******Minichallenge 357: Dissonant Composition*********

I have been following this forum and the contests since it I bought my 300D in September 2003.  After 356 challenges, the real challenge is to come up with a new topic.  The one I have chosen is Dissonant Composition.

That is usually we try to make our compositions harmonic where everything fits together and is pleasing to the eye.  Sometimes, like a dissonant chord im music, we deliberately put things in our compositions that are meant to waken people up, or to make a point.

So let's see your dissonant compositions.

Challenge will end on Sunday, 2/24/2013 at 9:00 PM EST. Winners will be posted the next day.

The regular rules apply.

The host gives you a topic of interest. You post a maximum of three images. Any picture you've taken is eligible regardless of time taken and camera.

You can do all the post processing you want. However, it is most helpful if you list your camera and lens along with your photo (because we like to know).

Feel free to comment on other contestant’s images. If you want people to give you constructive criticism, ask for C&C.

The host chooses the winner, and the decision is final. No matter what you say, the host is likely not going to change his mind after the fact. Remember, it's all about fun and learning.

The winner then hosts the next challenge, judges the winner, and passes on the baton to that person. The winner has 48 hours to post the new challenge. If that doesn't happen 2nd place has 24 hours to do so, and if that doesn't happen it's up to the 3rd place winner.

Posting Guidelines

When posting your picture, change the Subject of your post to display your picture titles and/or your name. This way, when someone replies it will refer specifically to you. If all entries read "Re: * Mini-Challenge xxx - ... " it would be very boring to scan the list.

Either embed your image in the thread or, if you must, supply a link to it. Keep in mind, however, most people don't want to click to open photos hosted elsewhere (i.e. on your website).

You may enter up to 3 pictures, but put them in a single post. Please give a title to each photo, this makes it easier to differentiate when giving comments.

Please size your photo no bigger than around 1600 pixels on the longest dimension. This is to let those with smaller monitors to see your image at full resolution. Please limit the file size of your entries to conserve bandwidth.

As a show of courtesy, and to save bandwidth, please remove the original post when replying, so you don't bring back any previous photos.

Some Previous Mini-Challenges

318 Multicolor

319 Serenity now

320 B&W at its best

321 Show Us Your Gear

322 That Reminds Me...

323 Shadows and Light

324 Part of the Whole

325 Lifeboat

326 Signs of Spring

327 Amazing Feets

328 Macro

329 Candid

330 Great sport

331 Perfect Shot - Imperfect conditions

332 Openings

333 Classical Elements

334 Summer Coolers

335 A Rainy Day

336 Raw Editing

337 High Speed Shutter Water

338 Light Trails

339 Homeland Insecurity

340 Food

341 Autumn/Fall

342 Colors of America

343 Nostalgia

344 Tools

345 Walk in the park

346 Vivid Colour on a Black Background

347 Photo art gallery

348 Four Legger(s)

349 Simplicity

350 Happy Holidays

351 Fireworks

352 It's all in the eyes

353 Panoramas

354 Infants and Toddlers

355 Music

356 The Portrait:  Window into The Soul

Amid the Confusion of Life the Church

First a couple of classic examples.  I am showing the link to avoid any copyright violations.

The first Example is Kentucky Flood by Margaret Bourke-White

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kentucky_Flood_by_Margaret_Bourke-White.jpg

The second is Father Duffy in Times Square by Lee Friedlander

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/113

A couple of my own.



Here the model chose to wear a party dress to contrast with the grungy neighborhood where we were shooting.  Just a fun shot



The Sacred and the Profane

I made contact with a make up artist (MUA) through Model Mayhem.  She had a friend who needed pictures immediately and wanted to shoot on the grounds of the National Cathedral in Washington DC.  I thought, beautiful model, properly made up in a great setting.  However, the MUA had her friend in goth makeup in a really skanky dress.  We were shooting in the Bishops Garden when I spotted these reliefs.  So I posed her as above to sho that both good and evil coexist in the real world.



I was walking along the street in Vienna when I spotted this.  We live busy, confused lives, but many find religion to helkp cope that confusion

Interesting challenge Jim. I get the sense from your words and images that you're interested in deliberate juxtapositions and incongruities, rather than just things that look odd. Let's see if I'm on the right track...

No Standing

This is a scan of a small print from my 35mm SLR days in the early 1980s. I found the shoe in the street when I was wandering around with the camera. As I tried to find an interesting way to frame it, suddenly the words "NO STANDING" appeared in the viewfinder. I laughed out loud when I realised what meaning I could make with that, like, the guy was standing there minding his own business, and was grabbed so fast by the No Standing Police that his shoe came off. (BTW, "NO STANDING" means it's a clearway, you're not allowed to stop a car there.)

Hamish

I did this one for a "through glass" challenge on another forum. I like the way it makes someone with the mentality of a five-year-old boy look like a learned adult.

Kelvingrove Student (Cameronians War Memorial (1924), Glasgow, Scotland)

I didn't think too much about this shot at the time, I just thought it looked interesting, but the more I look at it the more I see it as a contrast between life for young people now and in the past. Here's this spotty nerk doing his homework on the way to his first lecture of the day, whereas a century ago he might have been leaping out of a trench into a hail of bullets and mortar.

Big Tank

And one for the fun of it. I don't think this one quite fits what you're asking for, but I wanted to share it for the Escher-like quality it has, both in the challenge of disentangling the staircase from its shadow, and the momentary uncertainty about whether we're looking at a convex or concave surface.

f3nr15 wrote:

Coexist

After Dave Vichich's input on my "Teach me something" introduction thread, I've been playing around a bit with Elements, trying to familiarise myself with processing.

Ha, I feel like a proud papa.

This picture is a merge of two photos of my six-year-old, and resulted from of a bit of fun that I was having today after reading the subject of the current challenge. The original portrait taken yesterday had blown highlights, but I liked the pose and wanted to use the photo. So I deconstructed it in Elements to a pencil sketch, then added the second photo of my daughter's hand holding the pencil.

Your daughter's eyes are fantastic. I can see why you like that shot so much.

Processing is trickier than I thought, and playing around with it is making me appreciate those who can use the tools to create real works of art.

The more you do, the easier it becomes.

"Coexist" because my daughter exists in the picture as both the subject and the artist.

This is the one nit I have with the image. Without you telling us that is your daughter's hand, we wouldn't know.

C&C most welcome as always - I feel that this is very rough, and I'm not sure that I got the synergy right between the two photos (white balance matching, focal plane, depth of field, sizing etc...). Any hints or insights would be appreciated!

I think you have a great idea here. Maybe try another shot of her more from the side or a 3/4 view so the viewer can see her face while drawing.

Or maybe even something like this: LINK

Congrats on what you've done. I agree with Dave, I would never guess that the hand belongs to the subject - it's too dark-skinned and adult-looking for me to make the connection. That's not a problem, just saying they don't look congruous.

One thing I'd do differently is bring the hand closer, so that the tip of the pencil is poised over the edge of the hair, to make it look like we are witnessing the image being drawn. As it is, they don't look connected to me. Maybe even take a bit off the shadow under the pencil so it looks like it's touching the paper. If you did that you could include more of the hand as well...

And thanks for scoring one for the lefties. 

f3nr15 wrote:

WilbaW wrote:

Congrats on what you've done. I agree with Dave, I would never guess that the hand belongs to the subject - it's too dark-skinned and adult-looking for me to make the connection. That's not a problem, just saying they don't look congruous.

One thing I'd do differently is bring the hand closer, so that the tip of the pencil is poised over the edge of the hair, to make it look like we are witnessing the image being drawn. As it is, they don't look connected to me. Maybe even take a bit off the shadow under the pencil so it looks like it's touching the paper. If you did that you could include more of the hand as well...

And thanks for scoring one for the lefties.

Thanks for your feedback Wilba!

Perhaps if I had included more of her skinny forearm in the photo, that might have made it more obvious? Then I could have moved the pencil over to the drawing like you have suggested...

The hand is quite dark, too - most of my time was spent trying to correct the white balance when merging the images, particularly of the shadow beneath the hand/pencil - for some reason, the paper of beneath my daughter's hand was quite blue-tinted. When I tried lightening my daughter's hand, it actually seemed to increase the dis-congruity between the images, at least to me.

Finally, the hand was actually her right hand - I flipped it around so that the portrait appears to be looking at it! That's okay, though - I won't tell anyone if you don't

Wilba's idea was great.

I don't want to turn this thread in to a tute, but I thought it might be worthwhile to show you what I maybe would have done.

I moved the hand over the hair, but then I thought I'd make it a work in progress, like a 6 year old is, and made it look like the portrait wasn't finished. This was my first time trying to do something like this, so we both may have learned something today.

Once again, say the word, and I'll remove this from my site.

Hey folks

As much as I enjoy reading the critiques, let's get back to the job at hand and post some more terrific pictures.

This is an interesting idea for a mini-challenge and, I think, a challenging one! This is not the kind of photo you can just go out and take. You have to have an eye for it and then be ready when the opportunity comes. At first, I didn’t think I would have anything to enter, and then I found a couple that seem to fit the theme. My third entry is actually a scene I just came across today.

1. The Church and the Cop

This was taken in the city of Omsk, Russia. The theme of dissonance can be seen in a couple of ways. The church represents what is old and traditional, while the policeman sits in his modern BMW. Besides that, the police could represent (as many Russians feel) corruption and an unfair justice system, while the church represents (at least it should) integrity and justice.

2. Information Technology

This was taken in the New York Public Library. The painting in the back portrays the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press, which was a revolutionary development in information technology at the time. In front is the girl checking her smart phone, one of the latest innovations in information technology.

3. The Wild West

I just came across this wall mural today in Old Colorado City, part of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and thought it could fit the theme of the challenge. The painting portrays the old west, while the new cars and the parking meter in the foreground seem totally out of place. Normally, I would have wished they weren’t there, but they helped make a fitting image for this challenge.

Roger

f3nr15 wrote:

I love this!

Thanks! 

Sadly, I still can't work out whether it's concave or convex -

It is possible. Let's see if others can work it out. 

nice to immerse people in to a photo and make them think

Thanks again.

f3nr15 wrote:

Thanks for your feedback Wilba!

No worries.

The hand is quite dark, too - most of my time was spent trying to correct the white balance when merging the images, particularly of the shadow beneath the hand/pencil - for some reason, the paper of beneath my daughter's hand was quite blue-tinted. When I tried lightening my daughter's hand, it actually seemed to increase the dis-congruity between the images, at least to me.

Sounds like you need to treat the shadow and the hand differently. Can you do masking on layers in your editor?

Finally, the hand was actually her right hand - I flipped it around so that the portrait appears to be looking at it! That's okay, though - I won't tell anyone if you don't

Oh. I'm much less impressed now. 



Literal

boredom

Literal: 7D/24-105L

Visual dissonance - you cant make out anything but the lower rain bubbles clearly, and cannot quite tell what the red object is... it leaves me with that dissonant feeling... literal dissonance between the objects you need to see and the clarity of focus that is lacking...

boredom: 7D/70-300L

follows some basic compositional components (blocks, diagonals) - but the block on the right is partially covering a shoe... visually I am drawn to the shoe - only to be disappointed that noting special exists within... content dissonance between the boring shoes, and the compositional elements that draw you to look at them...

The "Kelvingrove Student" is really dramatic, it works for me alot

Not sure

here are my entries