Statue Holding Flowers in Infrared

Statue Holding Flowers in Infrared
Statue Holding Flowers in Infrared

See this photo at EyeEm.

Statue Holding Flowers in Infrared

A statue holding flowers, captured in infrared. It is located on a traffic island in the centre of Athens. Statues can be interesting subjects in photography. On one hand, they are strong subjects for a beginner, which means that someone can make an interesting photo without much effort. On the other hand, more advanced photographers can explore different ways of creating photographs. For example, one can study how light falls on the subject and how it affects the final image. Another way would be to concentrate on details of the statue and thus create a more abstract photograph.

The thing that prompted me to make this photo was the flowers on the hand of the statue. I don’t know if it is customary to hold them or if someone just placed them there for fun (most probably). As I was passing through the traffic island it is located, I noticed the flowers. The actual colour of the statue is black and I knew that it would appear black in infrared as well*. In contrast, any vegetation would appear white. The result would make the statue more prominent in the photo, because of the plants around it, and the flowers in its hand would draw more attention, being white on black.

The only doubt I had was the sky. The effect of infrared becomes more impressive if the sky is clear or if there are sparse clouds. The blue in the sky becomes black and it contrasts the predominately white foreground. An overcast sky though appears white and it may cause the subject to get lost in an overly bright image. In this case though, it actually works better because it works the same way as the plants behind the statue. Another element that is usually negative in photos are the poles and the cables in the background. They don’t hide the main subject and they give an urban element in the photo, so I am not annoyed them.

*The appearance of things in infrared is relevant to the ability of the material to reflect infrared light and not the colour. In this case, I knew that the material would appear black in the photo.

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