Abstract

[billtils]

I have recently spent some time exploring high contrast B&W and this image nearly drove me mad - I could see the potential but it was just too messy to work.





So I went in the opposite direction and came up with this:






C&C most welcome!

[The amateur]

I'm not entirely sure if you should label these two pictures as 'Abstract.'
To me, they seem more like flower images, each handled quite differently: one in black and white and the other in color.
I'm curious, what made you think of calling them "Abstract" ?

By the way, the second one reminded me of a recent post by Caponigro about '33 Great Quotes About the Color Pink.'

[billtils]

Thanks Antonio.

The second (red) image was created as an abstract from the outset, and is the "Abstract" of the title. The mono is not and was never intended to be an abstract but my frustration at getting a satisfactory high contract version of it led me to take the starting image (colour version of one of the sunflowers) and see what could be made from it.

[Geoff F]

The colour version looks good to me although I wonder if bottom right corner is the best place for the flower? How about a 180 degree rotation?

I suspect the mono flower would work better with a crop to remove most of the out of focus foreground flower? B&W flowers are difficult but you are certainly thinking along the right lines.

[billtils]

Thanks Geoff

Good suggestion on the reversing the flow in the colour image, I'll give it a go later (I'm busy working through the 100+ images I took for the organisers of a charity concert on the 23rd).

Yes the crop you suggest does improve the flower mono but I felt that the background was too busy with the stems of the other flower heads (which were not easy to clone out).

[DanK]

A comment on the B&W: I work with flowers a lot, and what you attempted there I find very difficult. The mean reason is that I find that to avoid overwhelming the subject, the out of focus areas can't compete this strongly. They have to be more OOF, less detailed, farther away, or whatever. Second, it's very hard to have a big OOF area in the foreground. It's usually distracting. This is one of the reasons I so often use a simple black background.

[Manfred M]

Bill - I know a number of abstract photographers and the one common theme I see in their work is best summed by when they say "I photograph what I feel, not what I see". If you recognize the subject matter (or even the components in the scene), then the work is not abstract.

In terms of focus, I agree with Dan; OOF areas in the foreground are often distracting. I am told that our visual system does not have any issues when material behind the main subject is out of focus, but the anything in front "looks wrong" to the viewer.

[billtils]

Thanks for the feedback Dan and Manfred.

I completely agree with Dan's comments on the B&W - indeed that's why I gave up on this particular effort and embarked on a different "flower" path.

As far as the colour image goes, perhaps the journey will benefit from Manfred's "If you recognize the subject matter (or even the components in the scene), then the work is not abstract."

[DanK]

I agree with Manfred that the term "abstract" is most often applied to images where, at least at first glance, one doesn't recognize the elements. An Adobe page defined it this way:

Abstract photography consists of images created using photography materials and equipment that don’t have an immediate association with the physical world.

But my response is: so what? If your goal was to create an interesting image and that image doesn't quite conform to that label, just keep the image and discard the label. The label isn't what's important, unless you are participating in a competition with strict guidelines.

Not long ago, I posted an architectural shot that I'll paste again below. My goal was to use the elements of the building to create a pattern that is interesting in its own right and that only happens to be created from the elements of a building. My intention was to focus on the abstract pattern. The image doesn't make the cut to be "abstract" by that common definition. That doesn't matter to me.

[billtils]

But my response is: so what? If your goal was to create an interesting image and that image doesn't quite conform to that label, just keep the image and discard the label. The label isn't what's important, unless you are participating in a competition with strict guidelines.

That captures it perfectly Dan. I simply called it "abstract" because I couldn't get something I liked from the mono flower image, shot off in a totally different direction, had lots of fun and liked what eventuated, but couldn't find a suitable descriptive title for it.

PS: I like your window "abstract" a lot.