cobblestones & a wall

JC

So- does this shot work for anyone besides the photographer (me)?
This is the one I prefer:

Maybe a more technically correct crop:

The one my at-home critic prefers:


These are all partial HDR (~50% HDR added back into the original photo), because the lighting was difficult, a polarizer might have helped with the skylight (the sun was low enough), but I didn't have one for this lens, and then I would have lost the reflection off the cobblestones anyway. I didn't refine the HDR on the vertically composed shot, because I liked the horizontal one better, and it could be improved, but I'm mostly looking for critique of the framing.

So how does this shot work for people-which framing scheme do you prefer? I imagine the out of focus wall on the left and the centered pathway in #1 might not be the best framing, but I'm kind of attached to it, however, I think I might not be too objective. My main critic likes the vertical shot, but I didn't get a great DOF with that one.

Also- if you were going to print this, would you clone out the brush projecting out of the wall on the top left? Zoomed in it's kind of interesting, but zoomed out it seems just like a distraction.

Thanks from the newbie

TonyCooper

Put me down for #2 and one not concerned with the projecting vegetation on the left.

dustin32

I prefer the crop of the third, with no real preference on the other editing. I feel like the alley lends itself more towards a vertical frame.

Richard

I like #3 both for the framing and because the colors are less cooked. The one thing I prefer in the first two is that the reflection on the ground is stronger. Maybe you could try darkening #3 a bit but without the saturation of the others. The vegetation doesn't bother me, but I don't think it would actually harm the image if you removed it. Since you have taken the trouble to shoot in HDR, I would see if you could bring out a little more detail in the sky. And just to give you a little more work, I think you should experiment with a square crop.

Welcome to Dgrin, BTW . Looks like you're not in Kansas. Where were these shots taken?

JC

Richard-

Richard wrote:

I like #3 both for the framing and because the colors are less cooked. The one thing I prefer in the first two is that the reflection on the ground is stronger. Maybe you could try darkening #3 a bit but without the saturation of the others. The vegetation doesn't bother me, but I don't think it would actually harm the image if you removed it. Since you have taken the trouble to shoot in HDR, I would see if you could bring out a little more detail in the sky. And just to give you a little more work, I think you should experiment with a square crop.

Welcome to Dgrin, BTW . Looks like you're not in Kansas. Where were these shots taken?

I didn't really shoot in HDR, I didn't have a tripod with me, so these are HDR'd from a single raw image, processed for underexposure and overexposure. The sky is tough, it was thinly cloudy, had just stopped raining, and there was a lot of diffuse skylight. Fully HDR'd there are some artifacts.



OK- sky is 100% HDR, I added just about 25% HDR back in (the bricks were just glowing red in the post-rain sun, and I'm trying to reproduce that feeling), and square cropped it. I hadn't thought about a square crop, but I like it, it's kind of got an old fashioned feel, almost like a woodblock drawing or something. This is an old Medieval city in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. I know to the people living there, it's just another city, but to me as visiting american, it's all rather fairy tale-ish, so I don't mind the slightly unreal quality of the HDR for this image. Nietzsche walked here.

Patti

I like this last one with the reflection of the wet stones and more of the red in the brick wall to the right. I agree that it can take a slightly unreal look. I like the square crop as well. I might get rid of the stringy bits of brush on top of the left wall.

Richard

The last one is my favorite. Well done.

Justiceiro

The last one is clearly the best.

One question? Why did you process this as an HDR? I'm kind of suspicious of this sort of thing in General, because it doesn't really reflect (usually) natural light. It's a neat trick, but sort of a gimmick. I think in a shot like this revealing all the details of the stones isn't as interesting as giving me some contrast of light and shadow.

JC

Hdr

Justiceiro wrote:

The last one is clearly the best.

One question? Why did you process this as an HDR? I'm kind of suspicious of this sort of thing in General, because it doesn't really reflect (usually) natural light. It's a neat trick, but sort of a gimmick. I think in a shot like this revealing all the details of the stones isn't as interesting as giving me some contrast of light and shadow.

It was a difficult lighting situation. This is the town wall around a Medieval city, and I like the fairy tale illustration quality of the HDR (just noticed you are in Mannheim- this is from Naumburg). I use UFRaw for my raw conversion, and it's not that easy to get the settings "perfect"- the building stones were really glowing red in the afternoon sun, and I couldn't get the PP to show that. I tried a simple blending of the underexposed PP image for the sky, with the regular exposed image, but I couldn't get rid of the fringes manually.

Under-"normal" and over exposures from the raw conversion:

Justiceiro

Is there any way you could mask the sky and import it from the underexposed shot? I find that a dramatic sky tends to make or break these sort of static shots, in my opinion at least. I quite like the look of the sky in the underexposed image. In the end result, it is a bit bland. Did you use a polarizer with this?

JC

Justiceiro wrote:

Is there any way you could mask the sky and import it from the underexposed shot? I find that a dramatic sky tends to make or break these sort of static shots, in my opinion at least. I quite like the look of the sky in the underexposed image. In the end result, it is a bit bland. Did you use a polarizer with this?

No polarizer, new lens, 35mm prime, odd size, and I hadn't (still haven't) gotten a polarizer for it. With a polarizer I would have lost the reflections on the cobblestones anyway, but it would have given me the option to get a sky photo that blended better with a cobblestone photo.

I just didn't want to spend the time in PP to get rid of the edge effects from blending such different exposures.

quick and dirty blending (needs more work), not much else in terms of pp- I'd need to play with the curves in the sky and foreground:

Justiceiro

I like this much better. The polarizer would have popped the sky nicely, but you are right, the reflection off the cobblestones is key.

bdcolen

kolibri wrote:

Call me rigid; call me grumpy; call me whatever you wish - but lovely as these are - and this is a lovely scene - I don't quite get what they have to do with the the quite broad subjects of this forum. Yes, they are photographs of a street, but...

JC

bdcolen wrote:

Call me rigid; call me grumpy; call me whatever you wish - but lovely as these are - and this is a lovely scene - I don't quite get what they have to do with the the quite broad subjects of this forum. Yes, they are photographs of a street, but...

?

Really? Which forum would be better? From the forum description:
"This forum is dedicated to the urban scene. In addition to photojournalism and traditional street photography, spontaneous shots depicting urban life belong here--even if no people are shown. It is not meant for skylines or urban panoramas, though; vistas should still be posted in the Landscapes forum. Street scenes and candids, back alleys, graffiti, dimly lit bars, etc., all may be posted here. So get out there and remember to look both ways before shooting."

What I see in this photo is how smooth those cobblestones are. Just think of how many people (including Nietzsche) have walked down this alley, smoothing those stones, footprint by footprint. Germany has a population density 7 times that of the U.S., and here is a rare moment marked not by the presence of people, but by the absence of people, in a place where people have trod for hundreds of years. It was raining all day, but that wouldn't normally keep Germans inside, otherwise they'd never get out, but this was the first break in the rain where I could pull out my camera, and we were all by ourselves in the inner walkway of the Medieval town wall. I like the quiet contrast between this empty street, and the people-busy urban street scene you find in most German towns. In my limited experience it's difficult to find a street where people aren't walking or biking around. I don't want to get all performance-arty here, but sometimes it's the empty spaces, and the potential they hold, that are intriguing, rather than the filled up spaces.

michswiss

Yes, but now it's about how to blend a sky from one image into the urban setting from another to create an effect. The Finishing School section on DGrin is a great place to get that sort of assistance.

The original pieces you posted are only marginally interesting. I'd go with exploring the textures and colours of the walls and street. Leave the sky out of it. Get rid of it. Crop away, including the house and street light. Then focus on getting colour and contrast into the stones and moss. Make us look down at the worn stones and ancient, empty street.

Justiceiro

I really can"t think of any forum more appropriate for this shot. Is it street? It"s more street than landscape, it isn't journeys, and it sure isn't people. So until the open a cityscape/urban/architecture forum I would recommend posting it here.