so... uhm... yeah... see... i've had this idea for ages now about using the doll house furniture to create a sense of the surreal - and it never seems to work... decided to take the arm chair for walkies this morning and i kind of liked this shot, but still not getting the "weird" that i am after... any idea on what needs to happen for this to work? does anyone even know what i am talking about?
tx for all the great comments and favs on my chess shot from yesterday... it was fun to do, even if it was a pain in the butt...
I like the gritty processing a lot, the concept is cool, great comp & pov, cool chair.... but yeah the weirdness is not really there. I think you have too many visual clues telling that the chair has to be a miniature.
Covering the top half of the shot might give a more surreal vibe... ? The fences in the distance are gone and the wall & the ground are not giving any hints on size, so you're wondering whether the leaves are huge or is that chair small... and what the hell is going on anyway... :)
I pretty much agree with Jani on everything. :D So yeah, cool concept, awesome edit. Maybe one or two of the leaves closer to the chair as well? Or on the foreground, closer to your camera? Disturbing the sense of scale.
Great idea. Not sure what you are trying to achieve but I like @janim's thinking. At the moment it just looks like a chair next to a large wall. How about something clever using forced perspective ... ?
I think the idea is brilliant - and I'm sure you'll work out how to do it. What Jani said was really interesting - especially about the leaves. It works when something our brain thinks is small suddenly is huge. Love the processing of this.
@adamj I thought of perching it on a log in the lake or on a railing - but it is uber windy today so that would not have worked unless I could have managed to catch it mid flight ;)
Well it works for me. If you hadn't told me it was dolls furniture I would have guessed that the chair was real and that the scale of the building was huge.
@janim@jocasta@sjodell@pennyp@joa@sunshinephoto5 tx... may give something else a try later this week along the lines you're suggesting - to try to fool the brain with respect to scale... two things in terms of what i was trying to do...
1. somehow draw attention to something quite small in a larger setting... which occurs to me isn't really about scale, and in any event, i'm not sure the chair is well-placed for this....
2. the other is trying create weird by placing an unlikely item in an unlikely setting... i have these vague memories of scenes from Twin Peaks that are like this... may have to see if i can find any on youtube and work from that...
I like this. I think the processing works very well. I also like the setting. Nice shot.
Have you tried moving the chair closer and having a normal scene in the background - it might mess with scale more. This has given me an idea.
Personally I think this is a great shot.
See - that's exactly what I have been planning for some time but can't get my act together! I'm trying to do something in a field or forest with an unlikely object. I could see this working if something was placed right next to it ( like a leaf) which you can totally understand the scale issue. Also, this would be hilarious in the TTC - since you do so many shots there. ;)
@kass oh yes... it would be cool in a field or forest... i did give it a go one night this past summer, but ran into some challenges and didn't have time to figure out a way around them... i think it would work really well with the kind of light you tend to use tho! (and now i'll have to figure out a way to do this on the TTC without getting my tiny chair stepped on ;p)
Yes, stepped on is the challenge you have to work around. BUT, it would look amazing with all those feet walking by it - commuter chaos with the chair in the middle!
I don't have anything new to add, but wanted to say it's an interesting first attempt. Maybe the only think I'd add is wondering if a second contrasting object would inject some of the weirdness (e.g., around scale or just out of place) or simply distract. Not sure. Guessing best to keep it to a single object and just change the background as suggested.
I definitely had to do a double take so I'd say it worked for me. I enjoyed reading all the comments though. I am sure there will be more shots to come in this series. Looking forward to them!
I like it! maybe the reason it doesn't look "weird" enough is that, to me anyway, it just looks like someone dumped a chair they didn't want anymore (which happens often enough!) maybe add a side table with a lamp on it, and an open book?
I love the concept, I didn't see the smallness at first (blame foggy baby brain) but love the grittiness and isolation of it all.
You are trying to get that Alice in wonderland down the rabbit hole weirdness. I will love to see more :)
Every once in a while I manage to combine doll furniture with other things and get the result I want -- it's fun to fool around with dolls and miniatures and see what you come up with. I can spend hours playing.
Covering the top half of the shot might give a more surreal vibe... ? The fences in the distance are gone and the wall & the ground are not giving any hints on size, so you're wondering whether the leaves are huge or is that chair small... and what the hell is going on anyway... :)
1. somehow draw attention to something quite small in a larger setting... which occurs to me isn't really about scale, and in any event, i'm not sure the chair is well-placed for this....
2. the other is trying create weird by placing an unlikely item in an unlikely setting... i have these vague memories of scenes from Twin Peaks that are like this... may have to see if i can find any on youtube and work from that...
anyway, tx for your responses!
Have you tried moving the chair closer and having a normal scene in the background - it might mess with scale more. This has given me an idea.
Personally I think this is a great shot.
You are trying to get that Alice in wonderland down the rabbit hole weirdness. I will love to see more :)
Love the textures in the concrete.