Window Seat

[Vic Shaw]

Bit of a cliché shot really but it was on my to do list. I had to drop of a heating system to a engineer today and he was working in this old pub that was being converted. The place had been gutted and I noticed the old chair in amongst to rubbish, so I thought heres my chance. Picked the chair our of the rubbish and took it back in the place.

I would have so loved to have had a person willing to sit in the chair for me but couldn't get one. The picture looks a lot better in PS then it does now it's a tad more contrasty with both the top and bottom right being a lot darker, although I count my blessings as the light was so good, thank god for cloudy London!

PP involved basic RAW processing then 5 Curve layers and levels, 2 texture layers and a layer for dodging and burning,

Vic

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Very atmospheric Vic - very nice

 

[Hamish Gill]

i read somewhere that the reason painting and sketches of empty chairs crop up is because they were drawn by the artists often as practice pieces ... ironically of course perhaps because they couldn't find someone to actually sit in the chair
i really like it too the atmosphere is indeed very good!

 

[Pete Askew]

Another great shot Vic. Like the textures - must get more into them myself.

 

[Vic Shaw]

Thanks fellas, I must say this was one of those shots I couldn't wait to get home and work on. Although I had no idea what I was going to do with it really. I hadn't planned to use any textures at first, but after a while it started to look a little Vermeer(ish) so I thought some real subtle textures might work. I thought today that I might try a B&W version, but although I'm tempted I actually like this as it is. Maybe B&W will give the image a whole new feeling (which in it self might be interesting) maybe I should post the RAW file.


Vic

 

[Paul Lange]

I like the shot very much, especially the lighting.

 

[Hamish Gill]

yeah... post the raw file ... i cant see me getting as much out of it as you have but id love to give it a go!

 

[Pete Askew]

I can feel a tin-type coming on already!!

 

[Vic Shaw]

Well heres the funny thing, I've deleted all the RAW files. I was doing some portraits with Alix last night and needed some space as both cards were pretty full, I thought I had transfered them over to the PC but it seems not, I just checked the card I was using and it's not on there. I have some recovery software I can used to get them back so all is not lost.

Although I wasn't going to post this RAW file as it's 'mine' now but a similar shot. ah well better get cracking on getting them back, funny thing is all the crap shots I took at work and stuff are on the PC I just cannot find these.

 

[Vic Shaw]

HA! found them, for some reason they were in a different folder then they should have been. Thought I wouldn't have deleted them.

 

[Paul Lange]

funny thing is all the crap shots I took at work and stuff are on the PC I just cannot find these.

Good to hear you take crap shots as well, gives me hope! One day hopefully my signal to noise ratio will be closer to where I would like it.

 

[Vic Shaw]

Yeah it's tough taking good shots at work, I try and be all 'arty' but they just want plain ' this is what our showroom looks like' shots, breaks my heart!

I might even post one

 

[Paul Lange]

Ah, I thought you meant just shots that didn't work out. I seem to take a lot.

 

[Vic Shaw]

well yeah, I take a fair few of those too. Just look at my picture number/name

 

[Barry Keavney]

Is the "What's you excuse" label by the window symbolism? Very atmospheric.

 

[Vic Shaw]

The plumber I was dropping the stuff off to suddenly became a art director and was going to remove the sign. I said to leave it. He also said that a rocking chair would be better, as well as positioning the chair. I took a few shots to please him then went and got this chair.