Your HELP required - Industrial Berlin (image-heavy!)

[LaFoto]

For quite a while now I have spent some time on working on photos that I took in summer.
And there are some that I took off the boat while we tried to get into Berlin by boat (not possible to get to the centre with all the sights, mind you), and in order to get there, we had to cruise several canals that took us past some industrial areas.

I played with some in PS, this way and that way, testing out ever so many things, in an attempt to give them a bit of a gritty feel.

I could have gone all black and white with a tint (or without) but for a change went for this partial desaturation.

Does it work?

(I post the "first edition" (not the out-of-camera original) as a small pic underneath and would please ask you to tell me if any other treatment might have been more successful here, ok?)

1a

1b

2a

2b

3a

3b

4a

4b

5a

5b

6a

6b

Some of you are so good at capturing the urban feeling, the grittiness of such places - I feel I cannot get close, however much I try. What can I do?

 

[danir]

Sorry can't help. But I really like 2a and 5a. I think in both cases the edited one is better.

Dani

 

[his4ever]

LaPhoto... these look very cool. Did you destaurate some of them? I think that is so cool and adds to the effect. Thanks for posting the before and after. I think what you did really works and I like it a lot!

 

[enne]

I love them all better with the desaturation! I love bright colors, but I also love the feel you're going for, and the almost-complete desaturation looks so much better than straight black-and-white. I think the first image hit the gritty feel perfectly :]

 

[PNA]

You have been so kind and generous with you comments for me, I hope I can return the same.

First....the desaturation of all the shots is great!

Second.....the desaturation of all the shots is great!

Third....the desaturation of all the shots is great!

I hope this doesn't hurt you feelings.....

Paul

 

[PNA]

I'll leave the critique to the pros.....

 

[LaFoto]

I hope this doesn't hurt you feelings.....

:goodvibe: NO :hug::
Thank you all so far.
I hope to hear more ... there are some real EXPERTS out here on urban photography! I know there are!

 

[MrMatthieu]

Corinna wie geht's?

Usually I do not comment too much your picture because the subjetc many times do not match with my sensibility or what I use to take for picture, but these one talk to me

Partial desaturation is a great idea to express DDR in my mind :thumbup: .
I would have maybe also given a kind of oldy post treatment by playing withe Red, Blue & Green curve one by one with Photoshop ( U see what I mean ? ), and maybe add also a kind of slight yellow filter.

After this I give you few comments for each of your picture/


1/ It works for me nothing to change :thumbup:

2/ I like a lot the dark colour of the water, it make the picture quite scaring. Very nice again :mrgreen:

3/ and 4 again very good. Definitly desaturation was a good idea for these shots

5/ Very nice eye , the car just in the middle; But I feel like it s not vertical, check the lining with Photoshop, maybe you need to slightly rotate it.

6/ I don't like so much because it s not obvious it is an industrial complexe, look more like an hotel , it s no on line with the serie.

I do not know Berlin, but I know quite well " Ruhr" area, and I feel exactly the industrial atmosphere that I found there at this time.
That why , I tell you honestly , you did a great job with this serie.
As you know , I am not really the kind of personn who say that just to make people happy...

Mat

 

[LaFoto]

, Monsieur Matthieu!

Thanks for coming to one of my threads. Seems like at last I am meeting your tastes. Yes, I know: nature and flowers are not for everyone, but it seems like there is little else around me. I need to go on holidays to give my eyes the treat of industrial estate pics, I'm afraid :roll:

Hey, how come you know the Ruhr area?
I hail from there, more or less!

If you know that area, you know about the grand industrial architecture that was done around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, and I would think that the building in my last photo is from that period. They did not build plain factories, all squares and such, at the time, but "Cathedrals of Big Industry" (as you find them called in books occasionally). The surroudings in which we also saw that building in 6a and 6b was so that NO ONE would want to spend a night there, so if that were a hotel, it'd be always EMPTY .

Hey, about 5a and b ... the original is embarrassingly crooked, but VERY (it happens to be up here on TPF somewhere, but WHERE? hmph :scratch: ... in a thread on how to photograph rain in The Beginners' Place, I think) ... so what you see here already is a very corrected version and my orientation were the windows exactly at the right frame. Do you think I had better chosen some other part for my orientation?

 

[inneist]

I am very impressed with what you have done with #3 and #5, to a less degree, #1. Naturally I refer to the improvement to the original versions you provided. After the treatment, the photos look more right in serving your defined purpose...the gritty side of the urban environment is visible. I must say in the final images the nuanced gray turns out a definite plus. This is most notable in #5, imho.

 

[William]

Definitely works! Great job Corinna. This is one of my favorite sets you've done.

-Will

 

[Ab$olut]

2a and 5b are great I think you got what you were looking for!

 

[MrMatthieu]

, Monsieur Matthieu!


Hey, how come you know the Ruhr area?
I hail from there, more or less!

Corinna, "Deutsch ist die erste Sprache, die ich in der Schule gelernt habe ...." :mrgreen:. And I had a very good "briefefreund" at that time, I went many times with him to Wuppertall, Munster, Koln and Dusseldorf.
We kept in touch during many years.
And believe it or not i love "Würste"



Mat

 

[fightheheathens]

I feel like for the most part you got what you wanted here.
1A and 3A i feel are very strong images and convey what you want.
I especially like 1A and the treatment. works well with the subject matter.
I just wonder why Die DDR liebt?
when i was in berlin i was very facinated with the DDR nastalga. I find it very interesting

 

[LaFoto]

It is not "Die DDR liebt", fight (which would translate into "GDR loves") but "Die DDR lebt" (GDR lives - meaning: is still alive) ... and don't ask me why the author of this thinks it applies. But then I also don't know for how long it has been there. But some tend to get a more and more beautified memory of the times when Germany was still divided in two and they still lived in East Germany, they have forgotten all the bad and only remember the good. And there was some, no doubt. Mostly so that everyone (provided they went with the system) was being cared for by the state, you could - if you wanted to - hand your life over and have the system run it for you. That was easy. With the high unemployment - both here and there these days, mind you - they feel they are underpriviledged now, were promised the Land of Milk and Honey and now have to live with a grim reality... that makes either violent or nostalgic...

So you seem to think I went the right way with my conversions. Well, that does sound reassuring. For I was venturing into a whole new land with these, you know?