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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dangerspouse" data-source="post: 752716" data-attributes="member: 46690">I've always liked the paintings of Rene Magritte, the Belgian surrealist. I have several framed prints of some of his more famous works around my house that I've owned since I was young.One of his most recognizable works is a painting of a pipe titled <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images#/media/File:MagrittePipe.jpg" target="_blank">"The Treachery of Images", or "This is not a pipe" ("Ceci n'est pas une pipe")</a>. It's witty because at first glance it is a pipe, but in reality it's not a pipe. It's a painting. I always got a kick out of that. He also did a painting of a landscape, <a href="https://www.renemagritte.org/the-human-condition.jsp" target="_blank">with the canvas in the window looking out at the exact landscape</a>. So when I saw this week's theme was "Looking Out", I thought it would be fun to try a surrealist spin of my own using an actual surrealist print. Since it's snowing AGAIN here, and my wife is not happy about it, I had the idea to have her look at the landscape print as if she were dreaming it was actually spring or summer. So she's looking at a painting of a landscape that has a painting of a landscape over an actual landscape. I called it "Ceci n'est pas une fenêtre" ("This is not a window") as an homage. Since yes, I am that pretentious <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />I put the print over one of the two windows at our kitchen table, and had her stare at it while I snapped from several angles and focal lengths. At the end I narrowed it down to these two:[ATTACH]352054[/ATTACH].[ATTACH]352057[/ATTACH]It was a tough call for me. I really like the first picture's overall composition, filling the frame. But I thought I almost lined up the print almost too perfectly, making it look like a split-screen composite. And I liked having a bit more of my wife showing in the second shot, and preferred her more contemplative expression. But I didn't like seeing my neighbor's house, and cropping it out made it look awkward. On the other hand, seeing the top of the framed poster made it more obvious what was going on, and less split-screen looking. In the end, I went with #1. I'll note that it was a bit of a technical challenge. There were two different light temperatures to deal with (soft box behind my wife to highlight her hair and bring the poster out of shadow, and sunlight coming in through window). And controlling reflections off the glass  fronted poster took a fair amount of manipulation (I was too lazy to dig out my CPF, lol). Anyway, it was a lot of fun setting this up. Win, lose, or draw I was a good day of shooting <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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