My introduction to Abstract Landscape

[S_Sanyal]

This is taken at the Hauz Khas Lake. Delhi and is my first foray into abstract landscapes.

1. I need feedback on the composition and whether the starkness of the scene is accentuated by a black&white rendition

2. My principal subject is the reflection of the dead tree, which is in the bottom right third. I waited a bit for the ducks swimming in the top left-ish of the frame for this shot. Mutually, these two foci, (reflection for foreground and ducks for distance and depth) did not both occupy any rulebook locations in the frame. So I went with what got without much cropping.

3. The algal green water is the canvas for these two foci and I wanted more of the texture rather than colour, so is that working in monochrome?

4. I purposely underexposed the picture while shooting to make it "dark", in all senses of the word..but is it too dark visually ?

Gear: Canon EOS 500D with EF 14mm f/2.8lens
EXIF: Focal length - 14 mm (APS-C 21 mm); ISO 100; 1/60s speed and Aperture f/11 Shot in RAW. Presented as shot, without PP.

[LeeR]

I have seen some wonderful images full of implications of death and the afterlife similar to this but they usually go out of their way not to include anything that is living. In your image the ducks and the live trees on the far bank clash with the more sinister feeling of the dead tree and the dark water. I'm also not sure that it is wise to intentionally underexpose the image for this purpose. With rare exception our images look best when they make use of the entire dynamic range. You could, on the other hand, expose this normally and then adjust the gamma (overall darkness) of the image in post processing. If you don't have a good program for doing this I would encourage you to download GIMP. It has a "Levels" tool that will easily allow you to do this and it's free.

[S_Sanyal]

Thanks for the feeback Lee. Really appreciate it. But it seems you have left some room for me interpreting your comments. Let me try, tell me if I'm wrong/right...

they usually go out of their way not to include anything that is living. In your image the ducks and the live trees on the far bank clash with the more sinister feeling of the dead tree and the dark water

do you mean the dialectic would have been better off omitted, given the theme I was aiming for..?

As for the underexposure, I use Lightroom 3 for PP of RAW images, do you think thats ok...(I'll have a go at this image again)? I'll post an alternative response to the underexposure, though I cant do anything about the ducks..or the trees. In any case, would you please taking a look at this set on flickr, it has similar images, maybe I could use a different one and re-post..? Death in Delhi - a set on Flickr

I downloaded GIMP, it seems very similar in interface and tools to Photoshop CS4, although the exposure and levels editors are immensely more realistic. Thanks for suggesting it.

[LeeR]

You are very close here and I like the way you are thinking. This is the way an artist thinks, "What is the feeling I am getting from this image and how can I make it even stronger?" That's a good thing. I will admit, you may have a slightly different idea for the way you want this image to turn out, but I am going to tell you what I would do with it. (I didn't realize you already had CS4. If that's the case you don't need GIMP.)
Open the image in Camera RAW. Slide the Exosure over to the right until the bottom of the histogram touches the right hand edge. It will be too bright and ugly, but will be fixing that. Now grab the Blacks slider and move it until you barely start losing details in the water at the bottom of the image. Finally, move the Brightness slider to the left until the image takes on the darkness you want. You will notice that there is some white in the image just in front of the ducks, but it still has that overall feeling of doom and despair. ( I don't know how much you know about Greek mythology, but this kind of image always reminds me of the River Styx that leads to Hell.) Now, for something really daring; flip the image over so the reflection is on top. Why not? We are depiciting a dark and sinister world where everything is topsy turvy. The water now becomes our sky and a very strange sky it is. Should you leave the ducks in? That's a personal decision, I preferred it without the ducks. You may also want to straighten the horizon. But give these ideas a try and see if it doesn't get you closer to the effect you wanted.

[S_Sanyal]

the imagery of the marshy Styx river fits !! I see what you meant, the reflection becomes more real than the reality...Overall its quite surreal, Is this what you did..? I faithfully obeyed for this once as a student of an art I'm very new to.... chose to keep the ducks. They'd make the viewer look, and look again I feel...to try and grasp it.
I have some others actually, flipping is a great idea, changes perspective.
This is just basic work, the image needs some more to get the small floating particles out of the scene..I

Thanks a ton for the tip and walkthrough...this was a heady rush to work on!

[windrider86]

All your photos are gone!! Can you repost them?

[S_Sanyal]

Thanks for the alert windrider...was shuffling around stuff on flickr, didnt realise...done the needful