Artists Door

Canon Fan · Feb 9, 2005

Found this door in an alley behind an artist gallery downtown this morning. I don't know if I like it or not? I would have liked more of the wall but I had no more room to back up and didn't want to distort the crap out of it with my super wide angle. Anyway this is what I got, left the door and bumped the saturation a little, desaturate on the rest (even though the wall was grey) and some USM here and there.

Comments?

Alison · Feb 9, 2005

Interesting find! The composition doesn't too much for me being right in the middle of the frame, but it sounds like you didn't have a lot of room to work with. I think your insticts of getting more of the wall are right on, too bad you didn't have the space. Could you shoot at an angle at all?

themonko · Feb 9, 2005

don't have much critique for this one, but was curious what USM is? I keep seeing it pop up, but haven't figured out what it is.

hobbes28 · Feb 9, 2005

I like the way Alison suggested shooting the door. I was also wondering what it would look like if you cropped the picture down to the edge of the frame all the way around. I like the colors on the door. It gives the door character.

Reservist · Feb 9, 2005

I do like the colors but wonder if a different angle would have worked?

LaFoto · Feb 10, 2005

Yes, this photo lives through the randomly splashed red colour onto the formerly yellow of this door. If it weren't for the inexpert paintwork, this picture would be boring, but I'm sure you saw this, Canon Fan, and thought it a good motif (?). I agree.
Yes, a bit more wall would have been nice, but since the door is not precisely in the middle of the picture, I can live with it the way it is.

Canon Fan · Feb 10, 2005

I suppose I could try it from an angle but I really wanted to keep the lines of the door as straight as possible in this. The other problem is that there is a window (an ugly one at that!) about 2 feet to the right and the wall ends only about 1 foot to the left :scratch: So unfortunately I am pretty limited. Directly behind where I was shooting is a 2 foot high ledge that leads to another parking lot. In spring I will go back with a mild telephoto and lay down to see if I can get the same angle from further back and maximize the wall space a little more. I don't think I need much, but definately more!

USM: In photoshop is short for a filter named "Unsharp Mask". Despite the misleading name it actually SHARPENS your image which all digital files need at least a little of

Unless you intentionally want it soft!

themonko · Feb 10, 2005

Thanks for explaining USM. After I posted that, I actually googled it and figured it out. funny thing is, I already knew about the Unsharpening Filter...but because it thought of it as a FILTER, never put it together with the acronym of USM.

Good luck with the reshoot!

littlemama · Feb 10, 2005

maybe if you can go back and shoot it at a different time a day...morning light or evening would bring out the rich colors of the door...or you could just saturate it in photoshop...
i like the idea of shooting it at an angle...or maybe just part of the door closeup...
my 2cents...
littlemama...