Ominous.


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epiphany

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Aug 1, 2004
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www.pbase.com
Dear all,

I have been trying to take a photo of this particular building for some time now. Despite attempting different angles with various foregrounds and trying to capture this building's exterior in a reasonable way, I have consistently failed. Today, with the impending thunderstorms came some pretty menacing clouds. I thought they went well with the crisp exterior of the building, portraying a notion of standing resilient before a storm. I thus took yet another photo of this building.

The building was placed largely in the centre of the frame as I thought having the grass and the concrete as a foreground provided a good lead-in to the subject and also complemented the sky, which seemed a little too overbearing on its own. I have tried my best to post-process the scene to emulate the quality of B&W film, which I thought suited such a dreary scene best. The grain and slightly oldish tone were added.

For reference, the settings used were:
Canon 20D at 17mm, 0.3s f/11, ISO 100.

I would be grateful if you could provide your honest critique on how to better the composition, the post-processing and any other aspect of the photo if it is deficient. It would enable me to compose a much better shot the next time around.

Federal2.jpg
 

correct your horizon tilt. I'm having a hard time trying to find the balance of the pic. Overall it would be ok if the tilt is corrected.
 

Thanks for your comments, Nigel. I did align the ground beneath the building, but the roof isn't correspondingly aligned due to the building being at a slight angle. When I correct the tilt of the roof, the ground then becomes tilted. Wonder if there's a way to remedy that?
 

it looks like only the front pavement is tilted now...
tilt the front pavement and clone back the grass?

eh i think the white gravel strip is a little distracting? maybe at a black gradiant in the foregrd to de-emphasize it. eh maybe if can bring the building down by 2 bricks (in the bricked pavement in the forgrd) would be nice.

I like your overall "frankenstein" feel. very interesting to see the omnimous clouds "emerge" from the building. U must have waited for A VERY long time for this scene. Thumbs up!
 

Yes the tilt is a bit distracting. I think you are not able to align the building with the surrounding might be because of the angle from which you are taking the picture. If not possible to align, you could avoid the road altogether.

Furthermore, if would be good if you would have composed a bit to the left to include the equal number of windows to be in either side of the building since this is a symmetrical picture. The missing window on the left looks prominent to me. I guess you did not compose from the exact center of the building.

I think i get the resilient feel a bit.
 

the tilting problem is what is known as horizontal perspective problem, more common in wide angle shots

you can see how to resolve it, when it is present to a much lesser extent and when you have actually stood properly in the center of the house.. here, in my half-completed guide. i have tried playing with it and no idea how to correct, so decided to crop.

the thing is, there is no real need for inclusion of the pavement, i would have just taken the house here - the pavement doesn't add anything, in fact it gives you the horizontal perspective problem. while there is a certain mood brought out by the post processing, i thought it wasn't quite enough. the sky is much too boring and bare for my liking; so with some orton, and layering, i came up with this, but probably not to everyone's taste though. :dunno:

2404915092_d4efb29716_o.jpg


cheers
 

i think this pic can easily be sold as a postcard:) its almost perfect in all respects:) except fr the slight tilt:think: or am i imagining it??? very good effort by the photographer:thumbsup:maybe a smaller aperture cud have sharpened the pic:think: still good pic indeed.........
 

To me, the perfectly middled building position still not comfortable. Can remove the concrete and leave only the grass. Enlarge the portion of the cloudy storm and shift the house downward to the 1/3 bottom. The enlarged storm clouds will add more pressure feeling and bright out more feelings.

Correct me if I'm wrong. :D
 

Many thanks to all of you for taking time to furnish your comments, they were all very helpful.

To me, the perfectly middled building position still not comfortable. Can remove the concrete and leave only the grass. Enlarge the portion of the cloudy storm and shift the house downward to the 1/3 bottom. The enlarged storm clouds will add more pressure feeling and bright out more feelings.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

That might be a good idea, I will try that the next time especially since almost everyone found the concrete pavement + rocks too distracting.

i think this pic can easily be sold as a postcard its almost perfect in all respects except fr the slight tilt or am i imagining it??? very good effort by the photographer:thumbsup:maybe a smaller aperture cud have sharpened the pic still good pic indeed.........

Thanks! You really are too kind. I took the picture at 0.3s f/11 which I thought was the max I could go since I was handholding the camera, without having to concomitantly bump the ISO up. I take your suggestion though and will probably try it at a smaller aperture with a tripod.

the tilting problem is what is known as horizontal perspective problem, more common in wide angle shots

you can see how to resolve it, when it is present to a much lesser extent and when you have actually stood properly in the center of the house.. here, in my half-completed guide. i have tried playing with it and no idea how to correct, so decided to crop.

the thing is, there is no real need for inclusion of the pavement, i would have just taken the house here - the pavement doesn't add anything, in fact it gives you the horizontal perspective problem. while there is a certain mood brought out by the post processing, i thought it wasn't quite enough. the sky is much too boring and bare for my liking; so with some orton, and layering, i came up with this, but probably not to everyone's taste though. :dunno:

cheers

Thank you for the link to the thread, it was really informative! I will keep those pointers in mind. You're also probably right in that I should omit the pavement so as to better correct the perspective problem.

I thought your edit was good and does bring out the dreariness better. I opted for a cleaner brighter picture when I first edited it so as to bring out the details/prominence of the building, but perhaps that didn't really work.


Yes the tilt is a bit distracting. I think you are not able to align the building with the surrounding might be because of the angle from which you are taking the picture. If not possible to align, you could avoid the road altogether.

Furthermore, if would be good if you would have composed a bit to the left to include the equal number of windows to be in either side of the building since this is a symmetrical picture. The missing window on the left looks prominent to me. I guess you did not compose from the exact center of the building.

I think i get the resilient feel a bit.

Oh yes, I actually didn't notice the number of windows, thanks for pointing that out! I will keep that in mind as well.

it looks like only the front pavement is tilted now...
tilt the front pavement and clone back the grass?

eh i think the white gravel strip is a little distracting? maybe at a black gradiant in the foregrd to de-emphasize it. eh maybe if can bring the building down by 2 bricks (in the bricked pavement in the forgrd) would be nice.

I like your overall "frankenstein" feel. very interesting to see the omnimous clouds "emerge" from the building. U must have waited for A VERY long time for this scene. Thumbs up!

I actually didn't wait too long since the clouds were progressing at a rather alarming rate. I waited for the first few drops of rain to land before taking the shot, since I thought that would be when the sky had maximum effect. After that I quickly ran away since it started pouring quite madly :) Thanks for the thumbs up though, hehe.
 

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