Shop Front

shop-front-reflections-leannecole-melbourne

It isn’t a secret that I want to challenge myself more with my photography and I’ve been trying to think of ways to do it. I do have a lot of ideas and I know that I want to start compositing and combining images. I am still not sure how exactly, but I do want to start experimenting. I don’t want to accept the world as it is. So when I was out the other day taking photos I saw this shop front.

original-shop-front-reflections-melbourne

I loved these shops. I liked that they were out of the way, but I hated that you could see the cars in the windows. If I’m honest, I didn’t like the reflections at all. I knew when I was taking the photo that I would want to change it, and give it a completely different mood. Also just to see if I could do it.

As I was making my way to the Eureka Skydeck I found some other buildings. I knew I would have to photograph them on an angle to help me with this. I had one in particular that I thought would work.

Here is the final image.

shop-front-reflections-leannecole-melbourne

I’m hoping that I made it something else and that the reflection is believable. I don’t know that it is a massive success, but I like where I went with it and I’m happy with the final outcome. It is a process I will do more and I learned a lot from this one, especially from the point of view of taking the image and processing it.

As always my focus was also on the light and how I could manipulate it. I like the feeling that the viewer is left out, or left in the dark, and they have to choose if they will go into the light, if that is a choice they can make.

I wanted to change the mood completely to one of loneliness and isolation. The shop is closed, is it too late.

It is always an interesting process doing this sort of thing. I never really know what I will end up with. I did work on this most of the day last weekend and spend more time on it during the week. It was an image I had to go back to over and over again to refine and get what I was hoping for. I really enjoyed the whole process and I’m looking forward to working on more.

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20 Comments

  1. The reflection in the final image adds depth, moodiness, and a layer of meaning that wasn’t there before. I love it!

  2. Love the final image, Leanne. It is very much believable, and I feel it is very hard to tell that it was post-processed. Also definitely feel the dark vs light aspect of it. I think combining photos and doing composite takes a lot of patience and as you mentioned, you have to take your shots carefully. If you get the angle wrong, it ma not be doable or you’d have to spend a long, long time to get in right when playing around with it. Very haunting final image.

    1. Thank you Mabel that is fantastic to hear, and even better that it is hard to tell, I was hoping for that. Composites do take a long time, but worth it in the end. It takes a lot of planning, I need to keep trying these.

  3. You have so much more patience than I do — I can’t imagine spending as much time on a photo as you describe. The end result, though, is excellent. You did a great job incorporating those brick buildings and getting a darker, moody feel.

  4. I love it! It takes me back in time to a street that “once was”, with buildings that had a history behind them, full of stories!

  5. Very nice interpretation, Leanne. Totally changes the image from an ordinary picture into a special moment, allowing viewers to engage and interpret based on their own perspective.

  6. What I see in the composed mage is a reflection of the past. The modern day glass shop and a shop from the 1800s that might have once been there. The viewer is not being drawn forward but into a past life.

    1. That is really interesting Francesca, it could be that. I have to admit I didn’t think that way, just wanted something other than the reflection that we there. Thank you so much for sharing that with me.

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