Daily Photo – Boombox
The Daily Photo series focuses on the two or three key creative choices, in terms of composition and processing, that go into creating an image. Specific technical details about the shot have been left out — you won’t hear me talking about tone curve adjustments and whatnot unless it was a key component of the end result.
Zion dances to the iPhone beat.
Exposure
- Shutter: 1/250
- Aperture: f/2.8
- ISO: 400
- Camera: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III
- Lens: Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM (at 16mm)
Composition and Processing
- For this shot I wanted to show the implied relationship between the audio device and the subject. An iPhone doesn’t look like a stereo in any sense of the word, so I placed it closest to the camera to suggest it’s importance (I would have preferred to get it in the plane of focus, but it’s close enough). Zion, out of focus, is dancing to something, and given that there’s only two other objects in the entire scene, we assume they’re the source (shoes aren’t very good at generating music, but they do help tie together the iPhone and the barefoot Zion in terms of both content and positioning).
- I like vanishing points that…vanish. Even in cases like this, where there’s still a small part of the stairs suggesting an end to the walkway, the complete lack of information at the horizon de-emphasizes it so as not to drag the eye away from the subject. An actual end point, even if it all converged on a dot, would be to distracting (unless it was one of the subjects itself).
- I shot this wide to capture Zion’s range of movement. But it’s a better vertical crop given the way the lines run. I also tilted it to emphasize the dynamic subject.
Black and White:
Color:
Original:
May 26 2009 05:32 pm | Photography