Iowa Capitol Building Main Hall

JRE313 · Jul 12, 2012

I used a new Filter in Nik Software Called "Classical Soft"

I decided to not make it so Grungy like my Library

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/hdr-discussions/290920-iowa-state-library.html

I listened to some suggestions and I applied them to this Photo. Hopefully Not too Busy.

Hope you Enjoy!!!

jamesbjenkins · Jul 12, 2012

Colors look good.

It's underexposed in a lot of areas, and it's not level.

Also, it looks to me like the ceiling and dome are much more interesting than the floor. It might have been a stronger composition if you gone up more and cut out much of the floor.

There's nothing "wow" about this. What's the subject, and what are you trying to express to the viewer?

Bynx · Jul 12, 2012

Too busy? Well Im sure there are some who would say too busy and not sure which light bulb to look at. For me I just look around and enjoy the view. Nice job. Its a bit overcooked, and it has the feel that everything is painted in high gloss enamel. If you could tone it down and get rid of that feeling it would be perfect, in my opinion.

1hdr4u · Jul 12, 2012

JRE313, this is a beautiful photo. I live close to Des Moines and have thought of taking some photos of the inside of the capitol building. I grew up in Des Moines so it's home territory for me. Keep shooting.

JRE313 · Jul 12, 2012

Bynx said:
Too busy? Well Im sure there are some who would say too busy and not sure which light bulb to look at. For me I just look around and enjoy the view. Nice job. Its a bit overcooked, and it has the feel that everything is painted in high gloss enamel. If you could tone it down and get rid of that feeling it would be perfect, in my opinion.

Bynx,
Overcooked?
sometimes I just don't know when to stop.Lol!
People tell me that my photos are OVERCOOKED including the library photo I just did.
With that being said, please tell me specifically what is OVERCOOKED.

Thanks in advance!!

Bynx · Jul 12, 2012

To me overcooked means the saturation is beyond the range where the scene looks real. I think the impact of that is different to different people and might depend on what they were watching just before they looked at a very brightly colored image. If you were looking at a nice pastoral scene or B&Ws or some other bunch of shots that werent very brightly colored then you open up the library or the capital room here the senses get poked good. Now thats not to say its bad. It just takes the senses some getting used to. After viewing for a few minutes it takes on a more normal less pounding impression. Your processing is quite good and Im not going to complain about anything. I just wish I had the opportunity to shoot some of these great places. That library has been added to my bucket list.

SCraig · Jul 12, 2012

JRE313 said:
Bynx,
Overcooked?
sometimes I just don't know when to stop.Lol!
People tell me that my photos are OVERCOOKED including the library photo I just did.
With that being said, please tell me specifically what is OVERCOOKED.

Thanks in advance!!

I don't think it's overcooked in the classic sense of the term, I think it's just overly warm. It's quite possible that the room really is that warm looking, most everything is red or brown or some earth tone. It's hard to say since the only thing there approaching white are the doors are the far end, but even they appear to have a yellowish tint to them.

Personally I kind of like the view as well. I think in shots like this just enjoying the view is the subject. Well done.

vipgraphx · Jul 12, 2012

JRE313 one again you have found a great place to shoot. I like the image and I would also like to see a second image of the dome it would make a cool set.

I would like to say that to me it seems like you are still struggling finding yourself. I feel like you post photos up to gain approval and acceptance but, reviewing your flickr and all the comments it looks like you are already there. You have tons and tons of great positive feedback on a lot of your images. The small group of folks here is just a tiny tiny part in what you already have. However you still wonder what overcook means? I am not sure if you just want peoples take on what their idea or interpretation of overcook means but, it pretty self explanatory in the sense that the image is over processed in a way that makes it not look natural anymore.

This is a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you like....

You mention you do not know when to stop. My suggestion to help you is to save after a few steps and then continue and then save until you have finally reached a point where your done and then review them all and see what you like better. Perhaps you will decide you like two and they you can take both and try to blend them together and see what happens. What I will sometimes do is instead of saving, I will go to image and duplicate image and this will give me the exact same image and layer pallet that I can then continue processing. Sometimes I come to a point where I think I would like to go in a certain direction and will try some stuff to realize eh, I did not like it so much. But, then I can go back to where I left off and try something else. Processing does not need to be linear. You can do what ever you want and try new things and blend two and three processing's together to create something very unique. I say this so I can help you.

I think you are doing fine. This has the JRE313 stamp on it. You have a signature processing style and like I said you have tons of followers on flickr. I have way less followers on my flickr so who is right and who is wrong?
However I am not posting for praise I do this for me. I like my style as I feel I have a broad range of photos. From "overcooked" to "photorealistic" to "graphically altered". My processing just depends on mood and what I am listening to. I also am a big fan of glows,warmth and vignettes. Some may hate it but I don't! Thats my point.

You have been doing this now for a while and I am not sure if you are going to stray away from this style you post. It seems very consistent and your eyes must really like it because I have seen more images like this than not!

My final word is be yourself and be happy your doing good!!!

Now with that said I took the liberty to do a few things. I changed the white balance a little along with by using the color balance option in photoshop. I added a detail enhancer to bring out some detail and then created a mask layer filled it with black and used my white paint brush to paint in areas that where lacking. I then added a glow, which will rob those areas of detail that I just did but I masked them back in some. I added a vignette and changed opacity to about 20%. I used nik to the the tonal range and adjusted the top and bottom. THe result is posted for a few days then I will delete as I used flickr.

I did this to show you that I see this image in a very different way than you with the processing you have done. IF I started from scratch it may very well be different. I like the way your processing started and how I
changed it and gave it a different mood. YOu may hate it or like it.........point is if you hate it than you know what you like kid!!!

Iowa_Main_Hall copy by VIPGraphX, on Flickr

480sparky · Jul 12, 2012

It's crooked.

Designer · Jul 12, 2012

480sparky said:
It's crooked.

It appears that the photographer was standing on the centerline of the crossing, so perhaps the camera was not level. Don't most DSLRs have a grid that you can turn on to check for square?

JRE313 · Jul 12, 2012

vipgraphx said:
JRE313 one again you have found a great place to shoot. I like the image and I would also like to see a second image of the dome it would make a cool set.

I would like to say that to me it seems like you are still struggling finding yourself. I feel like you post photos up to gain approval and acceptance but, reviewing your flickr and all the comments it looks like you are already there. You have tons and tons of great positive feedback on a lot of your images. The small group of folks here is just a tiny tiny part in what you already have. However you still wonder what overcook means? I am not sure if you just want peoples take on what their idea or interpretation of overcook means but, it pretty self explanatory in the sense that the image is over processed in a way that makes it not look natural anymore.

This is a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you like....

You mention you do not know when to stop. My suggestion to help you is to save after a few steps and then continue and then save until you have finally reached a point where your done and then review them all and see what you like better. Perhaps you will decide you like two and they you can take both and try to blend them together and see what happens. What I will sometimes do is instead of saving, I will go to image and duplicate image and this will give me the exact same image and layer pallet that I can then continue processing. Sometimes I come to a point where I think I would like to go in a certain direction and will try some stuff to realize eh, I did not like it so much. But, then I can go back to where I left off and try something else. Processing does not need to be linear. You can do what ever you want and try new things and blend two and three processing's together to create something very unique. I say this so I can help you.

I think you are doing fine. This has the JRE313 stamp on it. You have a signature processing style and like I said you have tons of followers on flickr. I have way less followers on my flickr so who is right and who is wrong?
However I am not posting for praise I do this for me. I like my style as I feel I have a broad range of photos. From "overcooked" to "photorealistic" to "graphically altered". My processing just depends on mood and what I am listening to. I also am a big fan of glows,warmth and vignettes. Some may hate it but I don't! Thats my point.

You have been doing this now for a while and I am not sure if you are going to stray away from this style you post. It seems very consistent and your eyes must really like it because I have seen more images like this than not!

My final word is be yourself and be happy your doing good!!!

Now with that said I took the liberty to do a few things. I changed the white balance a little along with by using the color balance option in photoshop. I added a detail enhancer to bring out some detail and then created a mask layer filled it with black and used my white paint brush to paint in areas that where lacking. I then added a glow, which will rob those areas of detail that I just did but I masked them back in some. I added a vignette and changed opacity to about 20%. I used nik to the the tonal range and adjusted the top and bottom. THe result is posted for a few days then I will delete as I used flickr.

I did this to show you that I see this image in a very different way than you with the processing you have done. IF I started from scratch it may very well be different. I like the way your processing started and how I
changed it and gave it a different mood. YOu may hate it or like it.........point is if you hate it than you know what you like kid!!!

Iowa_Main_Hall copy by VIPGraphX, on Flickr

VIP
Thanks for your input. When i said I dont know when to stop, that was a joke. LOL
However, it was cooked a little too much I guess. Awesome edit though. How did you get that glow?

fjrabon · Jul 12, 2012

Take it from somebody who shoots a lot of real estate work with a wide angle, you have to be CRAZY careful with how you shoot or wide angle perspective distortion will go crazy. Im guessing you weren't off by much more than a few degrees here, but it caused several people to remark on it being crooked. This one is a touch tilted, and your camera was aimed ever so slightly to the left of center. I usually do two things. Find the room's center point that I'm aiming at, make sure my camera is shooting dead perpendicular to that, and then use my tripod's level to make sure I'm level. Oddly enough being level isn't as important as making sure you're shooting dead perpendicular. Not being level is very easily fixed in post, and doesn't cause perspective distortion. However, shooting at anything other than a 90 degree angle to your center point will cause perspective distortion on a wide angle to go nuts, and you more or less often just have to deal with it (sometimes it can painstakingly be fixed in photoshop, but sometimes it can't). And oddly, it's harder to deal with the closer you are to getting right, because it gives that 'something's just a little off' feel to the picture. If you had been shooting at like a 30 degree angle, things would have been so out of whack, that the viewer just accepts it as intentional. But 2 degrees off just seems like they messed up, if that makes sense.

Majeed Badizadegan · Jul 12, 2012

EDL · Jul 12, 2012

And sometimes a building isn't perfectly square....

I dunno, looking at the indicators I can find in that photo it seems like it should be nice, straight and square, but then it's obvious the floor and lower level are off, but the background and upper level look dead on...it's weird.