North Canal Gatehouse

boblu262

Not technically landscapes, but the building is part of the Lawrence, MA Landscape. Besides, I was asked by some to keep you appraised of my Lawrence Mill project. Besides, I know Schmoo likes this kind of stuff :-)

Since my first posting on this subject, I've joined the Historic Mill Society in Lawrence, an organization dedicated to preserving the Industrial Revolution mill technologies that built the city. The goal is to open a museum. My association with the Mill Society has allowed me to access to most of the mill buildings in the city. Much of what I am shooting will be used in the museum when (if) it becomes a reality.

These shots are from the North Canal Gatehouse in Lawrence. When it was operational, the gatehouse controlled the water levels of the City's North Canal.

Enjoy.

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DonRicklin

Great series!

Is this publicly accessable. Would love to shoot there!

Don

eoren1

That 4th one is awesome - great composition!
I do wonder if the series could use just a bit of a push of the black level. I assume these are all HDRs (Photomatix?). They are just missing a bit of density in the shadows in my opinion.
E

Eia

I like the subject and I like the affect; how did you do that?

boblu262

DonRicklin wrote:

Great series!

Is this publicly accessable. Would love to shoot there!

Don

Definitely not open to the public. The company that now runs the hydro-electric station on the river owns the property. I was able to get in through the museum connection as part of a bigger project. I had to sign a waiver and was told to be careful of the trap doors that drop into the canal.

boblu262

eoren1 wrote:

That 4th one is awesome - great composition!
I do wonder if the series could use just a bit of a push of the black level. I assume these are all HDRs (Photomatix?). They are just missing a bit of density in the shadows in my opinion.
E

Yes, all HDR, Photomatix. I pulled back on the blacks a bit to retain detail in the shadows. I'll spend some time in Photoshop and see if I can make some improvements.

boblu262

Eia wrote:

I like the subject and I like the affect; how did you do that?

Thanks ... I'm processing everything in the Mills (and here) in HDR. I'm looking to capture the detail and textures. I have to say, I am often surprised by the results. Sometimes even pleasantly!

schmoo

Yessir we loves them rusty dusty stuff, we do!

What a beautiful place, and I like how you zoomed in and really got lots of details such as the cobwebs as well as the bigger picture, too.

Thanks for sharing and I hope you and them are able to start that museum! Your images certainly are a great start for such preservation.

hawkeye978

Nice set with good detail from the HDR. I agree with E that you need to increase the contrast so the pictures aren't quite so flat. You can work in Photoshop but you may also want to check the histogram in Photomatix. Make sure the histogram is spread well over the brightness range and also that the histogram is centered. The histogram peak should be roughly in the center. If not you may want to play with the gamma adjustment and then readjust the black and white points. That may help the contrast.

I particularly like #2,3, and 4.