On The Table Under The Skylight

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Page created December 24, 2011
Sitting date:  June 29, 2011

  

The top floor of my house is a finished attic.  Hence, the exterior north & south walls are only ~four feet tall, then the walls slant roughly 45° up to a normal height ceiling.  At the top of the back stairs is the guest room.  On the north side is a lovely table made of recovered barn wood placed under a modest sized skylight.  Here we are at the table; you can see the door to the back stairs over Ryonen's left shoulder.  On the other side of the room is the guest bed, where I photographed Natalia the last time she was here.  

In any case, here we pause for a little water & cracker break.  I leave the DSLR alone, but I do bring out my point & shoot camera -- it's wide angle lens works well in this tight space.

 

In retrospect, I feel a little bad about making photographs during Ryonen's break.  A break is a break -- she shouldn't have to worry about a camera while she's taking a break.

 

 

 

 

  

When the break was over, Ryonen asks if she could pose on top of the table, and I agreed.  We made these exposures during the summer months, and the sun was high in the sky.  Although there wasn't any direct sunlight coming through that north facing skylight, there was a lot of light drifting downward.  We couldn't make any decent exposures here during the winter months, but now, we had some interesting light.

I think I'll focus on the sepia-toned versions here.  This kind of light tends to bleed off the color anyhow.

 

Right off the bat, we made some lovely images.

 

 

 

 

Okay -- here is a token color image -- you can see that the colors are naturally desatuated.  I figure that if the color isn't making a contribution, I'd prefer the sepia toned images.  Lately, I find that prefer to reduce the information in an image to the bare minimum.

Speaking of which, below is the "artistic effect" paint brush version of this image -- it includes more color saturation.  The brush strokes reduce the information, yet our brains can still recognize the image.

There's something about this image that speaks to Ryonen's youthful vitality.  That's why I like it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are like me, you look at lots & lots of images.  I tend to "deconstruct" the images; I ask myself...
  • Do I like the image?  Why or why not?
  • How was the image lit?
  • What would I do the same?
  • What would I do differently?
  • and so forth.

Lots of beginner (and advanced) photographers enjoy lighting nudes with one bright light source, producing an image of light & shadow, typically with a black background (and, yes, I've made my share of these one-light images).  In general, I don't like these images.

This image here, a favorite, almost qualifies as  a "one light" image, but there are some key differences.  Most importantly (to me):  there is a tonal separation between Ryonen's contours and the background -- you can see Ryonen's figure clearly defined on all sides.  That I like.  It's a subtle thing, but to me, it's vital.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working in such a confined place is limiting.  Although we were making lots on interesting images, I soon ran out of ideas, and I found myself repeating images.  That's the signal to move on, so we wander out of the guest room and into my office.

Thanks to Ryonen for suggesting that we work on top of the table.

Ryonen In The Office Alcove

 

(Remember -- feedback is always appreciated) 

All images (c) 2012 Looknsee Photography

Ryonen, First Visit Out Takes

Nearly 200 more images from this sitting are available in the Out Takes Galleries, which are available to those who have made a donation to the upkeep of this web site.  See this FAQ question for more details.