CONTRE JOUR - POSTBOX

I really like shooting Contre-Jour, which if I quote from Wikipedia ...Contre-jour, French for 'against daylight', refers to photographs taken when the camera is pointing directly toward the source of light.

Contre-Jour is hard enough with a DSLR or a high end compact camera, but this was done on my mobile phone yesterday (HTC Desire).

Contre-Jour usually gives you high contrast pictures, sometimes a little burnt out, but you get great light and dark areas.

I did not know whether the colour or black and white works for this shot so I did the original shot and one converted to black and white.

I've cropped out some of the distracting bits from the right hand side of the image (bonnet of a car), so we have a portrait letterbox format frame. Eeeek a postbox in a letterbox frame, how obscure is that ?

It's very much a grab shot from my mobile, the sun was very low so composition was hard. Anyway the little mobile has done a half decent job in my opinion.

Hope you like and if you do like, which one works best (B/W for me ..I think !)?

Phil

[Sarah Horsfall]

I like the two solid shadows from the postbox and the woman, side-by-side. Not sure which of the two I prefer, but I do like your idea of putting them side by side in a collage. I might have been tempted to mirror-image the right-hand one, to make them a reflection of each other :o)

[Phil Howcroft]

@sarahhorsfall Mirror image Sarah, good idea. I don't know if I should have done my B/W with a bit more contrast

[Jennifer]

I like this! great technique! just the way it is..

[Phil Howcroft]

@jenlyn999 Jennifer, I don't know about great technique, it was point and shoot with a mobile phone , glad you like it though :)

[patsyj]

I like this Phil..the shadows and contrast are great..I like the B & W best.

[Phil Howcroft]

@patsyjphillips Thanks Patsy, Yes I think Black and White works better

[andy c]

haha.. two post boxes to add to my two phone boxes...

[Phil Howcroft]

@andycoleborn Yes Andy, i did think the same when I saw your two red boxes !

[Hannah Evans]

I also prefer B&W, think the shadows almost look like reflections, which is a really interesting effect!

[Phil Howcroft]

@haevans Hannah, thank you for commenting, I like the long shadows too :)

[Kerri]

Cool!

[Phil Howcroft]

@kerristephens thanks Kerri :)

[Allison Williams]

I agree that the B&W is more effective. I'd like to see a little more contrast just to compare. I really like the shadows. The woman's shadow looks more like a post box than the post box!

[Phil Howcroft]

@allie912 Allison, thanks for that, yes maybe I should have gone more contrast in the B/W. Phil

[Phil Howcroft]

@gill Gill , thanks for commenting, yes it's the shadows that make the picture...plus mobile phone cameras are getting quite good, I know the lenses will never compare to a high end compact or DSLR, but given some good light they can do well