A Very Beginner

[cumi]

Hi there!

First of all, I know that my photos are really very poor. I just want to learn a bit from you, your comments. This way I hope I can improve a bit my photography technique and the digital image-improvement. If this is not the place for these kind of poor newbie photos and learning lessons, I would not mind if the thread is deleted by the moderator.

I took this photo today in the morning. I thought, it could be a nice symetrical photo with a kind of infinite pattern of windows and balconies. First of all, my problem is, that the photo has a "fish eye" effect and I don't know how to correct (I am using Gimp). I think, the B&W version of the photo is better, but I didn't know what to do with it (curves, contrast, etc).

So here this is the "raw" photo:

And this would be the B&W Version:

Any tipps and critics (like "don't post here anything more") warmly welcome!


Thanks,
cumi

 

[Verbal]

Don't post here anything more.




I'm kidding! That's not at all a horrible photo! It's really quite intriguing. There seems to be no exact point of focus, yet the symmetry is pretty neat. I can't wait to see more of your work =)

 

[CHRISTIAN2170]

Don't post here anything more.

hahahahahahah




....I like the 2nd one

 

[LaFoto]

Are these taken in Hungary somewhere?
Else I would have said they have something quite distinctly German to them. But I see that your host is in Hungary, so now I am no longer that sure.

Anyhow, for someone who says he (she?) is only a beginner, these show a very good eye. I like your idea of getting just the patterns of windows and balconies. Nothing as concrete as "a whole house". The black+white conversion does your idea only good!

Personally, I would crop this photo just a tiny bit. Since the balconies on the righthand side "burst the border", as we would say in my language, i.e. go beyond your chosen frame, I would suggest you do the same with the balconies on the lefthand side. The shadows there are cropped off anyway, so why include parts of the windows? The shadows of the righthand balconies are there, anyway.

And then I feel that this tiny bit of the satellite dish in the upper lefthand corner should go. Part of its shadow already goes with the crop as suggested above, so you may as well make the thing disappear.

I see the distortion that your lens is giving you, it is quite the distortion I get from my compact digital, the Canon A95, and it bothers me much in photos such as yours here (I have tried to achieve similar effects of "patterns only", too, with the same annoying distortion). I'm afraid it is something I'll have to live with... (for the time being - Christmas is coming closer and there might..... just might.... be a surprise under the Christmas tree for me... who knows?)

 

[AlmightyWa]

I like it!

It gives an ex-communist bloc feel.

If there's anything I would do to add to that feel (if that's not what you're looking for, then don't do obviously!), is to crop a little off the left, or retake so that It's more symmetrical and put the eact centre of the photo in the middle of the two windows.

But good work!

 

[cumi]

Are these taken in Hungary somewhere?
Else I would have said they have something quite distinctly German to them. But I see that your host is in Hungary, so now I am no longer that sure.

No, the photos were taken in Vienna, but I'm a hungarian (working & living in Vienna) and I use a free image-hosting hungarian site. The building is not an ex-communist one (maybe I take some shoots about a real ones, when I am next time in Hungary). Actually, they stay shortly before a renovation. The windows and doors are allready changed. Unfortunatly you can not see that in my photo, but they are "very white" new ones. Actually, one of my goal was, to show the contrast of nice new windows and old colored walls.

Personally, I would crop this photo just a tiny bit. Since the balconies on the righthand side "burst the border", as we would say in my language, i.e. go beyond your chosen frame, I would suggest you do the same with the balconies on the lefthand side. The shadows there are cropped off anyway, so why include parts of the windows? The shadows of the righthand balconies are there, anyway.

Yes. The problem is, that I took these photos from our block's corridor, so the composition options are very limited. I had to zoom a bit on the building, otherwise our own wall would be in picture. But, I have a solution! Tommorrow I will go up to top of our building, and I hope I can catch the building more "widely". Unfortunatly, I can't do this in the morning, but in the evening.

And yes, the idea about cropping out some unecessery parts of the photo would be a good idea. Funny, but I didn't thought about this. :blushing:

Is there any (software) possibilies to correct the distortion?

@All of you: Thank you for your comments! I appreciate a lot, that you, as a profecionals are giving tipps to a begginner.

Regards,
cumi