MUNDANE made INTERESTING?

[Dave Humphries]

Hi All,

Inspired by Steve (wirefox) and suggested by Ray (raycer), here is a thread for anyone and everyone to post their 'take' of a mundane subject, made interesting.

"Mundane" might be a household object, but lets not limit things; anything you see or use everyday that isn't an obvious photographic subject will do.
"Interesting" might be achieved by use of unusual camera angles and/or lighting and/or PP, whatever works for you.

Ideally with an image size between 600 and 1200 pixels wide.
That's enough 'rules', let's get shooting.
Oh, didn't I say? I'd prefer images shot in the last month or so (or from now on of course).

[Wirefox]

Dave funny you should say that.....


A Wall


and....another wall



and just when you thought it could not get any more interesting.....a kitchen sink



Apologies, this is an old kitchen sink shot with my FinePix S7000. So I am windswept and interesting enough to break the rules too. What a rebel

[peterb533]

Fields of Gold.

[crisscross]

Interesting colour in both crop and sky Peter. I have tried to see if I could get my Rape shots
Landscape with rape
anywhere near this colour range in PP; maybe the crop with a lot of red and blue filter, but the sky nowhere near. Did you use a real filter, or maybe the crop is mustard as it is also different in texture?

The simple division in yours (much less intervening green than mine) works well

[peterb533]

Interesting colour in both crop and sky Peter. I have tried to see if I could get my Rape shots
Landscape with rape
anywhere near this colour range in PP; maybe the crop with a lot of red and blue filter, but the sky nowhere near. Did you use a real filter, or maybe the crop is mustard as it is also different in texture?

The simple division in yours (much less intervening green than mine) works well

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your comments. Confession time, this has gone through a Photoshop action (velvia) which mimics Fujicolor Velvia film, although I have to say that the original was not far short of these colours. No filters were used in the production of this shot just RAW from my 5D Mk2 and Canon 28-135mm at 60mm ISO 100 F8 and 1/400 sec.

Peter

[Wirefox]

Superb image Peter, this is firmly within the interesting category.
at the other end of the scale you don't get much more mundane than the great British weather reflected in a upvc door...

[Kirk]

There has been no PP on any of these pictures.

Comments and critique welcome!

Kirk

[Wirefox]

Kirk I do like No4. Is there any reason for excluding the PP? This image would pop with some sharpening. Have you taken No4 with a sepia setting on the camera? If the woodwork were desaturated and a number plate was left colour It would be a very striking image.

[Davey]

I agree pp on number 4 in particular would improve it. Some people consider it improper or cheating to pp stuff but it's illogical when you think about it and there is no reason not to. Well from that point of view, obviously no computer, not enough time or not knowing ho are valid reasons of course.

[Raycer]

Here's my try. C&C welcome

[Kirk]

Kirk I do like No4. Is there any reason for excluding the PP? This image would pop with some sharpening. Have you taken No4 with a sepia setting on the camera? If the woodwork were desaturated and a number plate was left colour It would be a very striking image.

Hi,

Reason there has been no PP done is that I have no clue on how it works
I just got a copy of Photoshop CS4 from the computer department at my University I work for, so I am starting to learn. But that program is so huge and confusing, it will be a while before I will be able to improve on anything. At the moment, every image I play with looks worse afterwards

Kirk

[Kirk]

I agree pp on number 4 in particular would improve it. Some people consider it improper or cheating to pp stuff but it's illogical when you think about it and there is no reason not to. Well from that point of view, obviously no computer, not enough time or not knowing ho are valid reasons of course.

Funny that you would mention that. I was of the opinion for a long time that PP was kind of cheating. A friend of mine, who knows a lot about photoshop, asked me if I considered using seasoning when cooking cheating as well? That sort of convinced me.

Kirk

[Antonio Correia]

...

Very interesting image ! Powerful, well composed, balanced
I'll try to post one picture soon.

[Antonio Correia]

I promise to post a flesher one soon...

[crisscross]

Comments and critique welcome!

Kirk

Hi Kirk

I like the car wheel shot as you have used the camera to record a phenomenon we normally would never notice - and would keep it in a gallery of my own.

However apart from this and Peter's landscape, this thread gives me the impression of those desperate days in February when one just wants to exercise the muscle that presses the shutter button. If the subject is boring, its going to remain that way unless taken well over the boundary of abstract art and artistically so, IMO.

PS Anthonio's blue spots have just come up - a good example of the abstract-artistic approach

[Antonio Correia]

... PS Anthonio's blue spots have just come up - a good example of the abstract-artistic approach

It's the glass of a window from a plain in flight.
G9 shot

[Wirefox]

Raycer

I really like this image. The 2 vibrant colours and that strong shadow make a really striking image. I assume that green instrument is some kind of soother, dummy, dodo thingy. If it is they have changed a bit since my kids were babies.

[Wirefox]

This corner of an old shed took my eye. Now I do not now if this is tone mapped, HDRed or messing about. Basically the technique involves 3 images one that is exposed correctly, one that is 2 stops under and one 2 stops under. A layer is created from the dark image. The dark master is then desaturated and brightened....tell you what check it out for yourself
http://www.instructables.com/id/HDR-...with-the-GIMP/. You do have to play around a lot and I still ended up using conventional PP on the final image but it seem much more responsive to my tweaks. I am probably doing something wrong somewhere

[rpcrowe]

Snowman Christmas Statue processed with Topaz Adjust V3.2 Psychedelic Filter

[peterb533]

Snowman Christmas Statue processed with Topaz Adjust V3.2 Psychedelic Filter

I've been looking at Topaz, how do you find it, is it useful, certainly looks it from this.

Peter