there are far too many elements in the picture for my liking, but then I like to keep it simple, so this could very well be a personal bias.

The colour - is a little too red for me. Perhaps just plain sepia would do it just fine, along with a little more brightness.

The top left palm tree leaf is way too distracting, a few steps forward and from a lower angle would be good, I would also exclude the roof of the building that's poking out on the left.

Like others have mentioned, picture is way too grainy, not sure what your ISO was, but if it was in the lower range then you are playing with the shadows and highlights a little too much, perhaps.

And last thing: the foreground is a bit not here not there, there are not enough details for me to see what is going on there, and too much if you're looking for a silhouette effect.

Keep shooting! =)

[wanzw]

Originally Posted by night86mare Surreal, a little. More moody than anything else. The picture is a little too dark to be surreal, in my book. Also there are far too many elements in the picture for my liking, but then I like to keep it simple, so this could very well be a personal bias. The colour - is a little too red for me. Perhaps just plain sepia would do it just fine, along with a little more brightness. The top left palm tree leaf is way too distracting, a few steps forward and from a lower angle would be good, I would also exclude the roof of the building that's poking out on the left. Like others have mentioned, picture is way too grainy, not sure what your ISO was, but if it was in the lower range then you are playing with the shadows and highlights a little too much, perhaps. And last thing: the foreground is a bit not here not there, there are not enough details for me to see what is going on there, and too much if you're looking for a silhouette effect. Keep shooting! =)

perhaps you are right. sorry but then i only had like 10 seconds to shoot this. friends are dragging me for dinner already.

will look out for better composition tomorrow when i go to school again.

it is not red from my monitor. could be some calibration issues i suppose.

i left the foreground there because i wanted to make sure the building to be somewhat in the "middle of the frame"

thanks for your comments bro!

[elfvin]

i think the alignment of the picture can be better and the tree or leaves at the foreground removed. nice editting over there.

[wanzw]

Originally Posted by elfvin i think the alignment of the picture can be better and the tree or leaves at the foreground removed. nice editting over there.

hi there. thanks for your comments. will look out for my framing.

[Yatlapball]

For your surreal effects you might consider a whitish fog or soft focus effect via layers in post-processing.

[wanzw]

Originally Posted by Yatlapball For your surreal effects you might consider a whitish fog or soft focus effect via layers in post-processing.

thanks bro. i will try it out.