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elsaspet

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www.visionsinwhite.com
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I'm trying to work on my architecture, which I feel is one of the things I have a very hard time with. How do you find the personality of a building????
Here is my latest attempt. I would like critique not only only the normal technical aspects but the personality aspects as well. For the techinical critique my camera settings were f10 1/500 second at 200mm. Please feel free to play with the image, and all critique is appreciated and respected. Thanks for looking!
starweb.jpg
 
I will be pretty hard on this one, just to try to help you out some.
First, the bottom isn't cropped enough because the dome leads you no where... It should be a harder line since the rest has hard lines instead of rounded softer lines.
In my oppinion, architecture like this needs to be very crisp and bold. Yours is slightly fuzzy and everything is almost the same tones. (the bright sunny day will do that for you)
Also, it is slightly leaning to the right.
In Photoshop you can fix all of these things no problem.

This is what happens when I fixed all of these things in Photoshop.
elsaspic.jpg


As you can see, I got rid of a lot of the 'dead space' on the right and left.
I cut off the bottom dome so it's more of an abrupt stop.
I turned up the contrast and burned the sky a lot (much like a red filter)
I used the sharpen tool to make everything crisp.
and as you can see, I made it B&W which lets you focus on the details much more instead of the blue sky taking all the attention.

Technically, I think you may have had better results if you used a higher f-stop... somewhere around 20 or so with a slower shutter speed.

I'm not an expert on architectural photography by any means.... but that's what I know.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Hope that helped! Nice picture btw! :)
 
Buildings don't so much have a personality as different moods.
There are a number of approaches you can take towards architecture and they are normally dictated by the reason(s) for you taking the picture.
You need to ask yourself why you were taking the photo. What was it about the building that made you want to photograph it? What were you trying to say about it?
Your picture is fine if what you were trying to do was a straight record shot - 'this building looks like this'.
If I had a fault to pick it would be the lighting. It looks like you shot this mid to late morning (or early afternoon).
The light isn't doing the best for the building. The shadows are just as much a part of things as the stonework.
Try earlier or later when the sun isn't so high - or maybe go back at night to see if she gets lit up.
 
Hertz van Rental said:
Buildings don't so much have a personality as different moods.
There are a number of approaches you can take towards architecture and they are normally dictated by the reason(s) for you taking the picture.
You need to ask yourself why you were taking the photo. What was it about the building that made you want to photograph it? What were you trying to say about it?
Your picture is fine if what you were trying to do was a straight record shot - 'this building looks like this'.
If I had a fault to pick it would be the lighting. It looks like you shot this mid to late morning (or early afternoon).
The light isn't doing the best for the building. The shadows are just as much a part of things as the stonework.
Try earlier or later when the sun isn't so high - or maybe go back at night to see if she gets lit up.
:thumbup:
 
Little Man, no I don't think you are wrong at all, as your changes made a lot of difference for the better. You and Hertz are right that I shot it mid day. I wasn't very happy with the lighting either, particularly on the face of the statue.
I think I understand now about the moods that you are referring to now Hertz. I think that by lighting, is a pretty good way to describe it. It might be a while until I can make it back to that building again (Austin Capital Building) but I'll try to see if I can't find an interesting building closer to home and try for some earlier morning light, or if more "moody", with some evening lighting. I love architecture photos, and I'm trying to get to a point where I like mine. :lol:
Thank you guys, because I want you guys to be tough on me. That's the way I learn!:hug::
 

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