Going nowhere...

... fast

[finished version on my [url=http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/1386829]Kinda Horrigans[/url] journal]

A 'zero time for photography' day today so today's image was one I snapped at just before 8am this morning on arriving at work. For some reason this doorway fascinates me - it doesn't go anywhere or do anything. It's just there.

Some pre-shutter stuff - ISO 400 (poor light but trying to keep the ISO as low as possible), f/4.5 to try to let in more light and 1/60 shutter speed which is just about the slowest you can go hand held without camera shake creeping in.

I really didn't process the RAW file as I knew what I wanted to do I could do in Photoshop - the only thing that was boosted slightly was +5 for clarity. Then, opened in Photoshop, and a simple process using Silver Efex Pro to convert it to black and white. I was after a high contrast look so used the Film Noir preset but removed the border it gives. Back in Photoshop, I used a 50% grey layer set to overlay blend mode and a white brush on about 15% to dodge the hinge and lock and bring out a little detail here and there. Flattened, sharpened... saved.

That was it!

Tip of the Day:
Something I love doing is shooting using natural light - and this article on Understanding Natural Light Portrait Photography is great for a lot of the principles that you can apply to other forms of photography, especially still life. Worth a read.