Bookends

[Jonathan Wienke]

I thought I'd have a bit of fun working up some complementary/symmetrical views of the same subject; in this case, different views of a stone staircase. C&C on the idea in general, as well as this particular execution of the concept, are welcome.

[attachment=2736:attachment] [attachment=2737:attachment]

[kaelaria]

I like the traditional shot, the perspective of the down view is a little weird to me.  Nice work!

[jani]

I thought I'd have a bit of fun working up some complementary/symmetrical views of the same subject; in this case, different views of a stone staircase. C&C on the idea in general, as well as this particular execution of the concept, are welcome.

I like the idea. It can make for a very nice theme at an exhibition, or decoration for a room in a hallway, an office, etc. If well executed, it would create (in me) a sense of contendedness from a sense of completeness.

As for this particular execution, I only find it mildly satisfying. There is something that's missing that's hard to define. I have a couple of thoughts as to what that might be; it may be that there is nothing to break the pattern in either image, yet there is so much structure that I feel that there should've been something breaking the pattern.

In the picture on the left, there is a flower on the third step from above; perhaps it has some colour in it that could either be shown, or enhanced in some way for the B&W rendition?

In the other picture, I don't recognize that flower at all. Is it there? If it is, can you bring it out?

I have no complaints with tonality or structure; that rendition seems fine, as I must admit I've come to expect from you.

[wolfnowl]

I like the work... my only comment is that if it was me I'd switch the placement of the two images so that they diverge at the top instead of converging.  But I like the layout and the composition.  As jani wrote, it might be interesting to bring out some colour in the flower; it might also be distracting.  Would have to see it to know...

Mike.

[Jonathan Wienke]

Thanks for the comments so far, guys. The "flower" in the left image, third step from the top isn't actually a flower, it's just some green vegetation with leaves larger than the surrounding blades of grass or whatever. So selective color techniques wouldn't accomplish anything there. The two views don't match perfectly; there is some overlap, but that patch of vegetation is at approximately the same height in both images. The white line in the right image ends just above the top of the frame of the left image.

I shot these with my Olympus SP-350, and had dynamic range to worry about. While shooting the left image, I had to back down  a ways from the top of the stairs in order to keep the highlights at the top and a reasonable amount of detail in the lower stairs. Exposure on the left image was 1/6, f/4, ISO 50 (hand-held, too!), and exposure on the right was 1/60, f/4, ISO 50.