acseven
FollowMy means of transportation during my stay in Delft, fitting in the most quaint Trompetstraat (Trumpet Street).
My means of transportation during my stay in Delft, fitting in the most quaint Trompetstraat (Trumpet Street).
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Awards
Contest Finalist in On Wheels Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Composing with Shadows Photo Contest
People's Choice in Rule Of Thirds In The City Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Rule Of Thirds In The City Photo Contest
Outstanding Composition
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
Magnificent Capture
Superior Skill
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Parallel
September 30, 2016
Great shot! No words... My congratulations!
I have a lot of shots from Delft in my gallery. I like this city.
I have a lot of shots from Delft in my gallery. I like this city.
paulatchinson
November 14, 2019
Hi - this image would be a great entry for a challenge I have just created. Could you be persuaded to give it a go. Its ‘TRAVELLING AT NIGHT’.
The URL is viewbug.com/challenge/travelling-at-night-photo-challenge-by-paulatchinson.
To enter Go to my Viewbug Page - click on my avatar image - click on the link to CHALLENGES, then CREATED and choose 'TRAVELLING AT NIGHT'.
I hope you enter and best of luck.
Paul
The URL is viewbug.com/challenge/travelling-at-night-photo-challenge-by-paulatchinson.
To enter Go to my Viewbug Page - click on my avatar image - click on the link to CHALLENGES, then CREATED and choose 'TRAVELLING AT NIGHT'.
I hope you enter and best of luck.
Paul
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photograph was taken at Trompetstraat, a small but quaint street of Delft, The Netherlands. I was borrowing that bike from a friend's friend while visiting for a few days, during which I took the time to explore the town and photograph some of its views. It's actually like a smaller and slower-paced version of the central areas of Amsterdam, which is nice in many ways.Time
Sunset, the blue hour. It actually wasn't the best sunset I got during my stay there, but it was what I got on that particular street.Lighting
Actually yes - I think the lighting is overall nice and it kind of counter-balances the deep blue tones of the sky, but if I were to repeat the shot I would take away the window on the left and see if there was any other photo I could be placed in where the first light want that strong. Other than that, I ended up being quite happy with the way I used the shadows in the picture, including the one of the bicycle.Equipment
A DSLR (Canon 5D Mark II) with an EF 16-35 f/2.8L lens, on a tripod.Inspiration
The street is just so picturesque and pretty that it's begging to be photographed. That said I guess the composition wasn't that strong with just using the empty street and so I placed my bike there, pretty much following the rule of thirds. I actually spent quite some time fine tuning the bike's shadow so that it would trace back to the sidewalk ledge stones.Editing
Oh yes, I did and man, that's the question I want so badly to answer! If you see my portfolio you may - as many do - find yourself asking how much post-processing my photographs have (they expect it to be a lot, when in truth it's not). The truth is that I almost never jump into Photoshop and with the latest iterations of Lightroom not even for HDR's or panorama stitching, and that's still how it goes. The post-processing I do is pretty much going through tonal values, sharpness, geometric corrections (especially for architecture shots) and stuff like that. But this photograph got a 'Photoshop treatment'. Though very mild by the standards of many, it's something that I never do. Is it a composite? No, absolutely not, it based off one single exposure and no significant editing was done to the actual *content*, but this is the only photograph on my portfolio where I attempted to do one of those "Orton effects" post-processing methods. I think it's quite successful as it's somewhat faint and discreet, but just strong enough to give the center lighting a bit more softness; it's probably more visible because it also made possible to have the warm tint further enrich the overall pavement and walls tones. It's a funny thing: this is type of method that many highly successful fine-art and landscape photographers use to achieve very [overly] dramatic settings, but I can't get my mind on using it, at all, as it drifts away from reality so much. Maybe one day in the future I might, but for now it's not for me. That said, I can spot at least two obvious post-processing issues that I would try to correct today, which is the church tower's vertical alignment and the excessive "glow" around it. One other is try to desaturate the image.In my camera bag
It depends on what I'm doing, but while traveling I try to have, at minimum, two DSLR camera bodies, a 16-35mm, 70-200mm, 50mm and maybe the 24-70, a sturdy tripod, beside all the critical accessories, including backup storage.Feedback
I guess I can point one specific tip, related to this contest main topic - the rule of thirds in an urban setting - and my photograph. What sometimes happens to many of us when starting out or when we don't have the time to think about the shot, is that we tend to be very literal followers of the rule of thirds or the golden ratio and try to place anything salient on the significant points of the frame. However, I find this rule to be a lot more effective if the subject is in the foreground. It may be obvious to some, but not to many. If you look at my photograph, and mentally clear out the bicycle, you'll find that the narrowing street and the church at the end would make a pretty good fulfilment of the rule - and theoretically it would, but you would have an immense area void of any significant message in the foreground. I used the bike because it conveys a message related to where I am - this is a place where everyone is given a bicycle pretty much at birth and it's a significant part of the culture - a sense of place. So placing a culturally or emotionally significant subject on your frame's foreground, strategically, will make a good shot turn into something that the viewer will dwell into.