Hey y’all! This week’s topic is “contrast” and that could mean a few things: contrasting colors, contrast between the subject and the setting, contrast between light and dark. I attempted to capture each of these this week. I’m attracted to contrasting light in general, but I’d like to challenge myself to look for color in my shots more often.
My first idea was to shoot my black dog on my already high contrast black and white rug. He’s a reluctant model. I shot him from above to make the carpet fill the background and used Aperture priority to keep my aperture low to gather as much light as I could in my dim living room and blur the background. Please forgive my dirty carpet.
f/3.5, 1/15th, ISO 1600
His paw looks weird because he hurt it and has a bandage on it. Poor pupper.
Then I went through and found an old shot of some green weeds growing through a grate over a rusty red background.
f/5, 1/80th, ISO 400
And the last one is a shot I took of a safety helmet in the rubble of an abandoned building. Pretty self-explanatory.
f/4.5, 1/80th, ISO 500
These aren’t my most aesthetically pleasing photos, but I think each one properly represents the different types of contrast that Chelsea listed for our topic this week. It’s really just a matter of keeping your eyes open for unusual compositions. I think it’s a great practice to get out of your comfort zone and look at the world around you differently. Are any of you shooting on the theme each week? If so, how has it changed your photography practice?
