This week I had lunch with one of my favorite photographers, Cole Thompson. We talked about approaches to photography, building projects, and his travels around the world. As I walked back to the office afterwards, I naturally started looking for things to photograph. My enthusiasm outpaced my vision on that particular day, and I was struggling to find anything interesting. Finally, one block from the office, I stumbled upon a wall painted pale blue, with a darker blue window on one end. I knew I wanted this photo to be about open space, so I leaned in close and shot what became my favorite image of the week.
Blue
Fujifilm X-T2, Fujinon XF 18-55 f/2.8-4 R LM OIS at 29mm, f/8 at 1/180, ISO 200.
Digital Darkroom. I want to say that I started with a 16 x 9 aspect ratio crop to extenuate the emptiness. As it turns out, I had inadvertently set the camera to shoot in that aspect ratio to begin with, so that’s what I had to start with. (I shoot RAW+JPG, so I could have gone back to a regular 3×4 shot, but I liked this better anyway). I increased the exposure and lowered clarity. I usually raise clarity, not lower it, but I wanted this photograph to be about color and empty space, not about wall texture. After raising the exposure, I added a graduated filter on the left side to lower it again, and keep the deep blues on that edge of the photograph. Finally, I increased the saturation of the blue and purple channels.
WIRR stands for Weekly Image Rich Ruh. This regular feature on Das Has von Ruh will show and describe my favorite photo created during this weekly period. My weeks start on Mondays, as does the WIRR. I’m hoping to include commentary on the story, the setting, the specs, or the sentiments, depending on the circumstances.
Das Haus von Ruh 