Shadow Times
The afternoon March sun creates interesting shadow patterns right now. This is from a recent walk at the Berliner Regierungsviertel / Berlin's government district when we had the first true week of spring with sunshine and pleasant temperatures. The entire city seemed to be up and about, and many people enjoyed the afternoon sun and the warmth on one of the many benches along the Spree's riverbank.
This scene lent itself to contrasty black and white with selective colour. In LR, I desaturated all colours except red, increased the clarity and structure, and tweaked the Tone Curve's sliders so that the shadows were clear and of a deep black while retaining structure and tones in the other image parts.
I am aware that the crop/composition is somewhat off. The bicycle's shadow had caught my eye, and I zoomed in with the little LX100II, but I also didn't dare to get any closer because I didn't want the guy to notice me. I don't do "open" street photography with people right in the image (except when they are far enough away, or I can photograph them from behind, or the place was super crowded anyway) because I'm uncomfortable with that. So I tried to get the person's and the bike's shadow into the frame but not the guy himself. In the original Raw file, there was lots of "empty" (or rather: wall) space next to the bike's shadow so I had to crop in considerably.
Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone, and have a nice spring week ahead, dear Flickr friends!
Shadow Times
The afternoon March sun creates interesting shadow patterns right now. This is from a recent walk at the Berliner Regierungsviertel / Berlin's government district when we had the first true week of spring with sunshine and pleasant temperatures. The entire city seemed to be up and about, and many people enjoyed the afternoon sun and the warmth on one of the many benches along the Spree's riverbank.
This scene lent itself to contrasty black and white with selective colour. In LR, I desaturated all colours except red, increased the clarity and structure, and tweaked the Tone Curve's sliders so that the shadows were clear and of a deep black while retaining structure and tones in the other image parts.
I am aware that the crop/composition is somewhat off. The bicycle's shadow had caught my eye, and I zoomed in with the little LX100II, but I also didn't dare to get any closer because I didn't want the guy to notice me. I don't do "open" street photography with people right in the image (except when they are far enough away, or I can photograph them from behind, or the place was super crowded anyway) because I'm uncomfortable with that. So I tried to get the person's and the bike's shadow into the frame but not the guy himself. In the original Raw file, there was lots of "empty" (or rather: wall) space next to the bike's shadow so I had to crop in considerably.
Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone, and have a nice spring week ahead, dear Flickr friends!