205 - Minimalism - May 14-20, 2017
Paul-
“Minimalism is not subtraction for the sake of subtraction. Minimalism is subtraction for the sake of focus.” ― Unknown
(Not) Simply said: This picture (what’s left of it) was taken with my cell phone. I used Adobe Lightroom to crop the original composition: isolating one standpipe from a quartet of them lined up next to my parking garage. I also switched it from color to a B&W. The resolution was already fairly bad so I decided to see if I could leverage this into something creative and befitting the theme. I imported the image (now in .jpg), to Nik Silver Efex Pro 2, selected a pre-set I liked, and maxed out both the grain and the softness of the grain. I wanted a flat, spare, sterile look to the picture. I got it…maybe too much. It had the photographic equivalent of mush. It required a little sharpening to keep the image some solidity. Then back to Lightroom again for the addition of a watermark. So (paradoxically) I played with bells, buzzers and chimes to remove what might make a picture jump out through the application of using bells, buzzers and chimes. I have complete confidence the rest of you will capture this week’s theme with just as much imagination—without reverting to such obvious mad scientist button pressing and slider shifting.
“Minimalism is not subtraction for the sake of subtraction. Minimalism is subtraction for the sake of focus.” ― Unknown
(Not) Simply said: This picture (what’s left of it) was taken with my cell phone. I used Adobe Lightroom to crop the original composition: isolating one standpipe from a quartet of them lined up next to my parking garage. I also switched it from color to a B&W. The resolution was already fairly bad so I decided to see if I could leverage this into something creative and befitting the theme. I imported the image (now in .jpg), to Nik Silver Efex Pro 2, selected a pre-set I liked, and maxed out both the grain and the softness of the grain. I wanted a flat, spare, sterile look to the picture. I got it…maybe too much. It had the photographic equivalent of mush. It required a little sharpening to keep the image some solidity. Then back to Lightroom again for the addition of a watermark. So (paradoxically) I played with bells, buzzers and chimes to remove what might make a picture jump out through the application of using bells, buzzers and chimes. I have complete confidence the rest of you will capture this week’s theme with just as much imagination—without reverting to such obvious mad scientist button pressing and slider shifting.
Jerry-
I managed to take many different possible images for minimalism, none of which really excited me much. My choice from the many is this one of a tv remote that has had all but the on button removed in photoshop. It's the remote to the mandatory screen in your single room dorm style dwelling, where the only thing you can do is turn the screen off after watching your mandatory 4 hours or more of infotainment. There is only one channel on the Dulles channel with its approved media.
This was taken while on a shoot in a Fairview clinic while waiting for people to show up for their portraits. Camera was my Nikon D7000 with 18-200 zoomed to 55mm. Exposure was 1/250 @ F11, ISO 400. Combination of bounce flash and window light.
I managed to take many different possible images for minimalism, none of which really excited me much. My choice from the many is this one of a tv remote that has had all but the on button removed in photoshop. It's the remote to the mandatory screen in your single room dorm style dwelling, where the only thing you can do is turn the screen off after watching your mandatory 4 hours or more of infotainment. There is only one channel on the Dulles channel with its approved media.
This was taken while on a shoot in a Fairview clinic while waiting for people to show up for their portraits. Camera was my Nikon D7000 with 18-200 zoomed to 55mm. Exposure was 1/250 @ F11, ISO 400. Combination of bounce flash and window light.
Don-
Minimalmysticism
Monday I was out in wasteland with a fellow photographer. We were
searching for Citadel Ruins by Crow Canyon for a night shoot. After
6 hours of driving around we gave up. We went out again Tuesday and
Located the site we wanted. While riding around I was looking for
Something that would fulfil my concept of what Minimalism might mean.
At yet another dead end I saw this shot and it was just what I wanted.
I am not sure if it defines Minimalism, but I liked this idea of it.
Using a Nikon D810 with a 24-70mm f2.8 lens. The focal was at 70mm.
Exposure was 1/500 second; ISO 100; Aperture Priority and Matrix
Metering.
Minimalmysticism
Monday I was out in wasteland with a fellow photographer. We were
searching for Citadel Ruins by Crow Canyon for a night shoot. After
6 hours of driving around we gave up. We went out again Tuesday and
Located the site we wanted. While riding around I was looking for
Something that would fulfil my concept of what Minimalism might mean.
At yet another dead end I saw this shot and it was just what I wanted.
I am not sure if it defines Minimalism, but I liked this idea of it.
Using a Nikon D810 with a 24-70mm f2.8 lens. The focal was at 70mm.
Exposure was 1/500 second; ISO 100; Aperture Priority and Matrix
Metering.
Byron-
My attempt at Minimalism involves things I had laying around the house. I almost always shoot photos of things laying around the house. Especially if I can eat them later. I didn't eat this week's subject.
The set is my round table with a white top. I used my shower curtain diffuser as the background. Holding it up was the pvc pipe frame I built for just such a purpose. I configured the background in a way I've never done before. The top of the curtain is clamped to the frame, the lower left corner of the curtain is taped to the left side of the table. the same was done to the right side. That gave the curtain a half circle shape behind the subject. The vase was off the shelf and the blossom was plucked from an arrangement sitting on a table.
I set up a flash shooting through an umbrella directly behind the background, shooting toward the camera. I used a flash shooting through a lightbox at the front. I shot it in the TTL mode using an SU-800 as the controller. This is actually the 2nd exposure. The first looked good but with all the white in the scene, the camera wanted to darken it to gray. I told the controller to overexpose by one stop. It looked much better. I was hoping to have a fairly elaborate set and then get the picture with the first exposure. Maybe next week.
I imported the exposure and brought it into Photoshop. The photo is the background layer. I made a copy of just the flower and vase and copied it to a layer on top. All the background was trimmed from the flower and vase. I then applied a blur effect to the background. The top layer was left untouched.
ISO 200, 1/200 sec. f4 (50mm lens), shot in a darkened room.
My attempt at Minimalism involves things I had laying around the house. I almost always shoot photos of things laying around the house. Especially if I can eat them later. I didn't eat this week's subject.
The set is my round table with a white top. I used my shower curtain diffuser as the background. Holding it up was the pvc pipe frame I built for just such a purpose. I configured the background in a way I've never done before. The top of the curtain is clamped to the frame, the lower left corner of the curtain is taped to the left side of the table. the same was done to the right side. That gave the curtain a half circle shape behind the subject. The vase was off the shelf and the blossom was plucked from an arrangement sitting on a table.
I set up a flash shooting through an umbrella directly behind the background, shooting toward the camera. I used a flash shooting through a lightbox at the front. I shot it in the TTL mode using an SU-800 as the controller. This is actually the 2nd exposure. The first looked good but with all the white in the scene, the camera wanted to darken it to gray. I told the controller to overexpose by one stop. It looked much better. I was hoping to have a fairly elaborate set and then get the picture with the first exposure. Maybe next week.
I imported the exposure and brought it into Photoshop. The photo is the background layer. I made a copy of just the flower and vase and copied it to a layer on top. All the background was trimmed from the flower and vase. I then applied a blur effect to the background. The top layer was left untouched.
ISO 200, 1/200 sec. f4 (50mm lens), shot in a darkened room.
Kevin-
I applaud Paul’s WPOTM Minimalism theme. And even more I applaud the examples that he provided…
https://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/less-is-more-50-examples-of-minimalist-photography--photo-3914
Sadly that type of work is far too lacking in my photographic portfolio. In fact the only image I can think of that would really pass muster is a photo I shot at White Sands National Monument several years ago.
Which of course doesn’t help me for this WPOTM.
This week was heavy rain, and I thought perhaps I would travel to a lake and capture the raindrops on water covering the surface with a very graphic but minimalist style and cropping. Sadly every time there was heavy rain it was the middle of the night, or a was accompanied by massive quantities of lightning and thunder (and standing over a lake with those conditions is not something I was willing to do). So I had to settle from a graphic shot of a dock that I had photographed previously during Week 48 when the theme was Screen, returning to do it in the most minimalist style I could manage.
Nikon D4s, handheld, Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 lens set to 14mm, ISO 100, F/8 at 1/100th of a second.
I applaud Paul’s WPOTM Minimalism theme. And even more I applaud the examples that he provided…
https://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/less-is-more-50-examples-of-minimalist-photography--photo-3914
Sadly that type of work is far too lacking in my photographic portfolio. In fact the only image I can think of that would really pass muster is a photo I shot at White Sands National Monument several years ago.
Which of course doesn’t help me for this WPOTM.
This week was heavy rain, and I thought perhaps I would travel to a lake and capture the raindrops on water covering the surface with a very graphic but minimalist style and cropping. Sadly every time there was heavy rain it was the middle of the night, or a was accompanied by massive quantities of lightning and thunder (and standing over a lake with those conditions is not something I was willing to do). So I had to settle from a graphic shot of a dock that I had photographed previously during Week 48 when the theme was Screen, returning to do it in the most minimalist style I could manage.
Nikon D4s, handheld, Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 lens set to 14mm, ISO 100, F/8 at 1/100th of a second.