Theme: Looking Up

[Wendy Kates]

It's coincidental that the current theme is Looking Up/Looking Down: on Saturday our local photography meet-up group did a photo shoot at an old, ornate theater in Syracuse, and I spent the entire morning looking up at the ceiling through my viewfinder. (My neck still hurts!) In this image, I am in an alcove: I used the detailed frame of the alcove to photograph the ceiling and wall of the hall we were shooting. For OOTB, I applied a Topaz palette knife / oil paint filter to give a more abstract, old world feel to the image, but masked the frame of the alcove to create contrast.

[Diane Miller]

Wow! I love the realistic FG against the painterly BG! Wonderful warm tones, too!

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Wendy,

Greetings. Nice work, Wendy. I particularly like the choice of contrasting frame against the painterly ceiling. It almost seems like there is a mirror just behind the frame and what we're seeing is a reflection. Good show!

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Anita Bower]

Super ornate. WEll done. I like the colors, the contrast between the frame and the ceiling. Clever of you.

[Nancy Bell]

Very good thinking to contrast the "real" frame against the "painterly" interior! And all the warm golds pull it so well together.

[gary ellwein]

The idea of masking the FG was superb. Consider cropping the very narrow row of objects at the top.

[Dan Brown]

Nice work on the masking! You might think about revisiting the original image and not only cropping the sliver off the top but also correcting the prespective to straighten the wall and the lines in the lower left. Just a thought.

[Wendy Kates]

Thanks, all, for your input...it is much appreciated!

[Dennis Bishop]

Another round of applause for the way you framed this, and the colors / design are very appealing. My inclination, however, would be to reduce the heaviness of the top and open the image up a bit. To do that, I'd crop enough from both sides to eliminate the brown vertical rectangles in the bottom corners and -- if you have the canvas -- show more of the background at the bottom.

I like the molding at the top, so I wouldn't crop it away, but I would crop down to the top of it.

Sort of like this . . .

[Wendy Kates]

Thanks, Dennis. Although I love the frame, I agree that the photo looks good "opened up" as well. I'll check to see if I have more in the bottom of the photo.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

I kept wanting to see more of the mirror and reflection. To me it feels a bit cut off, I like where Dennis is headed. Lovely ornate frame and great treatment of the reflection. Everything has a warm patina.

[Kerry Perkins]

Very creative use of framing and perspective. I love the warm colors and contrasting elements of texture. I like the original framing but wish the side columns were either real wood or textured to look like wood. Nice job!

[Wendy Kates]

Thanks, Jackie and Kerry. Kerry...I like your suggestion of adding a texture to the side columns. Jackie...it isn't a reflection. It's just that the double-sided frame makes it look like a reflection. By the way, I checked my original images, and don't have any that include more of the wall on the other side of the frame. I wish I had thought about photographing it vertically at the time.