The Coffee Shop

SuperRandom · Mar 5, 2007

Here is a picture I took with my new Nikon D40. I took it while standing in the middle of the street but I thought it turned out pretty good. I did a little work with it in Photoshop to bring out some more color. What do you guys think?

The_Traveler · Mar 5, 2007

Nice HDR merge and very nice spotting of this image..
If you have a chance I would redo this with a greater DOF and be certain to be exactly in front of the building. It is asymetric on the screen and this hurts the picture. Also, you might want to use another even shorter exposure to gt rid of the blown lights and almost-blown signs.

Aquarium Dreams · Mar 5, 2007

I agree with the Traveler about the lights. This is a beautiful building. Maybe a tighter crop would show it off more. I like the colors in the details around the windows. (My architecture vocabulary is failing me right now.)

SuperRandom · Mar 5, 2007

I am definitely going to go back and shoot a better shot of the building. It was hard because I was freezing since it was about 15 degrees outside and I was worried about cars coming. I think I might try shooting it from the opposite corner on the sidewalk so I can get enough good shots with a tripod.

The_Traveler · Mar 5, 2007

Good for you.
There are good discussions of HDR on http://www.hdr101.com
Getting a little further away will help with the DOF issue.

I look forward to seeing the redo.
Did you use the freeware or the Pro edition?

rmh159 · Mar 5, 2007

Yeah this is an awesome pic and I'm glad you have the chance to go back and try it again.

My first thought was along the lines of ... "for some reason I think it would work better as a vertical crop but the whole point of the pic is the converging roads.". I think the vertical crop thought was brought on by the asymetry as pointed out but really I think either would work. My only advice would be to try various compositions: landscape crop with the roads, portrait crop focusing on the building, side shot focusing on the door (slow shutter to blur someone walking out...), I could go on forever.

Nice scene to practice with though.