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The following is my first ever Triptych which I've titled "Forgive".

It was taken at The Rocks on Australia Day 2011 - my daughter and I were just having a rest in the park next to the MCA and listening to one of the concerts when we noticed this couple near us and the moments unfolding.

The chronological sequence is the bottom left image first and then the central top image and finally the bottom right - the images were taken about one to two minutes apart. This (the centre top one) is probably my own favourite candid street image from the day.


NIKON D90 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm, 1/50 sec at f / 5, ISO 200

I'd be interested to see what others thought and if the single colour image is OK or should I have gone all monochrome in the set.

Hi Rodney,
Really nice photos and a great idea.

For me, I'm not sure I'm sold on the 2 B&W with 1 colour image.
I also read the sequence as being top image, then bottom left, then bottom right (not bottom left, top, bottom right)...though I see what you were trying to elude to (a trianglular pattern...yes??)

I think the B&W treatment suits these images and you could have done so for all three....or as an experiment I wonder what it would look like if bottom left was B&W, top was desaturated (from full colour) by 50% and bottom right was in full colour....sort of transcending from B&W to colour as the three images progress.
Not sure if this would work but just an idea that sprung to mind as I was typing...

Good stuff either way!

Dave

I would lay them out in a horizontal plan, cropping the height on the first and last to match that of the middle image.

And I don't like the third image being in colour either; the transition from mono to colour does nothing for me.

One final point - of detail - is the fence at the bottom of the image; you have a very different angle for the fence on the last of the images here; I think that may be a little distracting; do you have an alternate image with a more consistent fenceline in it that can be substituted here?

I agree, great series. I would make them all b&w. I think the logical sequence is top left to right to bottom, but you can interpret it the other way too, I guess. The suggestion to put them all in one row horizontally is great.

Alex

Aussie Dave wrote:For me, I'm not sure I'm sold on the 2 B&W with 1 colour image.
I also read the sequence as being top image, then bottom left, then bottom right (not bottom left, top, bottom right)...though I see what you were trying to elude to (a trianglular pattern...yes??)

well... not really I just liked the "middle image" the best so I made sure it was the largest one at the top

I think the B&W treatment suits these images and you could have done so for all three....

gstark wrote:I would lay them out in a horizontal plan, cropping the height on the first and last to match that of the middle image.

Thanks - I've tried making three verticals next to each other bot then finally settled on three square crops which I eventually liked better.

And I don't like the third image being in colour either; the transition from mono to colour does nothing for me.

and gone - all same processed mono now

One final point - of detail - is the fence at the bottom of the image; you have a very different angle for the fence on the last of the images here; I think that may be a little distracting; do you have an alternate image with a more consistent fenceline in it that can be substituted here?

I didn't - I wasn't actually looking through the viewfinder when I took the images - just sort of pointing the camera in the right direction - the last I purposely angled the camera - I wasn't expecting to make a triptych at the time so was expecting the image to standalone. So I've had to crop and rotate to make them all seem more similar

Alex wrote:I agree, great series. I would make them all b&w. I think the logical sequence is top left to right to bottom, but you can interpret it the other way too, I guess. The suggestion to put them all in one row horizontally is great.

Thankyou all for your great feedback - I've created a new version now and would be interested to see if you think it's been improved...

To go against the grain I like the original actually.

The arrangement with the wider photo up the top and then the cropped ones underneath, gives the feel of looking at a scene, seeing something interesting and focusing on the subject to see what happens.

I quite like the colour photo at the end aswell as it gives the final statement and makes the triptych more interesting in my opinion. I like the original crops also as then i want to spend more time in each image as they seem different, with slightly different perspectives. With the new crops i just found i quickly browse over them thinking they are almost the same.

Tricks of the mind

Great captures though.

-Dave

Prefer the #2 version. quite like how it's got more DOF. Makes it feel more impormptu rather than staged.

I agree with Gary in that a triptych would normally be on a horizontal plane and would tell the story in a more fluid manner.

Also the sequence, it does not really matter in which order the pics were taken, more how the story unfolds. To this end I would suggest (from the horizontal configuration) the order as follows - left pic 2 (middle shot), centre pic 1 (top shot) and finally pic 3.

The flow then would give a more precise story.

By the way, love the shots.

I agree very much with Chris... change the order... reframe it horizontal and then you've got a beaut.

I agree with Chris agreeing with Gary .... oh, wait, that's me agreeing with me.

Seriously, I like how you've now cropped the images square, which has removed the fence that was previously giving me issues. Good work.

As an additional thought on the way the triptych is aligned, let's say that you want to print this and have them mounted, framed, and hung on a wall, perhaps displayed in your living room?

I have a triptych in my living room, a signed, numbered print that I acquired in N'Awlins in 1995. To me, this set of images expresses the essence that's New Orleans, and it contains two smaller images with a larger one in the middle. Each if the images is about 14" high; there's about three inches between each one plus one and a half inches to each side.

Laid out horizontally (as it is), this set is in a frame and basically takes up a panoramic format, but it would have no issues at all enjoying a position on pretty much any wall, any where.

Were this to be laid out in a vertical format, it would then want to occupy over four feet of vertical space, making it somewhat difficult to place in many instances.

You might like to consider that aspect as you lay these images out ....

Thanks everyone for their very helpful feedback... and for persisting with me

gstark wrote:I agree with Chris agreeing with Gary .... oh, wait, that's me agreeing with me.

As an additional thought on the way the triptych is aligned, let's say that you want to print this and have them mounted, framed, and hung on a wall, perhaps displayed in your living room? ...

Yeah - I wasn't really thinking about how this was going to look framed but rather how it was going to look posted on my blog (with a more narrow central column)

Anyway - here is the original (well middle version) horizontal, all monochrome, vertical crops triptych I had created before the vertical squares one. Obviously the order is still chronological but personally I like the central larger image the most which is why I originally gave it precedence