Woman at window, Varanasi

A woman stands at a window looking over the Ganges at Varanasi, India.

Forgotten on the hard drive

One of the pleasing things that occurred this week was discovering this photograph when going through some of my India files.   “Woman at window, Varanasi”,  is a shot that I don’t specifically recall taking, but happily it was lurking on my hard drive waiting to be rediscovered.    It was one of several images that I captured with the 70-300 mm zoom lens whilst drifting down the Ganges in a boat.   I took a series of about 6 shots of this woman as she gazed out from her window,  experimenting with different compositions.  In the end, I think this is the most satisfying of the series.

Composition

The image is a fairly classic “rule of thirds” composition but there are several other things happening here that I’m pleased with.   The light coloured dress of the woman contrasts well with the dark interior of the room behind her,  her posture with her hands up to her face is interesting,  the wall itself is full of texture,  colours and repeating lines and graphic elements.  Finally, there is the cable strung across the bottom half of the image and forming a crescent shape,  to me this seems to act as a compositional counterpoint to the woman at the window.

Image Processing

Processing wise,  the image has had little done to it.    A slight lens correction was applied to counter some minor pincushion distortion that occurs with the zoom at its 300 mm end.    The image was straightened and minor adjustments were made to contrast and colour saturation,  in Lightroom.     The image was then taken into Photoshop where some image sharpening was applied and the conversion to jpeg format was carried out.

Via Social media:

• Lisa: 4 September, 2010 at 1:50 pm You have an amazing eye for something so unique as this. My eye went to the woman in the window and yet all over. What I can believe is the window and just one on that building. The lines, composition, the woman, the photo is simple yet complex. I hope you understand what I’m saying. I like your view. The series is amazing. Your trip had to be something else. I hope you have sent these off to other places. The man on LS is one of the very best. His face is so aged yet you centred right on his eyes and they are tack sharp. Wonderful photography. I had to stop by. It’s been a while. Have a great weekend KD.

• KD: 4 September, 2010 at 3:27 pm Thanks Lisa, I appreciate the feedback. This is one of the shots that I’m most pleased with from the trip. KD.