Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
I tend to put too many images into one thread, and I know I've included this one elsewhere, but I'd like to isolate it a talk a little about how it came about, what it means to me.
The situation is the basement of the Stills Gallery in Edinburgh, the 'breakout' area, where students and staff share coffee, chat, and there is also the occasional presentation or class. Rhona was busy enquiring about work experience for school requirements, so I wandered around idly.
I fairly quickly saw the whole scene as it is in the photo. I looked through the viewfinder of the X100, made the columns frame the interior. What I liked immediately was that by taking such a stance, it is unclear what the subject of the image is. The images on the wall? The computer? Neither. Was there a connection between them? Well, the women in the pictures were sleeping, and the computer was in sleep mode...
So I entertained myself with a little fantasy - when the computer comes out of sleep mode, would the women wake up too, and stare at us? Were they dreaming? And was the computer dreaming? If so, what were they all dreaming of? Etc, etc...
So I took the shot, and it looks like this
- a jpeg of the original raw file.
I liked the red, but really needed to adjust the white balance in RAW. I played around in Camera Raw with WB (tungsten), exposure, blacks, contrast, brightness, until I got a look which came close to the dreamlike feel I was after. When I exported it to Elements I decided not to go to any of the Nik filters. The red, however, was gone, so I had a debate with myself about that. How much of a loss was it. Could I cope without it. I decided that the red did not really contribute to the dream quality I was after...so that was that.
I don't know how others see the image, but I like it a lot. It got me thinking more about what is not said in pictures, how the story between the elements of the picture could mean more than the picture itself, how the narrative becomes the focus rather than any one thing in the image.
That's all I wanted to say.
The situation is the basement of the Stills Gallery in Edinburgh, the 'breakout' area, where students and staff share coffee, chat, and there is also the occasional presentation or class. Rhona was busy enquiring about work experience for school requirements, so I wandered around idly.
I fairly quickly saw the whole scene as it is in the photo. I looked through the viewfinder of the X100, made the columns frame the interior. What I liked immediately was that by taking such a stance, it is unclear what the subject of the image is. The images on the wall? The computer? Neither. Was there a connection between them? Well, the women in the pictures were sleeping, and the computer was in sleep mode...
So I entertained myself with a little fantasy - when the computer comes out of sleep mode, would the women wake up too, and stare at us? Were they dreaming? And was the computer dreaming? If so, what were they all dreaming of? Etc, etc...
So I took the shot, and it looks like this
- a jpeg of the original raw file. I liked the red, but really needed to adjust the white balance in RAW. I played around in Camera Raw with WB (tungsten), exposure, blacks, contrast, brightness, until I got a look which came close to the dreamlike feel I was after. When I exported it to Elements I decided not to go to any of the Nik filters. The red, however, was gone, so I had a debate with myself about that. How much of a loss was it. Could I cope without it. I decided that the red did not really contribute to the dream quality I was after...so that was that.
I don't know how others see the image, but I like it a lot. It got me thinking more about what is not said in pictures, how the story between the elements of the picture could mean more than the picture itself, how the narrative becomes the focus rather than any one thing in the image.
That's all I wanted to say.
