1246 - Shine On

2010-03-12

First day out of the cage, and the day showed no mercy. Yes, it was sunny in between, that was while I sat at work in front of the computer 🙂

Anyway. This image is of one short moment in the morning, when I saw the reflection of a milky sun in a window. I tried my best, even shot a bracketed sequence, combined the exposures in Photomatix Pro, but really, I would have despaired without Photoshop. Two hours and many layers later I am not pleased with the image, but not disgusted either. I guess it’s OK, but then …

I’d probably have liked a dog in the foreground to the right, on a major diagonal, opposed to the light patch of the reflection, although, even if I had had a dog in the frame, it would have probably been the wrong pose and certainly a problem with the bracketed exposures. Well, this is an image where I woudl even copy a dog in, but alas, my dog library is rather scarcely populated 😄

The Song of the Day is “Shine On” from James Blunt’s 2007 album “All The Lost Souls”. See a live version on YouTube.

There are 4 comments

Flo   (2010-03-13)

Andreas, I'm surprised at the upbeat title playing against the negativity of the rest of your comments! You tried your best and that's what counts, not all the "even ifs" - so, shake out your mental cobwebs and "snap to it"! Just remember that you have an overwhelming amount of excellent images that any photographer would be proud to have made. Tomorrow is a chance for a new slate, a tabula rosa upon which you can lay down those pixels and "make visual music" again! Anyway, I see nothing wrong with this image and I like it - but probably it doesn't fit what you saw, as you seem to feel you didn't successfully capture the glow of the sun's reflection the way you saw it while there.

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andreas   (2010-03-14)

Well, I actually like the image, it's only that I don't like to have to do it all myself in Photoshop 🙂 Really, it looks much better than in reality. The morning has become more of an evening, but that's OK as well. My real problem is what Joe also found: it's a little bit empty. Otoh, I made up the light, I made up the colors, I didn't want to make up the subject as well 🙂

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Joe Jarosak   (2010-03-14)

What I find interesting in this image is the lack of people. Is this a normally deserted plaza? Joe

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andreas   (2010-03-14)

You're right, it's a littlke bit empty. Nice place, not many people, and whenever a shop opens, it is gone within a few months. Otoh, this place is used frequently as background scene for TV and movies. When you look in the right direction, avoid the street, it looks genuinely fin de siècle.

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